<p>This January, <enttype='PERSON'>Silvio Berlusconi</ent> rode onto the turbulent <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> political scene on a white charger. Voters had become
disenchanted with long-time centrist leaders who were mired in massive corruption scandals. With crucial
parliamentary elections only two months away and the likelihood that the left would win power for the first time since
<enttype='EVENT'>World War</ent> II, *1 the billionaire businessman entered the fray with a slate of right-wing candidates who had never held
the anticipated leftist victory. His win lifted the right, including the neo-fascists, to new postwar heights. *2 Real change
seemed unlikely, however, as <enttype='PERSON'>Berlusconi</ent> repackaged the old politics with new names and slogans. <enttype='PERSON'>Berlusconi</ent> himself
was weaned on the system and owed much of his success to <enttype='PERSON'>Bettino Craxi</ent>, a former Socialist prime minister who went
on trial for corruption the day after the March election. It wasn't long before the right's clean hands were upstaged by
aggressive tactics. The undercover campaign, known as Gladio, for a double-edged <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent> sword, was officially
acknowledged for the first time in 1990, when it was finally closed down. </p>
<p><enttype='ORG'>THE DIMENSIONS</ent> OF GLADIO</p>
<p>The <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> people had received many signs over the years that the centrist parties the <enttype='NORP'>Christian Democrats</ent> and the
Socialists were promoted and to some degree controlled by <enttype='GPE'>Washington</ent>. But it was only when the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> government
officially admitted it in 1990 that the ruling coalition began to crumble, ready to be picked apart two years later by
mentioned in the U.S., where many of its darkest chapters remain secret. </p>
<p>The program in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> was aimed at the threat that <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent> might mount an insurrection or gain a share of political
power through the ballot box. An insurrection was unlikely, however, since nearly all posts in the bureaucracy were
<p>During the war, most <enttype='NORP'>Americans</ent> considered themselves heroes who freed <enttype='NORP'>Western</ent> Europe from its brutal <enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent> and
fascist rulers. It wasn't long after the <enttype='NORP'>American</ent> landings on <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> soil, however, that the white hats got sullied. While
some <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent> agents worked with antifascists to help lay the basis for <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> democracy, many of those higher up the
ladder conspired with backers of <enttype='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> or the former king to impede it. *3 </p>
<p> Forged secret alliances with the <enttype='ORG'>Mafia</ent> and right-wing elements of the <enttype='ORG'>Vatican</ent> to prevent the left from playing any
<p>@TEMP = The <enttype='PERSON'>North</ent> Atlantic Treaty Organization (<enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent>) provided international cover for Washington's postwar
operations in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>. A secret clause in the initial <enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent> agreement in 1949 required that before a nation could join, it
must have already established a national security authority to fight communism through clandestine citizen cadres.
This Stay Behind clause grew out of a secret committee set up at U.S. insistence in the Atlantic Pact, the forerunner of
<enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent>. Each <enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent> member was also required to send delegates to semiannual meetings on the subject. *4 </p>
<p>U.S. authority for such moves flowed in a steady stream of presidential directives transmitted through the National
Security Council (<enttype='ORG'>NSC</ent>). In December 1950, the council gave <enttype='ORG'>the armed forces carte blanche</ent> to use appropriate military
force even if the <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent> merely gain participation in government by legal means or threaten to achieve control...or
the government ceases to evidence a determination to oppose <enttype='NORP'>communist</ent> internal or external threats. *5 </p>
<p>The <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> helped the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> police set up secret squadrons staffed in many cases with veterans of Mussolini's secret
police. *6 The squadrons were trained for intensive espionage and counter-espionage, against <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent> and other
perceived enemies of the status quo. The plan to use exceptional means was patterned after the highly militarized
<enttype='NORP'>French</ent> intelligence service, the Suret Nationale, which was reportedly so tough on <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent> that many fled to other
countries. *7 </p>
<p>The newly organized intelligence agency, <enttype='ORG'>SIFAR</ent>, began operations in September 1949, under the supervision of an
undercover <enttype='NORP'>American</ent>, <enttype='ORG'>Carmel Offie</ent>, nicknamed godfather by the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>s. *8 <enttype='ORG'>Interior</ent> Minister <enttype='PERSON'>Mario Scelba</ent> headed
