The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 560: Operation Gladio | How The Mob Financed The CIA's Secret Army
Episode Date: July 9, 2024After World War II, the CIA hatched a covert plan to stop Soviet expansion in Europe. They created a secret army, recruiting an unexpected mix of allies. This clandestine operation, known as Gladio, s...panned across all NATO countries. What began as a defensive strategy quickly morphed into something far more sinister. Innocent civilians became casualties in a shadow war fought on European streets.
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                                         You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace.
                                         
                                         You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed.
                                         
                                         You swept the city, driving closer to the truth.
                                         
                                         While curled up on the couch with your cat.
                                         
                                         There's more to imagine when you listen.
                                         
                                         Discover heart-pounding
                                         
                                         thrillers on Audible. In 1948, the streets of every major city in America saw a huge and sudden
                                         
                                         rise in the heroin supply. Harry Enslinger was the commissioner of federal narcotics,
                                         
    
                                         and he wanted answers. A confidential informant drops
                                         
                                         a bombshell. The man bringing in the heroin is the head of the mafia's national crime syndicate,
                                         
                                         Lucky Luciano. That was a surprise. The mob didn't deal drugs, but maybe things changed.
                                         
                                         Anslinger sent agents to Sicily, where they caught Luciano preparing a half-ton shipment of heroin,
                                         
                                         heading to New York City by way of Havana.
                                         
                                         Now, the U.S. government didn't have jurisdiction in Sicily,
                                         
                                         so they brought in the local police.
                                         
                                         They refused to make an arrest.
                                         
    
                                         Anslinger called the State Department for help.
                                         
                                         After a few transfers, his call is finally connected to the U.S. Embassy in Palermo.
                                         
                                         A young man picks up the phone and says,
                                         
                                         Sorry, Commissioner, have your agent stand down.
                                         
                                         Lucky's with us.
                                         
                                         Anslinger was confused.
                                         
                                         He asks, what do you mean us?
                                         
                                         The response was the last thing Harry Anslinger expected to hear.
                                         
    
                                         Lucky Luciano, one of the world's most notorious crime bosses,
                                         
                                         was working for the CIA. After World War II, Europe was divided.
                                         
                                         The Western Allies controlled West Germany, while the Soviets held the East.
                                         
                                         As former Allies became enemies, the Cold War began.
                                         
                                         The Soviet Union suffered massive losses liberating countries as it marched to Berlin.
                                         
                                         And those liberated countries?
                                         
                                         They weren't giving them back.
                                         
                                         Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.
                                         
    
                                         They became Soviet satellite states.
                                         
                                         And the Soviets wanted more.
                                         
                                         How much more?
                                         
                                         Nobody knew.
                                         
                                         Europe was in ruins.
                                         
                                         But the Russian army was still strong.
                                         
                                         If they pushed west, they would be hard to stop. The Allies
                                         
                                         needed a plan to contain the Soviets, so they turned to Alan Dulles of the CIA, America's new
                                         
    
                                         intelligence agency. During the war, the Office of Strategic Services, or the OSS, coordinated
                                         
                                         espionage and covert operations. Alan Dulles was the OSS station chief in Switzerland. He watched the Soviet Union closely, and he didn't trust them.
                                         
                                         They may be temporary allies, but they were communists.
                                         
                                         Dulles believed in using every tool available to fight communism.
                                         
                                         A radical plan to stop Soviet expansion landed on his desk.
                                         
                                         It focused on training small groups of citizen soldiers in sabotage, supply raids, propaganda, and guerrilla warfare.
                                         
                                         These stay-behind soldiers would resist Soviet influence even if their governments fell.
                                         
                                         The White House loved the idea.
                                         
    
                                         The only question was, who would lead this secret army?
                                         
                                         Alan Dulles had the answer.
                                         
                                         Nazis.
                                         
                                         Oh, great. What could possibly go wrong?
                                         
                                         Operation Paperclip was a covert U.S. intelligence program
                                         
                                         that brought Nazi scientists, engineers, and technicians to America after World War II.
                                         
                                         Many of these scientists had been implicated in war crimes and human rights abuses,
                                         
                                         but the U.S. looked the other way.
                                         
    
                                         Dr. Kurt Blom was one of the Nazis' leading experts in biowarfare.
                                         
                                         He conducted horrible experiments on concentration camp inmates.
                                         
