The Cold War, Operation Gladio and Ireland…

…Let’s briefly move towards the politically esoteric. One of my interests is the Stay Behind networks, the structures established to thwart Soviet invasion of Western Europe by NATO and European intelligence and security services.

They became in certain instances a malign focus of extreme right and neo-fascist activity and moved far beyond defensive measures to outright intervention in the domestic affairs of the states they were in. The most notorious example of these is the Gladio network in Italy which appears to have contributed to the ‘Stategy of Tension’ that sought to deny state power to the PCI, but other Stay Behind networks in other states operated in a not dissimilar fashion.

Thing is I was reading the wiki page recently and the following caught my eye:

NATO’s “stay-behind” organizations were never called upon to resist a Soviet invasion, but their structures continued to exist after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Internal subversion and “false flag” operations were explicitly considered by the CIA and stay-behind paramilitaries. According to a November 13, 1990 Reuters cable,[11] “André Moyen – a former member of the Belgian military security service and of the [stay-behind] 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 ($4.6 millions) to buy new radio equipment.”[12] Ganser alleges that on various occasions, stay-behind movements became linked to right-wing terrorism, crime and attempted coups d’état:[4]

“Prudent Precaution or Source of Terror?” the international press pointedly asked when the secret stay-behind armies of NATO were discovered across Western Europe in late 1990. After more than ten years of research, the answer is now clear: both. The overview aboves shows that based on the experiences of World War II, all countries of Western Europe, with the support of NATO, the CIA, and MI6, had set up stay-behind armies as precaution against a potential Soviet invasion. While the safety networks and the integrity of the majority of the secret soldiers should not be criticized in hindsight after the collapse of the Soviet Union, very disturbing questions do arise with respect to reported links to terrorism.
There exist large differences among the European countries, and each case must be analyzed individually in further detail. As of now, the evidence suggests the secret armies in the seven countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands, focused exclusively on their stay-behind function and were not linked to terrorism. However, links to terrorism have been either confirmed or claimed in the nine countries, Italy, Ireland, Turkey, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Sweden, demanding further investigation.

Really? Ireland as well? My God. How come none of us have heard of this?

Well, first thing is that the document the quote is taken from is an essay by Daniele Ganser (a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) entitled ,Terrorism in Western Europe: An Approach
to NATO’s Secret Stay-Behind Armies. And it’s a fine essay which clearly points up the nature of the Gladio networks – albeit Ganser takes the line that they were in theory a sensible precaution, as regards their primary aim of countering any potential invasion, that spun out of control. I don’t entirely dissent, in that all countries have the right to defend themselves, however there seem to me to be significant problems with attempting to establish wartime structures in (relatively) open societies in time of peace, particularly when such structures are beyond the remit of democratic oversight.

But look again at that last paragraph in the quote from Ganser on wiki and the following taken from the PDF linked to on the wiki site:

There exist large differences among the European countries, and each case must be analyzed individually in further detail. As of now, the evidence available suggests the secret armies in the seven countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands, focused exclusively on their stay-behind safety function and were thus not linked to any acts of terrorism. However, links to terrorism have been either confirmed or claimed in the eight countries, Italy, Turkey, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Sweden, demanding further investigation.

How odd. Ireland seems to have inexplicably fallen off the list. Or more accurately, it was never on it. As Ganser notes:

2 While the UK was directly involved with setting up the stay-behind network, the islands Cyprus, Malta, Ireland, Iceland, as well as the European mini states Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican were of limited strategic importance and are hence not included in this analysis.

Just so we know our place in the universe. But re that none too subtle embellishment of the wiki page, why do people bother to do that?

Meanwhile, from another document from the indefatigable Mr. Ganser, The Secret Side of International Relations: An approach to NATO’s stay-behind armies in Western Europe, what can one make of this?

Upon the publication of the short-version Cornu report, the British press headlined: “UK trained secret Swiss force” and correctly reported that “British secret services collaborated closely with an armed, undercover Swiss organization through a series of covert agreements which formed part of a west European network of ‘resistance’ groups”.127 Highlighting the very close collaboration, Judge Cornu confirmed: “The cadres of the Swiss organization regarded the British to be the best specialists in the field”.128 “These connections included particularly the regular participation of Special Service and P-26 cadres in courses and exercises in Great Britain, as well as the participation of British specialists as instructors of observers in exercises of the Swiss services.”129 During an English language conversation course taking place in Switzerland in 1984, military instructor Alois Hürlimann had already revealed in poor English and to the surprise of his fellow classmates that he had taken part in secret military training in England. This training, Hürlimann continued, had included a real non- simulated assault on an IRA arms depot in which Hürlimann, fully dressed in battle fatigues, had participated, and in which at least one IRA activist had been killed.130