You probably haven’t heard of Operation Gladio, and that’s by design because, well, it’s covert. Not just a covert operation, but one of the largest ever.

Possibly even the largest.

Gladio was designed to fight communism, but it ended up fighting democracy—terrorism was its tool, and the people were its victims.

— Daniele Ganser, historian and author

Basically, the CIA was so desperate to stop communism spreading that it teamed up with everyone from ‘right-wing’terrorists to the Vatican to the Mafia.

For example, in Italy...

The official story of the Peteano massacre—which was a 1972 car bombing in Italy— stood until 1984, when Judge Felice Casson spotted odd details in the records. No police had investigated the attack site, and the explosive was C4, which was only used by Operation Gladio and NATO back then.

Casson found out that neo-fascist Vincenzo Vinciguerra planned it, using C4 from a Gladio stash in Verona. Vinciguerra confessed to Casson that his group, Ordine Nuovo, worked with Italian military intelligence to stage the attack, hoping to push the government into a crackdown.

'The Vatican funded Gladio'

Later, Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti admitted Gladio was real, but many dismissed it as a 'conspiracy theory'.

Paul Williams

Paul Williams has written a bunch of fascinating books, one of them being Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia.

It uncovers a secret post-WWII alliance between the CIA, the Mafia, and the Vatican to prevent a communist takeover. Hidden armies were funded by illegal means and used to fight alleged ‘left-wing movements‘, leading to all sorts of crazy things including the rise of Pope Francis I.

The CIA and NATO turned Gladio into a monster—it wasn’t about defense, it was about control through fear and bloodshed.

— Philip Willan, journalist and author

Officially, Gladio was a secret NATO programme during the Cold War, set up to create ‘stay-behind’ armies across Europe. The idea was to have these hidden forces ready to resist Soviet occupation in case the USSR invaded Western Europe.

Which, of course, was nonsense.

The ‘stay-behind’ troops were ordered to carry out sabotage, guerrilla warfare, and gather intelligence.

Which, of course, was not nonsense.

In the midst of all the threats to our democracy, the Gladio network represents one of the most dangerous conspiracies in our country, an example of hidden power corrupting our institutions.

—Aldo Moro (Italian Prime Minister, before his assassination)

It all remained a ‘conspiracy theory’ for decades until it was officially, internationally acknowledged in the 1990s.

🎙️ Podcast episode

Paul argues that Gladio is still very active, extremely harmful, and that the anti-communist schtick is a ruse.

Apologies for his terrible camera quality. I couldn't do anything about it.