Advertisement
Not a member of Pastebin yet?
Sign Up,
it unlocks many cool features!
- I have briefly touched upon the shady
- tactics used by the governments
- to foment public support for war.
- One such program by the US was
- put in place during the Cold War,
- called Operation Gladio,
- the aim of which was to have
- paramilitary organizations
- stay behind in the Eastern Bloc
- to continue the destabilization
- of regional powers.
- And although the program was finally
- acknowledged in 2006,
- and is said to be long over,
- some allege that it never really ended:
- instead, this clandestine operation
- simply morphed to fit the needs
- of the War on Terror.
- Here to help me break down this very
- important and convoluted subject
- is James Corbett: independent journalist
- and host of The Corbett Report.
- Thanks for coming on, James.
- (James): Thank you for having me Abby.
- So, what did Operation Gladio
- consist of,
- and how far-reaching was the program?
- Well: you were recently, on the program,
- talking about the top five conspiracies
- that turned out to be true;
- and I think Operation Gladio
- has to rank up there among them.
- "Gladio" is the code name for a
- clandestine operation that,
- as you indicate, was set up
- by NATO in conjunction with the CIA
- in the wake of World War II
- as the Cold War started to develop.
- And the official cover of this program
- was that it was designed as
- a stay-behind program
- to fund, train, equip, supply, and
- otherwise facilitate
- groups to be ready in the case
- of a Soviet invasion of Europe.
- And if that were to happen,
- basically, these groups would
- be able to resist
- the Soviet occupation forces
- while NATO prepared some sort
- of military response.
- That was, at least, the official cover
- for what was happening;
- but ultimately what resulted
- from this was,
- over the course of the five decades of
- the Cold War
- these funds and arms and equipment
- were going to paramilitary groups
- and ultranationalist groups
- that were basically against...
- hard-line anti-Communists.
- And this resulted in a number of
- different operations, events,
- and outrages
- that ultimately were blamed
- on Communists
- as a way of trying to basically
- cripple the political Left
- in Europe during that period.
- And perhaps the best-known
- of those outrages and atrocities
- was the 1980 Bologna Bombing,
- which killed 85 people
- and wounded 200 more.
- That was, again, directly linked
- to this Operation Gladio.
- It was eventually exposed
- in the early 1990s
- in the Italian Parliament,
- and eventually, that resulted in an outcry
- that was supposedly going to kick off
- a European Parliamentary investigation
- that never actually occurred.
- But we've been led to believe
- -- in a lot of the English-language
- media, and in the Western world --
- that this was specifically
- focused on Europe,
- and it specifically started and ended
- with the Cold War.
- But in fact, as more information
- continues to come out about it,
- we start to see that, in fact,
- the field of operations
- of Operation Gladio really is global
- and that it continues to this current day.
- Well let's talk about that transition.
- I mean: very shocking.
- I didn't even really understand the extent
- of Operation Gladio
- until I was watching your series.
- I recommend everyone to check that out.
- A really thorough series,
- just basically outlining everything
- that this operation was.
- As you said: I mean, it's a
- decades-long operation
- that consisted of false-flag terror
- attacks, death,
- the funding of ultranationalist groups
- to foment terrorism.
- Let's talk about the transition into
- Gladio B.
- You said that there's evidence showing
- that this is actually
- still happening today, and it's actually
- morphed into something else.
- What is that? And what evidence
- is there to back that up?
- Well, as you say,
- I had a video series that I conducted
- earlier this year
- with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.
- And as people may or may not
- know, she's been referred to as
- "the most gagged woman
- in the United States"
- by the ACLU and other organizations
- for having the state secrets privilege
- applied to her case,
- to classify all sorts of information
- about what she was working on
- at her time in the FBI
- in the translation department at
- the Washington Field Office.
- And basically the information
- that she had
- indicated that there was a change
- that occurred in this Operation Gladio,
- that occurred in the mid-1990s.
- And she was specifically focused
- on the Turkish field of operations.
- And this is -- again -- documented and
- on the record
- -- although little known and little
- talked-about in the Western media --
- but Turkey was, in fact,
- one of the first places
- where Operation Gladio eventuated; and
- was, in fact, one of the central places
- as a geostrategic window: the bridge...
- -- the so-called bridge --
- between Europe and the Middle East
- it's always had a geostrategic location,
- and, as such,
- was one of the jewels in the crown
- of the Operation Gladio program.
