NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe

by Ganser; Daniele

• ISBN13: 9780714685007
• ISBN10: 0714685003
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-02-03
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The CIA and the British secret service MI6, in collaboration with the military alliance NATO and European military secret services set up a network of clandestine anticommunist armies in Western Europe after World War II. The secret soldiers were trained on remote islands in the Mediterranean and in unorthodox warfare centers in England and in the United States by the Green Berets and SAS Special Forces. The network was armed with explosives, machine guns and high-tech communication equipment hidden in underground bunkers and secret arms caches in forests and mountain meadows. In some countries, the secret army linked up with right-wing terrorists who in a secret war engaged in political manipulation, harassment of left wing parties, massacres, coup d'etats and torture. Codenamed "Gladio" ('the sword'), the Italian secret army was exposed in 1990 by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to the Italian Senate, whereupon the press spoke of the "the best kept, and most damaging, political-militarysecret since World War II" (Observer, 18. November 1990) and observed that "The story seems straight from the pages of a political thriller." (The Times, November 19, 1990). Ever since, so-called 'stay-behind' armies of NATO have also been discovered in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Greece and Turkey. They were internationally coordinated by the Pentagon and NATO and had their last known meeting in the NATO-linked Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) in Brussels in October 1990.

Author Biography

Daniele Ganser is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Acknowledgements	xiv
Acronyms	xviii
Introduction	1	(2)
A terrorist attack in Italy	3	(12)
A scandal shocks Western Europe	15	(10)
The silence of NATO, CIA and MI6	25	(13)
The secret war in Great Britain	38	(13)
The secret war in the United States	51	(12)
The secret war in Italy	63	(21)
The secret war in France	84	(19)
The secret war in Spain	103	(11)
The secret war in Portugal	114	(11)
The secret war in Belgium	125	(23)
The secret war in the Netherlands	148	(17)
The secret war in Luxemburg	165	(3)
The secret war in Denmark	168	(8)
The secret war in Norway	176	(13)
The secret war in Germany	189	(23)
The secret war in Greece	212	(12)
The secret war in Turkey	224	(21)
Conclusion	245	(5)
Chronology	250	(9)
Notes	259	(42)
Select bibliography	301	(2)
Index	303