                                         After the war, Blom was arrested and would have been hanged,
                                         
                                         but America intervened and he went to work for the CIA.
                                         
                                         As a Nazi, he used chemicals on people against their will.
                                         
                                         What did he do for the CIA?
                                         
                                         He worked for the MKUltra program.
                                         
                                         Using chemicals on people against their will?
                                         
    
                                         Yep.
                                         
                                         At least he was consistent.
                                         
                                         Dr. Eric Traub was a top Nazi bioweapons designer.
                                         
                                         After the war, he worked for the U.S. Army and helped launch the Germ Warfare Lab on Plum Island in New York.
                                         
                                         And what happened there was bad.
                                         
                                         How is a Plum Island link down in a place with all this stuff?
                                         
                                         Arthur Rudolph, Walter Dornberger, and Wernher von Braun
                                         
                                         developed the V-2 rocket that killed thousands of people in London.
                                         
    
                                         V2 rockets were built using forced labor from concentration camps.
                                         
                                         They later worked for NASA and built the rockets that went to the moon.
                                         
                                         Whoa, whoa, whoa, let me fix that for you.
                                         
                                         They later worked for NASA and built rockets that never went to the moon.
                                         
                                         Fake moon landing link down here too, by the way.
                                         
                                         About 1,600 Nazi scientists were recruited by the United States.
                                         
                                         A lot of them were connected to war crimes and unethical experiments,
                                         
                                         but their backgrounds were sanitized to avoid public backlash.
                                         
    
                                         Yes, Nazis were evil, but to the Americans,
                                         
                                         they were a necessary evil used to prevent Soviet expansion.
                                         
                                         General Reinhard Gellin was Hitler's intelligence chief for the Eastern Front.
                                         
                                         He had a reputation for abusing Soviet POWs to extract information.
                                         
                                         After the war, the Soviets wanted him charged with war crimes.
                                         
                                         Gellin offered the United States all of his Soviet intelligence files,
                                         
                                         and in exchange, he wanted protection and a role in future operations.
                                         
                                         The U.S. agreed.
                                         
    
                                         Under Operation Paperclip, Gellin became an American asset.
                                         
                                         All war crimes were forgiven.
                                         
                                         Gellin worked for the CIA to stop Soviet aggression.
                                         
                                         The CIA was a civilian organization.
                                         
                                         It wasn't armed or militarized.
                                         
                                         It only gathered intelligence.
                                         
                                         Gellin needed something with more teeth.
                                         
                                         He built a new organization focused on the Soviet Union.
                                         
    
                                         It was more than just for intelligence gathering.
                                         
                                         They would be a paramilitary organization trained in guerrilla warfare and sabotage.
                                         
                                         Gellin's first recruits were Hitler youth and former Nazi soldiers.
                                         
                                         He called them werewolves.
                                         
                                         They were ordinary citizens by day
                                         
                                         and communist killers by night.
                                         
                                         Alan Dulles
                                         
                                         loved it. Gellan's werewolves
                                         
    
                                         would be the secret army the CIA
                                         
                                         didn't have. Resources
                                         
                                         poured in from the US and the UK
                                         
                                         and Gellan set up a network of secret
                                         
                                         supply caches all over Germany.
                                         
                                         The new German government didn't know these secret stay-behind armies existed
                                         
                                         until a former Nazi officer exposed the operation.
                                         
                                         The Americans were caught funding a secret Nazi army
                                         
    
                                         led by the brutal General Reinhard Gellin.
                                         
                                         This was horrifying news.
                                         
                                         The new German government ordered a full investigation.
                                         
                                         But that never happened.
                                         
                                         The CIA had the investigation closed and covered up.
                                         
                                         It didn't matter that the operation was illegal.
                                         
                                         The werewolves were necessary.
                                         
                                         The Soviet Union was strong and getting stronger.
                                         
    
                                         Then a new threat emerged.
                                         
                                         In 1947, communists were winning local elections all over Italy. National
                                         
                                         elections were coming up. Italy was becoming the first communist country in Western Europe.
                                         
                                         This was unacceptable. It would undermine America's position in Europe and increase
                                         
                                         Soviet influence. The CIA wanted Gehlen's guerrilla warfare plan expanded and brought to Italy.
                                         
