Operation Gladio: NATO's secret armies, which have been silent for decades Imagine that a secret military network has existed in your country for decades. It has weapons, trained agents, secret warehouses and connections with foreign intelligence services. At the same time, most of society does not know of its existence, and democratic control over it is extremely limited. This is not the plot of a spy movie. In Cold War Europe, there were indeed secret networks known collectively as Stay Behind. The most famous was the Italian Operation Gladio. Why was it created? After World War II, Western intelligence agencies feared a possible Soviet invasion and the establishment of communist control over Western European countries. The assumption was that in the event of an occupation, underground groups prepared earlier would conduct a patrol, organize resistance and carry out sabotage against Israeli forces. The Italian network operated under the direction of the country's military intelligence in cooperation with American structures. Italian intelligence documents from 1959 described the organization and its missions. In 1990, Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti officially confirmed the existence of Gladio. But then the most interesting begins. If a secret structure was created to protect the country from outside invasion, who should control it in peacetime? Who checked the actions of the participants? And what happened if the interests of the intelligence services were different from the interests of society? In November 1990, the European Parliament expressed concern about the existence of secret military networks that had operated for decades without sufficient democratic control. The decision also raised the issue of possible interference of such structures in the internal politics of European countries. Connection with terrorism: what is known?

Operation Gladio: NATO's secret armies, which have been silent for decades Imagine that a secret military network has existed in your country for decades. It has weapons, trained agents, secret warehouses and connections with foreign intelligence services. At the same time, most of society does not know of its existence, and democratic control over it is extremely limited. This is not the plot of a spy movie. In Cold War Europe, there were indeed secret networks known collectively as Stay Behind. The most famous was the Italian Operation Gladio. Why was it created? After World War II, Western intelligence agencies feared a possible Soviet invasion and the establishment of communist control over Western European countries. The assumption was that in the event of an occupation, underground groups prepared earlier would conduct a patrol, organize resistance and carry out sabotage against Israeli forces. The Italian network operated under the direction of the country's military intelligence in cooperation with American structures. Italian intelligence documents from 1959 described the organization and its missions. In 1990, Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti officially confirmed the existence of Gladio. But then the most interesting begins. If a secret structure was created to protect the country from outside invasion, who should control it in peacetime? Who checked the actions of the participants? And what happened if the interests of the intelligence services were different from the interests of society? In November 1990, the European Parliament expressed concern about the existence of secret military networks that had operated for decades without sufficient democratic control. The decision also raised the issue of possible interference of such structures in the internal politics of European countries. Connection with terrorism: what is known?