NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe (Contemporary Security Studies) 1st Edition

by Daniele Ganser (Author)

35 ratings

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Editorial Reviews

Review

'Much of this is appearing in English for the first time and it would be hard to overstate its importance.' - Lobster

About the Author

Daniele Ganser is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. He studied at Basel University in Switzerland, at Amsterdam University (UVA) in the Netherlands, and at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in England. He has published on the role of the United Nations in the Cuban conflict, Switzerland's path towards the United Nations and Switzerland's position outside the European Union.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (February 3, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0714685003
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0714685007
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.76 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #896,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,303 in Military History (Books)
- #1,822 in Terrorism (Books)
- #2,744 in European History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
35 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Brad Rockwell

Excellent book on an overlooked aspect of European history

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2020

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This shows how fascism is always an option in capitalist democracies. If Western Europe had turned left, the fascists would have come out with arms supplied by the CIA and others.

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Firenze Zen

Excellent information.

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2016

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Important to know this. Excellent information.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Five stars, at least

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2016

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You be like "five stars, you for real n-word". But trust me, this book will blow your mind. I kid you not, buy it.

3 people found this helpful

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Francesco Lovecchio

An interpretative key for the understanding of many European misteries

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2005

The author is a Swiss researcher who has nicely managed to document in one volume the modus operandi of a secret stay-behind army in Europe which operated since the end of WWII until the end of the Cold War. The book provides a complete documentation of the general patterns of this army across Europe that if taken in isolation would seem improbable. This super secret Army was operating in all Western European countries under different codenames and coordinated by the Allied Clandestine Committee and the Clandestine Planning Committee under the umbrella supervision of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) within the NATO and with the active supporting role of the Pentagon, CIA and the British MI6. The goal of this army was to operate behind enemy lines setting up resistance movements in case of a Soviet invasion of Europe. The secret army was clandestine and illegal in many countries and staffed by loyal anti-communist soldiers and rightwing activists recruited from various sectors, many with a past with the nazis or fascist armies during WWII. These armies have been employed also against the national communist (and in some case socialist) parties (Demagnetize Operation) under the complacence of domestic intelligence services with several suspect cases of assassinations and some documented cases of terrorist attacks against civilian targets, or in overturning democratically elected governments (Greece and Turkey) too dangerously left-leaning. Italy plays an important part in this story since Italy was theatre of several operations and last but not least, a former prime minister eventually admitted before Parliament in 1990, after the investigations of a judge, that a stay-behind army had operated since WWII, opening a Pandora's box of revelations. To each country are dedicated 18 specific chapters (UK, USA, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria) with specific documented episodes, that offers a clarifying picture of this super secret organization. Much remains to be discovered, but the merit of this book is to have put together scattered information in a well organized way. Recommended.

74 people found this helpful

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SmokeNMirrors

A damning inditement of our supposedly democratic system

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2009

A seminal work in which Danielle Ganser provides us with the coordinates to help us put things like the so-called War On Terror into their proper contexts. He shows that the majority (if not all) of the western European governments, supposedly democratic in nature, have engaged in activities which can only be described as undemocratic since the end of WWII. The necessity to "prevent the spread of Communism" is an invalid question when examined from the standpoint of the democratic will; for if the majority favour Communism then, theoretically, that is what democracy is all about. And there can be no question of degrees; democracy either exists or it does not. Like free speech, you cannot have democracy up to a point.

That there has since the 1990s been little public accountability (despite public acknowledgement that the activities did take place) raises crucially important questions about the validity of the War On Terror, British involvement in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, and many other similar occupations and internal conflicts as well as many of the events which have been attributed to "terrorists" over the past decade or so. For not only do we not know that the countries involved actually dismantled the stay-behind armies in the 1990s, we don't know which countries ran stay-behind armies in each others' countries - and whether these were likewise dismantled. In fact, the main protagonists (the UK & USA) have so far refused to comment.

