Operation Gladio

'You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security." [--sworn testimony by Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra]

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Originally set up as a network of clandestine cells to be activated behind the lines in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, Gladio quickly expanded into a tool for political repression and manipulation, directed by NATO and Washington. Using right-wing militias, underworld figures, government provocateurs and secret military units, Gladio not only carried out widespread terrorism, assassinations and electoral subversion in democratic states such as Italy, France and West Germany, but also bolstered fascist tyrannies in Spain and Portugal, abetted the military coup in Greece and aided Turkey's repression of the Kurds.

Among the "smoking guns" unearthed by Ganser is a Pentagon document, Field Manual FM 30-31B, which details the methodology for launching terrorist attacks in nations that "do not react with sufficient effectiveness" against "communist subversion." Ironically, the manual states that the most dangerous moment comes when leftist groups "renounce the use of force" and embrace the democratic process. It is then that "U.S. army intelligence must have the means of launching special operations which will convince Host Country Governments and public opinion of the reality of the insurgent danger." Naturally, these peace-throttling "special operations must remain strictly secret," the document warns.
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[Allen] 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"
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At Amazon.com: Nato's Top Secret Stay-behind Armies And Terrorism In Western Europe by Daniele Ganser