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Operation Gladio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emblem of "Gladio", Italian branch of the NATO "stay-behind"
paramilitary organizations. The motto means "In silence I preserve
freedom".
Operation Gladio (Italian: Organizzazione Gladio) is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe.
Although Gladio specifically refers to the Italian branch of the NATO
stay-behind organizations, "Operation Gladio" is used as an informal
name for all stay-behind organizations, sometimes called "Super NATO".
The name Gladio is the Italian form of gladius, a type of Roman short sword.[1]
Operating in many NATO and even some neutral countries,[2] Gladio was part of a series of national operations first coordinated by the Clandestine Committee of the Western Union (CCWU), founded in 1948. After the creation of NATO in 1949, the CCWU was integrated into the Clandestine Planning Committee (CPC), founded in 1951 and overseen by SHAPE
(Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe), transferred to Belgium
after France’s official withdrawal from NATO's Military Committee in
1966 — which was not followed by the dissolution of the French
stay-behind paramilitary movements.
The role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in sponsoring Gladio and the extent of its activities during the Cold War era, and its relationship to right-wing terrorist attacks perpetrated in Italy during the Years of Lead
and other similar clandestine operations is the subject of ongoing
debate and investigation. Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have had
parliamentary inquiries into the matter.[3]
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