What began as a secret plan to resist a Soviet invasion eventually became one of the most controversial intelligence operations of the Cold War. Known as Operation Gladio, the network consisted of hidden stay-behind armies established across Western Europe, stocked with buried weapons, covert communications, and civilian operatives prepared to wage guerrilla war if the Red Army ever occupied the continent.

But decades later, investigators uncovered evidence suggesting that parts of the network had drifted far from their original mission. In Italy, magistrate Felice Casson exposed links between neo-fascist extremists, intelligence agencies, and a campaign of bombings and assassinations designed to spread fear and manipulate public opinion.

Similar revelations emerged in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, and beyond, raising disturbing questions about secret armies operating beyond democratic oversight. This is the story of Operation Gladio, the Brabant Killers, the Strategy of Tension, buried NATO weapons caches, and the Cold War conspiracy that blurred the line between defending democracy and undermining it from within—one of the most controversial and enduring mysteries in modern European history.



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