                                         They would recruit hundreds of paramilitary soldiers, starting in Rome.
                                         
                                         This new army would be called Operation Gladio,
                                         
                                         named for the gladius, the sword used by Roman soldiers.
                                         
    
                                         Recruits would be trained by US and British special forces and given all the tools and tactics needed to fight communism in Italy.
                                         
                                         The CIA just needed one last thing to get Gladio running.
                                         
                                         A lot of cocaine.
                                         
                                         The CIA would use Operation Gladio to create fear and instability in Italy.
                                         
                                         They would spread propaganda, infiltrate political events,
                                         
                                         bribe police, politicians,
                                         
                                         and disrupt demonstrations.
                                         
                                         They had to convince citizens
                                         
    
                                         that the Italian Communist Party
                                         
                                         was a dangerous threat.
                                         
                                         A secret agreement was made
                                         
                                         with Italian military intelligence.
                                         
                                         If Gladio needed to escalate,
                                         
                                         they would commit acts of violence
                                         
                                         and pin the blame on Italian communists.
                                         
                                         The 1948 national election was approaching. Gladio had to act fast. This operation needed
                                         
    
                                         planning and a lot of money. Small problem. Congress controlled the money and wasn't aware
                                         
                                         of Operation Gladio. Asking for funding would reveal its existence defeating its purpose.
                                         
                                         The money had to come from somewhere else, and it had to be kept secret.
                                         
                                         CIA officer Colonel Paul Hellwell had a solution.
                                         
                                         He worked with the Chinese National Army fighting Mao Zedong's communists.
                                         
                                         Chiang Hai-shek funded the Chinese National Army by selling opium.
                                         
                                         Hellwell smuggled opium into China using Civil Air Transport,
                                         
                                         an airline owned by Chinese nationalists.
                                         
    
                                         That airline was sold to the Airedale Corporation, a quiet little American company running out of a fake address in Delaware.
                                         
                                         Oh, so the CIA bought the planes?
                                         
                                         They did.
                                         
                                         The planes joined the CIA's secret fleet, the infamous Air America, that ran drugs to war zones for decades.
                                         
                                         Alan Dulles loved the idea of funding
                                         
                                         Gladio with untraceable drug money. But Gladio needed a lot of money. They'd have to flood
                                         
                                         American cities with drugs. Getting the product wasn't the problem. The CIA had all the cocaine
                                         
                                         and heroin it needed. The problem was distribution. They'd need a small army of drug dealers to cover
                                         
    
                                         the entire country. Luckily, a network was already in place.
                                         
                                         It was organized, had logistics, had security, and they already had plenty of customers.
                                         
                                         The CIA found its perfect partner in crime.
                                         
                                         They'd use the mafia.
                                         
                                         You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map.
                                         
                                         You battled krakens and navigated through storms.
                                         
                                         Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest.
                                         
                                         While you cooked a lasagna.
                                         
    
                                         There's more to imagine when you listen.
                                         
                                         Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible.
                                         
                                         You searched for your informant
                                         
                                         who disappeared without a trace.
                                         
                                         You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed.
                                         
                                         You swept the city, driving closer to the truth, while
                                         
                                         curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover
                                         
                                         heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. The relationship between the Mafia and the CIA began a long time ago.
                                         
    
                                         During World War II, German submarines were threatening the American coastline.
                                         
                                         The military couldn't monitor every dock and waterfront, so it got help from the one organization that could.
                                         
                                         The Mafia.
                                         
                                         U.S. intelligence cut a deal with mob boss Charles Lucky Luciano, who was in prison.
                                         
                                         In exchange for his cooperation, Lucky received a reduced sentence and other perks.
                                         
                                         What?
                                         
                                         He broke Omerta.
                                         
                                         He did.
                                         
    
                                         Omerta is the mafia code of silence.
                                         
                                         You don't talk to authorities.
                                         
                                         Snitches get stitches.
                                         
                                         I know what it means.
                                         
                                         Oh, hey, why are you so upset? I used to run with a crew in Jersey. I don't like a rat.
                                         
                                         You were an organized crime.
                                         
                                         Yeah, we prefer the term family business, thank you very much.
                                         
                                         But yeah, I was with the Pesce family.
                                         
    
                                         Wait, wait, wait.
                                         
                                         It's a story for another time.
                                         
                                         Oh, maybe a next sponsor ad, perhaps.
                                         
