Gladio (Italian, from Latin gladius, meaning sword) is a code name denoting the clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II, intended to counter an eventual Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe. Although Gladio specifically refers to the Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind organisations, Operation Gladio is used as an informal name for all stay-behind organisations. Operating in all of NATO and even in some neutral countries or in Spain before its 1982 adhesion to NATO, Gladio was first coordinated by the Clandestine Committee of the Western Union (CCWU), founded in 1948. After the creation of NATO in 1949, the CCWU was integrated into the Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC), founded in 1951 and overseen by the SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe), transferred to Belgium after France’s official withdrawal from NATO in 1966 — which was not followed by the dissolution of the French stay-behind paramilitary movements. According to historian Daniele Ganser, one of the major researchers on the field, "Next to the CPC, a second secret army command center, labeled the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC), was set up in 1957 on the orders of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR). This military structure provided for significant US leverage over the secret stay-behind networks in Western Europe as the SACEUR, throughout NATO's history, has traditionally been a US General who reports to the Pentagon in Washington and is based in NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium. The ACC's duties included elaborating on the directives of the network, developing its clandestine capability, and organizing bases in Britain and the United States. In wartime, it was to plan stay-behind operations in conjunction with SHAPE. According to former CIA director William Colby, it was 'a major program'."
The role of the CIA in sponsoring Gladio and the extent of its activities during the Cold War era, and its relationship to attacks perpetrated in Italy during the years of lead and other similar clandestine operations is the subject of ongoing debate and investigation. Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have had parliamentary inquiries into the matter. The US State Department has denied involvement in terrorism and stated that some of the allegations and researchers, such as Ganser, have been influenced by what it and others describe as a Soviet forgery, US Army Field Manual 30-31B.
One of the first duties the NSC deemed necessary was the subversion of Italian democracy...in the name of democracy, of course. Italy seemed likely to elect a leftist government in the 1948 election. To make sure Italians voted instead for the candidates Washington favored-leftover brownshirt thugs from Mussolini's party and other Nazi collaborators-millions of dollars were spent on propaganda and payoffs. It was also intimated that food aid would be cut off if the election results were inconsistent with US desires.
The US got its way in 1948 without having to resort to violence but-as was discovered in 1990- the CIA had organized a secret paramilitary army in postwar Italy, with hidden stockpiles of weapons and explosives dotting the map. Called Operation Gladio (gladius is Latin for sword), the ostensible excuse for it was laughable-the threat of a Soviet invasion. But the real purpose wasn't so funny-Operation Gladio's 15,000 troops were trained to overthrow the Italian government should it stray from the straight and narrow.
Similar secret armies were formed in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and West Germany- often directed, quite naturally, by former SS officers. They didn't just wait around for the Russians to come marching in; they assembled huge arms caches (many of which remain unaccounted for), compiled blacklists of leftists and, in France, participated in plots to assassinate President DeGaulle.
Many members of Operation Gladio were also in a shadowy organization known as P-2; it too was financed by the CIA. P-2 had connections with the Vatican and the Mafia, and eventually with an international fascist umbrella organization called the World Anti-Communist League.
One of P-2's specialties was the art of provocation. Leftist organizations like the Red Brigades were infiltrated, financed and / or created, and the resulting acts of terrorism, like the assassination of Italy's premier in 1978 and the bombing of the railway station in Bologna in 1980, were blamed on the left. The goal of this "strategy of tension" was to convince Italian voters that the left was violent and dangerous-by helping make it so.
From
Operation GladioWhen on the morning of 17 June 1982, the body of Roberto Calvi was found hanging beneath London's Blackfriars bridge, it was to speed a process that prised open a series of events spanning four decades. The circumstances of Calvi's death led knowledgeable observers to darkly whisper of a Masonic ritual slaying. With his hands tied behind his back and a brick thrust into his coat pocket, Calvi had been strangled, apparently by the rope that had been noosed around his neck. Moreover, the location itself was believed to be symbolic. Blackfriars bridge sits astride the border that connects the Masonically named "Square Mile" of the City of London to the rest of the Capital city.
The initial inquest into his death returned a verdict of suicide. Appealing against what they believed to be prejudice on the part of the Coroner - and suspicious of the Masonic affiliations of the City police - Calvi's family called for a second, more thorough inquest, which belatedly returned an open verdict. Meanwhile, Banco Ambrosiano, Calvi's massive, privately-owned bank, collapsed on the news of his death, revealing a huge "black hole" in the balance sheet amounting to $1.3 billion. A large proportion of the missing money was later located in accounts owned by the Vatican bank. The connections that unfolded in the wake of the Calvi "affair" were to link Masons with Mafiosi, Monks with Murder and Spies with wanted Nazi war criminals.
World War Two had barely ground to a final halt when, in 1947, Allied strategists set about planning for World War Three. Even as British and US intelligence officials scoured Europe seeking to apprehend Nazi's wanted on war crimes charges, other more secretive US and British intelligence units were actively engaged in helping those same Nazi's to escape.
