This book tells the story of NATO's secret anti-communist stay-behind
armies that had been set up by the CIA and MI6 after World War II in all
countries of Western Europe and in some countries became tragically linked to
right-wing terrorism.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 terrorist who in a secret war engaged in
political manipulation, harrassement of left wing parties, massacres, coup
'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 best kept, and most damaging,
political-military secret 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.
