sorry for the characters, there are a number of them
I replaced the one that obscured the G in operation GLADIO.
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Date: August 26, 2008 11:53:14 PM PDT
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Subject: [ctrl] NATO抯 secret armies linked to terrorism?
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NATO抯 secret armies linked to terrorism?
by Daniele Ganser
ISN Security Watch, 15 December 2004
www.globalresearch.ca 17 December 2004
The URL of this article is:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/GAN412A.html
At a time when experts are debating whether NATO is suited to deal
with the global 搘ar on terror? new research suggests that the
alliance抯 own secret history has links to terrorism.
ISN Editor抯 Note:
This report written by Daniele Ganser is based on excerpts from his
newly released book, 揘ATO抯 Secret Armies. Operation Gladio and
Terrorism in Western Europe? released this week by Frank Cass in London.
The book describes NATO抯 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抯 secret
armies remain just that - secret.
Until now, a full investigation of NATO抯 secret armies had not been
carried out - a task that Ganser has taken on single-handedly and
quite successfully.
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 搒word?- 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.
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 Andreotti comes along and
tells it to parliament!" 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 搒tay-
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 揺mergency situations?
The military secret services?perceptions of what constituted an 揺
mergency?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 揻rom within?
Felice Casson, an Italian judge who during his investigations into
right-wing terrorism had first discovered the secret Gladio army and
had forced Andreotti to take a stand, found that the secret army had
linked up with right-wing terrorists in order to confront 揺mergency
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 搒
trategy of tension?to Casson.
揟he 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."
No comment from NATO or the CIA
How strongly NATO and US 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 揷ould pass from a
defensive, post-invasion logic, to one of attack, of civil war?
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抯 denial
had been false, adding that the alliance would not comment on matters
of military secrecy. On 7 November, NATO抯 highest military official
in Europe, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) US General John
Galvin, together with NATO抯 highest civilian official, Secretary-
General Manfred W鰎ner, 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. 揑f there were any links to terrorist
organizations, that sort of information would be buried very deep
indeed.?Former CIA director William Colby confirmed in his memoirs
that setting up the secret armies in Western Europe had been 揳 major
program?for the CIA. The project started after World War II in total
secrecy, and access to information was limited 搕o 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 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, Stansfield angrily ripped off his microphone and shouted: "I
said, no questions about Gladio!", whereafter the interview was over.
Protest from the EU
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. Upon discovery of the secret
armies, the European Parliament responded with harsh criticism,
suspecting it to have been involved in manipulation and terror
operations. 揟his Europe will have no future,?
Italian representative Falqui opened the debate, 搃f it is not
founded on truth, on the full transparency of its institutions in
regard to the dark plots against democracy that have turned upside
down the history, even in recent times, of many European states.?
Falqui insisted that 搕here will be no future, ladies and gentlemen,
if we do not remove the idea of having lived in a kind of double state -
one open and democratic, the other clandestine and reactionary.
That is why we want to know what and how many "Gladio" networks there
have been in recent years in the Member States of the European
Community." The majority of EU parliamentarians followed Falqui, and
in a special resolution on 22 November 1990 made it clear that the
EU 損rotests vigorously at the assumption by certain US military
personnel at SHAPE and in NATO of the right to encourage the
establishment in Europe of a clandestine intelligence and operation
network? calling for a 揳 full investigation into the nature,
structure, aims, and all other aspects of these clandestine
organizations or any splinter groups, their use for illegal
interference in the internal political affairs of the countries
concerned, and the problem of terrorism in Europe?
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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,
揘ATO抯 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 US. 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抯 Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
(SHAPE). And they used cover names such as 揂bsalon?in Denmark, 揚26?
in Switzerland, 揜OC?in Norway or 揝DRA8?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 揅ounter-Guerrilla?was involved in domestic terror and
torture operations against the Kurds, while in Greece, the 揕OK?took
part in the 1967 military coup d掗tat 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掗tat, 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 揘ATO抯 Secret Armies?
Dr Daniele Ganser is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security
Studies at the ETH in Zurich. For more information on the topic,
compare the research of the Center of Security Studies (CSS) at ETH
Zurich.
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