The means of escape were the Vatican run "Ratlines." Operated with the knowledge and blessing of highly placed US and British government officials, the Ratlines guided 30,000 wanted Nazi's to sanctuary. Safe haven locations included the US, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the favourite bolt hole of them all: South America.
[ ... ]
Secretly granted immunity these and thousands of other battle hardened Nazi soldiers were to form the fighting nucleus of a top secret Allied contingency group conceived by the first Director of the CIA, Allen Dulles. Loosely known as operation "Stay Behind," the idea was to build a Europe wide secret network of anti communist guerrillas who would fight behind the lines in the event of a Soviet invasion. The plan was later codified under the umbrella of the Clandestine Co-ordinating Committee of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the military arm of NATO.
US planners worried over the growing influence of Italy's large and popular communist party, established Operation "Gladio" in 1956. The name derived from the short sword used by Roman legionnaires 2000 years earlier, and was almost certainly drawn from the crest of SHAPE which features two swords arranged in an "A" shape. The Gladio network was operated by the secret services and initially funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency. 622 people were recruited and trained by US and British specialists in Sardinia. It is believed that up to 15,000 members were ultimately recruited to the Gladio network.
By 1972, with the prospect of a Soviet invasion receding, a decision was taken to "make a pre-emptive attack" on the Italian communist party - who had polled 27% in that year's election - and who would go on to increase their vote to 35% just four years later. There immediately followed a series of bomb outrages signalling the beginning of a "strategy of tension," designed to shift Italian politics sharply to the right. In April 1972 a Fascist bomb attack killed three carabinieri. In November 1973, an Argo 16 aircraft was destroyed in a mid-air explosion.
But if the Gladio network was the armed force, the secret Masonic lodge "Propaganda Due" (P2) was the Elitist "shadow government" tasked with directing them. Adhering to a right wing ideology bordering on fascism, P2 was headed by Licio Gelli - known as the "Puppet-master." During the war Gelli had been a member of Mussolini's notorious "Black shirts," and later acted as liaison officer to the Hermann Goering SS division. By 1974 P2 had in excess of 1000 members comprising a "who's who" of Italian political, military and economic power. Members included four Cabinet ministers, three intelligence chiefs, 160 senior military officers, 48 MPs, the Army Chief of Staff, as well as top diplomats, bankers, industrialists and media publishers.
It was also during 1974 that Gelli met secretly with Alexander Haig. Formerly, the NATO Supreme Commander, Haig had meanwhile become President Nixon's White House Chief of Staff. The secret meeting was held in the US Embassy in Rome. Receiving the blessing of Henry Kissinger, the US National Security Adviser, Gelli left the meeting with a promise of continued financial support for the Gladio network and it's plan for the "internal subversion." of Italian political life. As welcome as this was, Gelli required additional funds to support P2 and operation Gladio.
He turned to P2 member Roberto Calvi, Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano - the largest non-state owned bank in Italy. Calvi began to illegally siphon money from his bank, using the Vatican bank - the Istituto per de Religione (IOR) to launder it. Almost certainly, Gelli had a hold over Calvi. Earlier, in 1967, the former head of the Italian Secret Service had joined P2 and brought with him 150,000 sensitive dossiers that had been compiled on highly placed individuals of Italian society.
Whether as a result of blackmail or political ideology, Calvi continued to funnel a vast amount of funds to Gelli and P2, bankrupting his bank in the process. Meanwhile, other events were to occur that shocked not only Italy but the entire world. In early 1978, Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped and later assassinated by the so called "Red brigades" - a revolutionary pro Soviet group. Evidence now exists that shows Moro's murder was orchestrated by P2, and that both the "Red" and "Black" brigades were heavily penetrated by US intelligence - who are credited with "running" them.
Four years earlier, in 1974, Moro - then Foreign Minister - visited the US. Aware of the popular, democratic support the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was receiving from Italian voters, Moro wished to reach an accommodation with the PCI, and offer their leaders Cabinet rank in a new centrist ruling party. His Washington visit did not go well. During a meeting with then Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, Moro was told that such a move was viewed in the US as "profoundly dangerous and mistaken." A later meeting with an unnamed intelligence official left Moro fearful for his life. The official told Moro he must abandon any idea to incorporate the communists ".or you will pay dearly for it." The official continued by warning Moro that "groups on the fringes of the official secret services might be brought into operation" if he didn't modify his position. It was a clear reference to P2 and the Gladio network. Moro cut short his visit and returned home in fear of his life, his wife later revealed.
Within months of Moro's assassination, the world awoke to hear the glad news that Albino Luciani had been elected Pope, taking the title Pope John Paul I. Revered as an honest, gentle and insightful man, Luciani's election caused anguish in many areas of the Vatican curia. Not least, Bishop Paul Marcinkus, the American head of the Vatican bank, felt his days were numbered. Marcinkus' removal from office would open a hornet's nest of financial sleaze. Via the Vatican bank, Marcinkus had engaged in a vast amount of financial skulduggery. In addition to his financial shenanigans with Banco Ambrosiano, the IOR was also using known Mafia figures to invest some of its vast wealth. Not least, Luciani was viewed by some on the far right of Italian politics to be soft on communism; his father being a committed Socialist and having once stood for political office.
