THE HISTORY OF THE CIA: France’s Secret Armies and the Pan-Europa Project [pt. 5.3]

throughout the Cold War NATO worked alongside American and European intelligence agencies to organize covert underground networks of militant anti-communists to repel a predicted Soviet invasion as we know today the Soviet invasion never came yet these cells persisted and took on a new role as Defenders against domestic left-wing movements across Western Europe today we'll be exploring the beginnings of the most famous contingent of the gladio project which are the stay behind forces by empowering these militant far-right networks NATO and the CIA would ensure that a counter-revolutionary force would be in place in the politically fractured countries

of Western Europe we will also be exploring the establishment of shadowy pan-european forums founded and funded by the CIA to allow for dialogue and cooperation between various reactionary elements of the European political establishment and the beginnings of the strategy of tension the infamous theoretic medical centerpiece of the devious gladio Network for this expose into the workings of gladio we're going to be exploring the establishment of gladio organizations in post-war France the stay behind in that country and the origins of the pan-europa movement which is a current that can still be felt to this day welcome

back to the history of the CIA YouTube series today as previously mentioned we are embarking on the final chapter of my early gladio mini-series as always I make these videos as Standalone products and this should be completely comprehensible to a first-time viewer please if it is your first time finding my channel I recommend you stick around and watch this video through if you enjoyed the way I presented this information I currently have six other parts available on this channel that will always be available after this video also I always cite all my sources in the

description of every video when you see a number appear at the top of the screen like this there will be a matching bibliographic citation in the description I highly recommend you check them out there's a lot of extra details in sources that did not make it into this video One Source in particular I want to point out is NATO's secret armies by Daniel gancer it's a bit of a pricey book but it is arguably the most complete and extensive and widely available history of gladio ganser's research is comprehensive and staggering considering the obscurity of this

subject for an authoritative look at gladio across Europe and even in the United States I highly recommend his work I'll be pulling extensively from his research today so without further Ado let's discuss post-war France and the emergence of the gladio stay behind networks let's begin I will do my level best to stand up for freedom and democracy around the world by keeping the United States of America strong and by keeping our eyes wide open as we welcome change in the world the keeping our eyes wide open before the establishment of French gladio networks in the

late 1940s after the end of the second world war France had a pre-existing tradition of underground paramilitaries our story today actually begins before the second world war in the 1930s in 1936 Eugene De Long a former French naval engineer founded La cagul a secret fascist paramilitary organization known formally as the kamite social diction revolutionary which translates to the Revolutionary social auction committee la kagur which means hood or cowl was the name most commonly used by its members according to academic Bertram Gordon in his paper about La cagul titled the kandatieri of the collaboration revolutionary the

kagul group had initiation rights that resembled the esoteric rituals in Masonic lodges as seen in the picture on screen right now members wore ritualistic cloaks or cowls and met in secret underground venue to discuss operations this is where they got their name not kagood or the Cal during the late 30s in the Years leading up to the war La kagul undertook several high-profile political assassinations the most prominent of these was the assassination of the roselli brothers who were two anti-fascist activists that escaped Mussolini's Italy nakagur undertook a variety of other acts of political Terror such

as setting off two bombs near the oct de Triomphe the late 1930s presented a fertile ground for underground fascist paramilitaries to emerge as neighboring Germany and Italy had fallen to the Specter of fascism although interestingly the kaguna movement was reportedly opposed to Germany and aligned more closely to Italian Fascism and Mussolini probably due to the sense of patriotism and resentment following the events of World War One regardless in 1936 and 37 the French underground was teeming with fascist organizations working to shift France towards the axis Camp according to a 2011 article in the New Yorker

the kagun movement was heavily funded by French industrialists such as Eugene Schuler the founder of the Cosmetics firm he accordingly hired members from the organization after the war and allowed LA kagul and its Associated collaborationist political party to hold meetings at L'Oreal offices a sister organization of lakagul that worked alongside them during this period was called which acted as an intelligence arm to delonx network within the French army the kovignon was organized by Commander jeze lustono La Co in the French army remember this man as he will return after the war to help with early

gladio operations initially lakagul was blunted by the infiltration of French police officers in their ranks the conspiracy was partly foiled as many kaguyak as they were called were put in prison and forced to reveal their hidden weapon caches it appeared that the movement was halted until 1939 when the Allied Powers declared war on Germany in an effort to mount a total retaliation to Germany's advances the French government released many of the imprisoned cowgirl members to return to their former roles in the armed forces since many had been military men before their participation in these underground

networks their release would have made sense in France's position of desperation according to Gordon's research Delong returned to the Navy to serve as an engineer although this was shortlisted lived as France was ultimately defeated by the Nazis in June 1940 and the kaguri men were once again free to roam France many of them including the long moved to the south of France to the Nazi puppet state of Vichy France where they resumed their political activities and worked with Philip pitang's collaborationist regime as a paramilitary wing the nank would later return to Paris to expand his

