Operation Gladio

Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "Stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union, and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies. According to a November 13, 1990, Reuters cable, "André Moyen - a former member of the Belgian military security service and of the network - said Gladio was not just anti-Communist but was for fighting subversion in general. He added that his predecessor had given Gladio 142 million francs to buy new radio equipment." In May 1976, half a year after Franco's death, two Carlist militants were shot down by far-right terrorists, among whom were Gladio operative Stefano Delle Chiaie and members of the Apostolic Anticommunist Alliance, demonstrating connections between Gladio and the South American "Dirty War" of the Operation Condor. The Canarias 7 newspaper revealed, quoting former Gladio agent Alberto Volo, who had a role in the revelations of the existence of the network in 1990, that a Gladio meeting had been organized in August 1991 on Gran Canaria island. Swiss historian Daniele Ganser in his 2005 book, NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, accused Gladio of trying to influence policies through the means of false flag operations and a strategy of tension. In NATO's Secret Armies Ganser states that Gladio units closely cooperated with NATO and the CIA and that Gladio in Italy was responsible for terrorist attacks against its own civilian population. In an article about the Gladio/stay-behind networks and US Army Field Manual 30-31B they stated, "Ganser treats the forgery as if it was a genuine document in his 2005 book on"stay behind" networks, Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe and includes it as a key document on his website on the book.