The Secret Armies of Europe

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[@IntotheShadows]

Get Surfshark VPN at Surfshark.deals/its - Enter promo code ITS for 83% off and 3 extra months for free!

[@Merc399]

communism is authoritarianism. Communism and fascism are brothers. Libertarianism is the opposite of authoritarianism, or anarchy could also be considered the opposite of authoritarianism.That false dichotomy you presented at 3:55 could itself be considered propaganda dude...

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

Academia and the establishment is one big SOB-U

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

@@Merc399 yup fascism is the tool used by socialist tyrants to stop full-blown communist. Its all in the authoritarian family but after ww2 they didn't want that to detour us from globalism as they seen it as a way to avoid future world war so they shared the guit onto parys left and right. That European scale never worked in USA until lately.

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

Assuming everyone is socialist and that's all that exist. Just one socialist authoritarian fighting another authoritarian socialist. Rather than a nepotist ruling body of communist its just a few less with greater power and control or we call them globalist today.

[@soonerfrac4611]

The OSI is the Air Force’s CRIMINAL investigation service. Yes, they do intelligence work, but for the most part they are the AF version of the FBI. They are the ones that investigate major crimes: sexual assault, murder, large drug cases, etc….

[@Bighawkeye46]

Definitely a piece of cold War history they don't highlight or cover in the US - this is the first I'm hearing of any of this. It's fascinating

[@martinottesen1053]

fascinating... and terrifying

[@Fuchswinter]

Neither do they in Germany, this is wild

[@andrewdeen1]

@@Fuchswinter they did the munich oktoberfest bombing.. guldolf kohler. they used nato explosives.

[@idhunepijl2398]

@@Fuchswinter Same in the Netherlands, I've always been interested in history, it wasnt ever mentioned in regular schooling, I only learned about it through my father years after finishing school.

[@idhunepijl2398]

@@andrewdeen1 Don't know the exact story anymore but I'm pretty sure criminals in the Netherlands in the 80's somehow got access to these caches. Never proven and if I remember correctly the 'investigation' was actively surpressed by the government, of course.

[@stephenkwasek1933]

Really dig the silent get off the stool and walk away ending. It's badass

[@IntotheShadows]

Badass is my nature. Not really.

[@FirstNameLastName-rh6zc]

@@IntotheShadows I guess unless you mean it like you can't get it to just sit still for a moment, so it's a bad ass.

[@danelynch7171]

Simon is always such a skeptic of all this conspiracy type stuff that it warms my heart when the writers lay out such a compelling case that even Simon gets suspicious.

[@IntotheShadows]

It's also my favourite bit as well. I'm naturally skeptical, but I keep an open mind, and probably just need a slightly bigger weight of evidence than most :)

[@danelynch7171]

@@IntotheShadows you've got a great team around you. Thanks for all the wonderful content.

[@pedrovascodeoliveiraveriss6293]

Something, Conspiracies DO Happen!

[@monkeydank7842]

@@IntotheShadows Would folding@home be a topic, maybe for Megaprojects? It’s an interactive project to decode proteins which set several records for fastest and biggest computer of the world.

[@disorganizedorg]

@@monkeydank7842 Or if there's not enough meat on that subject, a discussion of such distributed projects generally... probably the first very widely known one that average people participated in was seti@home

[@JFDA5458]

I can confirm the role of 23 SAS as an SBU. In the seventies, my older brother left the Paras and returned to civilian life where he attempted to join 23 SAS. During his training he was told that in the event of a war it's job would be to operate behind enemy lines, carrying out acts of sabotage, assassination, and reconnaissance against Warsaw Pact units as they moved through Germany. He only told me this in 1998 a few years before his death and several years after Giulio Andreotti made his revelations about Gladio.

[@coloradohikertrash9958]

so did my dad

[@deeznuttz905]

atta boy tell the family secret online so the people he did dirty can come and find you and your family

[@JFDA5458]

@@deeznuttz905 Ermmmmmm, duh, the "family secret" as you call it has been completely exposed to the public for decades through a variety of news stories and TV reports. Not much of a secret anymore, if it ever was.

[@xKinjax]

@@deeznuttz905 yes, I'm sure some heavily armed octogenarians are on their way to his location as we speak.

[@HonestHeartsClub]

@@deeznuttz905 it’s his family not yours lol

[@RainbowYak]

I'm from Switzerland and I remember watching a great documentary film produced by Swiss national TV SRF about Gladio and P-26 in particular. In the film, they interviewed several former members of sleeper cells (most of whom were civilians, albeit with military training of course). One guy they interviewed said that his membership in this top secret organization had been very exciting at the time. It made him feel very nationalistic and he enjoyed the "war games". However, in retrospect he views those things as "crazy" and "ridiculous". He doesn't believe the P-26 sleeper cells would've actually had any chance against Soviet occupiers. Most of it was a bunch of anti-communist wet dreams by high-ranking military figures. The man in the interview also recounted how much his family and especially his wife had suffered from his P-26 membership. Since he wasn't allowed to talk to anyone about his training missions, he constantly had to come up with new lies as to why he suddenly had to disappear for a week or whatever. Sometimes he even ditched his wife's or children's birthdays for a multi-day training. Of course his family was very hurt by this; his wife was convinced he was cheating on her. But he didn't feel bad about it because at the time, he thought the Gladio/P-26 cause was so much more important than his family's happiness. These days, a wife would probably file for divorce in such a situation but this was the 70s, so his wife stayed with him despite her unhappiness. It was only much later that he began to realize what he had done to her and his kids and what a dumb idea this whole P-26 thing had been.