MSR movement which attempted to see the emergence of a unified fascist France run by the French other members of the kagood underground escaped France to work with the gold and worked with the French Exile government in London in establishing French Resistance networks to Nazi occupation jealous the leader of the Covina which was the intelligence arm of the kagur initially joined pitta's Vichy regime until eventually deciding to form a resistance movement this movement was eventually foiled and he was shipped to the maothausen labor camp in Austria that was mostly reserved for political prisoners and common criminals

he would remain there until the wars end delongx MSR would have a tenuous relationship with the Nazis in Paris Gordon concludes that the kagulak offshoot party operated a strong paramilitary base with little political or social organization eventually in January 1944 delongt was confronted in his Paris apartment by gestapo agents and killed in a shootout the MSR would continue to operate without de lonk in nazi-occupied Paris until the arrival of the Allies in Normandy and the Go's return as a liberator although La kagur was a short-lived and politically marginal organization during its first few pre-war years

and later prominence in Nazi Paris the organization itself and its subversive cell structure would form the blueprint for the future gladio operations across Europe especially important with the integration of the Covina within the French security apparatus which would foreshadow the Deep symbiosis between the future European security community and the underground far-right networks installed by the CIA and NATO during the Cold War finally and possibly most importantly to today's episode the kagu's esoteric and secretive forums would reproduce themselves after the war in shadowy clandestine groups that remain obscure and difficult to track to this day as

the gold returned to liberated France in late 1944. jestonovco the leader of the kovignon movement before the war also returned after being liberated from the Austrian labor camp as we will see in the next section lustano La Co would have a prominent role in arguably the first gladio operation in France drawing a direct link between the kaguyak and gladio post-war France much like post-war Italy was also a country divided by ideological lines these divisions were felt during the war itself as resistance movements were split between ideological lines with the Communists fighting Nazi and Vichy regimes

under the resistance groups and non-communist resistance Fighters under the movement uni de resistance the French Resistance would merge into a unified front in 1944 when the Allies invaded Normandy and would together help repel the Nazi occupiers but the previous divisions in the resistance movement returned to French politics after the war's end ultimately three major political parties emerged from the end of World War II in France which represented the three distinct political positions in the new French Republic the first was the movement Republican popular or the MRP the MRP was a Christian Democratic party that appealed

to French right and Center right voters throughout French history the primary right-wing party often shifted depending on the president or the mood of the time and the MRP would be no exception the MRP would become politically obsolete by the late 50s being overtaken by the rising goalist movement led by Future long-standing president and French figurehead chalde gold from the late 50s until about the late 60s although he was briefly the president immediately after the liberation of France between mid-1944 and 1946 The Goat would dramatically step down due to protests against his efforts to centralize the

French State directly under his authority the centralization of power under the president would be a continuing Trend throughout the history of the goldest movement with the goal movement on pause the MRP emerged as the ubiquitous right-leaning party in post-war France the second major political allegiance in post-war France was the French Communist party or the PCF according to researcher Daniel gancer the PCF was the second largest Communist party in Western Europe at the war's end only taught by Italy's communist PCI party much like in Italy communism was broadly popular in post-war France due to the militant

resistance to the Nazi occupiers by the communist resistance Fighters during the war and this was coupled with the Communist Party strong base within the French working class especially in the unions in the south of the country which we'll be discussing much more in the next episode and finally the third political affiliation was the French Socialist Party which was a center to center-left party that represented typical European Social Democratic positions the French Socialist Party often did not stand for the same revolutionary ethos as the French Communists instead taking a conciliatory position favoring reformism and the establishment

of a welfare state throughout France's Cold War history the French Socialist Party would even help expand gladio furthermore under socialist president vesa Ariel France joined NATO in 1949 cementing the French Socialist Party as a workable Ally to the emerging american-led Western order to the British and American power Brokers the political situation in post-war France was tenuous and worrisome in 1944 the former resistance fighters in the Communist Party handed their guns to Dago's shortly-lived post-war provisional government in return for two positions in his early cabinet in Spring 1945 the situation escalated as the Communist Party won

