CHRONOLOGY
1940
In England, Prime Minister Winston Churchill creates the secret stay-behind army
Special Operations Executive (SOE) to set Europe ablaze by assisting resistance
movements and carrying out subversive operations in enemy-held territory. After
the end of the Second World War the stay-behind armies are created on the expe-
riences and strategies of SOE with the involvement of former SOE officers.
1944
London and Washington agree on the importance of keeping Western Europe
free from Communism. In Greece the first secret stay-behind army is being set up
under the label LOK. As large Communist demonstration taking place in Athens
against British interference in the post-war government is dissolved by gunfire of
secret soldiers leaving 25 protesters dead and 148 wounded.
1945
In Finland, Communist Interior Minister Leino exposes a secret stay-behind
which is closed down.
1947
In the United States, President Harry Truman creates the NSC and the CIA. The
covert action branch of the CIA, the OPC under Frank Wisner sets up stay-behind
armies in Western Europe.
1947
In France, Interior Minister Edouard Depreux reveals the existence of a secret
stay-behind army in France code-named 'Plan Bleu'.
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1947
In Austria, a secret stay-behind is exposed which had been set up by right-wing
extremists Soucek and Rossner. Chancellor Korner pardons the accused under
mysterious circumstances.
1948
In France, the 'Western Union Clandestine Committee' (WUCC) is created to
coordinate secret anti-Communist unorthodox warfare. After the creation of
NATO a year later the WUCC is integrated into the military alliance under the
name 'Clandestine Planning Committee' (CPC).
1949
NATO is founded and the European headquarters is established in France.
1951
In Sweden, CIA agent William Colby based at the CIA station in Stockholm
supports the training of stay-behind armies in neutral Sweden and Finland and in
the NATO member countries Norway and Denmark.
1952
In Germany, former SS officer Hans Otto reveals to the criminal police in the city
of Frankfurt in Hessen the existence of the fascist German stay-behind army
BDJ-TD. The arrested right-wing extremists are found not guilty under mysteri-
ous circumstances.
1953
In Sweden, the police arrests right-winger Otto Hallberg and discovers the Swedish
stay-behind army. Hallberg is set free and charges against him are mysteriously
dropped.
1957
In Norway, the Director of the secret service NIS, Vilhelm Evang, protests
strongly against the domestic subversion of his country through the United States
and NATO and temporarily withdraws the Norwegian stay-behind army from the
CPC meetings.
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1958
In France, NATO founds the ACC to coordinate secret warfare and the stay-
behind armies. When NATO in 1966 is expelled from France and establishes its
new European headquarters in Brussels, the ACC under the code name SDRA11
is hidden within the Belgian military secret service SGR with its headquarters
next to NATO.
1960
In Turkey, the military supported by secret armies stages a coup d'etat and kills
Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.
1961
In Algeria, members of the French stay-behind and officers from the French War
in Vietnam found the illegal OAS and with CIA support stage a coup in Algiers
against the French government of de Gaulle which fails.
1964
In Italy, the secret stay-behind army Gladio is involved in a silent coup d'etat
when General Giovanni de Lorenzo in Operation Solo forces a group of Socialist
Ministers to leave the government.
1965
In Austria, police forces discover a stay-behind arms cache in an old mine close
to Windisch-Bleiberg and force the British authorities to hand over a list with the
location of 33 other MI6 arms caches in Austria.
1966
In Portugal, the CIA sets up Aginter Press which under the direction of Captain
Yves Guerin Serac runs a secret stay-behind army and trains its members in
covert action techniques including hands-on bomb terrorism, silent assassination,
subversion techniques, clandestine communication and infiltration and colonial
warfare.
1966
In France, President Charles de Gaulle forces NATO to leave french soil. As
the military alliance moves to Brussels secret NATO protocols are revealed
that allegedly protect right-wingers in anti-Communist stay-behind armies.
