-Caveat Lector-
""Interviewed, an ex-NATO operative said that Ted Shackley, the
CIA's deputy station chief in Rome, "fixed a meeting between Alexander
Haig and [P2 Masonic Lodge figure] Licio Gelli at the US embassy in
Rome in the early 1970s, when Haig was President Nixon's Chief of Staff.
"Money" he said, was filtered through the CIA to "Operation Gladio"
with the blessing of both Haig and National Security Council chief Henry
Kissinger. Their aim was to prevent a "Communist takeover" of Italy ...
"On the night of 7 December 1970 --anniversary of the Japanese
surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbour in 1941--
the 'Black prince' Julio Borghese, once a commander of Mussolini's
naval forces, gave the order to proceed with the final stages of an
attempted FASCIST coup code-named "Tora, Tora". Stefano delle
Chiaie, commanding 50 neo-nazis, occupied the buildings of the
Interior Ministry in Rome. They had gained entrance that morning
disguised as workmen and had lain low until Borghese gave the final
go-ahead for the coup. However, at the last moment the coup was
called off ... Borghese had received a telephone call from Gen. Vito
Micelli, head of the Italian secret service and implicated in the plot.
Realising at the last moment that Borghese and his followers were
being manipulated by another more powerful faction among the
plotters, Micelli decided to warn his friend to abort their mission.
"At the trial in 1977, a colonel called Amos Spiazzi, investigated
for his links with the Borghese coup, spoke of a "secret organisation
operating within the [Italian] armed forces" that was not "subversive"
but protected the state from the possibility of a Marxist overthrow.
Spiazzi (who was acquitted at the trial) proudly admitted he had been
a member of the organization, named 'Operation Gladio,' since 1960."
Subj: [CTRL] Operation GLADIO - Part One of Four Parts
Date: 98-06-03 01:08:20 EDT
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (R. William Davis)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
copyright StatesWatch
OPERATION GLADIO
1947 Origins of Gladio
"As early as 1947, the United States was constructing a clandestine network
in Northern Italy to act in the event of a communist insurrection or
electoral victory." (Wolfgang Achtner, Sunday Independent, 11/11/90)
"Though the Stay Behind operation was officially started only in 1952, "the
whole exercise had been in existence for a long time, in fact ever since
it was born in the head of Allen Dulles," said the ex-Nato source who has
access to files in several West European nations. According to him,
Dulles, the first chief of the CIA, worked out the original plan to build
secret anti-communist guerilla forces across Europe when he was based in
Switzerland at the end of the second world war. Dulles, Sir Stewart Menzies
(SIS) and the Belgian Premier Paul Henri Spaak codified the plan in a
secret pact sometime between 1949 and 1952 under the umbrella of the
Clandestine Co-ordinating Committee at the Supreme Headquarters Allied
Powers Europe, (SHAPE), which became Nato. "There was a division of labour
between the British and the US," he continued, "with Britain taking
responsibility for the operation in France, Belgium, Holland, Portugal and
Norway and the Americans looking after Sweden, Finland and the rest of
Europe" (Searchlight, January 1991)
1951 Formation of Clandestine Planning Committee
"In 1951, said the newspaper [Die Welt], Allied intelligence agencies and
each participating nation - Germany, Italy and France being among the first
- agreed to set up a Committee for planning to oversee the network"
(Associated Press, 13/11/90)
1955-58 CIA control of Italian secret services
"Former defence minister Paulo Taviani [told Magistrate Casson during his
1990 investigation] that during his time in office (1955-1958), the Italian
secret services were bossed and financed by the boys in Via Veneto' - ie
the CIA agents in the US Embassy in the heart of Rome. (William Scobie,
