Ancient Roman Empire connection

[Steve Thomas]

Here's a conspiracy theory you've probably never heard of.

This is not a solution, but more of an observation.

And; I'm writing this partly tongue-in-cheek, but then again, partly not.

 

In reading through the literature concerning JFK's assassination, I have, at times, been struck by images that seem to evoke a time and place of an ancient glory. Two threads that seem to weave through this narrative are Gladio and Centurions.

 

Gladio:

 

Terrorism in Western Europe: An Approach to NATO’s Secret Stay-Behind Armies.

by Daniele Ganser

http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/kms2.isn.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/PHP/18583/ipublicationdocument_singledocument/f4e652a3-cad7-4284-9aae-243b630f3440/en/Terrorism_Western_Europe.pdf

 

 

“The existence of these clandestine NATO armies remained a closely guarded secret throughout the Cold War until 1990, when the first branch of the international network was discovered in Italy. It was code-named “Gladio, ” the Latin word for a short double-edged sword.

 

Italy insisted identical clandestine armies had also existed in all other countries of Western Europe. This allegation proved correct and subsequent research found that in Belgium, the secret NATO army was code-named SDRA8, in Denmark Absalon , in Germany TD BDJ, in Greece LOK, in Luxemburg Stay-Behind, in the Netherlands I&O, in Norway ROC, in Portugal Aginter, in Switzerland P26, in Turkey Counter-Guerrilla, and in Austria OWSGV. However, the code names of the secret armies in France, Finland, Spain, and Sweden remain unknown.”

 

For an introduction in the American formation of the Gladio network in Scandanavia, see:

William Colby,"ChapterThree: A Scandinavian Spy," in Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), pp. 78-107.

https://www.vipr-bg.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Parallel-History-Project-on-NATO-and-the-Warsaw-Pact-Collection.pdf

 

I wondered why this informal network of “stay-behinds”would have adopted the generic name of Gladio, and then I ran across a reference in in a work by a researcher/writer named, John Fleming. (date unknown, but I believe it was in the early 1990's)

 

OPERATION GLADIO

http://www.thejohnfleming.com/gladio.html

 

http://linformationnationaliste.hautetfort.com/archive/2013/03/20/22-avril-1961-derniere-revolte-des-centurions-avant-qu-ils-n.html

 

“22 avril 1961 : dernière révolte des centurions avant qu'ils ne deviennent gendarmes.” 20/03/2013

René BLANC. RIVAROL 22 AVRIL 2011

 

April 22,1961: The last revolt of the centurions before they become gendarmes.

(This article is about the Putsch of the Generals in April, 1961).

 

“Or si la vocation du gendarme n'a jamais été de sacrifier sa vie, c'est souvent cela le destin du centurion.” If the gendarme's vocation has never been to sacrifice his life, it is often the fate of the centurion.”

 

They were often referred to as “hommes léopards”. “Leapard men” - because of their camouflage uniforms.

 

Le Capitaine Souètre refusant sa mutation en métropole, déserta, le 8 février 1961, avec un groupe d'une vingtaine d'officiers, de sous-officiers et de simples soldats ainsi que des civils pour fonder un maquis dans l'arrière-pays de Mostaganem. Baptisé France Résurrection, celui-ci espérait soulever les populations contre le pouvoir. Souètre — un personnage charismatique, avec un mélange assez prononcé de panache et d'immaturité — faisait distribuer à grande échelle des tracts où il affirmait : « Voici venue l'heure des centurions. Il est temps de franchir le Rubicon. »

 

Following his desertion in December of 1960, or January of 1961, while he was hiding out in the Martel farm in Mostaganem in February, Souetre issued a missive or tract which read, “Now is the hour of the Centurions. It is time to cross the Rubicon.”

