Operation Gladio

 

Operation Gladio, known alternatively under the Italian denomination Operazione Gladio; functions solely as a code-based derivative exemplifying the existentiality of a clandestine NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) “stay-behind” operation (Military protocol emphasizing the placement of government operatives/ paramilitary organizations within the periphery of the national infrastructure in the event of insurgency. Unlawful military incursions perpetrated against prospective political administrations on a national level form the basis of a resistance movement within the state’s purlieus, whereby government operatives present within said boundaries act as both a subversive influence and as specialists in the field of counter-intelligence) within the national borders of Italy shortly after World War II. Its original purpose was to act as a facilitator for the continuance of anti-communist initiatives in the event of a political shift toward such an ideological mantra. Although its denominational equivalency primarily served as a functional reference to the Italian branch of coordinated NATO stay-behind initiatives, “Operation Gladio,” sometimes known under the “Super NATO” colloquialization, has come to signify the implementation of these operations in their totality. The terminological appellation, 'Gladio,' exists as an Italian derivative of the Roman shortsword, known under the gladius designation.
Operating specifically under NATO military protocol in both sponsored and combat neutral principalities, Gladio was an intrinsic component of numerous transnational initiatives initially coordinated by the Clandestine Committee of the Western Union (CCWU) which was founded in 1948. Following the creation of NATO in 1949, the CCWU was eventually integrated into the formative structure of the Clandestine Planning Committee, or the CPC (An organization founded in 1951 and overseen by SHAPE, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe; the CPC’s principal scope of influence was transferred to Belgium following France’s official withdrawal from NATO’s Military Committee in 1966).
The role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in sponsoring the Gladio initiative during the Cold War era, along with its relationship to right-wing terrorist attacks perpetrated in Italy during the “Years of Lead” (A period of socio-political turmoil/ civil unrest in Italy marked by the incidence of coordinated acts of terrorism, events which attained precedence in the latter portion of the 1960s onward through to the early vestiges of the 1980s), has never been formally proven beyond a reasonable degree of doubt.

What follows are two elaborative references to the implementation of such initiatives in video format: