Do you know US history - have you heard of Operation Gladio?

[Craig234]

In a thread, I mentioned a remarkable book about US history after WWII, and that I think few Americans know our history. This thread is one small part.

You probably don't know US history

I could recommend a lot of books to learn US history, but this one will go a long way to learning post-WWII US history globally. It's been excellent so far, even in the introduction. https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-Military-Interventions-since/dp/1350348198/ref=asc_df_1350348198

debatepolitics.com

Beginning in 1949, intelligence services, with the CIA playing a leadership role, initially including the UK and Belgium, began a project based on fear of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, creating a 'stay behind' force to operate in the newly Russian-controlled countries.

It eventually established units in every non-communist country in Europe - including Greece and Turkey and neutral Sweden and Switzerland - with the apparent exceptions of Ireland and Finland...

As matters turned out, in the complete absence of any Russian invasions, the operation was used almost exclusively to inflict political damage upon domestic leftist movements.

The operation was exposed in Italy in 1990 from an investigation into a 19612 car bombing that fund the explosives came from a US Gladio weapons cache in Italy. There was a close link between these units and right-wing terrorism.

A former Gladio agent, Roberto Cavallero, went public to charge that there was a direct link between Gladio and Italy's wave of terrorist bombings in the 1970s and early 1980s which left at least 300 dead.

Cavellero said he and others had been trained that if left political forces were gaining power, they were to go to the street and create such chaos that would justify bringing in the military.

The single worst terrorist action was the bombing of the Bologna railway station in August 1980 which claimed 86 lives. the Observer of London later reported:

"The Italian railway bombings were blamed on the extreme Left as part of a strategy to convince voters that the country was in a state of tension and that they had no alternative to voting the safe Christian Democrat ticket. All clues point to the fact that they were masterminded from within Gladio."

The leader of that party was assassinated in 1978 and blamed on the 'Red Brigade', but appears to have been done by Gladio to frame them; that leader was assassinated just after he announced his intention to enter into a governmental coalition with the Communist Party.

In Belgium, in the early 1980's, it's believed that "to convince the public a security crisis existed", Gladio agents and police committed numerous shootings at supermarkets, killing numerous people, staff, customers, children.

A year later, a party of US Marines parachuted into Belgium with the intention of attacking a police station. One Belgian citizen was killed and one of the Marines lost an eye in the operation, that was intended to jolt the local Belgian police into a higher state of alert, and to give the impression to the comfortable population at large that the country was on the brink of Red revolution. Guns used in the operation were later planted in a Brussels house used by a Communist splinter group. As later as 1990, large stockpiles of weapons and explosives for Operation Gladio could still be found in some member countries, and Italian Prime Minister Julio Andreotti that more than 600 people still remained on the Gladio payroll in Italy.

Secret Gladio Network Planted Weapons Caches in NATO Countries

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) _ Stockpiles of arms and explosives for hundreds of resistance fighters trained to counter a Soviet invasion were hidden in Western European countries from the 1950s until recently, officials said Tuesday. News of the network raised concerns about whether some...

apnews.com

 

[Super Chief]

There was always a fear of a Soviet invasion, but Gladio was especially useful in keeping a couple of nations from becoming communist countries. Namely Italy and Greece.

 

[spud_meister]

There was always a fear of a Soviet invasion, but Gladio was especially useful in keeping a couple of nations from becoming communist countries. Namely Italy and Greece.

God forbid nations have self-determination, right?

 

[Glitch]

In a thread, I mentioned a remarkable book about US history after WWII, and that I think few Americans know our history. This thread is one small part.

You probably don't know US history

I could recommend a lot of books to learn US history, but this one will go a long way to learning post-WWII US history globally. It's been excellent so far, even in the introduction. https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-Military-Interventions-since/dp/1350348198/ref=asc_df_1350348198

debatepolitics.com

Beginning in 1949, intelligence services, with the CIA playing a leadership role, initially including the UK and Belgium, began a project based on fear of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, creating a 'stay behind' force to operate in the newly Russian-controlled countries.



The operation was exposed in Italy in 1990 from an investigation into a 19612 car bombing that fund the explosives came from a US Gladio weapons cache in Italy. There was a close link between these units and right-wing terrorism.



Cavellero said he and others had been trained that if left political forces were gaining power, they were to go to the street and create such chaos that would justify bringing in the military.



The leader of that party was assassinated in 1978 and blamed on the 'Red Brigade', but appears to have been done by Gladio to frame them; that leader was assassinated just after he announced his intention to enter into a governmental coalition with the Communist Party.

In Belgium, in the early 1980's, it's believed that "to convince the public a security crisis existed", Gladio agents and police committed numerous shootings at supermarkets, killing numerous people, staff, customers, children.