the operation. At the same time, <enttype='PERSON'>Scelba</ent> was directing a brutal repression, murdering hundreds of workers and peasants
who sought improved conditions after the war. *9 </p>
<p>With the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> secret service under control, the <enttype='NORP'>Americans</ent> then expanded it under the name Operation Demagnetize
and tied it to an existing network of cadre in northern <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>. In 1951, the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> secret service formally agreed to set up
a clandestine organization within the military to coordinate with the northern cadres. In 1952, <enttype='ORG'>SIFAR</ent> received secret
orders from <enttype='GPE'>Washington</ent> to adopt a series of political, paramilitary and psychological operations destined to diminish the
power of the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> Communist Party, its material resources, and its influence on government. This priority objective
place. In 1962, the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> helped place De Lorenzo at the head of the national police (<enttype='ORG'>carabinieri</ent>), while he retained
effective control of the secret service. </p>
<p>The general brought with him 17 lieutenants to begin purging insufficiently right-wing officers. It was the first step to a
right-wing coup attempt, with U.S. military attach <enttype='PERSON'>Vernon Walters</ent> in the vanguard. In a memo to De Lorenzo the same
year, <enttype='PERSON'>Walters</ent> suggested types of intervention aimed at provoking a national crisis, including blocking a center-left
coalition, creating schisms among the socialists, and funding forces favorable to the status quo.14 </p>
<p>Meanwhile, according to <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> files found in <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> in 1984, <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> station chief <enttype='PERSON'>William Harvey</ent> began to recruit action
teams based on a list of 2000 men capable of throwing bombs, conducting attacks, and accompanying these actions with
indispensable propaganda. 15 These teams had a chance to practice their skills in 1963 as part of an anti-union
offensive. U.S.-trained gladiators dressed as police and civilians attacked construction workers peacefully demonstrating
in <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent>, leaving some 200 wounded and a large section of the city in shambles. The link to Gladio was made in later
testimony by a former general in the secret service.16 </p>
<p><enttype='ORG'>SIFAR</ent> Lt. Col. <enttype='PERSON'>Renzo Rocca</ent> was also training a civil militia composed of ex-soldiers, parachutists and members of
<enttype='PERSON'>Junio Valerio Black Prince Borghese</ent>'s paramilitary organization, <enttype='ORG'>Decima</ent> MAS (<enttype='ORG'>Tenth Torpedo Boat Squadron</ent>), for the
pending coup.17 President <enttype='PERSON'>Antonio Segni</ent> reportedly knew of the plan, which was to conclude with the assassination of
Prime Minister <enttype='PERSON'>Aldo Moro</ent>, under fire for not being tough enough with the <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent>.18 </p>
<p>The long-planned takeover, known later as Plan Solo, fizzled in March 1964, when the key <enttype='ORG'>carabinieri</ent> involved
remained in their barracks. As a subsequent inquiry moved to question <enttype='PERSON'>Rocca</ent> about the coup attempt, he apparently
killed himself, possibly to fulfill Gladio's oath of silence. After officials determined that state secrets were involved,
three hamstrung inquiries failed to determine the guilty parties.19 </p>
<p>THE STRATEGY OF TENSION</p>
<p>Despite the failure of Plan Solo, the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> and the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> right had largely succeeded in creating the clandestine
<p>To win intellectual support, the secret services set up a conference in <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> at the luxurious <enttype='GPE'>Parco</ent> dei Principi hotel in
May 1965, for a study of revolutionary war. The choice of words was inadvertently revealing, since the conveners and
invited participants were planning a real revolution, not just warning of an imaginary <enttype='NORP'>communist</ent> takeover. The
meeting was essentially a reunion of fascists, right-wing journalists, and military personnel. The strategy of tension
that emerged was designed to disrupt normality with terror attacks in order to create chaos and provoke a frightened
public into accepting still more authoritarian government. *20 </p>
<p>Several graduates of this exercise had long records of anti<enttype='NORP'>communist</ent> actions and would later be implicated in some of
<p>General De Lorenzo, whose <enttype='ORG'>SIFAR</ent> had now become <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent>, soon enlisted these and other confidants in a new Gladio
project. They planned to create a secret parallel force alongside sensitive government offices to neutralize subversive
<enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> state. Gen.<enttype='PERSON'>Vito Miceli</ent>, who later headed <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent>, said he set up the separate structure at the request of the
<enttype='NORP'>Americans</ent> and <enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent>. 22 </p>
<p><enttype='GPE'>FRATERNAL</ent> BONDS</p>