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1967
In Greece, the stay-behind army Hellenic Raiding Force takes control over
the Greek Defence M i n i s t r y and starts a military coup d'etat installing a
right-wing dictatorship.
1968
In Sweden, a British MI6 agent closely involved with the stay-behind army betrays
the secret network to the Soviet secret service KGB.
1969
In Mocambique, the Portuguese stay-behind army Aginter Press assassinates
Eduardo Mondlane, President of the Mocambique liberation party and leader of
the FRELIMO movement.
1969
In Italy, the Piazza Fontana massacre in Milan kills 16 and injures and maims 80
and is blamed on the left. Thirty years later during a trial of right-wing extremists
General Giandelio Maletti, former head of Italian counterintelligence, alleges that
the massacre had been carried out by the Italian stay-behind army and right-wing
terrorists on the orders of the US secret service CIA in order to discredit the
Italian Communists.
1970
In Spain, right-wing terrorists including Stefano delle Chiaie of the Gladio stay-
behind army are hired by Franco's secret police. They had fled Italy following an
aborted coup during which right-wing extremist Valerio Borghese had ordered
the secret army to occupy the Interior Ministry in Rome.
1971
In Turkey, the military stages a coup d'etat and takes over power. The stay-behind
army Counter-Guerrilla engages in domestic terror and kills hundreds.
1972
In Italy, a bomb explodes in a car near the village Peteano killing three
Carabinieri. The terror, first blamed on the left, is later traced back to right-wing
terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra and tends to the exposure of the Italian stay-behind
code-named Gladio.
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1974
In Italy, a massacre during an anti-Fascist demonstration in Brescia kills eight
and injures and maims 102, while a bomb in the Rome to Munich train 'Italicus
Express', kills 12 and injures and maims 48.
1974
In Denmark, the secret stay-behind army Absalon tries in vain to prevent a group
of leftist academics from becoming members of the directing body of the Danish
Odense University, whereupon the secret army is exposed.
1974
In Italy, General Vito Miceli, chief of the military secret service, is arrested on
charges of subversive conspiracy against the state and reveals the NATO stay-
behind secret army during trial.
1976
In Germany, the secret service BND secretary Heidrun Hofer is arrested after
having revealed the secrets of the German stay-behind army to her husband who
was a spy of the Soviet secret service KGB.
1977
In Turkey, the stay-behind army Counter-Guerrilla attacks a demonstration of
500,000 in Istanbul by opening fire at the speaker's platform leaving 38 killed
and hundreds injured.
1977
In Spain, the secret stay-behind army with support of Italian right-wing
terrorists carries out the Atocha massacre in Madrid and in an attack on a
lawyer's office, closely linked to the Spanish Communist Party, kills five
people.
1978
In Norway, the police discovers a stay-behind arms cache and arrests Hans Otto
Meyer who reveals the Norwegian secret army.
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1978
In Italy, former Prime Minister and leader of the DCI, Aldo Moro, is taken hostage in
Rome by an armed secret unit and killed 55 days later. He was about to form a
coalition government that includes the Italian Communist Party.
1980
In Italy, a bomb explodes in the waiting room of the second class at the Bologna
railway station, killing 85 and seriously injuring and maiming a further 200.
Investigators trace the crime back to right-wing terrorists.
1980
In Turkey, the commander of the stay-behind army Counter-Guerrilla, General
Kenan Evren, stages a military coup and seizes power.
1981
In Germany, a large stay-behind arsenal is discovered near the German village of
Uelzen in the Luneburger Heide. Right-wing extremists are alleged to have used
the arsenal in the previous year to carry out a massacre during the Munich October
fest killing 13 and wounding 213.
1983
In the Netherlands strollers in the forest discover a large arms cache near the
Dutch village Velp and force the government to confirm that the arms were
related to NATO planning for unorthodox warfare.
1984
In Turkey, the stay-behind army Counter-Guerrilla fights against the Kurds and
kills and tortures thousands in the following years.