                                         Good idea.
                                         
                                         So when the CIA needed to move heroin, they knew who to call.
                                         
                                         Lucky Luciano and his mafia syndicate.
                                         
                                         Definitely.
                                         
                                         At the time, the mafia avoided drugs.
                                         
    
                                         Well, they used heroin to keep prostitutes in line.
                                         
                                         But they didn't sell drugs.
                                         
                                         It was considered dishonorable.
                                         
                                         But when the CIA came calling, Lucky Luciano made an exception.
                                         
                                         The money was just too big.
                                         
                                         They made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
                                         
                                         Right. Besides, the mafia didn't want communists in power either.
                                         
                                         Communists are bad for family business.
                                         
    
                                         They are.
                                         
                                         Organized crime would become a target in a communist state.
                                         
                                         The mafia and the CIA liked things the way they were
                                         
                                         so business fronts were set up in sicily and italy heroin was smuggled into the us hidden in everyday items like sardine cans wheels of cheese and barrels of olive oil
                                         
                                         jimmy hoffa and the teamsters moved the drugs around the country the operation instantly
                                         
                                         generated a ton of cash a lot of people chasing that dragon. Yep. Heroin was good business.
                                         
                                         Operation Gladio now had its funding.
                                         
                                         But there's still a problem.
                                         
    
                                         Cash couldn't be paid directly to the CIA or the mafia.
                                         
                                         It had to be laundered through a legitimate financial institution.
                                         
                                         But walking into a bank with millions in cash
                                         
                                         sets off a red flag or two.
                                         
                                         They needed a bank that could handle cash
                                         
                                         without scrutiny from U.S. Treasury agents,
                                         
                                         Italian bank examiners, or the international monitors.
                                         
                                         Only one bank on the planet could do this, the Vatican.
                                         
    
                                         The Institute for Works of Religion, or Vatican Bank, was founded in 1942 to safeguard property
                                         
                                         for religious work or for charity.
                                         
                                         It only accepts deposits from top church officials.
                                         
                                         Five cardinals oversee transactions and report to the Pope.
                                         
                                         And that's all we know.
                                         
                                         It's the most secret bank in the world.
                                         
                                         Exactly what the CIA needed.
                                         
                                         Yeah, you know what else the CIA needed that bank for?
                                         
    
                                         I'd rather just keep going.
                                         
                                         Two words. Alien bodies.
                                         
                                         The Vatican Bank is hiding alien bodies.
                                         
                                         Yep, they grab them, bag them, tag them, and store them in the basement archives.
                                         
                                         You know, there is something suspicious about the Vatican's secret archives.
                                         
                                         Now you're starting to see.
                                         
                                         Hmm.
                                         
                                         Come, swim with me, human. Sw swim with me and open thine eyes, that thou mayest behold the
                                         
    
                                         world in its true form.
                                         
                                         The Vatican Bank isn't subject to international law.
                                         
                                         It doesn't report to any agency or government, only to the Pope.
                                         
                                         It was perfect for laundering drug money.
                                         
                                         And of course, the Church would get a cut.
                                         
                                         Yeah, the family business, everybody wants their peak.
                                         
                                         The Vatican was familiar with black money from the United States.
                                         
                                         The church helped the OSS create rat lines to move the important Nazis out of Europe.
                                         
    
                                         Plus, the church was anti-communist.
                                         
                                         Communism threatened the power of the United States, threatened the power of the mafia, and threaten the power of the church.
                                         
                                         So this unlikely partnership was formed, and the CIA started sending millions of dollars in cash to the Vatican. Operation Gladio launched in 1948, just in time for Italy's national election.
                                         
                                         The CIA, with help from the church, used psychological warfare to create fear of a
                                         
                                         communist takeover. Communism would bring violence, economic collapse, and the loss of religious freedoms.
                                         
                                         It worked.
                                         
                                         The Communist Party was defeated.
                                         
                                         The CIA was thrilled.
                                         
    
                                         They were able to change the outcome of a sovereign country's democratic election.
                                         
                                         And they didn't have to use the secret Gladio army.
                                         
                                         But what good is an army if you don't use it?
                                         
                                         So the CIA sent word to the Gladio soldiers. But what good is an army if you don't use it? So the CIA sent word to the
                                         
