Stay-behind in Belgium
The clandestine networks of NATO during the Cold war, known as Stay-behind , were active in the near total of the countries of Western Europe, of which the Belgium. Revealed in Italy on October 24th, 1990 by the president of the Council Giulio Andreotti under the name Gladio ( Sword in Italian), these networks Paramilitaire S aimed at preparing in the event of Soviet invasion, in particular by the means of installation of drainage systems and drive with the Guerre of partisans. Masks of weapons at the disposal of these secret armies were hidden a little everywhere on the European territory.
Organization
In Belgium, two networks will exist as of January 1949; the first depend one on the State security, civil intelligence service, is framed by the Training section and Communication (STC/MOB) and is responsible for the communication networks between Belgium and its allies; the second network depends on the section SDRA 8 of the Belgian military intelligence service and it charged with the organization of the military action.
A third network was between 1953 and the independence of the Belgian Congo charged to support the exfiltration of the Belgian government in the event of invasion towards this colony.
The groups dependant on the first networks will remain active until the end of the years 1980. It is the chief of the general Service of Information of the Belgian Armée, the general Raymond Van Calster, who will occupy the presidency of the CCA in 1990.
Its means and financing seem to be very limited and of the doubts were emitted by the commission of the Belgian Senate charged to inquire into its activities into the capacities of its networks to fulfill their mission.
Following the revelation of the existence of Gladio, Italy, the Swiss and Belgium reflects in place of the parliamentary commissions. In Belgium, some suspect that the Tueries of the Brabant, in the years 1980, were perpetrated by members related to the Belgian networks Stay-behind, which mixed with the elements of Extrême right-hand side with the secret services military (in particular the General Service of the Information and Safety, or SGR, which sheltered the SDRA8). The conclusions of the report of 1991 of the Senate on the activities of the Belgian network express that fact even of the nature of that Ci, criminal activities are hardly probable.
Since, a Standing Committee of control of the intelligence services (“Committee R”) was created by the law of the organic July 18th, 1991 to the control of the police services and information. The same law also established the Standing Committee of control of the police services (“Committee P”). The Administration of the State security, civil intelligence service which depend on the Minister for the Justice, and the General Service of the Information and Safety (SGR), military intelligence service which depends Staff on the armed forces, itself placed under the authority of the Minister for National defense, are the two Belgian services, from now on governed by the law of 1998.
Slaughters of the Brabant and Westland New Post
See also: Slaughters of the Brabant
According to the parliamentary commission, “during the years 1980, the country was shaken by a series of worrying events, even tragic, of which slaughters, called of the Walloon Brabant (19 attacks against individuals, establishments of large surfaces, 27 dead), attacks of the fighting communist Cellules (2 dead), the discovery of a line organization extreme ( Westland New Post ) infiltrated or handled by the State security, the setting at the day of a network secret, known as Gladio, operative with the support of the Belgian and foreign intelligence services. Many rumors and charges then circulated about the operation of the police services and the intelligence services. Collaboration and coordination between these services, and finally the effectiveness of those, posed many problems and caused many criticisms. ” Those led to the creation of a parliamentary committee of monitoring.
Paul Latinus, the founder of Westland New Post and itself reserve officer of the Air force, which attended military association Anti-communiste “the Brabant Reserve Officer Club” (PITCHER), declared with the journalist Rene Haquin:
“I was recruited at the 17 years age by a foreign organization of which the goal is to fight by all the means against Soviet Communism. I was initiated in 1973 with the against-espionage and the techniques of information by officer of NATO with Tongres. In 1977, I received the order to be introduced into the sphere of the Front of youth. My mission in 1980 was then to create in Belgium a group revanchist Nazi copied on the Waffen-SS. ”
New revelations burst in 1996
In 1996, an article of the daily newspaper the Evening made scandal by revealing that a basic plan of the military defense of Belgium, made up in August 1995, declared that “there does not exist any open threat in Belgium but there exists well a permanent clandestine threat” emanating from the “immigrant communities”. The plan of the ITC (territorial command interforces) envisaged the constitution of a spy network in order to infiltrate the civil society, to prevent actions of subversion of “agents or sympathizers” resulting “from circles diplomatic, cultural, commercial and religious” foreign in Belgium. Confronted with the charges of racism, the Belgian military authorities affirmed thereafter that they would modify the plan.
Just like the business of the antiterrorist Department of strategic studies (DSSA) in Italy, this plan of 1995 inclines to believe that the networks stay-behind were not completely dismantled since the revelation of Giulio Andreotti. In Italy, it is in July 2005 that the press learns the existence from the DSSA, a “structure of parapolice” installation by two leaders of the National union of the police force (Unpf), a trade union present in each service of the police force. The two chiefs, Gaetano Saya] and Riccardo Sindona, affirmed to be former members of Gladio. Apparently, Fabrizio Quattrochi, assassinated in Iraq after being taken as an hostage, was over there “on behalf of the DSSA”, according to Internet site - from now on closed - DSSA. According to the investigators, the DSSA tried to be made internationally admit in order to obtain financings for its parallel activities.
References
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