1984
In Italy, right-wing terrorist Vincenzo Vinciguerra in court reveals Operation
Gladio and the involvement of NATO's stay-behind army in acts of terrorism
in Italy designed to discredit the Communists. He is sentenced to life and
imprisoned.
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1985
In Belgium, a secret army attacks and shoots shoppers in supermarkets randomly
in the Brabant county killing 28 and leaving many wounded. Investigations link
the terror to a conspiracy among the Belgian stay-behind SDRA8, the Belgian
Gendarmerie SDRA6, the Belgian right-wing group WNP and the Pentagon
secret service DIA.
1990
In Italy, Judge Felice Casson discovers documents on Operation Gladio in the
archives of the Italian military secret service in Rome and forces Prime Minister
Giulio Andreotti to confirm the existence of a secret army within the state to
parliament. As Andreotti insists that Italy had not been the only country involved
in the conspiracy, the secret anti-Communist stay-behind armies are discovered
across Western Europe.
1990
In Switzerland, Colonel Herbert Alboth, a former commander of the Swiss secret
stay-behind army P26, in a confidential letter to the Defence Department declares
that he is willing to reveal 'the whole truth'. Thereafter he is found in his house
stabbed with his own military bayonet. The detailed parliamentary report on the
Swiss secret army is presented to the public on November 17.
1990
In Belgium, the NATO-linked stay-behind headquarters ACC meets on October
23 and 24 under the presidency of Belgian General Van Calster, Director of the
Belgian military secret service SGR.
1990
In Belgium, on November 5, NATO categorically denies the allegations of Prime
Minister Andreotti concerning NATO's involvement in Operation Gladio and
secret unorthodox warfare in Western Europe. The next day NATO explains that
the denial of the previous day had been false while refusing to answer any further
questions.
1990
In Belgium, the parliament of the European Union (EU) sharply condemns
NATO and the United States in a resolution for having manipulated European
politics with the stay-behind armies.
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1991
In Sweden, the media reveals that a secret stay-behind army existed in neutral
Finland with an exile base in Stockholm. Finnish Defence Minister Elisabeth
Rehn calls the revelations 'a fairy tale', adding cautiously 'or at least an incred-
ible story, of which I know nothhing'.
1991
In the United States, the National Security Archive at the George Washington
University in Washington files a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request con-
cerning the secret stay-behind armies with the CIA in the interest of public
information and scientific research. The CIA rejects the request with the standard
reply: The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of
records responsive to your request.'
1995
In England, the London-based Imperial War Museum in the permanent exhibition
'Secret Wars' reveals next to a big box full of explosives that the MI6 and SAS
had set up stay-behind armies across Western Europe.
1995
In Italy, the Senate commission headed by Senator Giovanni Pellegrino researching
Operation Gladio and the assassination of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro files
a FOIA request with the CIA. The CIA rejects the request and replies: 'The CIA
can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of records responsive
to your request.'
1996
In Austria, stay-behind arms caches set up by the CIA are discovered. For the
Austrian government Oliver Rathkolb of Vienna University files a FOIA request
concerning the secret stay-behind armies with the CIA. The CIA rejects the request
and replies: 'The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of
records responsive to your request.'
2001
The author asks NATO for documents on the stay-behind secret armies and
specifically transcripts of the ACC and CPC meetings. Lee McClenny, head of
NATO press and media service, denies that NATO had been involved with Operation
Gladio and claims that neither ACC nor the CPC transcripts exist.
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2001
The author files a FOIA request with the CIA which is rejected with the comment:
'The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of records
responsive to your request.' The author appeals against the decision and argues
that it would be unwise to 'deprive the CIA from its voice and the possibility to
take a stand in a Gladio disclosure discourse, which will take place regardless of
whether the CIA decides to participate or not'. The CIA accepts the appeal and
informs the author that the Agency Release Panel, dealing with appeals 'on a
first-received, first-out basis', with a present 'workload of approximately 315
appeals' will reply in due course.
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