If somebody told you that way back in 1947, the OSS [precursor to the CIA] formed an alliance with former Nazi SS officers, the Vatican bank and the Sicilian Mafia to protect Western Europe from a potential Soviet invasion – you might think it sounds crazy.

What if somebody told you that they bankrolled this little endeavor through drug trafficking from Southeast Asia and Afghanistan?

You’d probably dismiss the idea as the ravings of some crazy anti-American conspiracy theorist…

BUT YOU’D BE WRONG.

GLADIO was a paramilitary network established after World War Two, originally inspired by fear of an impending Soviet invasion. It utilized what were referred to as “Stay behind” networks because if the Red Army did invade Europe, its members were trained to stay behind enemy lines and disrupt the Soviet advance. GLADIO was responsible for bombings, kidnappings and assassinations throughout the 70s, committing terrorist acts across the continent.

This included the assassination of Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro a left pf center Christian Democrat.

GLADIO was adapted in the mid-1990s as GLADIO B, using “Muslim terrorists” as a substitute for communists.

This unholy alliance between the CIA, the Vatican banks and the Mob, dating back to the dying years of World War II resulted in untold death, suffering, financial loss, and decades of political strife in Italy. The highest echelons of the future CIA (Allen Dulles, John McCone, Bill Donovan, Reinhard Gehlen…) were concerned that if the Communists gained a foothold in the Italian elections it could lead to the “domino effect” and all of Europe could soon become Soviet satellites.

The newly created CIA was in dire need of funding. For several years following WWII, the CIA’s Civil Air Transport had been ferrying heroin to and from assets in SE Asia. CIA station Chief Paul Helliwell came up with the idea of selling smack to the negroes in Harlem to fund the agency’s illegal, off-the-books misadventures. Helliwell and his cohorts in the Sicilian and Corsican mafia became global heroin distributors on behalf of the ‘enterprise.’

The success of Operation GLADIO began with the partnership between the OSS (CIA) and gangster Lucky Luciano in 1947. They formed a drug/ heroin empire that would place the CIA at the center of international drug trafficking.

These co-conspirators are basically responsible for creating the heroin drug culture in the jazz clubs in NY City, Los Angeles, Chicago and inner cities all over America. They used the vast resources of the Vatican bank to launder billions of dollars in drug profits from the Mob and CIA sources. With the help of mob kingpins such as Lucky Luciano (freed from prison by the allies following several years of incarceration by Mussolini) the thugs quickly and methodically killed off anyone who questioned their activities or tried to bring public attention to their criminality.

Right-wing terror cells were maintained by the OSS after WWII as a bulwark against the communists in Italy and France under operation GLADIO. The Mafia leaders were (and remain) tools of the CIA. This led to widespread political corruption and decades of bloodshed in Italy, the “Years of Lead.”

Most of the world’s biggest drug Lords operate openly and with impunity, knowing they are protected by their CIA handlers. GLADIO is a cautionary tale that should serve as a template for any government seeking to correct past abuses by those in power upon those using such power to further their own vision of what constitutes ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

Of course, the destructive spiral of manipulation, fear and violence did not end with the fall of the Soviet Union or the exposure of the operation by the Italian media, but instead it gained momentum.

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, fear, chaos and violence continue to dominate headlines across the globe, and indeed, the consciousness of millions of people. The ‘Evil Communist’ of the Cold War era has swiftly been replaced with the ‘Evil Islamist’ since the never-ending War on Terror began.

It goes without saying that running a secret terrorist army funded with billions of dollars in laundered drug money entails grave risks which every democracy should seek to avoid.

It’s called BLOWBACK.