GLADIO
Italian stay-behind. Andreotti named it in parliament, 24 October 1990. Casson had asked. Sister nets followed.
012°29'00 E
1. Public Record
24 October 1990, Italian Chamber. Giulio Andreotti read a paper. A stay-behind structure existed. Gladio. Sword. About 622 names, 40 cells, born under SIFAR in the 1950s after an American approach he dated to 1951. Caches in the north-east. NATO coordination through the Clandestine Planning Committee and the Allied Clandestine Committee. Mandate, in his telling: a Soviet crossing. Not internal work. He wanted it wound down. The word had come up because Judge Felice Casson, on the 1972 Peteano bombing, had asked for personnel files Vinciguerra had named.
Other capitals then admitted cousins: SDRA 8, Absalon, Counter-Guerrilla, P-26. Washington said any Italian remnant was Italy's. Strategy-of-tension charges, that the net touched domestic bombs, remain the fight around the file. Andreotti denied the internal brief. Casson had not been looking for folklore. He had been looking for a name in a bombing case.
A parallel and occult structure which is said to have operated within our secret service.
2. Date of Incident
Stay-behind from the early Cold War. Public admission 24 October 1990.
3. Location
Rome, and caches in the north-east. Approximate 41°54 N 012°29 E.
4. Official Narrative
Andreotti: real, NATO-tied, external brief, scale it down. Official narrative after 1990 is that the caption existed. What it touched inside Italy is the open half.
5. Witness Layer
Andreotti. Casson. Vinciguerra as the man who said the word in a courtroom. Sister nets in other capitals.
More than 600 people remain on the payroll.
If there are allegations that the CIA was involved in terrorist activities in Italy, they are absolute nonsense.
6. Recovery Logistics
Andreotti's ten-page note. Senate paper. No single warehouse tour the public was given.
7. Assessment
A stay-behind file that a bombing judge pulled into the light. Keep the 1990 admission. Keep the other capitals. Do not write every Italian atrocity into Gladio. Do not write Gladio as only a box of rifles for a Russian morning that never came. Casson's question is why the name left the building.
8. Materials & Remains
Parliamentary text. Later histories. Cache talk without a public inventory.
9. Key Personnel
Giulio Andreotti : The admission.
Felice Casson : The request.
Vincenzo Vinciguerra : The word in court.
10. Aftermath
Sister services named themselves. Gladio became the cover-word for all of them. The tension thesis did not retire.
11. Current Archive Status
Status: Italian stay-behind. Named in parliament, 24 October 1990. Sister nets followed.
Confidence: High that Gladio existed as Andreotti described the caption and the payroll. High that NATO had coordinating committees. Low that every domestic bombing has been shown to sit on that payroll. Low that the external-only brief is the whole brief.
Filing note
A judge on a 1972 bomb, a name in a testimony, a prime minister of seven terms reading ten pages, six hundred men still paid, other capitals clearing their throats. The sword was not a rumour after that afternoon.
He read it aloud. Not a leak. A man who had held the file deciding the Chamber would hear the caption before the judge finished pulling it.