a majority in the French Municipal elections of that year with 30 percent of the vote compared to the MRP the right-leading party who won 15 percent and the French socialists who won 11 in October 1945 the Communists again won a large share of the vote in the first post-war national elections obtaining 26 percent of the vote Nationwide compared to the Socialists 23 percent and mrp's 22 percent despite winning a plurality of votes in the election however childago's government refused to give any PCF members key cabinet positions the militant Communists protested loudly in Parliament and were

reluctantly assigned to four Ministries one of which was the ministry of State essentially France's Diplomatic Corps in this capacity the French Communists strongly denounced the evolving French colonial war in Indochina going against the gold and the French military establishment's policy of maintaining their Southeast Asian colonies these tight election results and deep tension within Parliament exemplified the fundamentally polarized state of post-war France but also raised serious concerns amongst the Western Victors of the second world war as France appeared to be at risk of drifting from their orbit Jefferson Caffrey the U.S ambassador to France at the

time sent several alarming reports to President Truman in 1946 on the situation in France this same sentiment was echoed by General Hoyt vanen work and in November 1946 member to the president you'll remember Vandenberg as the Director of the Central Intelligence group The short-lived precursor to the CIA Vandenberg noted that quote the Communists have sufficient strength to seize power in France whenever they may deem it desirable to do so interestingly he also flagged the Communists adherence to French electoralism noting that their strength came from one their appreciation that it is preferable to attain Power by

legal means and two the fact that to do so would be contrary to the present policy of the Kremlin in this memo Vandenberg clearly indicates that the French Communists remained popular due to their adherence to democratic means of power instead of relying on armed insurgencies or coups to gain control the situation in France was grave for the Western Powers auction was to be taken the first confirmed gladio operation in France began to form in late 1946 and into 1947. during this period and into the early 50s French organized labor became increasingly militant as wages stagnated

and austerity measures were rolled out in the immediate post-war years unrest began to spread to the communist and socialist Rank and file in the French unions as the working class began to mobilize the French government quietly reorganized their intelligence apparatus abolishing the previous Direction generally which was made up of members of all three major parties and created the sdece France's new intelligence agency filled with Hardline cold Warriors the seven documentation exterior is espionage or the sdece alongside with the CIA and SAS collaborators would help organize the first French gladio operation codenamed prambler or the blue

plan prabler was initially revealed and subsequently foiled on June 30th 1947 when minister of the Interior eduard De Pere representing the French Socialist Party stated in Parliament that a secret far-right army of covert cells were planning a right-wing coup later that Summer according to his allegations the CIA and British intelligence had covertly supported the formation of a secret underground Army according to Ganser the official investigation into plant blur was led by French intelligence themselves with the investigations headed by the director of the sdece at the time's investigation concluded that quote the arms which were found

all over the country had been paid in part by London and Washington yet they had been provided to resist the Communist and not to Stage a coup d'etat following the revelations a series of high-profile arrests were undertaken across France most notably the arrest of Earl edme de vill Pian was a minor Noble in the French province of Brittany upon his arrest police searched his castle in the town of nambar where they found heavy Weaponry battle orders and attack plans most notably with the inclusion of an early mention of a strategy of tension within these plans

the strategy of tension would become a core component in gladio operations across Europe but most famously in Italy during the years of lead between the 1960s and the 1980s the strategy of tension was essentially the use of false flag terror attacks perpetrated by gladio cells that ultimately ended up being blamed on the left this strategy worked to push for popular support of further security measures by the government in this artificially tense environment many researchers dispute the veracity of the strategy of tension as the main piece of primary evidence of its existence is U.S army field

manual 3031b which is a classified appendix to a U.S army field manual that outlines the strategy of tension the state department has claimed that it is a forgery and likely a Soviet hoax others such as CIA analyst Ray Klein and many many italian whistleblowers have claimed that it is in fact a real document they were given this appendix by U.S officials this remains a hotly debated topic but circumstantial evidence from the years of lead in Italy does corroborate the strategy outlined therein if any anything the use of this language in the plum blur papers exemplifies

how gladio strategies were implemented early in the Cold War and how the strategy of tension was at the heart of this specific plot alongside Earl edmed davidpian the French newspaper Le Monde also noted that two other high-profile French officials were arrested for collaboration on Pablo the first was French chief of the military police Maris guillando this exemplified the close bonds between the underground gladio networks and the French Security State more interesting to our episode however was the arrest of je lustano La Co the former leader of the kagur military organization Nickelodeon's involvement in this early