Taken as a whole it was more than enough. Thirty three days after his election, the "Smiling Pope," as he was popularly known, was found dead. Replaced by Karol Wojtyla, who took the title of John Paul II, Bishop Marcinkus was not only reprieved but became a close confidant of the new Polish pope. Under the new, safer regime, Marcinkus went on to provide large sums to the Polish ship-workers union, Solidarity - which is largely credited with bringing an end to communism in Poland. Clearly, staunch anti communism was to be a continuing feature of Vatican life, as it had been under Luciani's predecessor, Pope Paul VI - who as the young Monsignor Giovanni Montini, the Under Secretary of State since 1937 - was heavily involved in the post war Ratlines.
In an additional "twist" it was revealed in 1992, by Mafia defector Francesco Mannino Mannoia, that Roberto Calvi had been strangled by Francesco Di Carlo, the Mafia's London based Heroin traffic manager. The order for the murder came from Pippo Calo, the Mafia treasurer and ambassador to Rome. Desperate to plug an increasingly large hole in his banks books, Calvi had agreed to launder large quantities of drugs money for the Corleone Mafia empire. Instead of laundering Mafia money, Calvi began skimming the profits to keep his bank afloat.
Faced with certain discovery and even more certain consequences, Calvi rushed to London to negotiate a loan from Opus Dei - a highly secretive and fabulously wealthy Catholic faction described by one authority as "sinister, secretive and Orwellian." A highly credible and knowledgeable source told this writer that Calvi met with the Treasurer of Opus Dei who had agreed to purchase a minority stake in Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano. The deal, had it proceeded would have provided the essential funds needed to repay the Mafia, and stave-off an imminent investigation into his affairs by Italy's Central bank.
"Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State" - James Jesus Angleton, Head of CIA Counter Intelligence 1954-1974
Originally aired on BBC2 in 1992, 'Operation Gladio' reveals 'Gladio', the secret state-sponsored terror network operating in Europe.
This BBC series is about a far-right secret army, operated by the CIA and MI6 through NATO, which killed hundreds of innocent Europeans and attempted to blame the deaths on Baader Meinhof, Red Brigades and other left wing groups. Known as 'stay-behinds' these armies were given access to military equipment which was supposed to be used for sabotage after a Soviet invasion. Instead it was used in massacres across mainland Europe as part of a CIA Strategy of Tension. Gladio killing sprees in Belgium and Italy were carried out for the purpose of frightening the national political classes into adopting U.S. policies.
This was the essence of Operation Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West -- against their own populations. Hundreds of innocent people were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks -- on train stations, supermarkets, cafes and offices -- which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political opponents. The purpose, as stated above in sworn testimony by Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra, was to demonize designated enemies and frighten the public into supporting ever-increasing powers for government leaders -- and their elitist cronies.
First revealed by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti in 1991, Gladio (from the Latin for "sword") is still protected to this day by its founding patrons, the CIA and MI6. Yet parliamentary investigations in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have shaken out a few fragments of the truth over the years. These have been gathered in a new book, "NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe," by Daniele Ganser, as Lila Rajiva reports on CommonDreams.org.
Originally set up as a network of clandestine cells to be activated behind the lines in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, Gladio quickly expanded into a tool for political repression and manipulation, directed by NATO and Washington. Using right-wing militias, underworld figures, government provocateurs and secret military units, Gladio not only carried out widespread terrorism, assassinations and electoral subversion in democratic states such as Italy, France and West Germany, but also bolstered fascist tyrannies in Spain and Portugal, abetted the military coup in Greece and aided Turkey's repression of the Kurds.
Among the "smoking guns" unearthed by Ganser is a Pentagon document, Field Manual FM 30-31B, which details the methodology for launching terrorist attacks in nations that "do not react with sufficient effectiveness" against "communist subversion." Ironically, the manual states that the most dangerous moment comes when leftist groups "renounce the use of force" and embrace the democratic process. It is then that "U.S. army intelligence must have the means of launching special operations which will convince Host Country Governments and public opinion of the reality of the insurgent danger." Naturally, these peace-throttling "special operations must remain strictly secret," the document warns.
Indeed, it would not do for the families of the 85 people ripped apart by the Aug. 2, 1980 bombing of the Bologna train station to know that their loved ones had been murdered by "men inside Italian state institutions and ... men linked to the structures of United States intelligence," as the Italian Senate concluded after its investigation in 2000.
The Bologna atrocity is an example of what Gladio's masters called "the strategy of tension" -- fomenting fear to keep populations in thrall to "strong leaders" who will protect the nation from the ever-present terrorist threat. And as Rajiva notes, this strategy wasn't limited to Western Europe. It was applied, with gruesome effectiveness, in Central America by the Reagan and Bush administrations. During the 1980s, right-wing death squads, guerrilla armies and state security forces -- armed, trained and supplied by the United States -- murdered tens of thousands of people throughout the region, often acting with particular savagery at those times when peaceful solutions to the conflicts seemed about to take hold.