<p>Two ancient, mysterious, international fraternities kept the loosely-linked Gladio programs from flying apart. The
<enttype='PERSON'>Knight</ent>s of <enttype='GPE'>Malta</ent> played a formative role after the war (see box), but the order of <enttype='NORP'>Freemasonry</ent> and its most notorious
lodge in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, known as Propaganda Due (pronounced doo-ay ), or P-2, was far more influential. In the late 1960s, its
Most Venerable Master was <enttype='PERSON'>Licio Gelli</ent>, a <enttype='PERSON'>Knight</ent> of <enttype='GPE'>Malta</ent> who fought for <enttype='PERSON'>Franco</ent> with Mussolini's Black Shirts. At the
end of <enttype='EVENT'>World War</ent> II, <enttype='PERSON'>Gelli</ent> faced execution by <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> partisans for his <enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent> collaboration, but escaped by joining the
U.S. <enttype='ORG'>Army Counter Intelligence Corps</ent>. *23 In the 1950s, he was recruited by <enttype='ORG'>SIFAR</ent>. </p>
<p>After some years of self-imposed exile in <enttype='NORP'>Argentine</ent> fascist circles,24 he saw his calling in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> as a <enttype='ORG'>Mason</ent>. Quickly
rising to its top post, he began fraternizing in 1969 with Gen. <enttype='PERSON'>Alexander Haig</ent>, then assistant to <enttype='PERSON'>Henry Kissinger</ent>,
President Nixon's national security chief. <enttype='PERSON'>Gelli</ent> became the main intermediary between the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> and SID's De Lorenzo,
also a <enttype='ORG'>Mason</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Knight</ent>. Gelli's first order from the White House was reportedly to recruit 400 more top <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> and
<p>To help ferret out dissidents, <enttype='PERSON'>Gelli</ent> and De Lorenzo began compiling personal dossiers on thousands of people, including
legislators and clerics. *26 Within a few years, scandal erupted when an inquiry found 157000 such files in <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent>, all
available to <enttype='ORG'>the Ministers</ent> of Defense and <enttype='ORG'>Interior</ent>. *27 <enttype='ORG'>Parliament</ent> ordered 34000 files burned, but by then the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> had
<p>In 1968, the <enttype='NORP'>Americans</ent> started formal commando training for the gladiators at the clandestine Sardinian <enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent> base.
Within a few years, 4000 graduates had been placed in strategic posts. At least 139 arms caches, including some at
<enttype='ORG'>carabinieri</ent> barracks, were at their disposal. *29 To induce young men to join such a risky venture, the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> paid high
salaries and promised that if they were killed, their children would be educated at U.S. expense. *30 </p>
<p>Tensions began to reach critical mass that same year. While dissidents took to the streets all over the world, in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>,
takeovers of universities and strikes for higher wages and pensions were overshadowed by a series of bloody political
crimes. The number of terrorist acts reached 147 in 1968, rising to 398 the next year, and to an incredible peak of 2498
in 1978 before tapering off, largely because of a new law encouraging informers ( <enttype='ORG'>penitenti</ent> ). *31 Until 1974, the
indiscriminate bombers of the right constituted the main force behind political violence. </p>
numerous other massacres, anarchists proved handy scapegoats for fascist provocateurs seeking to blame the left.
Responding to a phone tip after the <enttype='GPE'>Milan</ent> massacre, police arrested 150 alleged anarchists and even put some on trial.
But two years later, new evidence led to the indictment of several <enttype='ORG'>neofascists</ent> and <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent> officers. Three innocent
anarchists were convicted, but later absolved, while those responsible for the attack emerged unpunished by <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>
<enttype='NORP'>Venetian</ent> judge <enttype='PERSON'>Carlo Mastelloni</ent> determined that the <enttype='ORG'>Argo</ent>-16 aircraft was used to shuttle trainees and munitions
with two massacres. One, a bombing at an antifascist rally in <enttype='GPE'>Brescia</ent>, killed eight and injured 102. The other was an
explosion on the <enttype='ORG'>Italicus</ent> train near <enttype='GPE'>Bologna</ent>, killing 12 and wounding 105. At this point, President <enttype='PERSON'>Giovanni Leone</ent>, with
little exaggeration, summed up the situation: With 10000 armed civilians running around, as usual, I'm president of
shit. *34 </p>
<p>At <enttype='GPE'>Brescia</ent>, the initial call to police also blamed anarchists, but the malefactor later turned out to be a secret agent in
the Parallel <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent>. *35 A similar connection was also alleged in the <enttype='ORG'>Italicus</ent> case. Two fascists who were eventually
convicted were members of a clandestine police group called the <enttype='ORG'>Black Dragons</ent>, according to the left-wing paper, Lotta
Continua. *36 Their sentences were also overturned. Although in these and other cases, many leftists were arrested
and tried, fascists or <enttype='ORG'>neofascists</ent> were often the culprits, in league with Gladio groups and the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> secret services.
