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Gladio's terror campaign in Italy agents provocateurs and false-flag terrorist actions. Throughout The scope of Belgium's state-sponsored terrorism is minimal the 1980s, the suspected aim of these actions was to make the compared to in Italy, where the then prime minister Guilio public believe that the bombings were committed by a communist Andreotti stated in August 1990 that the report into Gladio”! (the insurgency, with the cause being not to create an authoritarian local name for the stay-behind networks) confirmed that in his government (which itself was a victim of this campaign) but to country, too, Gladio had been run by NATO with funding from the make sure that the people accepted the need for NATO and the CIA. need for weapons on its soil—aimed firmly at the enemy "out As early as 1983, the Italian intelligence agencies had published there" who, as the terrorist campaign had proven, was inside as a study on international arms trafficking which stated that in 1969, well. In the cases of Belgium and Italy, the governments fought with the agreement of Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger (Haig back and came down against the self-granted, illegal powers of its was Military Assistant to the Presidential Assistant for National security services. Security Affairs, Kissinger), the Italian secret services recruited Eventually it was found that Gladio's first terror campaign in 400 military officers within the freemasonic Propagande Due (P2) Italy dated back to 12 December 1969, when a bomb exploded in lodge. (Interestingly, the Swiss stay-behind network was known the National Agrarian Bank in Piazza Fontana, in Milan's centre, as P26.) This was later confirmed by former CIA agent Richard killing 16 people and wounding up to ninety. Giuseppe Pinelli, a Brenneke, who worked as an arms trafficker within Gladio. young anarchist, was first accused of the crime. Pinelli then Brenneke stated that the US government had $10 million per suffered a suspicious death, which the authorities labelled as month at its disposal for this service. Brenneke added that P2 suicide. "...was used during the 1970s to let Italian terrorism explode, as But there was more to come. General Gerardo Serravalle, the well as in other countries. This lodge head from 1971 to 1974 of "Office R" (the is still active."* office that controlled Gladio from Brenneke was specifically referring within the Italian military secret service, to one of the cruellest terrorist attacks SIFAR), told the terrorism commission that occurred in Europe before the new i ' that, at a crucial Gladio meeting in threat of "Islamist fundamentalism" The scope of Belgium s 1972, at least half of the upper echelons was identified: the 1980 Bologna state-sponsored terrorism "had the idea of attacking the massacre. The Bologna massacre was A AA communists before an invasion. They a terrorist bombing at the city's central Is minimal compared to were preparing for civil war." Later, he station on the morning of 2 August In Italy = put it more bluntly: "They were saying 1980; it killed 85 people and wounded this: 'Why wait for the invaders when more than two hundred. The timed we can make a pre-emptive attack now explosive device was left in an on the communists who would support unattended suitcase inside a waiting the invader?'""* room, the subsequent explosion If we are to transpose this onto 9/11, destroying the roof, which collapsed onto the passengers. we should note that there is substantial evidence that al-Qaeda was The Italian government, led by Francesco Cossiga, and police indeed planning an attack on the United States. But was 9/11 an authorities first thought that the blast might have been accidental, attack or a "pre-emptive strike"? then tried to suggest that the militant Red Brigades (communists, General Serravalle was not alone. Avanguardia Nazionale of course) were responsible for the bombing. But it was then member Vincenzo Vinciguerra confessed in 1984 to judge Felice discovered that the bombs came from an arsenal used by Gladio, Casson of having carried out the 31 May 1972 Peteano terrorist and the awful truth slowly began to dawn. attack, in which three policemen died and for which the communist The commission into this terrorist attack reached its conclusion Red Brigades had previously been blamed. Vinciguerra explained in 1986, after years of sabotage by the Italian State Security during his trial how he had been helped by Italian secret services apparatus. The conclusion was that "a private structure existed in to escape the police and to fly away to Spain—very much like Italy which was composed of military people and citizens who co- Belgian terrorists were able to escape to Paraguay. operated, with the express goal of influencing democracy through Vinciguerra confirmed Serravalle's warnings: "I say that every non-democratic mean: To achieve this goal, the group used single outrage that followed from 1969 fitted into a single, terrorist attacks organised by neo-fascist movements. "There was organised matrix... Avanguardia Nazionale, like Ordine Nuovo an invisible government, in which the lodge P2, certain levels of [the main right-wing terrorist group active during the 1970s], was the secret services, organised crime and terrorism were intimately being mobilised into the battle as part of an anti-communist connected," concluded the judges. Subsequent investigations strategy originating not with organisations deviant from the reached the same conclusion: "During several years, a clandestine institutions of power, but from within the state itself, and group, with extra-institutional connections, operated in our country specifically from within the ambit of the state's relations within the with the goal to politically condition the democracy and to acquire Atlantic Alliance [NATO]... The December 1969 explosion [in the personal power. To achieve its goal, this group used terrorism." In Piazza Fontana] was supposed to be the detonator which would short, a nation's authorities, specifically its intelligence agencies, have convinced the political and military authorities to declare a had organised a terrorism campaign, killing innocent civilians in state of emergency." an effort to "condition the democracy"—condition the people, that is, in an effort to prove that there was an enemy out there, even The European stance against US-sponsored terror inside, intent on killing them.” On 22 November 1990, the European Parliament passed a As a consequence, the term "strategy of tension" was coined. It resolution condemning Gladio, requesting full investigations— is described as a way to control and manipulate public opinion which have yet to be carried out—and the total dismantling of using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, these paramilitary structures—which has not yet been proven. The scope of Belgium's state-sponsored terrorism is minimal compared to 2. me. in Italy ue The European stance against US-sponsored terror On 22 November 1990, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Gladio, requesting full investigations— which have yet to be carried out—and the total dismantling of these paramilitary structures—which has not yet been proven. 20 + NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2007