| Country: | Italy |
| Details of Formation: | The group was set up as early as 1947 with help from the CIA and British intelligence. |
| Details of Termination: | The group was discovered and exposed by an Italian judge in 1990, causing shock waves around Europe. |
| Purpose: | The group was intended as a fighting force prepared to counter a possible Warsaw Pact invasion. In this case, it was meant to conduct guerilla warfare and sabotage activities. |
| Organisation: | The PGM was coordinated by NATO and run by the Italian secret intelligence service in close cooperation with the CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service. |
| Weapons and Training: | The group trained with the US Green Berets and the British Special Air Services (SAS) and was equipped from underground arms caches. In Italy there was a training base in Sardinia. |
| Size: | -- |
| Reason for Membership: | Military personnel and civilians were both targeted for recruitment. |
| Treatment of Civilians: | -- |
| Other Information: | There was a training base in Sardinia and 139 arms caches were buried around Italy. There were possible but unconfirmed links to a secret masonic lodge type organization called P-2 who counted cabinet ministers, MPs and military officers as members. The PGM was accused of orchestrating a series of bombings attributed to Italian left-wing parties. The network of groups may have some semi-official status within the intelligence community. But this status was instead hidden even from some domestic governments and prime ministers. The groups were ultimately answerable to NATO-CIA rather than to domestic governments in event of attack by members of the Warsaw Pact. |
| References: |
Ganser, Daniele. 2006. “The Ghost of Machiavelli: An Approach to Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Cold War Italy” Crime Law and Social Change 45(2): 111 – 154. Information was taken from news sources listed in the PGMD. Wikipedia. Operation Gladio. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Gladio&oldid=763490893 |