implicated in these atrocities were later freed. </p>
<p>By 1974, right-wing terror began to be answered by the armed left, which favored carefully targeted hit-and-run attacks
over the right's indiscriminate bombings. For the next six years, leftist militants, especially <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent>,
responded with a vengeance, accounting for far more acts of political violence than the right. *37 For several years,
<enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> plunged into a virtual civil war. </p>
<p><enttype='ORG'>PLO</ent>TTING COUPS D'ETAT</p>
<p>Meanwhile, groups of right-wingers were busy planning more takeovers of the elected government, with the active
encouragement of U.S. officials. A seminal document was the 1970 132-page order on stability operations in host
countries, published as Supplement B of the U.S. Army's Field Manual 30-31. Taking its cue from earlier <enttype='ORG'>NSC</ent> and <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>
papers, the manual explained that if a country is not sufficiently anti<enttype='NORP'>communist</ent>, serious attention must be given to
possible modifications of the structure. If that country does not react with adequate vigor, the document continues,
groups acting under U.S. Army intelligence control should be used to launch violent or nonviolent actions according to
the nature of the case. *38 </p>
<p>With such incendiary suggestions and thousands of U.S.-trained guerrillas ready, the fascists again attempted to take
over the government by force in 1970. This time, the instigator was the Black Prince <enttype='PERSON'>Borghese</ent>. Fifty men under the
command of <enttype='PERSON'>Stefano Delle Chiaie</ent> seized the <enttype='ORG'>Interior</ent> Ministry in <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> after being let in at night by an aide to political
police head Federico D'Amato. But the operation was aborted when <enttype='PERSON'>Borghese</ent> received a mysterious phone call later
attributed to General <enttype='PERSON'>Vito Miceli</ent>, the military intelligence chief. The plotters were not arrested; instead, they left with
180 stolen machine guns. *39 </p>
<p>News of the attack remained secret until an informer tipped the press three months later. By then, the culprits had
escaped to <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>. Although the ringleaders were convicted in 1975, the verdict was overturned on appeal. All but one of
the machine guns were returned earlier. *40 </p>
<p>It was in this atmosphere that the U.S. decided to make another all-out effort to block the <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent> from gaining
strength in the 1972 elections. According to the Pike Report, the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> disbursed $10 million to 21 candidates, mostly
<enttype='NORP'>Christian Democrats</ent>. *41 That amount did not include $800000 that Ambassador <enttype='PERSON'>Graham Martin</ent>, going around the
<enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>, obtained through <enttype='PERSON'>Henry Kissinger</ent> at the White House for General <enttype='ORG'>Miceli</ent>. *42 <enttype='ORG'>Miceli</ent> would later face charges for
the <enttype='PERSON'>Borghese</ent> coup attempt but, fitting the pattern, he was cleared. </p>
<p>Police foiled another attempted coup that same year. They found hit lists and other documents exposing some 20
subversive groups forming the Parallel <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent> structure. <enttype='PERSON'>Roberto Cavallaro</ent>, a fascist trade unionist, was implicated, as
were highly placed generals, who said they got approval from <enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent> and U.S. officials. In later testimony, <enttype='ORG'>Cavallaro</ent> said
the group was set up to restore order after any trouble arose. When these troubles do not erupt [by themselves], he
said, they are contrived by the far right. Gen. <enttype='ORG'>Miceli</ent> was arrested, but the courts eventually freed him, declaring that
there had been no insurrection. *43 </p>
<p>Still another right-wing attempt to overthrow the government was set for 1974, reportedly with the imprimatur of both
the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> and <enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent>. Its leader was <enttype='PERSON'>Edgardo Sogno</ent>, one of Italy's most decorated resistance fighters, who had formed a
Gladio-style group after the war. <enttype='GPE'>Sogno</ent>, who had gained many influential <enttype='NORP'>American</ent> friends while working at the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>
embassy in <enttype='GPE'>Washington</ent> during the 1960s, was later arrested, but he, too, was eventually cleared. *44 </p>
<p>GLADIO UNRAVELS</p>
<p>A triple murder at Peteano near <enttype='GPE'>Venice</ent> in May 1972 turned out to be pivotal in exposing Gladio. The crime occurred
when three <enttype='ORG'>carabinieri</ent>, in response to an anonymous phone call, went to check out a suspicious car. When one of them
opened the hood, all three were blown to bits by a boobytrap bomb. *45 An anonymous call two days later implicated the
<enttype='ORG'>Red Brigade</ent>s, the most active of the left's revolutionary groups. The police immediately rounded up 200 alleged
<enttype='NORP'>communists</ent>, thieves and pimps for questioning, but no charges were brought. Ten years later, a courageous <enttype='NORP'>Venetian</ent>