Observer, 18/11/90)
1956 General Giovanni de Lorenzo appointed head of Sifar
"De Lorenzo was...appointed head of the secret services (Sifar) in 1956 by
President Granchi, he stayed on as head of Sifar after he was made
commander of the carabinieri in 1962." (Stuart Christie, "Stefano de
Chiaie", Anarchy/Refract, 1984)
1956 Formation of Gladio
"US documents declassified in the 1970's show that General Giovanni de
Lorenzo, the chief of Sifar (Italian Military Intelligence), joined the US
in the 1950's in preparing a plan against a Communist takeover, but did not
inform his own government. According to a document released by Mr
Andreotti last month the CIA and Sifar sketched a plan in November 1956,
codenamed Gladio, to form a force of 1000 men capable of guerilla warfare
and espionage. A training base was set-up in Sardinia and 139 weapons and
ammunition dumps were hidden in Northern Italy." (Wolfgang Achtner, Sunday
Independent, 11/11/90)
"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. Although no elected
representatives save Prime Ministers were told of its existence, it still
exists." (Wolfgang Achtner, Sunday Independent, 11/11/90)
"The network, run by secret-services of Nato members, was apparently set-up
in the 1950's at US instigation to create a guerrilla resistance
organisation in the event of a Soviet invasion or communist takeover in
Nato countries." (John Palmer, Guardian, 10/11/90)
"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)
"Gladio was the name given to the Italian branch of a network with the
harmless official name, Allied Co-Ordination Committee, set up with British
help in the 1950's, operated by the secret services and partly financed by
the United States CIA."
(Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 16/11/90)
Post-1956 Structure of Gladio
Gladio was "Set up to engage in clandestine, non-conventional resistance
in the event of invasion. 622 people were recruited and trained by American
and British intelligence at the Capo Marrargui base on the northern tip of
Sardinia. They were organised in 40 independent cells. Six were
responsible for intelligence-gathering, 10 for sabotage, 6 for codes and
radio communications, 6 for running escape routes and 12 for guerilla
warfare. Five of the guerrilla units were named after flowers such as
azalea, rhododendron and broom. Gladio established 139 arms caches, mostly
in north-east Italy near the Gorizia gap, through which any Soviet invasion
was expected to come. Since then 127 have been recovered, 10 more have
been built over, but the last two were probably found by private citizens,
but the suspicion remains that they were used by right-wing terrorists."
(Charles Richards & Simon Jones, Independent, 16/11/90)
"Two Communist MP's [who] got into the [Gladio] secret training base near
Alghero, Sardinia, discovered that when the Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti
had spoken of 'only 622 units' he had failed to mention that each was a
guerrilla chief who would raise 12 to 15 followers to et total of 15,000
men. After training sessions these Gladio chieftains took their 'personal
weapons' home to be ready for the Soviet invasion." (William Scobie,
Observer, 18/11/90)
1/6/59 Gladio Briefing Minute
"A briefing minute of June 1, 1959, reveals Gladio was built around
"internal subversion". It was to play "a determining role ...not only on
the general policy level of warfare, but also on the politics of emergency.
(Ed Vulliamy, Guardian, 5/12/90)
"The Venetian judges [Casson & Mastelloni] came across Gladio when working
on a document of 1959 that referred to the militia's "internal
subversion"... The document, dated June 1, 1959, detailed the
"non-orthodox" warfare that Gladio would wage against a Warsaw Pact
invader, saying the strategy comes from the Nato clandestine planning
committee in Paris. But the paper then moves from what it calls "the Nato
level" to the national level" - the first dealing with "invading military
