A SCANDAL SHOCKS WESTERN EUROPE
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Journalists of foreign newspapers sat around in the press club in Rome in summer 1990 and lamented that their paper had absolutely no nerve for the delicate Gladio story and its international dimension. For, the revelations of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti on August 3 to the Italian Senators concerning the existence of a secret NATO-linked stay-behind army across Western Europe had come at a particularly disturbing moment. Andreotti had made his far-reaching revelation just the day after on August 2, 1990 when Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein had invaded and occupied Kuwait. Newspaper editors and military advisers in Paris, London and Washington feared that the Gladio story might seriously damage the image of numerous Western democracies and above all destabilise the preparations for the Second Gulf War. For on August 2, in New York, the United States, Great Britain and France, 'alarmed by the invasion of Kuwait', had with the consent of China and Russia in the United Nations Security Council passed UN Security Council resolution 660, ordering 'that Iraq withdraw immediately and unconditionally all its forces to the positions in which they were located on 1 August 1990'. |
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Western and world media thereafter focused on the 'Gulf story' and reported how the United States under President George Bush Senior in the world's largest military operation since the Second World War led a large coalition of countries including Germany, France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, who in Operation Desert Storm in January and February 1991 expelled Saddam 1 fed the world two bizarre stories at the same time: a clean war in the Gulf and the 2 Gladio scandal in Europe that did not happen. |
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Following the revelations of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti the scandal transgressed the Italian border when on October 30, former Socialist Prime Minister of Greece Andreas Papandreou confirmed to the Greek daily Ta Nea that in 1984 he as well had discovered a secret NATO structure in Greece very similar to the Italian Gladio which he had ordered to dissolve. Passionate calls for a parliamentary investigation of the secret army and its suspected |
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involvement in the right-wing military coup of 1967 followed in Greece but were
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army had also existed in Belgium. With an implicit reference to the Brabant massacres in the 1980s during which people were gunned down by mysterious men in black in several supermarkets the Defence Minister added: ‘Furthermore
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I want to know whether there exists a l i n k between the activities of this secret network, and the wave of crime and terror which our country suffered from during 9 confronted the flashlights of the press declaring: 'I have been Prime Minister for |
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11 years now, but I have been completely unaware that such a secret network existed in our country.' The journalists noticed that the Prime Minister 'so self-confident 10 in other circumstances' was 'far from being relaxed'. 11 valuable 250 pages strong public report. Whereupon the Belgian |
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Most sensitively the Belgian parliamentarians discovered that the secret NATO army was still active. They found that a secret meeting of Generals directing the secret stay-behind armies in the numerous countries in Western Europe had been held in the secret NATO-linked Gladio headquarters ACC as recently as October 23 and 24, 1990. The meeting of the ACC had taken place in Brussels under the chairmanship of General Raymond Van Calster, chief of the Belgian military secret service SGR (Service General de Renseignement). The General was furious when journalists followed the lead and his phone kept ringing all the time. He first lied to the press when on November 9 he flatly denied having chaired the international ACC meeting, claiming that Gladio was a purely Italian affair. Later he admitted that indeed a secret network had also been erected in Belgium after 12 While he angrily insisted that there was 'no direct link with NATO', he refused to reveal further details and at the same time emphasised: 'We have 13 the Second World War 'to collect information in case of a Soviet invasion'. nothing to hide.' |
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In France the government of Socialist President Francois Mitterand attempted to avoid further embarrassment when on November 9 a low key official claimed 14 that in France the secret army 'had long been dissolved'. 15 anymore at the time when De Gaulle was President of France [thus after 1958]'. The French press sided with the government who was preparing for the war in the Gulf and refrained from asking sensitive questions and hence 'an affair which made front page headlines in the other daily European newspapers only got a 16 small note at the bottom of the page in Paris'. In addition General |
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Italian Prime Minister Andreotti mercilessly shattered the French cover-up when on November 10, 1990 he declared with some amusement that France also had taken part in the very recent meeting of the Gladio directing body ACC in Belgium on October 23, 1990. Somewhat embarrassed, French Defence Minister Jean Pierre Chevenement thereafter attempted to limit the damage by claiming |
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that the French secret army had been completely passive. 'As far as I am aware it never had more than a sleepers' role and a role of liason.' Asked by the radio journalist whether France would now face similar political turmoil as Italy and Belgium, after speculations about domestic and terrorist activities of the secret
