@@ MUST READ: see if the West really cares about Democracy, Human Rights, and innocent citizens! @@
Arash
Secret Warfare: Operation GLADIO and NATO’s Stay-Behind Armies
GLADIO: from Italy to Iraq--"false-flag terrorism" and "strategy of tension"
In the context of the ongoing so-called "war on terror", the GLADIO data promotes the
sobering insight that governments in the West have sacrificed the life of innocent
citizens and covered up acts of terrorism in order to manipulate the population.
* GLADIO member Vincezo Vinciguerra explained the so-called “strategy of tension”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_tension) to Italian judge Felice Casson:
"We had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown
people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. We were
supposed to force these people, the public, to turn to the state to ask for greater
security. This is the political logic that lies behind all the massacres and the
bombings which remain unpunished, because the state cannot convict itself or declare
itself responsible for what happened".
* Bologna massacre was one of many false-flag operations
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag) by GLADIO on August 2, 1980, which killed
85 people and wounded more than 200. The Italian government blamed it the leftists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_massacre
* Former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti: "Gladio had been necessary during
the days of the Cold War but, that in view of the collapse of the East Block, Italy
would suggest to Nato that the organisation was no longer necessary".
* Former French minister of defense Jean-Pierre Chevenement: "a structure did
exist, set up at the beginning of the 1950s, to enable communications with a
government that might have fled abroad in the event of the country being occupied".
* Former Greek defence minister, Yannis Varvitsiotis: "local commandos and the CIA
set up a branch of the network in 1955 to organise guerrilla resistance to any
communist invader".
"Prudent Precaution or Source of Terror?" With this headline the press (Reuters)
reacted to the discovery in 1990 of CIA- and NATO-linked anti-communist secret
stay-behind armies in Italy and other Western European countries. Did the stay-behind
armies enhance or threaten national security?
After the Cold War had ended, Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Andreotti) confirmed to the Italian Senate in
August 1990 that Italy had had a secret stay-behind army codenamed GLADIO – the
sword.
A document dated June 1, 1959 from the Italian military secret service, SIFAR (now
SISMI), revealed that SIFAR had been running the secret army with the support of NATO
and in close collaboration with the U.S. secret service, the CIA. Suggesting that the
secret army might have linked up with right-wing organizations such as Ordine Nuovo
(http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/arn.htm) and Avanguardia Nazionale
(http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/vinciguerra.p2.etc_graun_5dec1990.html)
to engage in domestic terror, the Italian Senate, amid public protests, decided that
GLADIO was beyond democratic control and therefore had to be closed down.
During the 1990s, research into stay-behind armies has progressed only very slowly,
due to very limited access to primary documents. It was revealed, however, that
stay-behind armies covered all of Western Europe and operated under different code
names, such as "Absalon" in Denmark, "P26" in Switzerland, "ROC" in Norway and
"SDRA8" in Belgium.
The so-called Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) and the Clandestine Planning
Committee (CPC), linked to NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE),
coordinated the stay-behind networks on an international level. The last confirmed
ACC meeting took place on 24 October 1990 in Brussels, chaired by the Belgian
military secret service, the SGR. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO
If there had been a Soviet invasion, the secret anti-communist soldiers would have
operated behind enemy lines, strengthening and setting up local resistance movements
in enemy held territory, evacuating shot down pilots, and sabotaging the supply lines
and production centers of occupation forces. It remains open to investigation whether
or not, in the absence of an invasion, the secret armies in some countries became
active against the national communist parties, who were believed to weaken NATO from
within.
Evidence suggests that recruitment and operations differed greatly from country to
country. The research project, headed by Daniele Ganser, aims first to collect and
present the available country-specific evidence in a book publication, due in 2004.
In a second step, the project aims to gain access to declassified primary documents
and to encourage discussion among NATO officials, secret services and military
officials, and the academic community in order to clarify the strategy, training, and
operations of the stay-behind armies.
https://www.rdb.ethz.ch/projects/project.php?type=&proj_id=8960&z_detailed=1#detailed
Contemporary Security Policy
"Nato's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0714685003/104-4849771-2683934?v=glance
Dr. Daniele Ganser
Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies
The author is a Swiss researcher who has nicely managed to document in one volume the
modus operandi of a secret stay-behind army in Europe which operated since the end of
WWII until the end of the Cold War. The book provides a complete documentation of the
general patterns of this army across Europe that if taken in isolation would seem
improbable. This super secret Army was operating in all Western European countries
under different codenames and coordinated by the Allied Clandestine Committee and the
Clandestine Planning Committee under the umbrella supervision of the Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) within the NATO and with the active
supporting role of the Pentagon, CIA and the British MI6.