magistrate, <enttype='PERSON'>Felice Casson</ent>, reopened the long-dormant case only to learn that there had been no police investigation at
the scene. Despite receiving a false analysis from a secret service bomb expert and confronting numerous obstructions
and delays, the judge traced the explosives to a militant outfit called New Order and to one of its active members,
<enttype='PERSON'>Vincenzo Vinciguerra</ent>. He promptly confessed and was sentenced to life, the only right-wing bomber ever locked up. *46</p>
<p><enttype='PERSON'>Vinciguerra</ent> refused to implicate others, but described the coverup: </p>
and military secret services all knew the truth behind the attack, that I was
responsible and all this within 20 days. So they decided, for totally political reasons,
to cover it up. *47" </p>
<p>As for his motive, the fascist true believer <enttype='PERSON'>Vinciguerra</ent> said his misdeed was an act of revolt against the manipulation of
<enttype='GPE'>neofascism since</ent> 1945 by the whole Gladio-based parallel structure. *48 </p>
<p><enttype='ORG'>Casson</ent> eventually found enough incriminating evidence to implicate the highest officials of the land. In what was the
first such request to an <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> president, <enttype='ORG'>Casson</ent> demanded explanations from President <enttype='PERSON'>Francesco Cossiga</ent>. But <enttype='ORG'>Casson</ent>
didn't stop there; he also demanded that other officials come clean. In October 1990, under pressure from <enttype='ORG'>Casson</ent>,
Prime Minister <enttype='PERSON'>Giulio Andreotti</ent> ended 30 years of denials and described Gladio in detail. He added that all prime
ministers had been aware of Gladio, though some later denied it. *49 </p>
<p>Suddenly, <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>s saw clues to many mysteries, including the unexplained death of Pope <enttype='PERSON'>John Paul</ent> I in 1978. Author
<enttype='PERSON'>David Yallop</ent> lists <enttype='PERSON'>Gelli</ent> as a suspect in that case, saying that he, for all practical purposes, ran <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> at the time. *50 </p>
<p>MEMENTO MORO</p>
<p>Perhaps the most shocking political crime of the 1970s was the kidnapping and murder of Prime Minister <enttype='PERSON'>Aldo Moro</ent>
and five of his aides in 1978. The abduction occurred as <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> was on his way to submit a plan to strengthen <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>
political stability by bringing <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent> into the government. </p>
<p>Earlier versions of the plan had sent U.S. officials into a tizzy. Four years before his death, on a visit to the U.S. as
foreign minister, <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> was reportedly read the riot act by Secretary of State <enttype='PERSON'>Henry Kissinger</ent> and later by an unnamed
intelligence official. In testimony during the inquiry into his murder, Moro's widow summed up their ominous words:
You must abandon your policy of bringing all the political forces in your country into direct collaboration...or you will
pay dearly for it. *51 </p>
<p><enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> was so shaken by the threats, according to an aide, that he became ill the next day and cut short his U.S. visit,
saying he was through with politics. *52 But U.S. pressure continued; Senator <enttype='PERSON'>Henry Jackson</ent> (D-Wash.) issued a
similar warning two years later in an interview in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>. *53 Shortly before his kidnapping, <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> wrote an article
replying to his U.S. critics, but decided not to publish it. *54 </p>
<p>While being held captive for 55 days, <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> pleaded repeatedly with his fellow <enttype='NORP'>Christian Democrats</ent> to accept a ransom
offer to exchange imprisoned <enttype='ORG'>Red Brigade</ent> members for his freedom. But they refused, to the delight of <enttype='ORG'>Allied</ent> officials
who wanted the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>s to play hardball. In a letter found later, <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> predicted: My death will fall like a curse on all
<enttype='NORP'>Christian Democrats</ent>, and it will initiate a disastrous and unstoppable collapse of all the party apparatus. *55 </p>
dwellings. But the initial judge investigating the case, Luciano Infelisi, said he had no police at his disposal. I ran the
investigation with a single typist, without even a telephone in the room. He added that he received no useful
information from the secret services during the time. *56 Other investigating magistrates suggested in 1985 that one
reason for the inaction was that all the key officers involved were members of P-2 and were therefore acting at the
behest of <enttype='PERSON'>Gelli</ent> and the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>. *57 </p>
<p>Although the government eventually arrested and convicted several <enttype='ORG'>Red Brigade</ent> members, many in the press and
parliament continue to ask whether <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent> arranged the kidnapping after receiving orders from higher up. Suspicions