Last month, it was widely reported that the Pentagon is considering a similar program in Iraq. What was not reported, however -- except in the Iraqi press -- is that at least one pro-occupation death squad is already in operation. Just days after the Pentagon plans were revealed, a new militant group, "Saraya Iraqna," began offering big wads of American cash for insurgent scalps -- up to $50,000, the Iraqi paper Al Ittihad reports. "Our activity will not be selective," the group promised. In other words, anyone they consider an enemy of the state will be fair game.
Strangely enough, just as it appears that the Pentagon is establishing Gladio-style operations in Iraq, there has been a sudden rash of terrorist attacks on outrageously provocative civilian targets, such as hospitals and schools, the Guardian reports.
From
Secret Warfare: Operation Gladio and NATO's Stay-Behind ArmiesAccording to the SIFAR document [http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/documents/collection_gladio/report_gladio.pdf] of 1959 the secret stay-behind armies served a dual purpose during the Cold War: They were to prepare for a communist Soviet invasion and occupation of Western Europe, and – also in the absence of an invasion – for an “emergency situation”. The first purpose was clear: If there had been a Soviet invasion, the secret anti-communist armies would have operated behind enemy lines, strengthening and setting up local resistance movements in enemy held territory, evacuating pilots who had been shot down, and sabotaging supply lines and production centers of the occupation forces.
The second purpose, the preparation for an emergency situation, is more difficult to understand and remains the subject of ongoing research. As this second purpose clearly did not relate to a foreign invasion, the emergency situation referred to is likely to have meant all domestic threats, most of which were of a civilian nature. During the Cold War, the national military secret services in the countries of Western Europe differed greatly in what they perceived to be an emergency situation. But there was agreement between the military secret services of the United States and of Western Europe that communist parties, and to some degree also socialist parties, had a real potential to weaken NATO from within and therefore represented a threat to the alliance. If they gained political strength and entered the executive, or, worse still, gained control of defence ministries, an emergency situation would result. The evidence now available suggests that in some countries the secret stay-behind armies linked up with right-wing terrorists and carried out terror attacks that were later wrongly blamed on the political left in order to discredit the communists and prevent them from assuming top executive positions.
Evidence suggests that recruitment and operations methods differed greatly from country to country. The research project into NATO’s secret armies that is being undertaken by the Center for Security Studies [http://www.css.ethz.ch/] at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, and is headed by Daniele Ganser, has collected and published the available country-specific evidence in the first English-language book on the topic, entitled NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe (London: Frank Cass, 2005). In a second step, the project is working on gaining access to declassified primary documents, while encouraging discussion among NATO officials, secret services and military officials, and the international research community in order to clarify the strategy, training, and operations of the stay-behind armies.
The NATO Response
The NATO response to the discovery of the secret stay-behind armies has been defensive and at times inconsistent. When evidence of the NATO stay-behind army Gladio in Italy emerged in August 1990, NATO headquarters in Brussels initially refused to comment. About three months later, however, NATO bowed to media pressure and made a statement. However, in that statement the military alliance categorically rejected former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti's allegation about NATO's involvement in operation Gladio and the secret armies. Specifically, Senior NATO Spokesman Jean Marcotta on Monday, 5 November 1990 at SHAPE headquarters in Mons, Belgium, said: "NATO has never contemplated guerrilla war or clandestine operations; it has always concerned itself with military affairs and the defence of Allied frontiers."
Eventually, on Tuesday, 6 November, a NATO spokesman explained that NATO's statement of the previous day had been false. On 6 November, the spokesman left journalists with a short communiqué that said that NATO never commented on matters of military secrecy and that Marcotta should not have said anything at all. The international press protested against NATO’s defensive public relations policy. For example, British daily newspaper The Observer said: "As shock followed shock across the Continent, a NATO spokesman issued a denial: nothing was known of Gladio or stay-behind. Then a seven word communiqué announced the denial was 'incorrect' and nothing more."
1956 British involvement in formation of Italian Gladio
"Andreotti ... has admitted to parliament that a covert intelligence
service was set-up forty years ago, with the help of the CIA and British
agents to combat Soviet subversion or aggression." (Wolfgang Achtner,
Sunday Independent, 11/11/90)
"General sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley, a former commander-in-chief of Nato
forces in northern Europe said...that a covert intelligence service was set
up in Italy with the help of British agents and the CIA - which also partly
funded it. The Italian branch of the network was known as Operation
Gladio" (Richard Norton Taylor, Guardian, 15/11/90)
1970s British visit to German Training Camp
"Documents shown to the [Italian Committee on Terrorism revealed that in
the 1970s British and French officials involved in the network visited a
training base in Germany built with US money."
(Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 17/11/90)
cl973 Gladio unit visit Britain
"Britain hosted a unit responsible for organising Operation
Gladio...General Gerardo Serraville, who said the Italians trained at a
military base in Britain, was giving evidence in Rome to a parliamentary
inquiry." (see 1990). (Richard Norton-Taylor & David Gow, Guardian,
17/11/90)
1974 British "Gladio" visit to Italy
Gladio "counterparts in Britain, where the plan was given the name
Operation Stay Behind, visited Italy in 1974, according to a senior Italian
intelligence official." (Richard norton-Taylor & David Gow, Guardian,
17/11/90)
16/11/90 Tom King denial
"The Defence secretary, Tom King, said yesterday that he had never heard
of Gladio. "I'm not sure what particular hot potato you're chasing after.
It sounds wonderfully exciting, but I'm afraid I'm quite ignorant about it.
I'm better informed on the
Gulf," Mr King said."
(Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 17/11/90
[ ... ]
OTHER "STAY BEHIND" OPERATIONS
AUSTRIA (Schwert)
"The network... in Austria is called "Schwert" (sword)"
(Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 16/11/90)
[ ... ]
GERMANY
"A news programme, produced by Stern magazine and to be aired Wednesday
night on the private RTL television network said there was a secret anti-
communist organisation in Germany that included former Nazis. The group had
a "death list" that targeted several prominent leftist politicians in the
event of a war with the Soviet Union, according to a summary...in advance
of the broadcast." (MS Beelman, Associated Press, 14/11/90)
"On Tuesday AFP quoted informed sources in Bonn as confirming that the
organisation existed in Germany but the former chancellor, Mr Willy Brandt,
denied any knowledge of the existence of the group. The German government
yesterday confirmed plans for covert action in the event of an invasion but
denied there were military units involved. A government spokesman said the
government knew of plans by US intelligence agencies to recruit a network
of guerrillas throughout Europe and to prepare arms caches. The plans had
been developed with the knowledge of the West German secret service
director, he said." (Paddy Agnew, Irish Times, 15/11/90)
"Yesterday, the German government admitted the network operated there.
"Precautions have been taken in West Germany, as in other Nato states,
since the 1950s to secure the flow of intelligence information in the
probable area of conflict [after a Soviet attack]," a german spokesman,
Hans Klein, said." (Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 15/11/90)
"The German government is to disband its part of Gladio, the secret
resistance network, Bonn officials said yesterday. According to a German
television report, the section consisted of former SS and Waffen-SS
officers as well as members of an extreme rightwing group, the Federation
of German Youth, and drew up plans to assassinate leading figures of the
opposition Social Democratic Party in the event of a Soviet-led invasion."
(Richard Norton Taylor & David Gow, Guardian, 17/11/90)
"Documents shown to the [Italian Committee on Terrorism] revealed that in
the 1970s British and French officials involved in the network visited a
training base in Germany built with US money."
(Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 17/11/90)
GREECE (Operation Sheepskin)
"In Greece, defence minister, Yannis Varvitsiotis, has said local commandos
and the CIA set up a branch of the network in 1955 to organise guerrilla
resistance to any communist invader. Known as Operation Sheepskin, it was
dismantled in 1988." (John Palmer, Guardian, 10/11/90)
"The Greek operation started in 1955 but the Socialist government that came
to power in 1981 began to dismantle it in 1985. All arms caches were dug
up and stored at a military base near Athens by 1988 when the network was
finally dismantled, officials and newspaper reports have said. (Associated
Press, 14/11/90)
"Andreas Papandreou, Greece's former Socialist prime minister, said his
government had disbanded the Greek network, which he described as a
"para-state" organisation. Known as "Red Sheepskin", it was formed in 1955
as a secret part of the agreement to set up US military bases in Greece."
(Independent, 16/11/90)
"The Athens government yesterday ordered an inquiry into a secret deal-
between the Greek military forces and the CIA, aimed at setting-up an
anti-communist guerrilla network as part of the covert operation disclosed
last month in Italy under the code name Gladio." (Richard Norton-Taylor,
Guardian, 20/11/90)
"In Greece, where it was given the code-name, Sheepskin, a cell was set up
by the CIA in the 1950s but was dismantled in 1988, according to the
government. Officers in the underground unit were involved in the
Colonel's coup in 1967. (Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 5/12/90)
[ ... ]
UNDERCOVER RESERVE FORCES
A paramilitary committee of former high-ranking service officers has, for
the past six years, been receiving official government support to set up
an undercover, anti-communist resistance movement in Britain (Daily Express
18/7/77). The Resistance and Psychological Operations Committee (RPOC) is
a covert group within the government-funded Reserve Forces Association
(RFA). The RFA is the representative body of British military reservists,
and the British component of the NATO-supported Confederation Inter-Allies
des Officers de Reserve (CIOR). The RFA-was formed in 1970 and is formally
an independent organisation, but its 214 individual and 90 corporate
members represent all the reserve units of the armed forces and the
government treats it as the spokesman of Britain's reserve forces.