The goal of this army was to operate behind enemy lines setting up resistance
movements in case of a Soviet invasion of Europe. The secret army was clandestine and
illegal in many countries and staffed by loyal anti-communist soldiers and rightwing
activists recruited from various sectors, many with a past with the nazis or fascist
armies during WWII. These armies have been employed also against the national
communist (and in some case socialist) parties (Demagnetize Operation) under the
complacence of domestic intelligence services with several suspect cases of
assassinations and some documented cases of terrorist attacks against civilian
targets, or in overturning democratically elected governments (Greece and Turkey) too
dangerously left-leaning.
Italy plays an important part in this story since Italy was theatre of several
operations and last but not least, a former prime minister eventually admitted before
Parliament in 1990, after the investigations of a judge, that a stay-behind army had
operated since WWII, opening a Pandora's box of revelations.
To each country are dedicated 18 specific chapters (UK, USA, Italy, France, Spain,
Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Greece,
Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria) with specific documented episodes,
that offers a clarifying picture of this super secret organization.
Much remains to be discovered, but the merit of this book is to have put together
scattered information in a well organized way.
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/collections/coll_gladio.htm
International Relations and Security Network (ISN) Security Watch
December 15, 2004
NATO’s secret armies linked to terrorism?
Zurich, Switzerland -- At a time when experts are debating whether NATO is suited to
deal with the global “war on terror”, new research suggests that the alliance’s own
secret history has links to terrorism.
By Daniele Ganser
Email: ganser[AT]sipo.gess.ethz.ch
In Italy, on 3 August 1990, then-prime minister Giulio Andreotti confirmed the
existence of a secret army code-named “GLADIO” - the Latin word for “sword” - within
the state. His testimony before the Senate subcommittee investigating terrorism in
Italy sent shockwaves through the Italian parliament and the public, as speculation
arose that the secret army had possibly manipulated Italian politics through acts of
terrorism.
Giulio Andreotti revealed that the secret GLADIO army had been hidden within the
Defense Ministry as a subsection of the military secret service, SISMI. General Vito
Miceli, a former director of the Italian military secret service, could hardly
believe that Andreotti had lifted the secret, and protested: "I have gone to prison
because I did not want to reveal the existence of this super secret organization. And
now Giulio Andreotti comes along and tells it to parliament!".
http://www.lamelagrana.net/%C2%A5_storia/C/SCmainA.html
According to a document compiled by the Italian military secret service in 1959, the
secret armies had a two-fold strategic purpose: firstly, to operate as a so-called
“stay-behind” group in the case of a Soviet invasion and to carry out a guerrilla war
in occupied territories; secondly, to carry out domestic operations in case of
“emergency situations”.
The military secret services’ perceptions of what constituted an “emergency” was well
defined in Cold War Italy and focused on the increasing strength of the Italian
Communist and the Socialist parties, both of which were tasked with weakening NATO
“from within”.
Felice Casson, an Italian judge who during his investigations into right-wing
terrorism had first discovered the secret GLADIO army and had forced Giulio Andreotti
to take a stand, found that the secret army had linked up with right-wing terrorists
in order to confront “emergency situations”. The terrorists, supplied by the secret
army, carried out bomb attacks in public places, blamed them on the Italian left, and
were thereafter protected from prosecution by the military secret service. "You had
to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far
removed from any political game”, right-wing terrorist Vincezo Vinciguerra explained
the so-called “strategy of tension” to judge Casson. “The reason was quite simple.
They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to
ask for greater security. This is the political logic that lies behind all the
massacres and the bombings which remain unpunished, because the state cannot convict
itself or declare itself responsible for what happened".
http://www.namebase.org/main4/Vincenzo-Vinciguerra.html
No comment from NATO or the CIA
How strongly NATO and U.S. intelligence backed and supported the use of terror in
Italy in order to discredit the political left during the Cold War remains subject of
ongoing research. General Gerardo Serravalle, who had commanded the Italian GLADIO
secret army from 1971 to 1974, confirmed that the secret army “could pass from a
defensive, post-invasion logic, to one of attack, of civil war”.
http://www.namebase.org/main2/Gerardo-Serravalle.html
The Italian Senate chose to be more explicit and concluded in its investigation in
2000: "Those massacres, those bombs, those military actions had been organized or
promoted or supported by men inside Italian state institutions and, as has been
discovered more recently, by men linked to the structures of United States
intelligence".
Ever since the discovery of the secret NATO armies in 1990, research into stay-behind
armies has progressed only very slowly, due to very limited access to primary
documents and the refusal of both NATO and the CIA to comment.
On 5 November 1990, a NATO spokesman told an inquisitive press: "NATO has never
contemplated guerrilla war or clandestine operations”. The next day, NATO officials
admitted that the previous day’s denial had been false, adding that the alliance
would not comment on matters of military secrecy.