naturally turned toward the U.S., particularly <enttype='PERSON'>Henry Kissinger</ent>, though he denied any role in the crime. In Gladio and
the <enttype='ORG'>Mafia</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Washington</ent> had the perfect apparatus for doing such a deed without leaving a trace. </p>
<p>PENETRATING THE RED BRIGADES</p>
<p>That <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent> had been thoroughly infiltrated for years by both the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> and the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> secret services is no
longer contested. The purpose of the operation was to encourage violence from extremist sectors of the left in order to
discredit the left as a whole. The <enttype='ORG'>Red Brigade</ent>s were a perfect foil. With unflinching radicalism, they considered the
<p>The <enttype='ORG'>Red Brigade</ent>s worked closely with <enttype='ORG'>the Hyperion Language School</ent> in <enttype='GPE'>Paris</ent>, with some members not realizing it had
<enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> ties. The school had been founded by three pseudo-revolutionary <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>s, one of whom, <enttype='PERSON'>Corrado Simioni</ent>, had
worked for the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> at Radio Free Europe. *58 Another, <enttype='PERSON'>Duccio Berio</ent>, has admitted passing information about <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>
leftist groups to <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent>. *59 <enttype='ORG'>Hyperion</ent> opened an office in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> shortly before the kidnapping and closed it a few months
later. An <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> police report said <enttype='ORG'>Hyperion</ent> may be the most important <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> office in Europe. *60 <enttype='PERSON'>Mario Moretti</ent>, one of
those who handled arms deals and the <enttype='GPE'>Paris</ent> connection for <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent>, managed to avoid arrest in the <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> case
for three years even though he personally handled the kidnapping. *61 </p>
<p><enttype='GPE'>Venice</ent> magistrate <enttype='PERSON'>Carlo Mastelloni</ent> concluded in 1984 that <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent> had for years received arms from the <enttype='ORG'>PLO</ent>.
*62 <enttype='PERSON'>Mastelloni</ent> wrote that the de facto secret service level accord between the <enttype='GPE'>USA</ent> and the <enttype='ORG'>PLO</ent> was considered relevant
to the present investigation into the ... relationship between <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent> organization and the <enttype='ORG'>PLO</ent>. *63 One
Gladio scholar, <enttype='PERSON'>Phillip Willan</ent>, concludes that the arms deal between the <enttype='ORG'>PLO</ent> and <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent> formed part of the
secret accord between the <enttype='ORG'>PLO</ent> and the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>. *64 His research indicates that the alleged deal between the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> and the
<enttype='ORG'>PLO</ent> occurred in 1976, a year after the U.S. promised <enttype='GPE'>Israel</ent> that it would have no political contacts with the <enttype='ORG'>PLO</ent>. </p>
<p>At the time of the <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> kidnapping, several leaders of the <enttype='ORG'>Brigades</ent> were in prison, having been turned in by a double
agent after they kidnapped a judge. According to journalist <enttype='PERSON'>Gianni Cipriani</ent>, one of those arrested was carrying phone
numbers and personal notes leading to a high official of <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent>, who had boasted openly of having agents inside the Red
<enttype='ORG'>Brigades</ent>. Other intriguing finds included the discovery in the Brigade offices of a printing press which had previously
belonged to <enttype='ORG'>SID</ent> and ballistics tests showing more than half of the 92 bullets at the kidnapping scene were similar to
those in Gladio stocks. *65 </p>
<p>Several people have noted the unlikelihood of <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent> pulling off such a smooth, military-style kidnapping in
the center of <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent>. <enttype='PERSON'>Alberto Franceschini</ent>, a jailed member of the <enttype='ORG'>Brigades</ent>, said, I never thought my comrades outside
had the capacity to carry out a complex military operation. ... We remembered ourselves as an organization formed by
inexperienced young lads. *66 Two days after the crime, one secret service officer told the press that the perpetrators
appeared to have had special commando training. *67 </p>
<p>When letters written by <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> were found later in a <enttype='ORG'>Red Brigade</ent>s site in <enttype='GPE'>Milan</ent>, investigators hoped they would reveal
anti-terrorism, <enttype='PERSON'>Carlo Alberto Della Chiesa</ent>, was transferred to <enttype='GPE'>Sicily</ent> and killed <enttype='ORG'>Mafia</ent>-style in 1982, a few months after
raising questions about the missing letters. *69 Maverick journalist <enttype='PERSON'>Mino Pecorelli</ent> was assassinated on a <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> street