[@Chris-hx3om]

This and 'Decoding the Unknown' are my favourite Whistler channels. Keep them coming Simon...

[@IntotheShadows]

Thank you! :)

[@monkeydank7842]

@@IntotheShadows There was „Gruppe Ralf Forster“ as well. West German Communists who where trained by the Stasi, the East German intelligence service to be sleepers in West Germany.

[@Henkkaassouffle]

In wo2 the UK had the auxiliary units. This was a home defense force if Germany would invade during operation Sealion. Nobody knew why these guys weren’t send to war during wo2 so people in the UK thought these men were cowards while they were actually the last line of defense. Dressed in simple uniforms and forbidden to talk about it.

[@Balthorium]

There are still a few of those bunkers.

[@Henkkaassouffle]

@@Balthorium yes most of them are being taken by mother earth unfortunately. I love that they are so small but contained everything included a barrel of rum. I also believe that one bunker was made to house 80+ man if the smaller bunkers got discovered. And these guys could really live of the land. That is why they were chosen. And they also got to try out the newest weapons, for example sniper rifles with scopes were given to them first.

[@Balthorium]

@@Henkkaassouffle it’s ridiculous how many various size bunkers are across the UK. The Auxiliary bunkers were quickly built by the looks of them and most are thrashed but a couple look pretty intact and have an escape tunnel in back. Filled with spiders. They have everything from a two man nuclear observer ROC post to bunkers so enormous they have underground street names and you have to use a golf cart to get around.

[@The_Greedy_Orphan]

Not joking, but i actually have a lookout shelter or pillbox in my garden with an underground bunker behind it to hide from bombing or artillery fire. Looks out over where some plain ground used to be before it was built over, came with the house.

[@Henkkaassouffle]

@@The_Greedy_Orphan i think its so romantic that these guys were defending home soil in a time a invasion was a real danger. You would love to brag about it but these guys couldn’t. They deserved respect from all civilians but got a lot less. I’m not British and I have even never visited but I would love to. If COVID regulations let me I want to visit quickly. Is there a location you can visit? And if you want to know more I came across a video created by dark docs just 12 days ago, exactly about this topic.

[@4Usuality]

From the "we're in a war" perspective actually a genius idea, really cool stuff!

[@ignitionfrn2223]

2:35 - Chapter 1 - Sound of rolling tanks 5:10 - Chapter 2 - Total resistance 7:25 - Chapter 3 - Joining the shadows 10:05 - Chapter 4 - Becoming a shadow 13:45 - Chapter 5 - How far into darkness ? 22:30 - Chapter 6 - Conclusions - Chapter 7 - - Chapter 8 - - Chapter 9 - - Chapter 10 -

[@samodhmadhavan]

Wow AI is getting stupider

[@panagiotisloukas3064]

LOK (ΛΟΚ in Greek) is Lochoi Oreinon Katadromon- Battalions of Mountain Warfare. They were the first Greek "special forces". The Greek name, for the Greek part of Gladio was Κόκκινη Προβιά, Red Fleece.

[@AeroGuy07]

Stories like this give credibility to my theory that my wife's father, who is Danish, changed their last name because he was a spy in his younger days. The Danish resistance wasn't well known, but they were very effective.

[@crush3095]

omg i have a very similar theory in my family I'm pretty sure some of the older folks know and never speak of it, even though the stakes are so low today I don't ask so no one makes an effort to hide anything, but there are too many little clues

[@theblueescapologbb227]

I'm convinced, he is definitely a spy.

[@nuclearblitzkrieg7734]

aye! one partisan to another, my great-grandad fought the Nazis and later Soviets in the forests of Eastern Poland and Lithuania.

[@bradleyhauf312]

effective? there are virtuous words to use, i would bespeak, the dictionary thesaurus encyclopedia....

[@zac8286]

@@bradleyhauf312 I think you might need to edit that a little bit

[@aaronnewman7289]

Aye Simon, love your videos and how in depth you go into the history of any sort of topic. I’m partially deaf and your close captioning is set to auto generated. If possible can you upload your script so myself and others in the deaf community can understand the wide variety of unique and foreign names. Thank you for the work you and your team do!

[@thefunkosaurus]

"Transcript" in the description.

[@geodkyt]

As a young light infantryman at the tail.end of the Cold War, our *warplan* in a WWIII in Europe conflict was to transition from conventional forces into informal SBUs after being overrun (there was literally *no* thought light fighters would be more than a speedbump to the Soviet 3rd Shock Army - yes, we still called it that even after the Soviets changed the designation in 1954, and being light infantry without transport we sure as Hell couldn't *withdraw* fast enough). The plan was that we'd go to ground as we were being overrun, and just stay low until the maneuver brigades had moved through and then the survivors - dispersed in small elements - would engage the logistics trains following the tank and infantry units, as well as work with local resistance forces. More a case of making lemonade out of lemons, but, hey, the point of the light infantry division was we could be moved anywhere in the world in 72 hours. So, might as well figure out how to make our inevitable overrunning as useful as possible.

[@yourtrappedinmygenjutsu]

You have to be making half this up, and how would America and Europe just suddenly get overran lol

[@armiferafatum2459]

@@yourtrappedinmygenjutsu this was the soviet plan, 7 days to the river rhine. Look it up.

[@userequaltoNull]

@@yourtrappedinmygenjutsu not america, Europe. The soviets already owned most of it, so everybody on all sides thought they would steamroll the forces stationed in Europe.

[@sexyman12360]

My dad talked similarly about his time as light infantry in Korea in the late 80s and early 90s

[@Meton12765]

Couple of things, Ukraine first of all proving light-infantry with appropriate one man carried anti-tank weapons is definitively more than a speedbump for Ivan's now... 5th(?, 6th?) Shock army of rusted hulks of horse manure on tracks. Much like every single other conflict where effective anti-tank infantry has been involved with Russian armor in the entire history of man. And, this being the cold war period, when internal combustion engine has been fairly minituarized, why the hell is the developing worlds guerrilla fighters the only ones who recognize that there's no damn reason to be non-motorized light infantry anything in this scenario, when the Japanese school of mechanical engineering has gifted humanity with their grand achievement and joy, the Toyota Hilux "Invincible". What the everloving sort of kinky shit are you people into that you willfully want to be overrun by Ivan whose got a engine for his delapitated vodka floats. Yeah, you do not want to face that idea unless you're completely batshit insane. And, to that end, how the fuck is staying only on foot "making the inevitable overrunning as useful as possible" when the key to defeating superior armored forces is, mobility and superior speed in target acquisition and enough firepower to penetrate their asses before they align their guns. What with, Ivan preferring hand-cranked turrets to the mid-1970's because Russians & Vodka don't mix with maintaining sophisticated powered anything, this is why light infantry with A DAMN TECHNICAL WITH A ANTI-TANK ROCKET LAUNCHER IN THE BACK is such a devastating tool even to this day. And you people facing these things in the developing world yourself, and getting your ass handed to you just like the russians, what sort of mental gymanstics do you have to perform to sign yourself off to this sort of a embarrassing suicide mission, as being an acceptable idea? What the shit? You people are idiots. Sincerely, A Finn. (We know a thing or two about the Russian doctrine of war, you see. The reason for there not being a Finnish operation gladio unit, is that its the FDF Guerrilla warfare plan. And that doesn't involve CIA fascist anything to put into effect. Since, you can't fight commies by selling your soul to nazis. We you see, learn from our mistakes. )

[@sabotage7369]

I’d love to see you cover the MKUltra project and how it stems all the way back to world war. So much interesting and ominous history that everyone knows the name of but little otherwise.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Its been covered.

[@Cheddar_joe]

Just finished the latest brain blaze, used my beard blaze and oooh look brand new Simon content.... ( I think I've become a fan boi of fact boi and idk how I got here😬😂) I need more casual criminalist!

[@martinjames7569]

Welcome to the club!

[@ilarious5729]

This is starting to sound like a cult and I'm not sure how to feel about it. He even got the altering cult members looks down with the beard oil 😱

[@markkarasik2211]

😎Subtle, this Fact Boi personality cult isn’t it? But it’s a safer addiction than cocaine so Win Win!

[@JadenRiley6494]

@@markkarasik2211 *sniffs* yyaaaayyyyyy

[@erichair3111]

Dude i thought I wrote this message cause I feel the same

[@philippenachtergal6077]

The OAS didn't oppose the colonisation of Algeria, they opposed the DE-colonisation of it...

[@Balthorium]

And they were right because the throat cutters took over.

[@CJ-fs1zr]

@@Balthorium Middle Easterners are going too the west lol Reverse colo nialism Europe deserves it

[@DK-ss1vu]

Finding out about Gladio teams was a wake up call for me. Definitely makes you skeptical of a lot of covert warfare that we read about.

[@kennyvr1392]

I am belgian 50 years old i was a teenager in the 80's. Furst i want to explain that belgium and luxemburg are almost the same country ( its like monaco in france but even closer ) So the bombings in luxemburg where in the same period has the creazy killers of braband. But ofcorse there's lots more to it has here in this vid. explained. Furst those creazy killers already operated a small period of time in the 70's like a try out ( only in belgium ) The second wave in the 80's they went full on. There's always bean a suspicion on the military police at that time ( because of those suspicions they don't exist enymore we now have only the conventionel locale police) And we had in belgium also the c.c.c. translated the communist fighting cell who done some bombings against goverment bildings. there pamphlets where printed on one of those cia owned press groups ther's even the suspection explosive's where given to them directly by those hidden armies controled by the cia. There's a lot more to tell abaut what really happend in the 80's but i would have to wright a book here. But strangely enough we have now a rightwing government. And wy is explained clearly here in this vid. America's hate for socialism because they don"t understand the difference between communisme and socialism they don't want to see a social capitalist country functioning much better has the American extreem capitalism wich automatic will turn in a dystopian dictatorschip like the world is growing in to today.

[@Balthorium]

There was a stay behind unit in Gibraltar that would have been sealed in a camouflaged bunker to observe the Germans.

[@546268]

Yep, seen stuff from about that, their bidding place was only found relatively recently.

[@dylanross235]

Know this was going to go sideways when he said FBI and CIA

[@Bigsky1991]

I was assigned to 10th Group in Bad Tölz in the 2 years before they left Bavaria. I flew a 3 day exercise that had our guys dressed as German and Partisans with one guy carrying a SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition) or aka the famous "Backpack nuke". We flew a simulated SADM strike on a water Dam and hydro-electro facility to simulate flooding valleys in the path of the Russkis, then dropping other teams off to activate their assigned sleeper cells. Cool shit. Once we were Thoroughly briefed on our Wartime mission in the case of a Russian invasion was pretty sobering. We were promised by the CO that "we would have had a short but spectacular experience "🤣

[@tinafoster8665]

Yes a guy who claimed to be in the 3rd armored division in Germany n drove n maintained an APC said their life expectancy was around 10 minutes "if they were just f-ing around" n around 5 minutes "if they were serious"

[@associatedblacksheepandmisfits]

🤣yep, where I worked was a first strike target, we knew then we were only pawns....

[@jaynedavies2757]

Aka a nuclear suicide mission

[@UKfanX13]

Was trying to figure out where I had heard of this before then remembered that Mallory Archer had been apart of operation Gladio and yes I do get historical information from animated television

[@Drejco515]

I loved Lana's summarization, "But then it sorta turned into this whole weird cryptofascist CIA shitshow starring Allen Dulles and a bunch of former Nazis."

[@brandonjc13]

Anyone else notice his slip up of saying "BDJ" as "Bee-Day-Gee?" Lmao.He did it again right after. Love the content Simon!

[@owenmahon6561]

How many channels has this beard with glasses got? He’s pumping out more videos than Jake Tran!!!

[@RejectedInch]

Uh-oh, Simon taking another dip into Italian history. Interesting. There's enough for Simon to open another 3 or 400 channels to cover it all.. Andreotti was so filthy that not even the devil wanted him, that's why he lived so long. ( and he, alone, deserves a bunch of videos)

[@johnrichmond.4783]

Yes. Andreotti ordered mafiosi to murder journalists who asked too many questions. Apart from that he was a common thief. An ardent Europhile, I remember him condemning Margaret Thatcher and expressing his 'sadness' at her backward attitudes.

[@danielefabbro822]

Andreotti was called "the Black Pope". A commedian once said that he was the owner of the hell.

[@Chris-zm3uc]

Did the anyone qever get beyond just training? Brings to mind a joke about gears. Three in reverse, and one forward in case the enemy attacks from behind.

[@danielefabbro822]

@@Chris-zm3uc such jokes are good for the americans and their small brains. It fit perfectly.

[@FoxtrotYouniform]

The struggle is often framed as a choice between authoritarian and communist options, but let us not forget that history has yet to create a non authoritarian communist or socialist state. Communist and Socialist states _are_ authoritarian, and thus the choice was between centralized ownership/control of capital authoritarian and distributed ownership/control of capital authoritarian sides, in which case distributed capital authoritarian was the lesser of those two evils.

[@awesomesquares7023]

have you considered one of the reasons for this historically has been that democratically-elected socialist governments were overthrown by western capitalist governments all throughout the 20th century (chile, guatemala, indonesia etc.) even pretty milquetoast demsoc countries like bolivia are at risk of this as we saw in the 2019 coup. there’s likely a reason communist countries (the ones that actually held on to their communist ideals ie. cuba and nicaragua) that lean authoritarian have been able to hold out.

[@FoxtrotYouniform]

@@awesomesquares7023 i wrote a comment but im high and im not sure it made any sense so I deleted it. You made a great point that I'd love to respond to tho, so ill reply again later when im not high

[@awesomesquares7023]

@@FoxtrotYouniform lol godspeed soldier

[@FoxtrotYouniform]

@@awesomesquares7023 okay lol, let's try this again. So yeah, the very many assassinations, overthrows, and abuses perpetrated by 'the west' during the last 80 years should teach us that there are very few governments not willing to oppress others to achieve their aims. The main question isn't whether they will or not, but whether they have the power to or not. I lament that the 'western democracies' handled absolute power as poorly as any other government. Idealistically, we shouldn't have to choose a lesser evil, we should be able to have a government that reflects a higher value. Pragmatically, though - and recognizing that the primary common element between the body count of the west and the body count of the east is the humans who let themselves be guided by their tribalism, racism, and willingness to murder anything that looks at them funny - there is no reason, in the failings of the west, to presume that the nations in which they interfered would have turned out any different than the authoritarian regimes that endured for greater time. Contrast the socialist/communist authoritarian nations who survived with their democrstic capitalist counterparts. While there is a greater or smaller vein of central command and control inherent to those democratic capitalist nations, they didn't turn authoritarian in the face of threats from their counterparts in the east. And you would be hard pressed to suggest they were under no stress from a dogma which literally holds that those same said democratic capitalist institutions would decay into socilist/communist models, something adherents to which celebrated in attempts to artificially hasten. In the end, to my own eyes, the question is not whether one system is peaceful while the other is warlike - the question is which system best constrains the desires of those who govern to abuse their power. Now, things are never that simple, as the success or failure of a system also reflects influences from the culture of the people, the geography of the land, and so much more. But yeah.

