Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance Between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia

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After the training course with British intelligence – which, however, seems not to have taken place – one of the chosen officials (Felice Santini, Colonel of the Italian Air Force) would assume his duties as the general coordinator of the new network, while the other six would take control of its operative branches: intelligence, sabotage, propaganda, communications, cipher, and exfiltration. from there to a historical compromise, 3 The ‘Historical Compromise’ was a political accommodation between the DC and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) proposed in 1973 by PCI leader Enrico Berlinguer. Even though the definition seemed to include everything imaginable - including activities in countries of the ‘free world’ - Hillenkoetter’s successor claimed that by 1951 the CIA covert ops had already ‘far exceeded’ even this. The ‘contextualisation’ of Gladio’s evolution is relevant to establish its legitimacy, and this must be assessed at each moment of its history, not simply at its origin.

Operation Gladio: How We Terrorize Ourselves - VT Operation Gladio: How We Terrorize Ourselves - VT

As the line between safeguarding democracy and undermining it grew increasingly blurry, the Italian populace was in for a rough ride during the "Years of Lead" (Anni di Piombo). A) 1985: Six trainings (at least two outside Belgium, one in Belgium): infiltration a parachute-jumping, extracting material through escape routes. Most sensitively the Belgian parliamentarians discovered that the secret NATO army was still active.Training, according to Swiss military instructor and alleged Gladio member Alois Hurlimann, also included non-simulated real action operations against IRA activists, probably in Northern Ireland.

Operation Gladio - Wikispooks Operation Gladio - Wikispooks

Following this meeting, the Belgian stay-behind network became operational, but it was not until January 4, 1952, that the first formal instructions for stay-behind operations were issued to Ludovicus Caeymaex ( Staatsveiligheid) and General Etienne Baele. Paul Latinus would escape to Pinochet's Chile for a few months in 1981, before committing suicide in 1984. Primarily, the report summarised the goals of the structure: Gladio was created in the eventuality that NATO declared an emergency “caused by internal subversion or military invasion.In Germany a TV programme shocked the nation by revealing how former members of Hitler’s Special Forces SS had been part of a German stay-behind network. Last but not least in its final point the resolution explicitly addresses both NATO and the United States, as the EU parliament 'Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Secretary-General of NATO, the governments of the Member States, and the United States Government. It was a multi-national military plan to arm and train clandestine groups in many (perhaps all) of its member countries and elsewhere in Europe. When the European Union learned of the existence of Gladio, it passed a resolution mandating national investigations to reveal what was going on, but as of 2016, only 5 countries have done so (including Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland).