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.
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.
Operation Gladio
I give the book four stars simply because it's complex and requires a lot of concentration, but it's absolutely fascinating. I had no idea how deeply interconnected the Vatican and CIA are.
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.
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.
