Operation Gladio was a secret stay-behind network started in Italy in 1952 , sponsored by the CIA and NATO , to organize resistance in the event of a communist takeover in Italy or a Russian invasion of other countries.
The first preparations were already made in 1947. Although the term Gladio only refers to the Italian part, similar networks in other countries are also often referred to as Gladio . Recent research has revealed that similar networks were active and linked throughout Western Europe . In any case, Gladio was active in Belgium , Denmark , Germany , France , Greece , Luxembourg , Netherlands , Norway , Austria , Portugal , Spain ,Turkey and Switzerland , while the United Kingdom and the United States also played a role in the network's strategic planning. Gladio's role in Europe , including in attacks and terrorism , has led to parliamentary investigations in various countries.
Italy In Italy, the name Gladio first came into the public eye on August 3, 1990 when the then Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti admitted the existence of this network. He did so in testimony before a parliamentary committee investigating terrorism in Italy. Andreotti revealed that Gladio was hidden within the Defense Department with military intelligence. His statement raised suspicions that the network was involved in several bomb attacks with the aim of influencing politics.
Felice Casson , an Italian judge , had first stumbled upon the secret Gladio network while investigating far-right terrorism and forced Andreotti to give a statement. Casson discovered that the network had made connections with right-wing terrorists. The terrorists, supplied with material by the network, would carry out bombings, attribute them to left-wing Italian groups and then be kept out of the investigation by military intelligence.
Gladio's involvement has only been established with regard to the Peteano attack in 1972, which killed three members of the Carabinieri and which was attributed to the Red Brigades until 1984.
Italian judges concluded: It is a kind of invisible government, in which the masonic lodge P2, certain branches of the secret services, organized crime and terrorism are closely linked. A dark group with extra-institutional ties has operated in our country for years with the aim of acquiring the political conditioning of democracy and personal power. To achieve its goals, this group used terrorism.
First time hearing about this operation. Thanks H.
Theres was also one similar operation in the US in which the goverment wanted to start a conflict between the Mafia and communist organization, and since the Mafia was more dangerous, the goverment was hoping to start a conflict and to eliminate at least one of the organizations, probably the communist one.
Btw, few days ago I watched the Il Divo movie two times in a row, since I havent watched it since the late 2000s.
Mongol General: Conan, what is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
Even in the 2000s in Holland former employees and surviving relatives of the secret organization 'Gladio' are paid almost four hundred thousand euros undeclared every year. It concerns about forty people. This is evident from answers to parliamentary questions from Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in January, 2008.
On September 9, 2007, KRO Reporter broadcast a documentary about Operations & Intelligence, in which it was revealed that weapons and explosives from a secret depot in the Scheveningse Bosjes in The Hague had fallen into the hands of organized crime. The case came to light when the police arrested top criminals Sam Klepper and John Mieremet in 1991. Both were shot dead years later. The Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) covered up the weapon robbery - the largest in Dutch history - at the time to prevent 'unwanted publicity in the Gladio atmosphere'.
Btw, few days ago I watched the Il Divo movie two times in a row, since I havent watched it since the late 2000s.
Me too FWIR it was a strange but good movie!
In 1994 prosecutors accused Giulio Andreotti, of being a full-fledged member of Cosa Nostra.
Giulio Andreotti with Nino Salvo at the Zagarella hotel (Palermo) in 1978. Although half of Italy knew the Salvo cousins, Andreotti claimed not to know either Mafiosi. He said he was dealing with the manager of the hotel. According to pentito Tommaso Buscetta, the cousins called Andreotti "lo zio" (the uncle). Andreotti once sent a wedding present to Nino Salvo's daughter.
In Turkey, the 'Counter-Guerrilla', which was part of Gladio , was involved in terror and torture.
According to a survey published in the daily newspaper Milliyet, 61.7% of the Turkish population believe in the existence of Ergenekon, while 20.3% do not believe that such a crime network exists. 18 percent were undecided.
The Ergenekon case confirms for many Turks the existence of a so-called 'deep state' within the state that actually holds power. In 1996, the so-called Susurluk incident confirmed that suspicion, when a police chief, a mafia boss and his mistress were killed in a car accident and a parliamentarian was injured. The scandal about secret links between the state, police and underworld that followed was never fully resolved and high-ranking key figures were never prosecuted. During the investigation of Ergenekon, the corpses came out again: Susurluk, but also the disappearance in the 1990s and various unsolved murder cases.
The death of Danny Casolaro and the investigation into Gladio together with Giovanni Falcone AMTwo thousand 05 June 2024
Forensic criminologist Federico Carbone has returned to talk, in an article published on Dark Side , about the murder of Danny Casolaro , the American investigative journalist found dead in a bathtub in a hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia with his wrists cut several times on August 10, 1991.
