Operation Gladio was also used to maintain [neo]imperialism in the global South, and, you know, one example of that—again, I have to credit Asa Winstanley—is that the right‐wing dictatorship of António Salazar in Portugal allowed Portugal to be a major Gladio base, which, um…which was called—it had its own army called ‘Aginter Press’, which trained terrorists for assassination operations, targetting liberation struggles in Portugal’s African colonies. So this went beyond just what was happening in Europe.
(Admittedly, some of what this video shares is nothing new, but having a reminder every now and then is fine.)
Events that happened today (August 13):
1866: Giovanni Agnelli, Axis businessman, was born.
1902: Felix Heinrich Wankel, Fascist engineer, was born.
1937: The Empire of Japan started the Battle of Shanghai.
1944: Axis troops began the pillage and razing of Anogeia in Crete that would continue until September 5.
I am old and have several degrees, a couple of them tangentially relevant to the topic, but never heard of Gládio until listening to Chapo in the past few years. Makes me wonder what other gaping holes there are in my US liberal arts education.
if you haven’t already, I would recommend reading Blum’s “Killing Hope”
Lately NATO has downplayed the terror and violence and their involvement in Operation Gladio, and all the CIA and reich-wing neoliberal bootlickers are spewing the same nonsense “we needed a stay behind army to prevent those dirty Russians from liberating- I mean, destroying our freedom!”