Since 1971 the RPOC has been setting up the nucleus of an underground
resistance organisation which could rapidly be expanded in the event of a
Russian occupation of any part of NATO, including Britain. Close links
have been formed with similar units in several European countries, which
are actively recruiting 'anti-communist resistance fighters', according to
Chapman Pincher. They are also said to have established an intelligence
network which NATO chiefs regard as being of great value.
The RPOC was set up by a group of World War Two defence chiefs who
thought that the need has arisen again for an organisation like the
underground wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE), but this time
directed against communism. Amongst the group were: General Sir Richard
Gale, former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and founder of
the 1st Parachute Brigade; Sir Collin Gubbins, founder of the SOE and the
Commandos; Sir John Slessor; Marshal of the Royal Air Force, and former
Chief of the Air Staff; and Sir Algernon Willis, Admiral of the Fleet.
Under the then Tory government RPOC was given access to Ministry of
Defence Departments, including the Joint Warfare Establishment near
Salisbury commanded by Maj. Gen. Patrick Ovens,
a former Commando. The committee also formed close links with the Special
Air Services (SAS), and secured access to the Foreign Office's Information
and Research Department, which has historically been used as a cover
Department for M16 agents. The MOD gave the RFA a grant to pass on to
RPOC. Now, Pincher claims, the Labour government are worried that their
supporters will find out that the government has been encouraging a
rightwing paramilitary group, and they have therefore been quietly trying
to stifle the committee over the past months. RPOC has been deprived of
its grant (and thereby its official status), access to Whitehall
information has ended, and attendance at NATO meetings forbidden. The
committee still exists, however, with General Gale leading the right for
its survival.
The Bologna station massacre is believed to have been the joint work of neofascists, members of the secret services and the subversive right-wing Propaganda-Due Masonic lodge, which was outlawed in 1982, according to the reports.
Italians marched Thursday in Bologna, a city in north-central Italy, to commemorate the victims of the 1980 bombing in its train station which left 85 people dead and some 200 injured, local media reported.
Relatives of the victims took part in the march from the central Piazza Nettuno to the station where Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi made an unannounced appearance.
Prodi, who is a native of Bologna, said in a brief speech that the massacre was carried out by terrorists “who tried to destroy democracy in this nation and who were defeated on moral, cultural and political levels.”
In a message to Bologna Mayor Sergio Cofferati, House Speaker Fausto Bertinotti stressed the need to uncover the full truth behind the station bombing because “a nation which cannot look back at its past with a full understanding cannot plan for its future,” said the reports.
The Bologna station massacre is believed to have been the joint work of neofascists, members of the secret services and the subversive right-wing Propaganda-Due Masonic lodge, which was outlawed in 1982, according to the reports.
There’s a reason anarchists are sometimes associated with violence, and it has little or nothing to do with the black bloc.
Throwing a trash can through a Starbucks window may be illegal, but it is not violent. Property damage may be viewed by the public with more horror and outrage than acts of violence (at least those of the state) but we should not conflate the destruction of inanimate objects with the destruction of living flesh. Even if we disagree on tactics.
That’s what the press is for.
No, the “bomb-thrower” caricature has its roots elsewhere, specifically in the decades before WWI.
Following the death of Bakunin and sparked by the writings of Erico Malatesta, the anarchist movement took to a strategy called “propaganda of the deed”. The idea, as demonstrated by Malatesta, was direct action: “the Italian federation believes that the insurrectional act, destined to affirm socialist principles by deed, is the most efficacious means of propaganda”.
“The following year [1877] Malatesta and other anarchists put their theory into practice. As part of an armed militia they entered two villages in Campania, Italy. Declaring an end to the reign of King Emmanuel, they burned the parish records and distributed the funds in the tax collectors’ safe to the poor. Troops soon arrived and the insurgents were captured. Although the exercise failed, the example was not missed by other anarchist revolutionaries.”
Malatesta was an eloquent writer and hero to literally millions of people during his lifetime, but the sort of “direct action” he was advocating had nothing on common with what followed. Malatesta wrote:
“We do not believe in the right to punish; we reject the idea of revenge as a barbarous sentiment. We have no intention of being either executioners or avengers. It seems to us that the role of liberators and peacemakers is more noble and positive”.
[ ... ]
PART I: EUROPE
“Staying Behind”
NATO’s TERROR NETWORK
“As the 50th anniversary of the end of the war is celebrated,
some unpleasant truths will become further buried beneath the
myth of the “triumph of freedom and democracy” over fascism. For
if fascism itself was the great evil that had to be stopped at
any cost, how are we to explain the total failure of the British,
French and American governments to do anything about the war in
Spain from 1936 to 1939, when Franco’s fascist forces, openly
supported with arms and troops by Hitler and Mussolini, destroyed
the “democratically elected” republican government? The answer is
not hard to find. For Western capitalism the real enemy was not
fascism but the popular revolution inaugurated by the Spanish
working class.”
“…In fact the Greek based “Operation Sheepskin” mentioned in
relation to the 1967 coup was but one part of a European wide
“Stay Behind” network, established by the British and Americans.