gladio plot shows a direct link between the marginal fascist underground of pre-war France and the institutionally supported gladio operations that were unfolding in the end both of these men were released from prison after six months and lustana was even given the distinguished service order by the British while in prison this seems to hinder the foreign involvement in the penabler plot or at least tacit support from the British establishment the failure of penabler did not deter the intelligence agencies from pursuing further gladio operations as we will explore later in this part before we do however I

want to take a slight detour to explore the potential organizational elements of these operations while gladio is beginning to develop in France the CIA was intimately involved in the creation and funding of secretive and often opaque pan-european forums of cooperation two of these forums which we'll uncover in the next section of this video found their origins in post-war France and many of the familiar faces of the early CIA were deeply involved in its creation these forums would allow Washington and London's power Brokers to reach into the European political and aristocratic establishments to provide support for

further operations as the second world war came to a close in 1945 the battle lines of the Cold War specifically the division of Germany were already drawn in the sand for the anglo-american establishment Germany was the centerpiece to the new cold war that was to emerge the greatest fear was that the U.S American and french-controlled West German state would drift away from Allied orbit after the occupation and become a potential neutral power in the growing Cold War this outcome could lead to economic cooperation with East Germany and the Soviet Union or the worst nightmare scenario

a reunification of Germany under a red flag to counter this possibility the Americans and the British focused broadly on a two-tiered plan firstly the Allies needed to facilitate a Reconciliation between France and Germany although in 1945 France and Germany were largely reduced to Rubble at full strength they both represented the economic and Industrial powerhouses of Continental Europe therefore the line of thinking went that if France and West Germany were able to reconcile and rebuild their destroyed countries cooperatively that the shared economic Revival of both nations would lead to a bond between both States and thus

a western capitalist bulwark to the Warsaw Pact countries this line of thinking was essentially what led to the Marshall Plan in 1948 which saw the disbursement of billions of dollars to the Western European States namely France West Germany and Italy to ensure their re-industrialization and the gradual integration of the European economy thus leading to a closer relations between the former World War Rivals now now I did mention that this was a two-step plan the second and far more idealistic objective of the American and British establishments was to develop a pan-europa or a Federated Europe to

counter the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact today the European Union has in many ways achieved this goal of a unified Western European quasi-state but what is often overlooked is that this idea has been perpetuated by the British and American power elite since even before the second world war these currents began to re-emerge once the war had ended at the time however in the war-torn continent the idea of a Federated Europe was largely unpopular especially in regards to the integration of Germany and Italy the two aggressors in the second world war this of course is where the

CIA stepped in in 1948 while Bill Donovan the former head of the office of strategic Services the wartime predecessor to the CIA founded the American Committee on United Europe or the acue Donovan at this point was legally a private citizen and a Wall Street lawyer but as we have covered extensively to this point he continued to work closely with the CIA as an asset for the years to come as chairman of this new organization Donovan hired first of course Alan Dulles the future director of the CIA under Eisenhower as his vice chairman and Walter beedle

Smith who would become the director of the CIA in 1950 for Truman's last two years in office as well according to the telegraph's 2000 article he also hired a roster of xoss figures and officials who moved in and out of the CIA this clearly points to this organization being a CIA cutout and a key fixture in the cia's mounting information war in Western Europe Richard J Aldrich at the University of Nottingham wrote a fantastic scholarly article about the AC UE in 1997 which is available for free at the link below Aldrich claims that the acue

sought to promote European federalism in the pan-europa movement across Europe through front groups and lobbying networks in NATO countries Aldrich outlines the major requirements from these groups to receive support from the CIA front firstly the group had to support the strength thinning of the Council of Europe which remains to this day a central piece of the European Federal project secondly the groups had to be in accordance with the rollout of the Marshall Plan the Mutual Security Act in NATO and NATO more broadly third front groups gaining acue support had to be in favor of West

German integration into a unified Europe and finally and maybe most importantly to our series groups supported by the acue quote must not be in opposition to the foreign policy of the United States this last point is especially concerning given that America's foreign policy at the time in Europe involved the CIA helping to establish stay behind armies in France interfering in the Italian election of 1948 as we saw in part 5.1 and as we will see in a future episode I promise arming ruthless monarchist militias in the Greek Civil War as far as gladio is concerned

the acue was specifically funding and supporting groups that were in full accordance with Washington's meddling in European Affairs therefore this CIA front worked to create a favorable environment for the unfolding of gladio throughout the Cold War of course these tenets would remain secretive and obscure at the time and were only uncovered later by researchers such as Richard Aldrich and David teacher who we will discuss later funding for the acue reportedly came primarily from the CIA but was also provided by powerful American internationalist think tanks such as the Rockefeller and the Ford foundations as the CIA

