Gladio: A Conspiracy So Large, It’s Time You Learned About It:
The existence of secret “stay-behind” armies and groups, known today by the Italian name, Gladio, caused a sensation in the early 1990s, when they were revealed by then-Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Since then, Gladio-like operations, supposedly ran by the CIA and to some extent the British MI6, have been linked to a number of terrorist attacks, assassinations, and right-wing coups in Europe, e.g., the Bologna train station bombing in 1980, the 1967 generals coup in Greece, etc.
The sensationalistic charges have fed a number of conspiracy theories, particularly those around the existence of “false flag” government operations. Some have indicated they see the 9/11 attacks in this light, though I can’t say I have the kind of evidence to make such an assertion. But one can understand how any individual might come to seriously mistrust the U.S. government after learning of the Gladio history, which is extensive and well-documented.
Among other canards the Gladio story can put to rest is the silly belief that no large scale conspiracies can exist, at least in a so-called open, democratic society such as ours. And yet, Gladio proves that is not true. In fact, since the revelations of the early 1990s, there has been practically no discussion of this crucial aspect of contemporary history by U.S. historians or policy makers. The existence of this huge conspiracy and intervention against sovereign European states is almost never even referred to by the vast majority of political commentators, left or right, in the United States. I don’t see how anyone can intelligently discuss modern European politics without understanding the Gladio revelations and the fallout from them in the various European countries.
The 1992 Alan Francovich BBC documentary below, also linked to by Invictus, gives a good overview of the Gladio story, how it was set up, who participated and how its existence came to light. It is the best and largest example of a socalled “Deep State” conspiracy, where you have the intelligence service, police, military and civil servant bureaucracy conspiring against their political masters. While governments can change political orientation at the drop of an election, this Deep State remains, and is rightwing, anti-communist and wary of everything that might threaten their own existence. Its existence is largely denied by mainstream politicians and the media and dismissed as a conspiracy theory, but it is important to remember that you don’t need a Hollywood style conspiracy to speak of vested interests working together to achieve goals that might be in conflict with what the government of the day wants, though as often if not more so is anticipating desires of said government it cannot strive for openly. The way in which foreign policy intervention, domestic politics and electionering concerns ran together during the Nixon administrations is a good example of how this works. The same people who conspired against the Allende government in Chile were also attempting to keep tabs on “subversive elements” domestically, as well as meddling in the ’72 elections…
The thing with these conspiracies is that they’re only acknowledged years or even decades later, but denied when they’re actually active. Nor are they ever put in context, but treated by mainstream commentators as aberrations of the normal state of affairs, rather than as an ongoing method of operation. Which means that even those media that had no problems akcnowledging the role the CIA played in the downfall of Allende in 1973, would poo-pooh the notion that it would be involved in the aborted coup against Chavez in 2002 and a journalist like David Aaronovitch can write a book on conspiracy theories without acknowledging the most succesful conspiracy of our times, that of the US and UK governments to get us into the War on Iraq….
With Gladio we have an example of a succesful, longrunning international conspiracy involving thousands of people kept hidden for decades. It’s an useful example to point out to people who reflexively reject conspiracy theories, but also of great importance in, as Invictus says, figuring out postwar European political history.
Gladio, Part 1: The Ringmasters:
Gladio, Part 2: The Puppeteers:
Gladio, Part 3: The Foot Soldiers