Secret Gladio Network Planted Weapons Caches in NATO Countries

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) _ Stockpiles of arms and explosives for hundreds of resistance fighters trained to counter a Soviet invasion were hidden in Western European countries from the 1950s until recently, officials said Tuesday. News of the network raised concerns about whether some...

apnews.com

In the words of P.T. Barnum, "there's a sucker born every minute." Anyone who can buy into the pure fiction of the communist anti-American William Blum is that "sucker."

 

[The Stars Tremble]

In the words of P.T. Barnum, "there's a sucker born every minute." Anyone who can buy into the pure fiction of the communist anti-American William Blum is that "sucker."

Glitch, meet @Super Chief. I'm surprised you haven't met.

There was always a fear of a Soviet invasion, but Gladio was especially useful in keeping a couple of nations from becoming communist countries. Namely Italy and Greece.

 

[jnug]

God forbid nations have self-determination, right?

Italy has so much self-determination that it has had 69 governments since 1945. Wuuuuh....they are just an everyday orgasm of self-determination.

 

[spud_meister]

Italy has so much self-determination that it has had 69 governments since 1945. Wuuuuh....they are just an everyday orgasm of self-determination.

Quite possibly because, for a fair chunk of time, exterior pressure prevented the Communists winning elections and reforming the country away from capitalist instability. When a fair chunk of the nation is never represented in politics, you get instability.

 

[joluoto]

Yep, if I remember correctly it became a big scandal in Italy.

 

[jnug]

Quite possibly because, for a fair chunk of time, exterior pressure prevented the Communists winning elections and reforming the country away from capitalist instability. When a fair chunk of the nation is never represented in politics, you get instability.

Possibly....but not more than possibly.

Italy and stability are two things that should never appear in the same sentence. It is what it is.

Italy is stable under strong man control. You can call whatever form the government takes whatever you want. If you want to consider a strong man control under the guise of Communism a win....be my guest.

Italy's one chance is to remain solvent and relevant enough to stick with the EU. Whatever it takes to stay there...that is their shot.

 

[Craig234]

Yep, if I remember correctly it became a big scandal in Italy.

It was, that's where it was uncovered, but it covered basically all of Europe. And I don't think many people realize the US's driving role and breadth of its activities, from the election interference to the false flag violence.

 

[Craig234]

It's good to post history, but satire has a place making the point of the history also, which the Onion did here.

Blundering U.S. Accidentally Stabilizes Foreign Country

WASHINGTON—In a completely unintended development that has left the superpower scrambling to salvage its reputation on the world stage, the blundering U.S. government has accidentally stabilized a foreign country, sources within the intelligence community confirmed Wednesday. “Aw, shit—that...

www.theonion.com

 

[spud_meister]

Possibly....but not more than possibly.

Italy and stability are two things that should never appear in the same sentence. It is what it is.

Italy is stable under strong man control. You can call whatever form the government takes whatever you want. If you want to consider a strong man control under the guise of Communism a win....be my guest.

Italy's one chance is to remain solvent and relevant enough to stick with the EU. Whatever it takes to stay there...that is their shot.

Italy's a dozen distinct nations in a trench coat. It needs a decentralised system of something akin to soviets, that rely on cooperation, rather than centralised democracy.

 

[Super Chief]

God forbid nations have self-determination, right?

You mean like the Third Reich? You mean like Pol Pot?

 

[jnug]

Italy's a dozen distinct nations in a trench coat. It needs a decentralised system of something akin to soviets, that rely on cooperation, rather than centralised democracy.

Oh come on. What Italy needs???? Italy already features regionalized government. In fact, more regionalized government than they have had in decades. They already have about as much regional government as they can reasonably tolerate.

You know what....nation building is not a great idea and it is not a particularly good idea when a particular Ideology is the goal. Leave Italy alone. It has enough problems without more sputtering nonsense from outsiders.

Italy is a country hanging on to its old world economy with no real relief on the horizon and COMMUNISM is not going to solve that nor more regionalization in a government system that is already regionalized. Italy's greatest resource in restructuring itself is its membership in the EU and NATO. It will be the EU that drags Italy into a technological future, not the other way around. They will be fine if they can get their financial house in order.

Is the US not a dozen nations in a trench coat? Aren't most countries that sport States a dozen countries in a trench coat?

Oh and the Soviets never relied on "cooperation". They were a centralized government with virtually everything dictated by Moscow. That is why Putin is so torqued off about how the Soviet Union dissolving went down. The whole damn thing was a facade in the first place. Unfortunately in the end, the facade was what was recorded in the Soviet Constitution and the Russians were stuck with it. As a result, no one State of the former Soviet States had a legitimate claim on any other including Russia not having any claim on any of the others.