[@stevem.o.1185]

*cough* Catalonia *cough*

[@kevinkoster4543]

Wow, asking for a gladio doc a couple weeks ago and being served one now, thank you Simon, i appreciated it very much! 👌🏼

[@lysawoolley9008]

This, wow, your skill to explain a very complex organization is very impressive. Thank you for posting this video. Very interesting topic.

[@AudieHolland]

Please watch a few documentaries about the "Brabant Killers" or in Dutch "Bende van Nijvel." During their terror attacks, the gang killed 28 people and wounded 40 The Brabant Killers executed a few high profile armed robbies on supermarkets. What still is incredibly suspicious, is that the perpetrators clearly feigned the robbery part but went all out on the terror part. Innocent people were targeted and shot at random during these robberies, men, women and even children. The amount of money taken during these robberies was also negligible and a few instances, the perpetrators waited till the police had arrived, fired at the stunned police with their firepower, then simply left with the police too scared to chase them. While the place of Nijvel is only notorious since the killings took place in and around Nijvel, more telling is that the place is only half an hour driving from the Belgian capitol of Brussels. Also located in Brussels are the EU parliament and NATO headquarters. Imagine if these attacks and killings had taken place on multiple occasions in the outskirts of Washington D.C., spread out over a few years, leaving 28 dead and 40 wounded. Wouldn't the public have decried the incompetence of the security agencies involved?

[@lukesshootingfun9193]

I was ten at the time, I still remember snippers on the roof of Delhaize stores. For months was shopping a stressfull undertaking. It’s Belgiums kenedy assasination. Who did it and why? Some say it was the far right to create a society of fear. So they could prepare for a coup. We Will never known.

[@AudieHolland]

@@lukesshootingfun9193 The fact they were never solved tells me it's a coverup. Look at my example above, suppose these events occurred during a few years on the outskirts of Washington D.C.? Nijvel and the other terror attacks were all rather close to Brussels, which is the European equivalent of the American capitol with both EU and NATO headquarters. And during all those years, they had the French and Dutch speaking police make a mess out of it, because both police branches refused to cooperate. Unacceptable with such a high amount of deaths and casualties.

[@viridiscoyote7038]

Something worth looking into was the British Home Guard in WW2. It was a widespread effort to prepare the Isles for a German landing; primarily, teaching old people and children how to fight a war with gasoline.

[@itmightbejude]

Kinda, didn't really involve children, it's mainly known nowadays as dad's army, it usually consisted of men who were too old to fight or bakers etc whose services were needed at home. Obviously an invasion of the UK was never even likely to happen after we won the battle of Britain so they didn't get much funding for weapons and such, was kinda like military role play

[@afs101]

​@@itmightbejudenot true, look up Chatterton Britain's secret defences

[@itmightbejude]

@afs101 yeah I get you, we definitely had a lot in the way of espionage and secretive ops, but the home guard was pretty much for the old, essential and unfit to feel like they were doing their part, they werent really trained, had very few weapons and were kinda just there for people to feel like there was a home front defence, no matter how unnecessary it might have been

[@Chris-zm3uc]

What? Giving in to their tendency of arson?

[@546268]

@@itmightbejudeabsolutely not true. Many were ww1 veterans and hard as nails. Their remit was to fight an invasion by both overt and covert means. Much of their planned activities were basically suicide missions, and they had every intention of doing so.

[@feraldelight]

That outro! *Chef's kiss*

[@michaelpipkin9942]

Can you do the history of The Thunderbirds? Not the TV show, the AIRSHOW. The aircraft are always evolving, their history is decades long, tragic, and they've entertained millions. Thank you from Nellis AFB, home of The Thunderbirds!

[@shadowprepper9358]

Sounds like a megaprojects video

[@lyleslaton3086]

And now we will watch a TV marathon of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Our entrepid heros subvert plans of Boris and Natasha. Stay tuned.

[@chadreese9501]

Oh Archer, you’ve informed us all again.

[@gregorytaylor7969]

I first heard of Gladio from watching Archer, and Google gave me a hazy idea of what it was, but this is the first coherent explanation that makes it all click. Thanks a lot, American education.

[@tyblorp585]

One of the best videos Ive seen. I wonder what it was like for all of those people who had to endure such violence and crime and lies that turned many people against each other while the people manipulating the strings secretly pursue their own selfish goals and get away with it, good thing that doesnt happen anymore. *Looks at current events. Oh okay, n/m.

[@stevensimms7014]

At this point I'm just listening to Simon every day and I am totally fine with that

[@NealWilliams]

Part of this sounds like the selection process for the agents in the game The Division.