Ostensibly this network existed to provide the nucleus of a
guerilla army to fight on after any Soviet invasion, using arms
and explosives which had already been planted. However, the
evidence leaves little doubt that this network also had the
intention of resisting “internal subversion”.
“The Stay Behind network was conceived by the US Joint Chiefs
of Staff and put into operation in 1948 by the National Security
Council which set up the Office of Policy Co-ordination to run
it, staffed and funded by the CIA. Ultimately, coordination of
the network took place under the auspices of NATO. It involved
personnel from the “official” security services in each country
and received covert funding from industry and the state. Indeed
funding and support of such groups was one of the main tasks of
the newly-formed CIA. However, members of the network were mainly
recruited from the civilian population, notably “ex-fascists” and
others whose “anti-communist” credentials were unimpeachable.”
“The existence of the Stay Behind network was not a matter
for public knowledge. However, the activities of the Italian
branch – codenamed Operation Gladio – was exposed in a series of
judicial investigations, particularly between 1990 and 1992.”
“Operation Gladio was set up in 1958 with help from British
Intelligence and the CIA, with funding from the latter. This
assistance continued, with Gladio units being trained in Britain
in the early 1970s and by US instructors at a military base in
the Canary Islands from 1966 to the mid-70s. Gladio was
controlled by the Italian secret services from “Office R”. It had
strong links with P2, a fascist Masonic Lodge composed of most of
the top military officers, political leaders, industrialists,
bankers and diplomats in Italy. P2 has been described as
effectively constituting a right wing parallel government in
Italy. In addition, Gladio became a focal point for fascist
members of “Marine Star” a veteran’s group set up after the
Second World War, and was to make use of other fascist groups in
the 70s and 80s.”
“In fact Gladio was deeply involved in the so-called
“strategy of tension” in the late 60s and 70s. The aim of the
strategy, of which the principle tactic was “terrorist outrages”
carried out by fascists, was to spread panic and unrest and to
directly attack the Left and provoke them into an armed response,
which would both justify increased state power under the pretext
of a “national emergency” and isolate the Left from popular
support. General Gerardo Serravalle, head of “Office R” from
1971-1974, revealed that at a Gladio meeting in 1972 at least
half of the upper echelons “had the idea of attacking the
communists before an invasion. They were preparing for civil
war”.
A Strategy of Tension
“Gelli’s P2 and elements within the Vatican (such as Father Krujoslav Dragonovic, a Croatian Catholic priest — one of many who had helped the CIA export Nazi war criminals out of Germany through its Rat Lines), working in conjunction with the CIA, aligned itself with criminals, corrupt police, and high government officials to discredit the emerging Left and stage a fascist coup. “The Vatican’s fear was clear: Communism posed a threat to its religious, political, and economic strength.”
“God’s Bankers”
“On behalf of democracy, the Mafia enlisted as their agent Salvatore Giuliano. He and his cousin Gaspere Pisciotta led their men into Portella della Ginestra. Without prejudice, they shot and killed a dozen people and wounded more than fifty others. New elections were held, and the Christian Democratic party won a resounding victory. Later, at the orders of the Mafia, Pisciotta murdered Salvatore Giuliano. At his trial, Gaspere Pisciotta said of the massacre, “We were a single body: bandits, police, and Mafia, like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
“The covert objectives of Gladio were to spread panic and unrest through the implementation of “terrorist outrages,” and also to directly attack the Left in an attempt to provoke them into an armed response. The purpose of this strategy was to demonize the Left and isolate them from popular support, while providing an excuse to curtain civil liberties. As a 1969 memo from Aginter Press, a fascist front group, explained:
“Our belief is that the first phase of political activity ought to be to create the conditions favouring the installation of chaos in all of the regime’s structures. This should necessarily begin with the undermining of the state economy so as to arrive at confusion throughout the whole legal apparatus. This leads on to a situation of strong political tension, fear in the world of industry and hostility towards the government and the political parties.… In our view the first move we should make is to destroy the structure of the democratic state, under the cover of communist and pro-Chinese activities.”
“Moreover, we have people who have infiltrated these groups and obviously we will have to tailor our actions to the ethos of the milieu — propaganda and action of a sort which will seem to have emanated from our communist adversaries and pressure brought to bear on people in whom power is invested at every level. That will create a feeling of hostility towards those who threaten the people of each and every nation, and at the same time we must raise up a defender of the citizenry against the disintegration brought about by terrorism and subversion.…”
As the 1969 dispatch added:
“The introduction of provocateur elements into the circles of the revolutionary left is merely a reflection of the wish to push this unstable situation to breaking point and create a climate of chaos…”
from Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist
“One early Gladio-precipitated incident was the December, 12, 1969 bombing of the Banca Nazionale del’ Agricultura in Milan’s Piazza Fontana. The attack killed 16 people and wounded 88. Police immediatly arrested and blamed anarchists. One anarchist leader, Giuseppe Pinelli, took the fall for the bombing, literally, when police tossed him out the window of the local precinct headquarters.”