grew Alan Dulles deputy director of the agency at the time was convinced by a Special Assistant Thomas Braden to create the international organization division which Consolidated all CIA funding for front groups and propaganda efforts into one directorate accordingly in the spring of 1951 Thomas Braden was made head of the new Division and he got to work funding the acue and Associated pan-european groups Thomas Braden for his part was an instrumental figure of the cia's information campaign Braden would later have a storied history working under operation Mockingbird which was the cia's covert domestic propaganda program under

the Mockingbird umbrella he would be octave in American Media firstly as the publisher of Oceanside newspaper which he purchased in 1954 with a hundred thousand dollar loan from one Nelson Rockefeller and later as the Creator and host of CNN's show Crossfire a political debate Show featuring a liberal and a conservative pundit just for the record Tom Braden was the liberal pundit on the first Crossfire Series alongside Pat Buchanan a longtime paleo conservative who worked as a special advisor in the Nixon Ford and Reagan administrations CIA agent Tom Braden will come up in our next episode

when we look at the French Connection as he worked to pacify the docks and help the Corsican Mafia take control in the early 1950s by 1954 Braden was replaced as the head of the international organizations division of the CIA by another important figure cord Meyer if you're at all familiar with the Kennedy assassination you'll recognize cord Meyer as the husband of Mary pinchelmeyer who would famously have an affair with JFK Mary pinchelmeyer would be mysteriously killed almost a year after Kennedy's assassination and the ghost himself James Jesus Angleton head of counterintelligence the CIA would help

cover up the details of her murder we'll go much deeper into that in a later episode I just wanted to highlight this future connection as one final note on the American Committee on United Europe before moving on to a much darker and shadowy CIA funded Forum I want to highlight a quote from CIA agent cord Meyer later in life long after he served as head of the international organization's division at the CIA Meyer stated in a reference to acue funded groups quote European political and cultural leaders who solicited our Aid made it a condition that

there be no publicity since the Communist propaganda machine could exploit any overt evidence of official American Support as proof that they were puppets of American imperialism this quote is indicative of the nuanced understanding of the cimn of the goals of their campaign and the potential criticism from their opponents the goal was to create a unified political security Community within the perceived U.S dominated Western sphere by pushing for further integration and federalism Within These disparate states the U.S could more easily form a consensus amongst its new allies regarding foreign policy and incidentally the need for a

gladio stay behind as we will see throughout this series right wing and center-left parties would equally support the formation and continuation of gladio organizations at the behest of American and British intelligence through the Marshall Plan and the AC UE the United States intelligence apparatus worked to create solid allies amongst the distinct European States and thus allowed the U.S to dominate European security policy throughout much of the Cold War now in this next chapter I want to go deeper into the underworld to discuss an extremely clouded and Sinister CIA adjacent project that still persists to this

day in the penultimate section of this video we will be exploring the origins of resell otherwise known as La selk Pine let's go talking about lasak is difficult as it remains so secretive and subterfuge that as researchers we have little in terms of concrete information about the organization at least during its early years at the beginning of the Cold War the South has been covered sparsely in the European press as in the German magazine Dash Spiegel and the British newspaper the independent which I will pull from when discussing this clandestine group in this section I

also want to point towards the book Rogue agents by David teacher David teacher was a former translator for the European Union who became a whistleblower uncovering and leaking primary documents relating to underground organizations across Western Europe Rogue agents is available online for free and I've linked it to it below the book acts more as a Rosetta Stone for navigating this complex underground web of elite European forums I will say that his work provides little in terms of analysis or editorial as he simply lays out all the facts and players without any Frills it's a fantastic

resource that I recommend you check out although it can be easy to get lost in this lengthy documentation of these links according to teacher Le Salk which translates to the circle was founded in either 1952 or 1953 by then prime minister of France Antoine Pine and Chancellor of West Germany Conrad Adenauer as a secret forum for franco-german cooperation penne established the silk around the same time that the infamous Bilderberg Group was being formed in 1954 as the Bilderberg hotel in the Netherlands of course penne would also be a member of this shadowy Elite society as

well according to a web page on the royal family of Serbia's website which is a very strange Source I've linked it below it might not last long which advertises that a laselk meeting was hosted in the Royal Palace in 2004. they claimed that the group is made up of largely European and American members of parliament diplomats members of the intelligence Community commentators lawyers and businessmen from over 25 countries the site continues to note that the group meets twice a year once in Washington DC and once overseas in Henny van vorn's book apartheid guns and money