[@ciaranbrk]

In fairness Ireland has its own SBU and they were very successful by all accounts.

[@HimWitDaHair98]

I'd like to know more about this. Ireland has very strange politics. We have had right wingers like O'Duffy and the blueshirts - that lead on to our current police force and government, to the Limerick Soviet and the human rights marches that turned into Bloody Sunday. "Nationalist" doesn't even have the same meaning as elsewhere in the World. We've never shed our colonial chains

[@conlaiarla]

​@@HimWitDaHair98 General Duffy didn't find the Guardi, he was it's second Commissioner. However, he certainly put the force on a professional footing.

[@Chris-zm3uc]

Did they stop the IRA attacks?

[@andreworders7305]

The Swiss one’s training sound like a James Bond movie

[@paramounttechnicalconsulti5219]

"Order in Italy" I love your videos, you always include the funniest puns ;-p

[@rsingh2595]

Reminds of the show "The Americans." Great interpretation about a male a female from the S.U who are sent to America to act in espionage. Great show.

[@Chris-zm3uc]

How good of Europe's WWII allies. At the end of the war, they dumped many countries into Soviet slavery, thanks to Roosevelt and Churchill, and then prepared to proceed to destroy the very people's they proposed to assist by entering into WWII. They would have achieved exactly the same outcomes if they did not enter into WWII to supposedly support their allies. As it was The European nations under the Soviets spent forty+ years under their yoke. The only real thing that was achieved was that war mongerers and the manufacturers of war machinery boosted the allies economies. Oh, and of course, Britain and it's monarchy were saved from german doom.

[@pmgn8444]

How about the forced expulsions of Germans, with the Allies support, at the end of WWII. This includes the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia & Poland, and the deportation of Germans to the USSR as forced labor war reparations.

[@Permuh]

What about them?

[@GK-ne5uf]

@@Permuh idk he's trying to get brownie points of something, no offence to the guy but people who usually point that stuff out ar2 revanchist asshats who want Germany to go back to its pre ww2 borders not acknowledging the change of demographics due to said expulsion and of course how that'd make them no better than the peoplr they criticise in regards to them advocating subjecting non ethnic germans to a german boot.

[@thokim84]

Authoritarianism and Communism are not mutually exclusive. The Soviet Union was authoritarian Communism.

[@arnaldoteodorani277]

Totalitarian communism.

[@cjwhitmore1881]

So glad for the new upload! I checked back more times than I care to admit the last few days.

[@fakshen1973]

The French Resistance during WWII, was testament for the NEED of SBOs. They were crucial. Then the sword swings back that they were used for political or ideological work leaves a bit of a bitter taste. Power is always abused.

[@false_positive]

3:25 When Stalin looks at you like that it means gulag is your new home

[@Paul-yn2zy]

High probability that all governments are still engaged in such activities.

[@daveanderson3805]

It was a good plan. I guess we'll never know how it would have worked out in practice. They do say that no plan survives first contact

[@globalrevolution]

Except it wasn't tho. Equipping fascists with military grade weapons is never a good plan.

[@daveanderson3805]

@@globalrevolution Well, I guess that in the 50s and 60s the world was a very different place. Fear of a soviet attack was very real. Now in the 21st century we have a different outlook, but hindsight is always perfect. It probably would have been irrelevant anyway, as Europe would in all likelihood been turned into a nuclear wasteland anyway. Whoever survived probably would have been disinclined to fight over a pile of rubble that glowed in the dark

[@jacopofolin6400]

@@globalrevolution most were not fascist, because the fascist would have been the First to be deported. Only during the 'anni di piombo' in Italy fascist and communist terrorist recruited some of them in the ranks, but were not a magiority

[@awesomesquares7023]

@@jacopofolin6400 pretty safe to say the violent anti-communists and members of organized crime who made up op gladio were fascists

[@andrewdeen1]

good plan? many many people were killed in the munich oktoberfest bombing, the bologna piazza fontana bombing.. good plan?

[@jacobhuff3748]

From a Cold War perspective this sounds rational but given how hindsight shows how unnecessary this was the outrage is understandable. Would love to see how well this organization would have done in real life but it's good that the cold war never went hot.

[@medusagorgo5146]

People never take into account Vertical Relativism, it’s important to understand it before judging people by the current world view.

[@jonprior2355]

I wonder how many of these types of cells are still active. Even on a more localized scale

[@TeddyKrimsony]

they're still are, there's so much subversion in western aligned countries

[@jonprior2355]

@@TeddyKrimsony I mean even within the US, in cities against its own people to sow dissent or misdirection

[@badluck5647]

None. These guys would be in their 80s. Also, Russia is toothless compared to the Soviet Union.

[@ButWhyWasTaken]

Simon, could you do a more in depth video about the years of lead? or maybe a Biographic about Andreotti?

[@DEADG6D]

I like that we think this is a thing of the past. Sleeper armies still alive

[@cathoderay305]

The whole Project Gladius thing blew up in Europe decades ago. What no is asking is if we have something similar in place in the United States. Something like "Tom Clancy's 'The Division'", perhaps? Some organization outside the knowledge of the current civilian leadership and military chain of command, perhaps? We do...