Whilst many would argue that this is essential to protect national security, this argument, when examined logically, is baseless. For if we truly do live in democracies then no government should be above the law. And when supposedly-demoractic governments encourage - or turn a blind eye to - actions which are undeniably anti-democratic then it would seem to stand to reason that we actually don't live in democracies at all.

Danielle Ganser has added one more link into an ever-strengthening chain of evidence that democracy truly does not exist. A truly disturbing story; this is history that everyone should know.

15 people found this helpful

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Luc REYNAERT

There are few archbishops in espionage

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2007

D. Ganser's book is frightening. He shows how a secret stay-behind network (Gladio) that should only become effective after a Warschaw Pact invasion of Western Europe, became an all important factor in Western politics, after the wealthy and powerful understood that their real enemies were the strong communist parties in Western democracies and the political parties of the left.

As John Prados says in his excellent introduction: `in country after country, Gladio influenced, violently or not, political processes through fear and terrorism. Police and security services protected perpetrated crimes and antidemocratic `state sponsors' created terrorist networks.'

It was everything except a benign game of play. In Italy alone, the strategy of tension was responsible between 1969 and 1987, for 14591 (not less) acts of violence with political motivation. There and elsewhere, bombs exploded in Bologna, Munich and Istanbul leaving hundreds of dead and crippled.

Other dirty `tricks' were torture, coup d'états, election fraud, assassinations, disinformation, provocation and false flag operations. In one word, a destructive spiral of violence.

This warfare planning group was linked to NATO, the Pentagon and the CIA and operated completely outside democratic control from the nationally elected legislators. It made a joke of national sovereignty.

A must read for all those who try to understand the world we live in.

17 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Gastronaut

Highly recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

Excellent expose. Be prepared for some unpleasant surprises.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Impressive, unique, fundamental

Reviewed in Italy on August 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

There are lots of very good reviews here, so I will not go into details

This book goes into details, documented, with lots of reference, and the author "splits" the entire SB beast country by country

Just one issue prevents the 5th star: I have bought the kindle edition and it's crammed with incredible typos.

I mean: entire paragraphs skipped, repetead, or wrongly presented - this prevents in at least 2 parts comprehension

but anyway: buy this. It's Europe history.

d

One person found this helpful

Luc REYNAERT

There are few archbishops in espionage

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2007

Verified Purchase

D. Ganser's book is frightening. He shows how a secret stay-behind network (Gladio) that should only become effective after a Warschaw Pact invasion of Western Europe, became an all important factor in Western politics, after the wealthy and powerful understood that their real enemies were the strong communist parties in Western democracies and the political parties of the left.

As John Prados says in his excellent introduction: `in country after country, Gladio influenced, violently or not, political processes through fear and terrorism. Police and security services protected perpetrated crimes and antidemocratic `state sponsors' created terrorist networks.'

It was everything except a benign game of play. In Italy alone, the strategy of tension was responsible between 1969 and 1987, for 14591 (not less) acts of violence with political motivation. There and elsewhere, bombs exploded in Bologna, Munich and Istanbul leaving hundreds of dead and crippled.

Other dirty `tricks' were torture, coup d'états, election fraud, assassinations, disinformation, provocation and false flag operations. In one word, a destructive spiral of violence.

This warfare planning group was linked to NATO, the Pentagon and the CIA and operated completely outside democratic control from the nationally elected legislators. It made a joke of national sovereignty.

A must read for all those who try to understand the world we live in.

25 people found this helpful

NCR

Waste of money and time

Reviewed in Spain on May 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

I bought this book thinking it was a serious research effort in the subject. No such case. This is just an assorted collection of political motivated newspaper quotes and citations.

No serious research, documents, facts or testimonies.

It's hard to believe this book was written to obtain an university degree. Scary...

Among many others, the chapter regarding Portugal is a real joke.

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rinadamarise

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2018

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great