he claims that unearthly self documents found in South African archives indicate that the meetings exclusively took place in Washington and Europe except for one meeting in South Africa which will see soon why that's relevant and one puzzling meeting held in the Obscure Middle Eastern country of Oman van Vernon continues by stating that LE Salk was put in place to facilitate secret talks between French and German officials to discuss social and economic integration throughout its existence the group's politics shifted between conservatism and hard right-wing Visions maybe most interestingly was Van veren's claim that the organization is

deeply tied to the Catholic secret society Opus day and the Knights of Malta and use these pre-existing networks as a blueprint for their operations of course for our Series this is very interesting given the vaticans Deep ties to gladio networks which we outlined in the first part of this series finally according to the Serbian royal family website quote the meetings of the silk are never publicized and everything that is said is off the Record the group is a serious-minded one that seeks in-depth analysis and discussion end quote as the group evolved it moved towards facilitating

a series of causes such as the promotion of the French Empire specifically in Algeria and Lebanon and most famously continuing support for apartheid South Africa throughout the 70s and 80s according to Van Vern's book on the subject laselk operated as a quasi-intelligence outfit in the apartheid state circumventing the South African intelligence services to undertake its own independent operations through front groups and shell companies this function of the self is reminiscent of other private intelligence groups and firms that would rise throughout the Cold War such as the French and saudi-led Safari Club focused on private intelligence

in Africa and the Western goals Foundation an organization founded by former U.S general John singlop which was a private intelligence firm that worked to funnel funds and arms to the contras in Nicaragua more on singlaub in the next episode returning to the founding of LaSalle in Rogue agents teacher-associated penne's formation of naselk with his close political consultant Parisian lawyer and deep State operative jean-vire finding information on Viada is incredibly difficult he is essentially an empty void in history what I could find however was fascinating Viola would help found leselt with pine and Adenauer in the

early 50s and would also serve as its second chairman succeeding Piney in the early 70s a now archived article from Der Spiegel published in 1982 states that Viada kept intimate contacts with American and French intelligence but maybe most interestingly Viada was a close confidante to Reinhard Galen if Hitler's former spymaster on the Eastern front and the leader of the Galen org a component of the gladio stay behind in West Germany you will remember Reinhard Galen from episode 2 of this series as Alan Dulles helped him Escape Germany and maintain his Network during the last years

of the war according to die Spiegel Galen had advertised Viada as a quote special connection and paid him some 6 000 Deutsche marks a year the article in dirsh beagle bases its reporting on a testimony by Hans langman a German intelligence officer who turned whistleblower in 1980. the reports about this affair from the Bavarian parliament are still available on their website which I linked Below on the webpage the reports are under the 9th and 10th electoral terms section on the page it'll make sense once you get there langman claimed additionally that he once paid 30

000 Deutsche marks directly to villare on behalf of Galen for the purposes of the South langman would eventually serve nine months in prison for his Revelations this Galen connection points to one source of funding for the South but other sources have also claimed that the CIA was allegedly involved in its financing much later in 1997 UK Tory Member of Parliament Jonathan Aitkin and former chairman of naselk would be ousted from the group following several high-profile political scandals following his release from the group the British newspaper the independent undertook some investigation into the group they reported

that according to fellow Tory Member of Parliament Alan Clark's diary which he published in the late 1990s an asselt is an Atlantis Society of right-wing dignitaries and a right-wing Think Tank funded by the CIA which churns out cold war concept the CIA funding source is not surprising as the article continues to name members of the silk such as former directors of the CIA William Casey and William Colby Henry Kissinger and former President Nixon after his time in office and of course according to Van Buren David Rockefeller and finally Brian Crozier who has a lengthy resume

of deep political activities in the UK most notably as the head of the information research Department in the UK Foreign Service which was allegedly a secret propaganda arm of the British foreign office in 1979 Crozier presented a planning paper to nasak that he later Declassified and was subsequently reported in the independent now I want to preface this with a huge warning on the authenticity of this piece Crozier was deeply embedded in the British Security State and worked for much of his life as a propagandist I cannot say for sure that what he reported was a

real lisselt document but the objectives presented were by no means whitewashing the intent of the group The listed objectives included one undercover Financial transactions for political aims two International campaigns aiming to discredit hostile personalities or events three the creation of an intelligence service presumably private specializing in a selective point of view and finally four the establishment of offices under suitable cover each run by a coordinator from the central office it goes on to say that current plans cover London Washington Paris Munich and Madrid even if a fraction of these objectives are true the influence of