in 1979 just a month after reporting that he had obtained a list of 56 fascists betrayed to the police by <enttype='PERSON'>Gelli</ent>. *70 Thomas
Buscetta, a <enttype='ORG'>Mafia</ent> informer under witness protection in the U.S., accused <enttype='PERSON'>Andreotti</ent> of ordering both killings for fear of
being exposed. *71 But an inquiry by his political peers last year found no reason to prosecute the prime minister. </p>
<p><enttype='PERSON'>Della Chiesa</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Pecorelli</ent> were only two of numerous witnesses and potential witnesses murdered before they could be
questioned by judges untainted by links to Gladio. *72 President <enttype='PERSON'>Cossiga</ent>, the interior minister when <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> died, told
<enttype='ORG'>BBC</ent>: <enttype='PERSON'>Aldo Moro</ent>'s death still weighs heavily on the <enttype='NORP'>Christian Democrats</ent> as does the decision I came to, which turned
my hair white, to practically sacrifice <enttype='PERSON'>Moro</ent> to save the Republic. *73 </p>
<p>A huge explosion at the <enttype='GPE'>Bologna</ent> train station two years after Moro's death may have whitened the hair of many <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>s
<p>The sorry judicial record in these monstrous crimes showed how completely the Gladio network enveloped the army,
police, secret services and the top courts. Thanks to P-2, with its 963 well-placed brothers, *77 the collusion also
extended into the top levels of media and business. </p>
<p>FRUITS OF GLADIO </p>
<p>By the early 1980s, however, court data revealed enough <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> fingerprints to provoke strong anti-U.S. sentiment. In
1981, the offices of three U.S. firms in <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> were bombed. In 1982, <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent> kidnapped <enttype='PERSON'>James</ent> L. <enttype='PERSON'>Dozier</ent>, a
U.S. general attached to <enttype='ORG'>NATO</ent>, calling him a Yankee hangman. *78 He was freed after five weeks by police
destroyed them. Instead of destroying the leftists, Gladio revelations helped them win control of major cities while
retaining one-third of parliament. By the early 1980s, <enttype='ORG'>the Red Brigades</ent> were wiped out, but the major sources of
right-wing terrorism the <enttype='ORG'>Mafia</ent> and the <enttype='ORG'>neofascists</ent> remained active.80 </p>
<p>The end results lead some to question the whole rationale of U.S. involvement in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, particularly in regard to the
<enttype='NORP'>communist</ent> menace. According to <enttype='PERSON'>Phillip Willan</ent>, who wrote the definitive book on <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> terrorism: </p>
<p> "The U.S. has consistently refused to recognize the <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> Communist Party's
increasingly wholehearted commitment to the principles of <enttype='NORP'>Western</ent> democracy and
its validity as an alternative to the generally corrupt and incompetent political
parties that have governed <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> since the war. Had it done so, much of the
bloodshed resulting from the strategy of tension might have been avoided. *81" </p>
<p><enttype='PERSON'>Willan</ent> goes on to ask whether U.S. and <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> intelligence officials may have deliberately over-emphasized the
<enttype='NORP'>communist</ent> threat in order to give themselves greater power and greater leeway for their own maneuvers. *82 </p>
<p>THE LESSONS OF GLADIO</p>
<p>As long as the U.S. public remains ignorant of this dark chapter in U.S. foreign relations, the agencies responsible for it
will face little pressure to correct their ways. The end of <enttype='EVENT'>the Cold War</ent> brought wholesale changes in other nations, but
it changed little in <enttype='GPE'>Washington</ent>. In an ironic twist, confessed <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> mole <enttype='PERSON'>Aldrich Ames</ent> has raised the basic question of
whether the U.S. needs tens of thousands of agents working around the world primarily in and against friendly
countries. The U.S., he adds, still awaits a real national debate on the means and ends and costs of our national security
policies. *83 </p>
<p>The new government in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> touts itself as a revolution of the disenfranchised, a clean break from the past. But the
fascists are back and gaining ground. The anti-<enttype='ORG'>Mafia</ent> party has been rejected, and the big cartels have tightened their
grip on the economy. With P-2 brother <enttype='PERSON'>Berlusconi</ent> continuing to trade on <enttype='EVENT'>the Cold War</ent> fear of <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent>, the Gladio
perpetrators still unpunished, and experts in <enttype='GPE'>Washington</ent> raising fears of more terrorism, *84 it looks like business as
usual in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>. </p>
<div>************************* </div>
<p>Gladio's Roots </p>
<p>The policies that would evolve into Gladio began nduring <enttype='EVENT'>World War</ent> II, when U.S. anti<enttype='NORP'>communist</ent> nphobias combined