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17 noted that the government was making every effort to prevent that the Gladio 18 revelations were recognised as 'a domestic monstrosity'. |
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In Great Britain, spokespersons at the Defence Department declared day after day to the inquisitive British press: 'I'm afraid we wouldn't discuss security mat- ters', and 'It is a security matter. We are not speaking about it', and 'We cannot 19 Gladio topic day after day British Defence Secretary Tom King tried to handle the thoroughly distressing affair with a casual joke: 'I am not sure what particular hot potato you're chasing after. It sounds wonderfully exciting, but I'm afraid I'm 20 quite ignorant about it. I'm better informed about the Gulf.' 21 centrally involved are remarkable.' In the context of |
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In the Netherlands, Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, in office since 1982, decided to deal with the sensitive topic by writing a letter to parliament on November 13 in which he confirmed the existence of a secret army also in the Netherlands while 22 stressing that there 'was never any NATO supervision over this organisation'. Thereafter Lubbers' and Dutch Defence Minister Relus Ter Beek briefed Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee behind closed doors on the sensitive details of the Dutch Gladio. 'Successive Prime Ministers and Defence Ministers have always preferred not to inform other members of their cabinets or Parliament', Lubbers declared to parliament, adding that he was proud that some 30 Ministers had kept the secret. While parliamentarians criticised the inherent danger of a secret army unknown to parliament or the population at large, it was decided not to carry out a parliamentary investigation of the secret network, nor to present a public report. 'I don't particularly worry that there was, and perhaps still is, such a thing', Hans Dijkstal of the opposition Liberals said. 'What I do 23 have problems with is that until last night Parliament was never told.' |
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In neighbouring Luxemburg, Prime Minister Jacques Santer on November 14, 1990 took a stand in front of parliament and confirmed that a secret army linked to NATO had also existed in Luxemburg. 'The only activities of these persons, and this is the case for the entire time period in which this network has existed, have been limited to the training in preparation of their missions, including the training of how to behave individually in a hostile environment, and how to 24 coordinate efforts with allied c o u n t r i e s ' , Santer insisted. The request of |
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parliamentarian Jean Huss of the Luxemburn Green Alternative Party which
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asked first of all for an open debate in parliament on the issue, and in the second place for the establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the topic, was declined in a majority decision. When the international press related that 'In Portugal, a Lisbon radio station has reported that cells of the network associated with Operation Gladio were active during the 1950s to defend the rightist dictatorship of Dr Salazar', the 25 government in power reacted with a flat refusal. 26 of the government and under the condition of being allowed to remain anonymous confirmed to the press that a secret parallel army also existed in Portugal 'dependent on the Defence Ministry, the Interior Ministry, and the Ministry for Colonial 27 War had been a right-wing dictatorship which fought the political opposition with terror and torture, Alberto Oliart, Defence Minister in the early 1980s, considered it to be 'childish' to ask whether also under dictator Franco a secret right-wing 28 army had existed in the country because 'here Gladio was the government'. Portuguese Defence Minister |
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In Denmark, Defence Minister Knud Enggaard due to public pressure was forced to take a stand in front of the Danish parliament Folketing where on November 21 he rejected the claim that 'any kind' of NATO-supported CIA organisation had been erected in Denmark. 'Further pieces of information on a secret service operation in case of an occupation is classified material, even highly classified material', the Defence Minister emphasised, 'and I am therefore prohibited from giving any further information in the Danish parliament'. Member of Parliament Pelle Voigt, who had raised the Gladio question in parliament, noticed that 'the Defence Minister's answer was contradictory and an indirect 29 confirmation of the fact that Denmark, too, had its secret network'. Thereafter |
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When in Norway the press started to confront the government with Gladio questions, it was provided with what arguably was the shortest comment on the continent of a government concerning the secret army. 'What Hansen said then still applies', Defence Ministry spokesman Erik Senstad explained in a reference to 1978 when after the discovery of the Norwegian stay-behind Defence Minister Rolf Hansen had admitted the existence of a secret army to the Norwegian parlia- ment. Rear Admiral Jan Ingebristen, who in 1985 had stepped down as head of the Norwegian Supreme Defence Command intelligence service, amidst public criticism insisted that it was only logical that the armies had to remain secret: 'There is nothing suspicious about it. But these are units that would stay-behind 30 in occupied territory and it is therefore necessary that they be kept top-secret.' |
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In Turkey the r u l i n g elite took a stand on the Gladio issue on December 3
when General Dogan Beyazit, President of the Operations Department of the Turkish military and General Kemal Yilmaz, Chief of the Turkish Special Forces confirmed to the press the existence of a secret NATO army in Turkey directed by the 'Special Warfare Department' with the task 'to organise resistance in the
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case of a Communist occupation'.