[@LanMandragon1720]

Honestly we probably have dozens at least America is a massive country

[@cathoderay305]

@@LanMandragon1720 We had a stay behind army in Alaska, composed of Inuit and some other natives for a short while.

[@IshaIsSomehowTaken]

i like how the subtle reference to the SOE was slipped into the script the via the phrase "[to] set europe ablaze" at 15:20 very nicely done 😉

[@TreyDeuce109]

Well, Simon, this was quite a timely video. I first watched it a few weeks ago before the troops were staging on the Ukrainian borders.

[@HolyDiver-dx6px]

😢

[@WIESNERX0042]

i fell asleep listening to this and had a dream about trying to get a case of beer out of the parkinglot somewhere and kept running into problems

[@lanehewitt7685]

It's no secret. The BBC even made a documentary on Gladio in 1991 with key players involved discussing their tactics. They were openly bragging about it when The Wall came down. It just slipped out of much of the publics consciousness. Look up the documentary. It's fascinating and terrifying. Basically smeared socialism to perpetuate US global hegemonic capitalism within Europe. Anti-democratic and fascistic.

[@shawnr771]

In France stay behind personnel were recruited from former WW2 resistance networks. In 1962 a NYC detective named Popeye Doyle busted a heroin smuggling operation. 70 million dollars of heroin was seized. Information on where the poppy was being processed into led back to Marseille, France. A coordinated effort between the NYPD and Interpol led to the arrest of a number of French citizens for processing the heroin. Many of those arrested were never tried for their crimes because they were members of an SBO and on the CIA payroll. The above information comes from the 1st 2hr episode of The History Channel show The War on Drugs. Popeye Doyle was played in the movie The French Connection by Gene Hackman.

[@1337flite]

Ah CIA funding programs with drug networks, that seems to be a recurring theme - of course it's never the CIA. It just happens that a LOT of organisations that CIA works with happen to have drug dealing networks associated with them. And of course the CIA is not savvy enough to work out the issues with this and check the organisations they choose to work with right?

[@iandennis7836]

One of Gavin Lyall's 'Harry Maxim' novels, The Crocus List, dealt with the 'stay behind' strategems. Well worth a read, he was an excellent writer.

[@nalulenert9001]

Hey! We (Luxembourg) even had „our“ network revealed by our judicial system… in the very late 2000s… and somehow the trial got cancelled… But we tried ;)

[@AceofCrazy89]

lol imagine being a nato general and being like “you know all those guys that tried to wipe out entire races of people? Let’s have them set up guerilla armies to over-through democracy in Europe!”

[@lucianoarrieta5786]

So comforting with all the stuff going on in Ukraine with Russia right now ^^;

[@westrim]

And Ukraine is busily training its own localized cells to fight an insurgency if the nation is invaded, though more openly (obviously, I'm talking about it, and there are interviews with trainees and instructors). The primary idea there though is likely less to be able to be effective post invasion and more to say to Russia "if you invade, we'll be a constant pain in the ass and we won't go quietly, so don't do it."

[@lucianoarrieta5786]

@@westrim Hope this doesn't escalate even more... As if things aren't complicated enough worldwide to add this mess on top of it.

[@westrim]

@@lucianoarrieta5786 I strongly believe that it's all posturing, Russia to say "look, we're strong!" to the domestic audience and the West saying "look, we can stand up to Russia!" to basically everyone. And Ukraine is stuck in the middle, like a bristling cat trying to make clear that it will not go quietly. But brinkmanship is a risky game.

[@badluck5647]

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, so they wouldn't have a NATO stay behind network.

[@westrim]

@Henzo88 You can find a lot of people to say almost anything geopolitical, especially if they think it will benefit them and theirs.

[@barquerojuancarlos7253]

Feb 1948 Europe was already divided for good reason, for example : "Athens 1944: Britain's Dirty Secret" 30 Nov 2014 The Guardian

[@zeusathena26]

You need to do a video about the Warsaw pact on one of your channels. I can't find one that you've done. It would make a great video.

[@jurgenparkour9337]

Ah, Andreotti. The mafia man in the government❤

[@danielefabbro822]

Dont talk so laud about him. He could still hear you.

[@jurgenparkour9337]

@@danielefabbro822 damn you're right, I'll be quiet

[@keithdavison2960]

Outstanding and informative and something im sure like many I knew nothing about thank you as always Simon you legend

[@robertmccutcheon4103]

I love how this is literally just the description of the MOS of the US Army Green Berets

[@Nipplator99999999999]

Different names, other missions, but same ideas. Almost like there are secret units nobody is aware of until the whispers start at the 25 year security review and the fear mongering takes hold on the "full" info dump after there's nothing to fear.

[@JPage-fj7mb]

Oh Simon, that signoff was legendary! Loved it.

[@srice8959]

I remember back in the 1990’s, and early 2000’s once or twice a year different weapons cashes would be unearthed or found often times it was by construction crews or farmers. Supposedly both America, and the UK both had man portable nukes aka suitcase nukes/backpack nukes that they had buried pretty deeply underground with lead shielding to keep it hidden from sensors that could detect them. They were to be used to blow up certain passes that the USSR and Warsaw Pact nations would use to roll upwards of 100,000 tanks into. The UK even had Nuclear Landmines that used chickens to keep them warm in winter months

[@studiolezard]

I think that there's something different in the audio equalization here. It sounds thinner. Forgot loudness filter? I'm curious.