with geopolitical fears of a victorious <enttype='GPE'>USSR</ent> to create a holy war against the left. An ends justify the means atmosphere
within the U.S. government and particularly within <enttype='ORG'>the Office</ent> of Strategic Services (<enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent>), fostered the creation of Stay
Behind programs throughout <enttype='NORP'>Western</ent> Europe, ostensibly as the first line of defense in case the <enttype='NORP'>Soviets</ent> invaded. </p>
<p>But the main worry was internal. The <enttype='NORP'>Americans</ent>' great fear for <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> was that <enttype='NORP'>communist</ent> partisans fighting in the
north would join with organized labor to bring the left to power. The <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent> and its successors were apparently prepared to
use any measures to forestall that event, including political assassination, terrorism, and alliances with organized
crime. According to one <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent> memo to <enttype='GPE'>Washington</ent>, the U.S. seemed to support a monarchist plan to use fascist killers
to commit acts of terror and blame the left. *1 U.S. involvement in <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> politics began in 1942, when the <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent>
early freedom, Luciano agreed to make contacts with <enttype='ORG'>Mafia</ent> pals to ease the way for the U.S. invasion of <enttype='GPE'>Sicily</ent> in 1943.2 </p>
<p>The Luciano deal forged a long-standing alliance between the U.S. and the international <enttype='ORG'>Cosa Nostra</ent>. It also set a
pattern of cooperation between U.S. intelligence agencies and international criminal organizations involved in drugs and
arms traffic. The deal's godfather was <enttype='PERSON'>Earl Brennan</ent>, <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent> chief for <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>. Before the war, he had served in the U.S.
<p><enttype='ORG'>The Catholic Church</ent> also cooperated. U.S. ties to the <enttype='ORG'>Vatican</ent> were already substantial; one of the strongest links was a
secret fraternity, the <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent>-based Sovereign Military Order of <enttype='GPE'>Malta</ent>, which dates back to the First Crusade. <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent> head
<enttype='PERSON'>William Wild</ent><enttype='PERSON'>Bill Donovan</ent> was a member. So were other top U.S. officials, including <enttype='PERSON'>Myron Taylor</ent>, U.S. envoy to the
<enttype='ORG'>Vatican</ent> from 1939 to 1950, and William Casey, an <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent> operative who rose to <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> chief under Reagan. <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent><enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> chief
<enttype='PERSON'>Brennan</ent> had contacts as early as 1942 with <enttype='ORG'>Vatican</ent> Under-Secretary of State <enttype='PERSON'>Gian Battista Montini</ent>, who became Pope
<p>Among the notable <enttype='ORG'>OSS</ent> operatives was <enttype='PERSON'>James</ent> Jesus <enttype='PERSON'>Angleton</ent>, the legendary, paranoid, future <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>
counter-intelligence chief. <enttype='PERSON'>Angleton</ent> built on family and business connections in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> to lay the basis of Gladio by
forming and financing a clandestine network of right-wing <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>s who shared his fierce gung-ho style. *5 The
paramilitary groups were filled with devout anti<enttype='NORP'>communists</ent> ready to wage war on the left. He also helped notorious
<enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent>/fascist mass-murderers such as <enttype='PERSON'>Junio Valerio Black Prince Borghese</ent> elude justice at war's end. *6 </p>
<p>U.S. officials were worried that the <enttype='NORP'>communists</ent> and socialists would join forces after the fighting. The <enttype='NORP'>communist</ent>
takeover in <enttype='GPE'>Czechoslovakia</ent> in 1948 added to their fears. As a result, the U.S. cooked up a variety of plans to
manipulate <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent> politics. <enttype='PERSON'>Angleton</ent>, who by late 1948 had been promoted to special assistant to <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> director Admiral
<enttype='PERSON'>Roscoe Hillenkoetter</ent>, used the Vatican's 20000 <enttype='ORG'>Civic Committees</ent> to conduct psychological warfare against <enttype='NORP'>communist</ent>
<p>The newly formed <enttype='ORG'>National Security Council</ent> (<enttype='ORG'>NSC</ent>) also joined the fray: If <enttype='ORG'>the Communist Party</ent> wins the [1948]
election, the <enttype='ORG'>NSC</ent> advised, such aggression should immediately be countered by steps to extend the strategic disposition
of U.S. armed forces in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>. *8 The <enttype='NORP'>Communists</ent> did not win that pivotal election (nor any subsequent ones). But that
didn't stop the U.S. from trying to destroy the left. The total cost to <enttype='NORP'>American</ent> taxpayers for such activities and various
aid programs was $4 billion from the end of the war to 1953. *9 And that was just the beginning of the U.S. assault on
