NATO’s Gladio, Hidden Terrorism and Washington’s Breschnew doctrine

February 3rd, 2007 at 10:03 Björn Hallberg

An interview with Daniele Ganser on the topic of his book “Nato’s secret Armies: Operation Gladio Terrorism in Western Europe” which deals with the secret anti-Communist stay-behind armies. It’s a good primer for anyone who is still oblivious to the very real history of false flag operations during the cold war. Operations that were directed by the United States against those that aspired to freedom and genuine democracy.

Silvia Cattori: Your book about NATO’s Secret Armies explains that the strategy of tension and the False Flag terrorism imply great dangers. It teaches us how NATO - together with the intelligence services or the West European countries and the Pentagon - utilised secret armies during the Cold War, hired spies among the extreme right wing, and organized terrorist acts for which they blamed the left. Becoming aware of this, we can wonder about what is likely to happen today behind our back.

Daniele Ganser: It is extremely important to understand what the strategy of tension truly represents the way it works nowadays. This can help us clarify the present and to see more clearly to what extent it is still in action. Only a few people know what the expression “strategy of tension” means. It is very important to talk about it, to explain it. It is a tactic that involves carrying out criminal acts and attributing them to someone else. By the term “tension”, we mean emotional tension, all that which creates a feeling of tension.
By “strategy” we make reference to that which increases people’s fear in regard to a determined group. These secret structures of NATO had been equipped, financed and trained by the CIA, in coordination with the M16 (the British secret service), to fight against the Army of the Soviet Union in a case of war, but also according to the information to which he have access today, to commit terrorist acts in several countries. That is how, since the 70s, the Italian secret services have been using these armies to foment terrorist attacks, with the purpose of causing fear among the population, and later, to accuse the communists of being the authors. The strategy of tension was designed to serve the purpose or discrediting, weakening and stopping communism from reaching executive power.

Ganser notes in his book (Ganser 2005:245-246) that these stay-behind irregulars were on the one hand a prudent measure, had the Soviet Union ever invaded, but they also engaged in “extracurricular” activities while biding their time, stymying democracy wherever they saw it.

The secret stay-behind armies of NATO, however, were also a source of terror, as the evidence available now shows. It has been this second feature of the secret war that has attracted a lot of attention and criticism in the last decade, and which in the future will need more investigation and research. As of now the evidence indicates that the governments of the United States and Great Britain after the end of the Second World War feared not only a Soviet invasion, but also the Communist Parties, and to a lesser degree the Socialist Parties. The White House and Downing Street feared that in several countries of Western Europe, and above all in Italy, France, Belgium, Finland and Greece, the Communists might reach positions of influence in the executive and destroy the military alliance NATO from within by betraying military secrets to the Soviet Union. It was in this sense that the Pentagon in Washington together with the CIA, MI6 and NATO in a secret war set up and operated the stay-behind armies as an instrument to manipulate and control the democracies of Western Europe from within, unknown to both European populations and parliaments. This strategy lead to terror and fear, as well as to “humiliation and maltreatment of democratic institutions’, as the European press correctly criticized.

Experts of the Cold War will note that Operation Gladio and NATO’s stay-behind armies cast a new light on the question of sovereignty in Western Europe. It is now clear that as the Cold War divided Europe, brutality and terror was employed to control populations on both sides of the Iron Curtain. As far as Eastern Europe is concerned, this fact has long been recognised, long before it had been openly declared. After the Red Army had in 1968 mercilessly crushed the social reforms in Prag, Soviet leader Leonid Breschnew in Moscow with his infamous ‘Breschnew doctrine’ had openly declared that the countries of Eastern Europe were only allowed to enjoy ‘limited sovereignty’. As far as Western Europe is concerned the conviction of being sovereign and independent was shattered more recently. The data from Operation Gladio and NATO’s stay-behind armies indicates a more subtle and hidden strategy to manipulate and limit the sovereignty, with great differences from country to country. Yet a limitation of sovereignty it was. And in each case where the stay-behind network in the absence of a Soviet invasion functioned as a straightjacket for the democracies of Western Europe, Operation Gladio was the Breschnew doctrine of Washington.

Definitely worth a read as a primer to the deceitful history of NATO and the far-reaching meddling the the US undertook with regard to its supposed allies in Europe. As relevant as ever since the very same stratagem is likely still in use, even though the original secret armies are dead and buried. It is very likely indeed that within the ranks of European military structures as well as in civil society lurk radical American sympathizers, ready to dissuade or remove detractors and stir up trouble by means of false flag operations. It is likely that these modern equivalents however are far less militarized than their predecessors and while no doubt active in the terrorism attacks that have hit Europe in the last couple of years, they will most likely be found in think tanks, media groups and the higher echelons of civil society. After all, the last legitimate rationale (namely to plan for a Soviet invasion) is no longer present.

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