of the Turkish Gladio were all good 'patriots' the press and former Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit stressed that the secret army called Counter-Guerrilla had been
repeatedly involved in torture, massacres and assassination operations as well as
the coup d'etats the country had suffered from and was presently employed to
fight the Kurdish minority in the country. Thereafter the ruling military refused to
answer questions from parliament and civil Ministers, and Turkish Defence
32 Minister Giray warned that 'Ecevit had better keep his fucking mouth shut!'
While the Generals stressed that the members
As the Counter-Guerrilla continued its operations, even the US State Department in its 1995 human rights report noticed that in Turkey 'Prominent credible human rights organisations, Kurdish leaders, and local Kurd asserted that the govern- ment acquiesces in, or even carries out, the murder of civilians.' The report of the State Departement noted that 'Human rights groups reported the widespread and credible belief that a Counter-Guerrilla group associated with the security forces had carried out at least some "mystery killings'". In the United States, journalist Lucy Komisar tried to gain more information but found that her government was hardly different from the Turkish Generals when it came to military secrets. '"As for Washington's role, Pentagon would not tell me whether it was still providing funds or other aid to the Special Warfare Department; in fact, it wouldn't answer any questions about it." Komisar was repeatedly turned away: "I was told by offi- cials variously that they knew nothing about it, that it happened too long ago for there to be any records available, or that what I described was a CIA operation for which they could provide no information.'" One Pentagon historian said, 'Oh,
33 you mean the "stay-behind" organisation. That's classified.'
The issue of the Counter-Guerrilla, however, did not go away. On November 3,
1996 a speeding black Mercedes hit a tractor and crashed on a remote highway
near the Turkish village of Susurluk, some 100 miles south of Istanbul. A prominent
member of the Turkish Counter-Guerrilla, a top police official and a member of
parliament were killed in the crash. To many it was the physical proof of how
closely the entire government was involved in the dirty war of the Counter-Guerrilla,
and thousands protested against the 'Susurluk state' and demanded that the country
be cleansed 'from the gangs'. In January 1998 Prime Minister Mesut Ylmaz had
to inform millions of television viewers the results of a seven-month-long
parliamentary investigation into the Susurluk scandal, it is the anatomy of a dis-
graceful mess', he began his statement and thereafter admitted that an 'execution
squad was firmed within the state' while 'All parts of the state were aware of
34 what was going on.'
Given the far-reaching revelations across Western Europe, the Gladio scandal was also discussed by the parliament of the the European Union (EU) on November 22, 1990.
At the time the EU numbered 12 countries, all of whom were affected by the
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35 scandal. 36 European Community.' The 12 had greatly increased cooperation among each other and were |
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French parliamentarian Dury shared these concerns and among the united European delegates declared: 'What worried us in this Gladio affair was that these networks were able to exist out of sight and beyond control of the demo- cratic political authorities. That, I think, is the fundamental issue which remains.' Dury concluded that the history of the Gladio armies had to be investigated: 'For our part, we believe that light has to be shed on this whole affair so that we can recognise all its implications and stop the problem lingering on or occurring with other organisations, or prevent other temptations from arising.' Also the role of NATO, according to Dury, had to be investigated, although 'as for the responsi- bility of NATO and SHAPE, I don't think one should talk about a conspiracy', Dury said, 'but I think we must keep up this spirit of inquiry and this concern for everything to be brought out into the open. We know very well that some people in Gladio also sit on NATO committees' and hence he concluded: 'I feel that it is part of our democratic duty to be able to shed proper light on all these kinds of 37 problems.' |
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'Mr. President, the Gladio system has operated for four decades under various names', Greek parliamentarian Ephremidis addressed the EU. 'It has operated clandestinely, and we are entitled to attribute to it all the destabilization, all the provocation and all the terrorism that have occurred in our countries over these four decades, and to say that, actively or passively, it must have had an involve- ment.' Ephremidis sharply criticised the entire stay-behind network: 'The fact that it was set up by the CIA and NATO which, while purporting to defend democracy were actually undermining it and using it for their own nefarious purposes.' With an implicit reference to the involvement of the Greek Gladio in the 1967 coup d'etat he criticised that 'the democracy we are supposed to have been enjoying has been, and still is, nothing but a front', and encouraged the EU parliament to investigate the matter further: 'The fine details must be uncovered, and we ourselves must establish a special sub committee of inquiry to hold hearings and to blow |
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the whole thing wide open so that all the necessary steps can be taken to rid our
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38 countries of such clandestine organisations.' French parliamentarian De Donnea shared a different perspective when he declared: 'Mr. President, it was perfectly legitimate at the end of the Second World War, for the majority of our states to set up services whose purpose was to prepare underground resistance networks that could be activated in the event of our countries being occupied by the forces of the Warsaw Pact.' Hence, the French parliamentarian highlighted, 'We must therefore pay tribute to all those who, while the cold war lasted, worked in these networks.' To De Donnea it was clear that the clandestine armies had to remain secret, 'For these networks to remain effective, it was obviously necessary for them to be kept secret', while at the same time he wanted to have clarity as to alleged links to terrorist activities: 'Having said that, if there are serious indications or suspicions to the effect that some or all of these networks have operated in an illegal or abnormal way in certain countries, it is in everyone's interest for matters to be brought into the 39 open and for the guilty to be punished.' |