forces" and the second with "internal subversion," both arranged in "close
cooperation between the Italian and American secret services." The duty of
Gladio is a double one, says the document. The first is objective" and
concerns the "defence of the Italian territory and population". The second
is defined cryptically as "subjective" and is "concerned with the
legitimate authority of the state, and with the eventuality of any serious
offences against its integrity." Gladio should be ready "to adopt, with
timely readiness, preemptive action to assure the state's prestige,
capacity for action and for government". (Ed Vulliamy, Guardian, 10/12/90)
1959 Gladio joins the Clandestine Planning Committee
"In 1959, Italy was invited to join the Clandestine Planning Committee, the
multi-national organ overseen from Belgium by Shape (Supreme Headquarters
Allied Powers Europe). Sifar began to recruit Italian military personnel
and civilians and place them in secret cells. British agents were involved
in the training. (Wolgang Achtner, Sunday Independent, 11/11/90)
1960 Founding of Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo was founded by industrialist Pino Rauti. "It had been
strengthened by numerous training courses run by officers of the Italian
and Greek armies. It also received financial assistance from the CIA and
Belgian neo-nazis." (Time Out, 7/4/70)
1964 Operation Solo
"Frightened by the "opening to the left" under the Christian Democrat
premiership of Aldo Moro and the success at the polls of the Communists who
gained 25 per cent of the vote in the 1963 elections, the Italian right
began to make plans to pave the way for the installation of a government
of "public safety" consisting of right-wing Christian Democrats, top
managers and military men. General Giovanni de Lorenzo, commander of the
paramilitary carabinieri and head of the Italian secret services, together
with twenty other senior army officers and allegedly with the knowledge and
agreement of president Antonio Segni, drew up a plan for a presidential
type coup d'tat. "Plan Solo" was to have concluded with the assassination
of the premier, Aldo Moro. Executive authority was to have passed to the
right wing Christian Democrat Cesare Merzagora. The coup was called off
at the final moment by a compromise between the socialists and right wing
Christian Democrats. General de Lorenzo and his colleagues were not ones
to give in so easily, however, and although their plans were thwarted on
this occasion the plotters did not abandon them."
(S Christie, "Stefano de Chiaie", (Anarchy/Refract, 1984))
"It is not known precisely when Stefano de Chiaie was first recruited as
an agent of the Italian secret service, but he was certainly working on
behalf of the Interior Ministry as far back as 1960 and he himself has
implied knowledge of and involvement with de Lorenzo's "Plan Solo."" (S
Christie, "Stefano de *Chiaie", (Anarchy/Refract, 1984))
"Italians have ]earned that General Giovanni de Lorenzo, as secret services
chief, compiled dossiers, including tapes and photographs, on some 150,000
people...De Lorenzo received parliamentary immunity as an MSI (neo-fascist)
MP." (William Scobie, Observer, 18/11/90)
"By 1964, the plot had thickened. Mr de Lorenzo compiled files on more
than 150,000 people, including politicians, priests and unionists. He drew
up a plan for the carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary police, to arrest many
politicians, take over radio and television networks, and seize the offices
and newspapers ()f left-wing parties. After "Operation Solo" was leaked,
a parliamentary inquiry ruled in 1970 that Mr de Lorenzo had violated the
constitution. But he was not preparing his own coup d'tat. He was
organising a duplicate of operation Gladio to be activated if the left
gained too much power." (Wofgang Achtner, Sunday Independent, 11/11/90)
1966-1968 President Cossigas role
"President Francesco Cossiga...had some responsibility for administering
Gladio as a junior defence minister from 1966-68."