- But in the mid-1990s,
- Operation Gladio started to shift
- from that funding of paramilitaries
- and ultranationalist groups
- -- in Turkey, specifically --
- towards an operation more like
- what we saw in Afghanistan
- in the 1980s:
- where the US, specifically,
- was funding, and helping,
- and training, and arming
- the mujahideen
- in their fight against the
- Soviets in Afghanistan.
- And this became the model
- for what's known as Gladio B.
- Gladio B is the term that
- -- Sibel Edmonds indicates --
- is the actual FBI file that they
- have on this:
- the information on this in the FBI.
- But there is a different name
- for whatever office in the Pentagon
- actually works with NATO
- on this operation.
- That's still classified:
- We don't know that. But we do know that
- it's referred to as Gladio B by the FBI.
- And basically, this is the cooperation
- of NATO and US
- -- including high-ranking US State
- Department officials and others --
- with Islamic terrorists, basically,
- in the perpetuation of a
- strategy of tension
- which can be used as a type of weapon
- against... specifically in Central Asia
- and the Caucasus region,
- which is an exceptionally important part
- of the global chessboard,
- as Zbigniew Brzezinski talks about.
- And in fact, in his 1997 book
- The Grand Chessboard,
- he identified Central Asia as the
- absolute key
- for... anyone who wants to have
- world dominance in this day and age
- needs to control Central Asia.
- And that's where we find a lot of these
- operations, now, are being based,
- with US and NATO officials
- cooperating with Islamic terrorists,
- in order to foment a type of
- destabilization
- that is aimed, ultimately,
- against rivals Russia and China.
- Right: very fascinating.
- I remember, in the video series you're
- talking about,
- right before 9/11
- -- as in 1997-2001 --
- I mean, we're talking about al-Zawahiri,
- alleged top al-Qaeda officials,
- being flown out, fostered by NATO,
- propagated by NATO, and also the CIA,
- and covert forces in the area.
- You said that this is actually
- going on still, to this day.
- What are they doing?
- And explain, really, how this manifested
- into perpetuating what we're seeing
- play off across that region of the world
- right now?
- Well you're exactly right
- about that.
- And again, this comes directly
- from Sibel Edmonds
- who was working directly
- with the information from the FBI
- that Ayman al-Zawahiri was meeting
- with top-level US officials
- in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1997 to 2001
- -- in that range.
- And this is important because,
- for people who don't know,
- Ayman al-Zawahiri was, of course,
- Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man
- and is now the nominal head
- of al-Qaeda itself.
- So the fact that he had such high-level
- contacts for so many years with...
- in the heart of the US State Department,
- and with high-ranking officials,
- is an exceptionally big story:
- for obvious reasons.
- And the fact that this is still ongoing,
- I think, is certainly viewable
- in the context of what's happening
- in that Central Asia/Caucasus region
- with countries of such importance
- geostrategically: like Azerbaijan
- and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
- which are in that Caspian Sea basin,
- and that corridor where a lot of the
- pipelines for those oil resources
- are being hard-wired right now.
- (And, of course, all of these various...)
- (Abby): And I wanted to jump in there
- really, really quickly James, because
- we have about a minute left. But of
- course, Sibel talks about drug-running
- in this operation as well: the heroin
- from Afghanistan.
- But really quickly: I mean,
- why haven't more of these allegations
- been covered in, even, independent
- media, James?
- Unfortunately, there is a
- total wall of silence on this.
- And part of the reason, I think, the
- independent media hasn't picked up on it
- is because there is so much to talk
- about, and there are
- so many connections
- that a lot of people
- just simply haven't
- even heard about before.
- So it is an area of the globe that
- a lot of people aren't familiar with
- and it takes a lot of coaching
- to get people familiar
- with some of the players and
- names and dates.
- So just... that's one of the reasons
- why it hasn't been featured
- in the independent media.
- And obviously, the mainstream media,
- unfortunately -- as we know --
- is controlled on these types of subjects
- and won't go near this type of
- blockbuster information.
- Well, now that you've kind of outlined the
- preliminary base of knowledge about it,
- we'll get you on again to break it
- more down. Thank you so much.
- James Corbett, Corbett Report.
- Everyone check out the series,
- Operation Gladio [B].
- Thank you.
- ♪ ♪
- [AUDIO CLIPS MONTAGE]
- [Captioning by "Adjuvant"]
- [CC-BY 4.0]
Advertisement
Add Comment
Please, Sign In to add comment
Advertisement