Intro to Gladio B: James Corbett/Breaking The Set Raw WebVTT

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I have briefly touched upon the shady
tactics used by the governments

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to foment public support for war.

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One such program by the US was
put in place during the Cold War,

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called Operation Gladio,

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the aim of which was to have
paramilitary organizations

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stay behind in the Eastern Bloc

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to continue the destabilization
of regional powers.

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And although the program was finally
acknowledged in 2006,

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and is said to be long over,

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some allege that it never really ended:

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instead, this clandestine operation

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simply morphed to fit the needs
of the War on Terror.

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Here to help me break down this very
important and convoluted subject

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is James Corbett: independent journalist

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and host of <i>The Corbett Report.</i>

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Thanks for coming on, James.

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(James): Thank you for having me Abby.

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So, what did Operation Gladio
consist of,

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and how far-reaching was the program?

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Well: you were recently, on the program,

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talking about the top five conspiracies
that turned out to be true;

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and I think Operation Gladio
has to rank up there among them.

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"Gladio" is the code name for a
clandestine operation that,

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as you indicate, was set up
by NATO in conjunction with the CIA

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in the wake of World War II

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as the Cold War started to develop.

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And the official cover of this program

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was that it was designed as
a stay-behind program

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to fund, train, equip, supply, and
otherwise facilitate

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groups to be ready in the case

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of a Soviet invasion of Europe.

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And if that were to happen,

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basically, these groups would
be able to resist

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the Soviet occupation forces

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while NATO prepared some sort
of military response.

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That was, at least, the official cover
for what was happening;

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but ultimately what resulted
from this was,

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over the course of the five decades of
the Cold War

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these funds and arms and equipment

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were going to paramilitary groups

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and ultranationalist groups

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that were basically against...

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hard-line anti-Communists.

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And this resulted in a number of

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different operations, events,
and outrages

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that ultimately were blamed
on Communists

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as a way of trying to basically

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cripple the political Left
in Europe during that period.

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And perhaps the best-known
of those outrages and atrocities

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was the 1980 Bologna Bombing,

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which killed 85 people
and wounded 200 more.

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That was, again, directly linked
to this Operation Gladio.

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It was eventually exposed

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in the early 1990s

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in the Italian Parliament,

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and eventually, that resulted in an outcry

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that was supposedly going to kick off

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a European Parliamentary investigation

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that never actually occurred.

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But we've been led to believe

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-- in a lot of the English-language
media, and in the Western world --

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that this was specifically
focused on Europe,

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and it specifically started and ended
with the Cold War.

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But in fact, as more information
continues to come out about it,

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we start to see that, in fact,
the field of operations

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of Operation Gladio really is global

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and that it continues to this current day.

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Well let's talk about that transition.
I mean: very shocking.

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I didn't even really understand the extent
of Operation Gladio

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until I was watching your series.

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I recommend everyone to check that out.
A really thorough series,

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just basically outlining everything
that this operation was.

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As you said: I mean, it's a
decades-long operation

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that consisted of false-flag terror
attacks, death,

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the funding of ultranationalist groups
to foment terrorism.

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Let's talk about the transition into
Gladio B.

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You said that there's evidence showing
that this is actually

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still happening today, and it's actually
morphed into something else.

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What is that? And what evidence
is there to back that up?

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Well, as you say,

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I had a video series that I conducted
earlier this year

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with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.

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And as people may or may not
know, she's been referred to as

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"the most gagged woman
in the United States"

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by the ACLU and other organizations

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for having the state secrets privilege
applied to her case,

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to classify all sorts of information

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about what she was working on

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at her time in the FBI

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in the translation department at
the Washington Field Office.

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And basically the information
that she had

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indicated that there was a change

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that occurred in this Operation Gladio,

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that occurred in the mid-1990s.

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And she was specifically focused

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on the Turkish field of operations.

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And this is -- again -- documented and
on the record

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-- although little known and little
talked-about in the Western media --

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but Turkey was, in fact,
one of the first places

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where Operation Gladio eventuated; and
was, in fact, one of the central places

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as a geostrategic window: the bridge...

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-- the so-called bridge --
between Europe and the Middle East

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it's always had a geostrategic location,
and, as such,

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was one of the jewels in the crown
of the Operation Gladio program.