(John Wyles, Financial Times, 14/12/90)
Late 1960s CIA concern over Gladio
"By the late 1960's the CIA felt Gladio was expensive and out of control,
but decided not to close it down because it fostered useful contacts with
the Italian security establishment." (Edward Lucas, Independent, 16/11/90)
1969-1984 Fascist bomb attacks
"The Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, sharply denied that there was any
link between the group, codenamed Gladio...and a wave of unsolved bombings
between 1969 and 1984 in which 143 people were killed...The Communist Party
alleged that members of Gladio may have taken part in acts of terrorism
nero, or neo-fascist bombings such as that in the waiting room at Bologna
Station in August 1980, which killed 85 people in Italy's communist
heartland. Four neo-fascists were jailed for life for the crime, and the
grand master of the illegal P2 Masonic Lodge, Licio Gelli, was sentenced
to 7 years for his involvement in the case. But last July the appeals
court overturned the ruling for reasons never clearly explained, causing
a national outcry." (Fiona Leney & Wolfgang Achtner, Independent, 10/11/90)
At the trial of Vincent Vinciguerra (a neo-fascist who took part in a 1972
bomb attack that killed three carabinieri) he told the magistrate; "that
every bombing in Italy after 1969 was linked to one group. "The orders are
given by an apparatus belonging to the state, specifically by a secret
parallel structure of the Interior Ministry" he said." (Wolfgang Achtner,
Sunday Independent, 11/11/90
"The most disturbing questions raised by the discovery of "Gladio" remain
unanswered. How come "Gladio" guns and explosives were used in the 1972
Peteano attack in which three policemen were killed..." (Paddy Agnew, Irish
Times, 15/11/90)
Early 1970s Meeting between Alexander Haig and Licio Gelli
"In an interview the ex-Nato operative said that Ted Shackley, the CIA's
deputy station chief in Rome, "fixed a meeting between Alexander Haig and
Gelli at the US embassy in Rome in the early 1970s, when Haig was President
Nixon's Chief of Staff. "Money" he said was then filtered to Stay Behind
or Gladio with the blessing and knowledge of both Haig and the then head
of the US National Security Council, Henry Kissinger. Their aim was to
prevent a communist takeover at all costs.
7-8/12/70 Abortive coup attempt by Prince Valesio Borghese
"For four and a half months the whereabouts of Delle Chiaie were to remain
a mystery, until the night of 7-8 December 1970, the anniversary of the
Japanese surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbour in
1941. Then the 'Black prince' Julio Valerio Borghese, ex-commander of
Mussolini's Decima MAS (Tenth Light Flotilla) and responsible for a
murderous anti-partisan campaign under Mussolini's Salo Republic, gave the
order to proceed with the final stages of an attempted coup codenamed
"Tora, Tora". At 11.15 that evening, Stefano delle Chiaie, commanding 50
neo-nazis, occupied the buildings of the Interior Ministry in Rome. They
had gained entrance that morning disguised as workmen and had lain low
until Borghese gave the final go ahead for the coup. However at the very
last moment the coup was called off. A few minutes before lam on the 8th
Borghese received a mysterious telephone call. The identity of the caller
is not known, but the name of General Micelli, successor to Admiral Hencke
as head of the secret service and commander of the "Rose of the Winds"
organisation, has been mentioned repeatedly in this connection. What was
said during the short conversation was also unknown but speculation has it
that Micelli, who was allegedly involved in the shady background of the
plot, realised at the last moment that Borghese and his men were being set
up by other more powerful factions among the plotters, and decided to warn
his friend and advise him to pull out. (S Christie, "Stefano de Chiaie",
(Anarchy/Refract, 1984))
"There was [an] abortive coup in December 1970 by Prince Valerio Borghese,
a fascist Navy commander. The head of the secret service, General Vito
Miceli, was linked to the plotters. At their trial in 1977 he said: "There
has always been a certain top secret organisation, known to the top
authorities of the state and operating in the domain of the secret
services, that is involved in activities that have nothing to do with
intelligence gathering. Likewise, a colonel called Amos Spiazzi, who was
investigated for his links with the Borghese coup and the Bologna bombing,
talked of an "organisation operating within the armed forces, that did not
have any subversive intention, but was set up to protect the state from the
possibility of a Marxist advance." A few days ago, Mr Spiazzi, who was
acquitted in the trials, said proudly he had been a member of "Operation
Gladio" since 1960. (Wolfgang Achtner, Sunday Independent, 11/11/90)
"Italians have learned that...General Vito Miceli received an $800,000
handout from the Americans; that Miceli was linked to an abortive coup in
1970 led by Prince Valerio Borghese, a wartime mini-sub commander...Miceli
received parliamentary immunity as an MSI (neo-fascist) MP, while Borghese
was spirited out of Spain by ex-Nazis." (William Scobie, Observer,
18/11/90)
"There are also overlaps between senior Gladio personnel and the committee
of military men, Rosi dei Vent; which tried to stage a coup in 1970."
(Ed Vulliamy, Guardian, 5/12/90)
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screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
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frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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