Italian report on Gladio (1)
01 January 1991
Italian report on Gladio
artdoc April=1992
A draft parliamentary report on the Gladio network, which was
initially set up by NATO to fight a guerilla war in the case of
a Soviet invasion, has concluded that the organisation was an
illegal armed band. The president of the commission on terrorism,
Libero Gualtieri, wrote: `There was no justification for Gladio,
neither at the start nor the finish. Indeed, there was an
increase in its threat and its illegality with the passing of
years...Gladio was a component in that strategy which by planting
within the system elements of tension, justified the chance for
`stabilising' interventions.' He goes on to advise that, `The
time has come to act and punish those responsible for the
deception.'
In a separate development a memorandum, issued by two military
judges from Padua, has accused six secret service generals
involved in organising the network of high treason and sabotage
and suggests that they will be arrested. The memorandum is based
on documents from `Office R', (Gladio headquarters), and outlines
a programme of political disruption and `possible acts of
terrorism'. General Gerardo Serraville, the head of Gladio during
the early 1970s, is heavily implicated in this strategy. The
memorandum also links Gladio with a fascist organisation `Marine
Star', a Mussolini veterans' group set up after the second world
war.
The reports are thought to have serious implications for the
besieged Italian President Francesco Cossiga who has staunchly
defended the network, and is standing for re-election later this
year. Indeed, Cossiga's outspoken support has caused
consternation among his Christian Democrat Party, while the
Italian press has questioned his sanity. During a recent North
American tour he told astonished journalists that during the 1948
election: `I was part of a group of young Christian Democrats,
armed by the carabiniere, ready to defend the party in the event
of a Communist coup d'etat...' The arms were apparently issued
to the paramilitary group and `bought with funds put at the
disposition of the party.' Cossiga's name has also come up in a
recent trial linking Licio Gelli, grandmaster of the P2 masonic
lodge, with leading politicians and the Ndrangeta drug and arms
running network. Both Gelli and P2 have been heavily implicated
in the Gladio scandal. During the course of the trial he is
heard, in tapped telephone conversations, assuring leaders of the
Ndrangeta that he will use his influence with Cossiga, and Prime
Minister Andreotti, to secure the release of members of their
organisation.
Guardian, 7.12.91, 15.1.92; 30.1.92; Irish Times, 23.1.92.
Statewatch Vol 2 No 2 March/April 1992