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But in the mid-1990s,

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Operation Gladio started to shift

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from that funding of paramilitaries

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and ultranationalist groups

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-- in Turkey, specifically --

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towards an operation more like

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what we saw in Afghanistan
in the 1980s:

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where the US, specifically,
was funding, and helping,

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and training, and arming
the <i>mujahideen</i>

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in their fight against the
Soviets in Afghanistan.

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And this became the model

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for what's known as Gladio B.

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Gladio B is the term that
-- Sibel Edmonds indicates --

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is the actual FBI file that they
have on this:

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the information on this in the FBI.

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But there is a different name

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for whatever office in the Pentagon

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actually works with NATO
on this operation.

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That's still classified:

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We don't know that. But we do know that
it's referred to as Gladio B by the FBI.

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And basically, this is the cooperation

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of NATO and US

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-- including high-ranking US State
Department officials and others --

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with Islamic terrorists, basically,

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in the perpetuation of a
strategy of tension

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which can be used as a type of weapon

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against... specifically in Central Asia

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and the Caucasus region,

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which is an exceptionally important part

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of the global chessboard,
as Zbigniew Brzezinski talks about.

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And in fact, in his 1997 book
<i>The Grand Chessboard,</i>

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he identified Central Asia as the
absolute key

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for... anyone who wants to have
world dominance in this day and age

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needs to control Central Asia.

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And that's where we find a lot of these
operations, now, are being based,

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with US and NATO officials

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cooperating with Islamic terrorists,

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in order to foment a type of
destabilization

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that is aimed, ultimately,
against rivals Russia and China.

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Right: very fascinating.

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I remember, in the video series you're
talking about,

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right before 9/11
-- as in 1997-2001 --

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I mean, we're talking about al-Zawahiri,

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alleged top al-Qaeda officials,

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being flown out, fostered by NATO,

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propagated by NATO, and also the CIA,

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and covert forces in the area.

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You said that this is actually
going on still, to this day.

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What are they doing?

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And explain, really, how this manifested

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into perpetuating what we're seeing

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play off across that region of the world
right now?

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Well you're exactly right
about that.

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And again, this comes directly
from Sibel Edmonds

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who was working directly
with the information from the FBI

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that Ayman al-Zawahiri was meeting
with top-level US officials

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in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1997 to 2001

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-- in that range.

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And this is important because,

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for people who don't know,

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Ayman al-Zawahiri was, of course,
Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man

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and is now the nominal head
of al-Qaeda itself.

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So the fact that he had such high-level
contacts for so many years with...

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in the heart of the US State Department,

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and with high-ranking officials,

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is an exceptionally big story:

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for obvious reasons.

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And the fact that this is still ongoing,
I think, is certainly viewable

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in the context of what's happening

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in that Central Asia/Caucasus region

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with countries of such importance

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geostrategically: like Azerbaijan
and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

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which are in that Caspian Sea basin,

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and that corridor where a lot of the
pipelines for those oil resources

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are being hard-wired right now.
<i>(And, of course, all of these various...)</i>

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(Abby): And I wanted to jump in there
really, really quickly James, because

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we have about a minute left. But of
course, Sibel talks about drug-running

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in this operation as well: the heroin
from Afghanistan.

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But really quickly: I mean,
why haven't more of these allegations

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been covered in, even, independent
media, James?

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Unfortunately, there is a
total wall of silence on this.

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And part of the reason, I think, the
independent media hasn't picked up on it

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is because there is <i>so much</i> to talk
about, and there are

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so many connections
that a lot of people

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just simply haven't
even heard about before.

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So it is an area of the globe that
a lot of people aren't familiar with

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and it takes a lot of coaching
to get people familiar

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with some of the players and
names and dates.

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So just... that's one of the reasons

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why it hasn't been featured
in the independent media.

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And obviously, the mainstream media,
unfortunately -- as we know --

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is controlled on these types of subjects

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and won't go near this type of
blockbuster information.

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Well, now that you've kind of outlined the
preliminary base of knowledge about it,

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we'll get you on again to break it
more down. Thank you so much.

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James Corbett, <i>Corbett Report.</i>

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Everyone check out the series,
Operation Gladio [B].

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Thank you.

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♪ ♪

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