the self on global events cannot be overlooked despite us having little view into the practical application of these tenets this whole section may appear unsatisfying as we are still largely in the dark regarding the self's actual activities how ever I wanted to highlight the creation of this group to exemplify the institutional depth of European Politics on the surface we're CIA funded front groups such as the American Committee for United Europe that pushed it for consensus on European politics and foreign policy closely aligned to an anglo-american agenda in the background and largely in the shadows existed

forums such as the South made up of the most elite members of the western ruling class the existence and perpetuity of these secret meetings indicates a long-standing tradition of cooperation and a unified mission additionally Javier lets closeness to Galen indicates a link between franco-german integration and the stay behind networks that Galen was so closely associated with in Germany first with the werewolves in Nazi Germany and Lander under the U.S funded Galen orc that would eventually turn into the West German intelligence service the bdnd furthermore La selk's future activities as a private intelligence group hints at

close ties between the Western intelligence apparatus and the shadowy Forum founded by Pine and odenour MP Alan Clark stated in no uncertain terms that the CIA was its main beneficiary all that to say that clandestine activity was rising in post-war Europe and in France the CIA was heavily invested in the final chapter of this episode and the final chapter of this mini-series I want to look into what the gladio underground was like in France and discussed the concept of gladio as a whole what we've learned so far and some alternative views of the gladio project

foreign stay behind Network in France is often overshadowed by the significantly more prominent and research gladio Network in Cold War Italy following the foiled plumler the French intelligence services and the CIA got to work organizing a new stay behind that was given several code names according to Gerald in his academic paper on gladio for the santro Francis the French gladio program was simultaneously referred to as either alcaziel or rainbow mission 48 named for the year it was founded or most famously Rose de van which means Compass allegedly named after the NATO Insignia agua traces the

origins of the Rose Devon Network to two French Special Forces officers who recruited one the owner of a small Sugar Company in Guillen he would eventually found the company gener which would be awarded the first license to manufacture Coca-Cola in France kosov is the most famous character that is directly linked to the gladio underground in France during the war he was briefly a member of a Vichy militia known as the celvis daldra or the legionary order which acted as a paramilitary force within the Nazi aligned vishi regime in 1943 he switched sides and joined the

resistance movement later claiming that he was working as a spy for the resistance in the legionary militia regardless of whether he was truly aligned to the legionaries or not this clearly indicated his closer contacts with several useful allies for recruitment in the post-war Rose Devon underground the grossov was the leader of the Rose deiva cell India in Southeastern France according to an interview he gave a year before his reported suicide in 1994 and four years after the gladio program was revealed by Italian Prime Minister andreotti the ghosts who have claimed that while the program was

active he was in contact with utmost 10 people at one time within the network and that everyone below those 10 people were unaware of his involvement this anecdote points to an effective clandestine cell structure not unlike Insurgency movements or Guerrilla armies agua further explains in his article The Rose De vas structure saw France split into multiple zones each headed by an intelligence official much like a pyramid scheme the intelligence officials would hire a group of underlings that reported directly to them this would reproduce itself down the line with the underlings hiring three more men below

them thus multiplying the network without any links between the top and the bottom agua shares the picture on screen in his article which is a foia document released in 1999 from the cia's European division this diagram is for organization zipper which was a joint CIA BND program which involved Reinhardt Galen the famous originator of the werewolf program in Germany this structure shows how gladio was likely organized through a pyramid structure of independent cells that had little knowledge of who was above or below them this structure is further corroborated in a very rare and largely scrubbed

article from an April 6 1992 issue of the nation magazine originally I had only found this Source on an obscure website called The Free Library by farlex I could not find the original article until one of my patreon supporters was kind enough to share a PDF of the article that they tracked down there's a link to the transcription on the Free Library below and for posterity I'll be posting the entire article as written in the nation in 1992 on my Twitter page so make sure to check that out if you're interested in the article investigative

journalist Jonathan quinty was able to interview former CIA officer Edward Barnes who testified to his involvement in Jose Von networks Barnes claims in the article that quote the French program consisted of several dozen men individually recruited by the agency each of whom was to build a small network of his own recruits end quote he also claimed that he could only meet with at most 10 recruits in the network at one time again corroborating the cell structure outlined above these pieces of research and evidence give us a fairly complete picture of what a typical gladio stay

