| Country: | Austria |
| Details of Formation: | Since 1947, the US recruited senior Austrian Nazis to build a secret communications network. A successor of this network and intents was Operation Gladio, which was organized by NATO in the 1950s. Wikipedia mentions that it was first created by the far-right Soucek and Rössner, who were uncovered and sentenced (but pardoned) for their undertakings. It was re-created again later by Franz Olah in cooperation with the MI6 and CIA (Wikipedia). |
| Details of Termination: | Operation Gladio was directed at Cold War threats to Austria. Gladio operations ceased in 1990. That same year, the Gladio armies were uncovered all around Europe. While the Austrian government first denied Gladio existence in Austria, the Boston Globe revealed in 1996 the former presence of Gladio in Austria. (Wikipedia) |
| Purpose: | Gladio’s purpose was to have armed and trained resistance fighters ready to fight in case the Soviet Union or its Warsaw Pact allied invaded. It could then have started a guerrilla war. Other advantages of the group were that it could collect intelligence and carry out offensive sabotage activities. An important relative advantage was the group’s secrecy and clandestine existence. |
| Organisation: | The European Gladio network was organized by NATO. Only very highly positioned politicians and some members of the union knew about Gladio in Austria (Wikipedia). |
| Weapons and Training: | The CIA had hidden more than 80 secret caches of US weapons to be used by Gladio in case of a communist attack. These caches contained machine guns, explosives and radio equipment. Gladio received training from the United States. This included training in the use of weapons and plastic explosives (Wikipedia). |
| Size: | A couple of thousand people worked for Gladio in Austria (Wikipedia). |
| Reason for Membership: | The US recruited former SS personnel and neo Nazis who were confirmed anti-communists that the US believed to can rely on in case of a fight against the Russians. |
| Treatment of Civilians: | -- |
| Other Information: | The network of groups may have some semi-official status within the intelligence community. But this status is not recognized but hidden even from some domestic governments and prime ministers. The groups were ultimately answerable to NATO-CIA rather than domestic governments in event of an attack by Warsaw Pact. |
| References: | Wikipedia. “Operation Gladio”. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operation_Gladio&oldid=876810883 |