Giuseppe Pinelli
“In addition to this, the Procurator General of the Republic, De Peppo, ordered the one unexploded bomb found in the wreckage to be detonated immediately. As in Oklahoma, the destruction of this evidence destroyed the single best chance at uncovering the true perpetrators of the deadly attack.”
“Nevertheless, police eventually discovered the real perpetrators — two fascists: Franco Freda and Giovanni Ventura. Ventura, it seems, was in close contact with Colonel Guido Giannettinni of the SID (part of the secret services), who was a fervent supporter of MSI. The trial of Ventura and Freda was delayed for 12 years, when they were finally given life sentences, only to be cleared on appeal.”
Franco Freda
Giovanni Ventura
Guido Giannettinni
“Former Gladio agents also attributed the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing and the 1974 [and subsequent 1980] Bologna bombings, which resulted in over 113 deaths and 185 injured, to P2. These attacks include the Mafia’s involvement in the Red Brigade’s kidnap and murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978. The P2 organization was also suspected of the 1976 assassination of Italian magistrate Vittoria Occorsio. Occorsio was investigating P2 links to neo-Nazi organizations at the time. His death conveniently terminated any further investigation.
Aldo Moro
“This “strategy of tension,” organized around a brutal campaign of terror and murder, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people during the decades of the 1970s and ’80s. The wave of terror led to the severe restriction of civil rights, with the 1975 law restricting popular campaigning and radical political discussion. Many people were locked up under “anti-terrorist” legislation (sound familiar?) or expelled from the country.”
“As the Left (the Red Brigades) resorted to armed struggle to defend themselves, it only strengthened Gladio/P2’s position. The Red Brigades, which had been systematically infiltrated by the secret services, were repeatedly blamed for the attacks, all the while unknowingly serving the agenda of the fascist P2 establishment.”
“One unforgetable example of this wave of terror was the Bologna railway bombing in 1980, that killed 80 people and injured over 160. While reportedly masterminded by P2 members Stefano Delle Chiaie and Licio Gelli, the attack was blamed on the Red Brigades to discredit the Italian Communist party. According to author Steve Mizrach:
Delle Chiaie
“Some Italian political analysts believe that P2 and “Ordine Nuova” (New Order) may have cooperated with the CIA [to bomb the railway station].… There are clearly overlapping circles of membership between P2, the CIA, and the Knights of Malta, a “sovereign military order descended from the Knights of St. John-Hospitallers,” and whose membership in the U.S. has included Bill Casey, Alexander Haig, and Prescott Bush [and reportedly George Bush].”
“As the fascists embarked on a wave of bombings and
shootings, civil rights in Italy began to be severely curtailed,
with a 1975 law restricting popular campaigning and radical
political discussion. Many people were locked up under “anti-
terrorist” legislation or expelled from the country. As expected,
the Left, in the shape of the Red Brigades, resorted to armed
struggle to defend themselves against this assault. This simply
strengthened Gladio / P2’s hand – the Red Brigades were blamed
for fascist outrages, systematically infiltrated by the secret
services and used to carry out actions which supported the hidden
agenda.”
“Gladio was “officially disbanded” by the Italian government
in December 1990 after the story broke. On January 29th, 1992 it
was officially declared to have been a clandestine and illegal
“armed band” involved in subversion, by an Italian parliamentary
commission on terrorism.”
“The 1990 revelations in Italy had a wider impact. After all,
Gladio was simply the Italian branch of a European wide network.
The Belgian, French, Dutch, Greek and German governments all
officially acknowledged that they took part in the covert NATO
network, with the Belgian prime minister revealing that a Europe
wide meeting of the network had been held as recently as October
1990. Of course the respective governments were at pains to deny
that the network had been intended for anything other than to
enable post-invasion guerilla warfare. Intervention in domestic
politics could only be the work of “uncontrollables” following
their own agenda.”
“This covertly-orchestrated “strategy of tension” would repeat itself in Belgium in the mid-80s, in a bizarre series of killings called the “Supermarket Massacres,” in which hooded gunmen walked into crowded supermarkets and began firing away. The massacres, orchestrated by a group calling itself the “Killers of Brabant,” were later discovered to be linked to Belgium’s Gladio unit.”
“The Supermarket massacres occurred during the period when the U.S. was pushing a plan to base the Euro-Missiles (nuclear-tipped Cruise missiles) in different European countries. The plan led to huge demonstrations in Europe, with certain countries threatening to break ranks with NATO. Belgium was one of those countries. The Belgian Parliament, which investigated the incidents, felt that they were another attempt to sow confusion and fear among the populace, thereby generating public outcries for a law-and-order government which would be amenable to the Euro-Missles.”
“Proof surfaced when a former gendarme, Madani Bouhouche, who worked for state security and was a member of a neo-Nazi paramilitary group Westland New Post (WNP), was arrested with one of the murder weapons. The next day, Bouhouche’s friend and fellow Right-wing militant Jean Bultot fled to Paraguay (a popular respite for Nazis). While in Paraguay, Bultot admitted to Belgian journalist René Haquin that the killings were a state security destabilization operation with government participation “at every level.”