[@EmilyJelassi]

Very interesting video! I learned a little bit about these stay-behind groups in some of my international relations courses during college. On one hand, you can almost understand the bone-deep fear that people had about communism after WWII, but, on the other, there's all of the damage and deaths that may or may not have directly resulted from these organizations and sleeper cells. We may never know the complete truth..

[@FirstNameLastName-rh6zc]

Do you think they're all gone and nothing like this happens anymore? The cold war never ended y'know.. It signaled a paradigm shift, a completely different way of thinking and fighting potential threats.

[@reedraikes7471]

@@FirstNameLastName-rh6zc after whats happening in Ukraine, if they’re not there now, they will be soon

[@johnr797]

Now I ain't sayin' she a gold-dredger, but she ain't messin' with no old ledgers

[@davidmckenzie5042]

The war in Northern Ireland was Britain's "Gladio"

[@ovekkjlstad7703]

The first 'official' book about the Norwegian Stay Behind before 1990 was publised earlier this year. Now we wait for book #2.

[@OpusCulo13666]

Something tells me that Putin is not a subscriber of this channel.

[@libanhassan9663]

I love your videos very informative and accurate I follow all your channels keep up the good work Simon!

[@jamesbodnarchuk3322]

Red dawn type stuff

[@BeN0lf]

I wonder where Simon goes when he gets up at the end of a video? Probably to get a cuppa tea, i'd imagine.

[@SchroomMetanoia]

greetings from Luxembourg. I was hoping for a mention of the Bombings, glad you did. sadly they are often forgotten as they remain pretty unknown outside our little country =)

[@idhunepijl2398]

This is such an overlooked and extremely interesting subject.... as you've pointed out in the video there are multiple links to terrorist organisations and involvement in the surpression of any left-leaning organisations.

[@RN1441]

And the co-option of them. I find it telling that people who swear to me are anti-fascist are so often on the side of issues that support the fusion of corporate and government power.

[@itsv1p3r]

@@RN1441 thats just useful idiots doing what they do best.

[@varkr2066]

Based.

[@m0ckingB1rd42]

The Soviet Union and it’s style of governance was not “left wing” and it wasn’t communism. It was authoritarian state run planned capitalism, where the state owned the means of production and the capital. It was misogynistic, homophobic and antisemitic. No different than any other extreme right wing group, including old and modern Nazis. Nazis killing Nazis? Good.

[@Smart-Towel-RG-400]

The cost of a VPN might save you from needing a second streaming service since alot.of stuff that was moved to Peacock/discovery is still.on Netflix in other countries

[@itsmarmalade]

I feel like every one of Simon's videos that I watch is on a new channel I've never heard of before.

[@eedobee]

Video begins at 1:24

[@heatherskrzypiec2682]

The scariest part of this is the repeated reference of authoritarianism as the alternative to communism...

[@zeehond604]

communism is authoritarian by default

[@LanMandragon1720]

As if communisn isn't authoritarianism in practice

[@arnaldoteodorani277]

Communism is totalitarian, which is different from authoritarianism

[@leifgiering]

There is both left and right authoritarianism. Each side preferred one over the other.

[@TheRedjack77]

So Archer's mum...Marlory Archer was telling the truth. Humm learned something from Archer. I never would have though. Oh and performed perfectly by Jessica Walter.

[@joetheox1202]

I think there could be some benzos in water supplies, no?

[@HomeMadeBoards]

1:22 the light transition made my brain glitch.

[@awsumaustin7650]

Make them longer. Like 3 times longer. I need more podcasts by you.

[@mrfe]

Wtf, a factboi channel that has passed under my radar for like 5 months, perfect👌, now I have a backlog of videos to watch🙌

[@hattorihanzo2705]

Loving these military history bits on this one. Bravo yet again!

[@DeeplyStill]

OMG. Amazing video. Just highlights my own naivety at the time. Views of our own track record, and the fidelity of our politicians, is brought into question

[@technoverse101]

Warsaw Pact had Gladio's equivalent planted in NATO nations

[@zvendiearschficker6664]

I’m hooked on your content. Keep up the amazing work!

[@dzunepwnsipod]

"they were worried that the CIA and NATO has steered the world towards authoritarianism and away from communism." ...uhhh... So, those two are not opposites. Hell, Stalin's* communism was authoritarian. You can be both, or neither

[@terryenby2304]

Using my beard Blaze today for my very dry hair. It’s so versatile! I even use some on my daughter’s long ends to prevent damage and dryness. And then spritz on my Rotting Turtle… Now time to wear “The Past Is The Worst” shirt and sip tea from my OGBB mug… Ah, this is the life!

[@WKRP187]

You are indeed a Simon fan. Wish I could be that big of a fan of anything! 👍

[@photo_n_art]

You have presented an interesting but yet very, very simplified version of the much more complex project 👍