Officially the authorities labeled the case as a suicide, but many point the finger at unknown subjects most likely linked to an intricate network of conspiracies: "The Octopus", as the journalist renamed it. It was, we read in Carbone's article, "a vast corruption network involving government sectors, organized crime and international intrigue".
Hence the leap: the journalist came to discover more hidden ties that included drug traffickers, political and financial scandals (both inside and outside the United States), arms trafficking and money laundering.
A particular aspect of his investigations was certainly the collaboration with the magistrate Giovanni Falcone whose investigations "often intersected with Casolaro's discoveries on international criminal networks, including secret NATO operations such as 'Gladio', which were believed to involve clandestine activities and manipulations policies across Europe"
“Cossiga and I were close friends: he had Gladio, I had P2, and Andreotti had the organization called 'The Ring'. I knew Gladio very well, but about the Ring I only know that they used a ring as a sign of recognition during meetings .” These were the words released by Licio Gelli during an old interview. Gelli is a controversial figure in post-war Italian history, linked to numerous dark events. Head of the Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due (P2), Gelli exerted considerable influence on the political world and institutions, pursuing an agenda that aimed to subvert the constitutional structure of the country. A
Marco Mandolini and the mystery of ''Stay Behind'': between the shadows of Gladio, 007 and occult powers Joseph Cirillo August 16, 2024 Criminologist Federico Carbone: “We live in a world where access to truth is controlled by an elite”
It has been 29 years since the death of Marco Mandolini , killed with 40 stab wounds and found on June 13, 1995 with his head smashed in by a boulder on the Romito cliff, in Livorno. His story is still shrouded in mystery, and his death does not seem to be a simple case of murder: there are many elements that recall the plots of spy films. Intelligence, military secrets, intrigues and possible cover-ups are all elements that are part of this story. Mandolini was an elite soldier, a raider of the Folgore, a special unit of the Italian army. During his career he took part in several particularly delicate military operations. His skills went far beyond the use of weapons: he was also involved in the activities of SISMI, the Italian military secret service, and spoke both Arabic and Russian fluently.
ero a reggio e palermo recentemente e questa è ancora la verità, communisti sono i nemici. il piano con papa pius 12 era P2 con gelli. lui era un fascisto e siciliano.
alt right politics of italia and europe, part of the reason more and more soldiers from calabria, sicily and naples have entered north america through southern states. when they show up in canada it should be interesting.
Operations & Intelligence (O&I) was a Dutch stay-behind organisation that was founded in 1946/1947 as a result of the resistance against the German occupation during World War II and was disbanded by Prime Minister Lubbers in 1992. In fact, there were two separate organisations, namely Operations and Intelligence , which were eventually coordinated by one person but each had its own task. Until about the mid-1980s, they were simply called O and I, since then service A and service B. In the media, O&I was often compared to the Italian Operation Gladio , from which the Dutch network differed in important respects.
Operations & Intelligence had to keep the population as resilient as possible against communist propaganda, and pass on information about political developments to the 'government in exile'. Furthermore, the organisation had to try to disrupt and mislead the authority apparatus of the occupying forces where possible. Armed resistance was not the primary objective, but when the Soviets approached, the members of the organisation would receive sufficient weapons from hidden depots so that they would not be slaughtered defencelessly. One such underground weapons depot, consisting of 19 crates, was discovered by chance in 1983 in the woods near Rozendaal. Three years earlier, in 1980, a similar weapons discovery had already been made in Haelen.
The Dutch organisation managed to operate in secret for 35 years. Even the ministers were unaware of its existence. After the existence of the Italian Operation Gladio was revealed in November 1990, the then Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers confirmed the existence of a Dutch stay-behind organisation in a letter dated 13 November 1990 to the House Committee for Intelligence and Security Services .
Lubbers explicitly stated that the difference with the stay-behind organisations in some other European countries was that the Dutch organisation was not under NATO command. In the event of war and occupation, it would fall exclusively under the Dutch government in freedom. In his letter, Lubbers also pointed out a material and organisational difference between Gladio and the Dutch set-up. The Dutch organisation worked according to the 'single agent' principle, which does not lend itself to activities in groups under NATO leadership, which was apparently the case with the Italian Gladio. The Netherlands has always rejected this subordination to NATO.
At the time of the confirmation of the existence of the organisation, it was actually busy with downsizing due to the end of the Cold War. The organisation was formally dissolved at the beginning of 1992: for service A (formerly the O-branch) by a letter dated 13 March 1992 from Prime Minister Lubbers, for service B (formerly the I-branch) by a letter dated 3 April 1992 from Minister of Defence Ter Beek. The field staff of service B also received a letter of thanks from Prince Bernard. The winding-up lasted until 1994.
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