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 World
War Two the stay-behind armies are created on
the experiences 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 a
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 being closed down. |
1947 |
In the United States
President Harry Truman creates the National
Security Council (NSC) and the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA). The covert action
branch of the CIA, the Office of Policy
Coordination (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 codenamed
„Plan Bleu“. |
1947 |
In Austria a secret
stay-behind is exposed which had been set up by
right-wing extremists Soucek and Rössner.
Chancellor Körner pardons the accused under
mysterious circumstances. |
1948 |
In France the
"Western Union Clandestine Committee" (WUCC) is
being created to coordinate secret unorthodox
warfare. After the creation of NATO a year later
the WUCC is being integrated into the military
alliance under the name “Clandestine Planning
Committee” (CPC). |
1949 |
The North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (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 members 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 righ-wing extremist are found non
guilty under mysterious 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. |
1958 |
In France NATO
founds the Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) to
coordinate secret warfare and the stay-behind
armies. When NATO establishes new European
headquarters in Brussels the ACC under the code
name SDRA 11 is hidden within the Belgian
military secret service SGR who has its
headquarters next to NATO. |
1960 |
In Turkey the
military supported by secret armies stages a
coup d’état and kill Prime Minister Adnan
Menderes. |
1961 |
In Algeria members
of the French stay-behind and officers from the
French War in Vietnam found the illegal
Organisation Armee Secrete (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’état when General Giovanni de Lorenzo in
Operation Solo forces the Italian 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 denounces the
secret
warfare of the Pentagon and expels the
European headquarters of NATO. As the military
alliance moves to Brussels secret NATO protocols
are revealed that allegedly protect
right-wingers in anti-communist stay-behind
armies. |
1967 |
In Greece the
stay-behind army Hellenic Raiding Force takes
over control over the Greek Defence Ministry and
starts a military coup d’état 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
Portugese stay-behind army Aginter Press
assassinates Eduardo Mondlane, President of the
Mocambique liberation party and leader of the
FRELIMO movement (Frente de Liberacao de
Mocambique). |
1969 |
In Italy the Piazza
Fontana massacre in Milano kills sixteen and
injures and maimes 80 and is blame on the left.
Thirty years later during a trial of right-wing
extremists General Giandelio Maletti, former
head of Italian counter-intelligence, claims
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 Central Intelligence Agency (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’état 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
the Italian stay-behind code named Gladio. |
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 in 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 Istambul by opening
fire at the speaker's platform leaving
thirty-eight 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 kill five people. |
1978 |
In Norway the police
discovers a stay-behind arms ache and arrests
Hans Otto Meyer who reveals the Norwegian secret
army. |
1978 |
In Italy former
Prime Minister and leader of the Christian
Democratic Party, Aldo Moro, is taken hostage in
Rome by an armed secret unit and killed 55 days
later because he wanted to include the Italian
Communists in the government. |
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 being discovered near the
German village of Uelzen in the Lüneburger Heide.
Right wing extremists are alleged to have used
the arsenal in the previous year to carry out a
massacre during the Munich October bear festival
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 confrim that the arms were related
to NATO planning for unorthodox warfare. |
1984 |
In Turkey the
stay-behind army Counter-Guerrilla fights
against the Curds 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. |
1985 |
In Belgium a secret
army attacks and shoots shoppers in supermarkets
randomly in the Brabant county killing
twenty-eight 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
Westland New Post, and the Pentagon secret
service Defense Intelligence Agency (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 Departement
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 being presented to the public on
November 17. |
1990 |
In Belgium the NATO
linked stay-behind headquarters Allied
Clandestine Committee (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 unorthdox 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. |
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 incredible
story, of which I know nothing.” |
1991 |
In the United States
the National Security Archive at the George
Washington University in Washington files a
Freedom of Information (FOIA) request concerning
the secret stay-behind armies with the CIA in
the interest of public information and
scientific research. The CIA rejects the request
with the standart 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." |