On 7 November, NATO’s highest military official in Europe, Supreme Allied Commander
Europe (SACEUR) U.S. General John Galvin, together with NATO’s highest civilian
official, Secretary-General Manfred Wörner, briefed NATO ambassadors behind closed
doors. "Since this is a secret organization, I wouldn't expect too many questions to
be answered”, reasoned a senior NATO diplomat, who wished to remain unnamed. “If
there were any links to terrorist organizations, that sort of information would be
buried very deep indeed”.
Former CIA director William Colby (http://www.nndb.com/people/130/000054965)
confirmed in his memoirs that setting up the secret armies in Western Europe had been
“a major program” for the CIA. The project started after World War II in total
secrecy, and access to information was limited “to the smallest possible coterie of
the most reliable people, in Washington, in NATO” and in the countries concerned.
Yet when in Italy in 1990 former CIA director Admiral Stansfield Turner
(http://www.nndb.com/people/964/000022898) was questioned on television on GLADIO, he
strictly refused to answer any questions on the sensitive issue, and as the
interviewer insisted with respect for the terror victims, Admiral Stansfield angrily
ripped off his microphone and shouted: "I said, no questions about GLADIO!",
whereafter the interview was over.
Secret armies across Western Europe
Only the parliaments in Italy, Switzerland, and Belgium had formed a special
commission to investigate the national secret army, and after months or even years of
research, presented a public report. Building on this data and secondary sources from
numerous European countries, “NATO’s Secret Armies” confirms for the first time that
the secret networks spread across Western Europe, with great details on networks in
Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Luxemburg, Belgium, Denmark, Norway,
Italy, Greece, and Turkey, as well as the strategic planning of Britain and the U.S.
The stay-behind armies were coordinated on an international level by the so-called
Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) and the Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC),
linked to NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). And they used
cover names such as “Absalon” in Denmark, “P26” in Switzerland, “ROC” in Norway or
“SDRA8” in Belgium. Interestingly, large differences existed from country to country.
In some nations the secret armies became a source of terror, while in others they
remained a prudent precaution.
In Turkey, the “Counter-Guerrilla” was involved in domestic terror and torture
operations against the Kurds, while in Greece, the “LOK” took part in the 1967
military coup d’état to prevent a Socialist government. In Spain, the secret army was
used to prop up the fascist dictatorship of Franco, and in Germany, right-wing
terrorists used the explosives of the secret army in the 1980 terror attack in
Munich.
In other countries, including Denmark, Norway, and Luxemburg, the secret soldiers
prepared for the eventual occupation of their home country and never engaged in
domestic terror or manipulation.
In the context of the ongoing so-called "war on terror", the GLADIO data promotes the
sobering insight that governments in the West have sacrificed the life of innocent
citizens and covered up acts of terrorism in order to manipulate the population.
Allegations that NATO, the Pentagon, MI6, the CIA, and European intelligence services
were linked to terror, coups d’état, and torture in Europe are obviously of an
extremely sensitive nature, and future research is needed in the field.
In the absence of an official investigation by NATO or the EU, ongoing international
research into terrorism is about to tackle this difficult task, the first step of
which I hope to have promisingly taken with “NATO’s Secret Armies”.
* Dr. Daniele Ganser (http://www.css.ethz.ch/people/dganser/index) is a Senior
Researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the ETH in Zurich (Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology).
Editor’s Note: This report written by Daniele Ganser is based on excerpts from his
newly released book, “NATO’s Secret Armies. Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western
Europe”, released this week by Frank Cass in London. The book describes NATO’s
clandestine operations during the Cold War. The research was prompted by a story that
made world headlines in 1990 but quickly disappeared, ensuring that even today, NATO’s
secret armies remain just that - secret. Until now, a full investigation of NATO’s
secret armies had not been carried out - a task that Ganser has taken on
single-handedly and quite successfully.
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=10373
Secret agents, freemasons, fascists... and a top-level campaign of political
'destabilisation'
http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/vinciguerra.p2.etc_graun_5dec1990.html
Gladio: from Italy to Iraq "false-flag terrorism" and "strategy of tension"
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/a4ac543b15c3df4b?hl=en
Masonic murder case finally opens in Italy
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/cb55c6d0e3331ba3?hl=en
British “Pseudo-Gang” Terrorists Exposed in Basra
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/3c55d8a9672c3e68?hl=en
Operation GLADIO: MI6 behind London bombings "false flag operations"
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0094945ae9d6586e?hl=en
John Pilger questions the British version of sinister events in Basra
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/68969f06c87c40a9?hl=en
British false-flag operation blown wide open
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/05ea09de724fda43?hl=en
Green Slime "Gordon Kerr" behind British false-flag operations in Iraq
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/db9d09170484f68d?hl=en
Basra "black op" echoes British SAS actions in the Northern Ireland
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/146afc7425e1a310?hl=en
More on Operation GLADIO
http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/gladio.htm
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/collections/coll_gladio.htm
http://www.copi.com/articles/guyatt/gladio.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4640247.stm
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/164e791680a738e8?hl=en