An Introduction to Gladio B - James Corbett on Breaking The Set

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.

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