 

In the late 1960's, African mercenary, Bob Denard referred to them as the “praetorian guard of a failed republic”.

http://www.buergerwelle.de/assets/files/secret_warfare_and_natos_stay_behind_armies.htm?cultureKey=&q=pdf/secret_warfare_and_natos_stay_behind_armies.htm

 

Italian General Gerardo Serravalle, who commanded the Italian Gladio stay-behind from 1971 to 1974, said that the document "’Directive of SHAPE’ was the official reference, if not even the proper Allied Stay-Behind doctrine". This document is not yet available to researchers. According to the testimony of General Serravalle, the members of the CPC were the officers responsible for the secret stay-behind structures of the various European countries. "At the stay-behind meetings representatives of the CIA were always present”, Serravalle explained, as well as “members of the US Forces Europe Command”.[7]

Serravalle said the recordings of the CPC, which he had seen but which are not yet publicly available, above all "relate to the training of Gladiators in Europe, how to activate them from the secret headquarters in case of complete occupation of the national territory and other technical questions such as, to quote the most important one, the unification of the different communication systems between the stay-behind bases.”[8]

[7] Gerardo Serravalle, Gladio (Roma: Edizioni Associate, 1991), p. 79.
[8] Serravalle, Gladio, p. 78.

“Centurions” see p. 4 of this April 26, 1963 CIA report on the current status of activist groups. See p. 4.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=64993#relPageId=4&tab=page

A periodical of the C.N.R. Circulated among the military. Les Centurions.

Here's a copy:

 

Like I said, these are just observations that I've picked up along the way. But some of the people who seem to have been involved in one way or another cloaked themselves in imagery that was designed to evoke a long-ago past.

 

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

Hmmmmm

 

A part of my posting seems to have been cut off.

Here's what got left out. It should be in that big gap after Operation Gladio by John Fleming. (I think I was supposed to have posted it as plain text).

Steve Thomas

 

 

[Steve Thomas]

1 minute ago, Steve Thomas said:

Hmmmmm

 

A part of my posting seems to have been cut off.

Here's what got left out. It should be in that big gap after Operation Gladio by John Fleming. (I think I was supposed to have posted it as plain text).

Steve Thomas

 

 

Damnit.

ITALY 1947 Origins of Gladio "As early as 1947, the United States was constructing a clandestine network in Northern Italy to act in the event of a communist insurrection or electoral victory." (Wolfgang Achtner, Sunday Independent, 11/11/90) "The network, run by secret-services of Nato members, was apparently set-up in the 1950's at US instigation to create a guerrilla resistance organisation in the event of a Soviet invasion or communist takeover in NATO countries." (John Palmer, Guardian, 10/11/90) "The Venetian judges [Casson & Mastelloni] came across Gladio when working on a document of 1959 that referred to the militia's "internal subversion"... The duty of Gladio is a double one, says the document. The first is objective" and concerns the "defense of the Italian territory and population". The second is defined cryptically as "subjective" and is "concerned with the legitimate authority of the state, and with the eventuality of any serious offenses against its integrity." Gladio should be ready "to adopt, with timely readiness, preemptive action to assure the state's prestige, capacity for action and for government". (Ed Vulliamy, Guardian, 10/12/90)”

 

“Preemptive action”... Ah – now enters the “strategy of tension”; and then the allusion to the “gladius” sword made sense.

 

Centurions:

 

The second thread in this scenario is the use of the term “Centurions”. I've seen several references to “Centurions” in my various readings.

[Larry Hancock]

Steve, unless you can get back as far as Egypt and the pyramids I don't think you are making a serious effort at this...grin  

[Steve Thomas]

10 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Steve, unless you can get back as far as Egypt and the pyramids I don't think you are making a serious effort at this...grin  

Larry,

Lousy scholarship. My bad.

If I see one picture of Bill Harvey dressed like this after his transfer to Rome, I'm going to run screaming into the night.

 

Steve

[Larry Hancock]

Good point, most likely they never included that image among the documents turned over to the JFK collection...there is such a thing as "too much information"...