behind Force looked like largely decentralized massively covert and adoptable if one Link in the chain of command fell the entire network did not fall with it however as I mentioned at the beginning of this section Jose Devon is rarely discussed and often overshadowed by its Italian and Belgian counterparts this is because Jose VA was relatively short-lived with some such as retired CIA agent Edward Barnes claiming it was ordered to be closed down as early as 1953. others such as Constantin Melnick a security advisor for the dagod government in the 50s and 60s and an employee

at the Rand Corporation a pentagon-funded think tank stated that the Dogo administration had ordered the shutdown of Rose Devon in 1959 because he felt threatened by the rising militancy in the network this was one year after a group of Rogue Army generals orchestrated a failed coup attempt against the French government for their new conciliatory approach to the Algerian civil war known as the May 1958 crisis following the event dagod would return to power and created the French fifth Republic with a new constitution accordingly by at the latest 1959 gladio was largely over in France allegedly

shut down by dagod as we will see in the next part much of the pacification of Communists in France was undertaken by other means such as the mafia and rival unions and not the gladio network however there's one last interesting little story I want to cover as we complete our investigation of gladio as we just mentioned the go to security advisor Constantine Melnick was ordered by dagogue to shut down Jose Von in 1959. this order came following an attempted coup by pro-colonial French forces in Algeria the year before well according to French newspaper lefiago in

December 1959 the goat's main advisor for France's African policy Jacques foka founded the sevis daxion Civic or the sac which translates the Civic action services this organization which was centralized under the president was essentially a secret police force controlled directly by the president of France due to fears regarding the potential connection between Jose Devon and the 1958 coup attempt to go work to consolidate France's secret paramilitary Network under his control cutting out the CIA and NATO entirely nonetheless dagos Sac would be embroiled in several scandals throughout its short existence between 1959 and 1981. many researchers

speculate that the sac was responsible for The Disappearance of Medi Ben barca in 1965. a Moroccan nationalist who led a movement against Morocco's nascent monarchy most shocking was in 1981 when five Sac Commandos were sentenced to 15 years and life sentences for the brutal murder of Jacques Massey and his family in their home following his investigation into the organization's corruption this massacre led to the disbandment of sec in 1982. one year after the election of socialist president Francois miterra miterra would go on to employ his close personal friend and mentor and a man we talked

about earlier the leader of Jose Von gladio forces in Lyon who would act as a personal counselor to the president of course this was the 1980s and the Iran-Contra era so the kosov was most famous for his work in the arms trade in Lebanon and Syria and would be known for his personal ties to both countries by 1985 de grossov was no longer working for the mitehang government and instead worked the rest of his life for arms Trader maxo in 1990 while miterhan was still president the gladio Scandal would be revealed by Italian Prime Minister

giulio andrioti and in 1994 the kosov was found dead in his apartment it was ruled aside but the investigators found two bullet holes and in a nutshell that is gladio in France I hope you all enjoyed this three-part investigation into gladio I surely did we covered a lot of ground in this series and I promise we will return to gladio again in time we saw firstly the inter melding of Mafia types in the CIA in Italy to place the gladio-friendly Christian democrats in power in Italy next we investigated the use of blackmail as a passive

tool of control in the United States but also as a key tool to consolidate the gladio web especially later in the 80s and finally today we covered the informational aspect of gladio how pan-europeanism played an instrumental role in creating a unified policy across the continent and how the cell structure of the program worked in practice hopefully the series has helped you better understand the events of the early Cold War in Western Europe now just to finish up here I want to start off by thanking my patrons for all their ongoing support you really helped me

do what I do and make ends meet your support has allowed me to buy several books that I have been eyeing for a while now so thank you so much those books will appear in the next episodes I promise if you enjoyed this episode or any of the videos on my Channel please consider supporting me on patreon I make no money from YouTube ad Revenue so every little bit helps immensely in making my fully independent Productions in the next part of this series we'll be going back to France starting a three-part expose on The French

Connection I know I promised that we would cover the French Connection in this episode but it is simply too vast to cover in one episode I wanted to finish our gladio investigation first and I want to do the French Connection Justice and three parts feels adequate as always I love hearing your thoughts in the comments I still read them all and I want to thank you for your kind words and constructive criticism as always a like goes a long way to help me in the algorithm subscribe if you haven't already new videos come out fairly

frequently for I think the length and the amount of effort I put in so thank you so much for watching everyone I hope you learned something today and there's many other videos on the channel that are equally as interesting I hope and as always remember to keep your eyes wide open take care [Music]