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Dutch MP Vandemeulebroucke captured the feeling of many Europeans well when he summarised that 'This affair leaves a bad taste in the mouth, since it has been going on for as long as the European Community has been in existence, and we claim to be creating a new form of democracy.' Vandemeulebroucke stressed that it was above all the secrecy of the entire affair that greatly worried him as a parliamentarian, for 'the budgets for these secret organisations were also kept secret. They were not discussed in any parliament, and we wish to express our concern at the fact that... it now emerges that there are centres for taking deci- sions and carrying them out which are not subject to any form of democratic control.' The Dutch parliamentarian concluded: 'I should like to protest most strongly against the fact that the American military, whether through SHAPE, NATO or the CIA, think they can interfere in what is our democratic right.' While he acknowledged that the European Parliament itself did not have the competence to deal with the affair, 'I realise that we in the European Parliament have no competence regarding peace and security matters', he explained, 'and hence the compromise resolution asks for parliamentary committees of inquiry to be 40 set up in each of the twelve Member States so that we do get total clarification'. |
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Following the debate the parliament of the EU decided to pass a resolution on the Gladio affair in which the parliamentarians critically reflected upon the Gladio phenomenon and in seven points, formulated as a preamble to the resolution, attempted to summarise the main features of the Gladio phenomenon: |
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1 'Having regard to the revelation by several European governments of the existence for 40 years of a clandestine parallel intelligence and armed operations organisation in several Member States of the Community';
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2 'whereas for over 40 years this organisation has escaped all democratic controls and has been run by the secret services of the states concerned in collaboration with NATO';
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3 'fearing the danger that such clandestine networks may have interfered illegally
in the internal political affairs of Member States or may still do so';
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4 'whereas in certain Member States military secret services (or uncontrolled branches thereof) were involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime as
evidenced by various judicial inquiries';
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5 'whereas these organisations operated and continue to operate completely
outside the law since they arc not subject to any parliamentary control and frequently those holding the highest government and constitutional posts are kept in the dark as to these matters';
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6 'whereas the various "GLADIO" organisations have at their disposal inde- pendent arsenals and military resources which give them an unknown strike potential, thereby jeopardising the democratic structures of the countries in which they are operating or have been operating'; and
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7 'greatly concerned at the existence of decision-making and operational bodies which are not subject to any form of democratic control and are of a completely clandestine nature at time when greater Community co-operation in the field of security is a constant subject of discussion'.
Thereafter, as a first point of criticism following the preamble, the resolution of the EU parliament 'Condemns the clandestine creation of manipulative and operational networks and calls for a full investigation into the nature, structure, aims and all other aspects of these clandestine organisations or any splinter groups, their use for illegal interference in the internal political affairs of the countries concerned, the problem of terrorism in Europe and the possible collusion of the secret services of Member States or third countries.' As a second point the EU 'Protests vigorously at the assumption by certain US military personnel at SHAPE and in NATO of the right to encourage the establishment in Europe of a clandestine intelligence and operation network.' As a third point the resolution 'Calls on the governments of the Member States to dismantle all clandestine military and paramilitary networks.' As a fourth point the EU 'Calls on the judiciaries of the countries in which the presence of such military organisations has been ascertained to elucidate fully their composition and modus operandi and to clarify any action they may have taken to destabilize the democratic structures of the Member States.' Furthermore as a fifth point the EU 'Requests all the Member States to take the necessary measures, if necessary by establishing parliamentary committees of inquiry, to draw up a complete list of organisations active in this field, and at the same time to monitor their links with the respective state intelligence services and their links, if any, with terrorist action groups and/or other illegal practices.' As a sixth point the EU parliament addresses the EU Council of Ministers, above all in its reunion as Defence Ministers, and 'Calls on the Council of Ministers to provide full information on the activities of these secret intelligence and operational services.' As a seventh point, the resolution 'Calls on its competent committee to consider holding a hearing in order to clarify the role and impact of the "GLADIO" organisation and any similar bodies.' Last but not least in its final
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point the resolution explicitly addresses both NATO and the United States, as the EU
parliament 'Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Secretary-General of NATO, the governments of the Member
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States, and the United States Government.'
The dog barked loudly, but it did not bite. Of the eight actions requested by the
EU parliament not one was carried out satisfactorily. Only Belgium, Italy and Switzerland investigated their secret armies with a parliamentary commission, producing a lengthy and detailed public report. And although the resolution was forwarded to the respective branches of the EU, NATO and to United States, NATO Secretary-General Manfred Worner and senior US President George Bush neither supported a detailed investigation nor offered a public explanation.
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3
THE SILENCE OF NATO, CIA
AND MI6
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