                                         Gladio soldiers, prepare for war. It would take a few years to organize, but Gladio was finally
                                         
                                         ready to enter its second phase, terrorism. Italian politics stabilized briefly, but the Cold War intensified, and Italy was on the front line.
                                         
                                         The Italian Communist Party, though defeated, remained a force.
                                         
                                         Violence was coming.
                                         
    
                                         On December 12, 1969, a bomb in Milan's National Agrarian Bank killed 17 and injured 88.
                                         
                                         Anarchists were blamed.
                                         
                                         In 1972, the Red Brigades, a communist group, rigged a car bomb in Petano.
                                         
                                         It killed three police officers.
                                         
                                         Italy had entered the years of lead.
                                         
                                         Far left and far right groups committed acts of violence.
                                         
                                         Bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings plagued the entire country.
                                         
                                         Something had to be done.
                                         
    
                                         Prime Minister Giulia Andriotti proposed a new, more stable government,
                                         
                                         but it was up to Parliament to decide.
                                         
                                         So a vote was set for March 16th, 1978.
                                         
                                         Meanwhile, Aldo Moro, a five-term prime minister,
                                         
                                         supported the historic compromise.
                                         
                                         This plan would give the Italian Communist Party a larger role in the government.
                                         
                                         Now, Moro wasn't a communist, but the Communist Party had a lot of public support.
                                         
                                         He feared excluding the party would lead to more violence.
                                         
    
                                         So Moro would present his historic compromise plan to Parliament just before the vote. The CIA wouldn't like
                                         
                                         that. Well, it didn't matter.
                                         
                                         Moro never made it to Parliament.
                                         
                                         The Red
                                         
                                         Brigades kidnapped him that morning
                                         
                                         and murdered him weeks later.
                                         
                                         Moro's death killed the historic compromise.
                                         
                                         Andriotti's new government proceeded
                                         
    
                                         without the Communist Party.
                                         
                                         I don't believe in coincidences.
                                         
                                         Well, neither did journalist Mino Piccarelli.
                                         
                                         He published an article with a really provocative theory
                                         
                                         about what really happened to Aulo Moro.
                                         
                                         Piccarelli had discovered Prime Minister Andriotti's connections
                                         
                                         to the Sicilian mafia,
                                         
                                         and he openly wondered if Andriotti ordered
                                         
    
                                         or was complicit in Moro's death.
                                         
                                         Piccarelli thought Italian intelligence might have aided the Red Brigades.
                                         
                                         He implied Operation Gladio members and foreign intelligence agencies like the CIA could be involved.
                                         
                                         Now, Peccarelli didn't have hard evidence,
                                         
                                         but he believed there was a conspiracy between Andriotti, the mafia, and CIA.
                                         
                                         He knew if he kept digging, he'd find proof.
                                         
                                         Oh boy, this is the kind of thing that'll get you whacked.
                                         
                                         What happened?
                                         
    
                                         Peccarelli was found dead in his car on March 20th, 1979, shot four times.
                                         
                                         And there it is.
                                         
                                         Through the 1970s and 80s, the years of lead continued in Italy.
                                         
                                         More bombings and assassinations.
                                         
                                         The bodies were piling up.
                                         
                                         In 1984, Judge Felice Cassone, a young, ambitious magistrate,
                                         
                                         investigated these attacks and saw a disturbing pattern.
                                         
                                         Military explosives like C4 were often used.
                                         
    
                                         Communist groups were usually
                                         
                                         blamed, but few arrests were made. His breakthrough came when Vincenzo Vinciguerra confessed to the
                                         
                                         Pediato bombing. He said his group was armed and trained by Italian military intelligence.
                                         
                                         That's where they got the C4. Their orders were to cause disruption and violence and frame
                                         
                                         communists. This was state-sponsored terrorism.
                                         
                                         Then things got worse.
                                         
                                         Cassone got a call from the local police.
                                         
                                         They had confiscated a briefcase from a local politician.
                                         
    
                                         It contained documents describing a plan to take over the Italian government.
                                         
                                         Cassone couldn't believe it.
                                         
                                         The officer said, there is more.
                                         
                                         The suitcase had a false bottom with more hidden documents. Cassone asked what they found. The officer sounded nervous and said, there is more. The suitcase had a false bottom with more hidden documents.
                                         
                                         Cassone asked what they found.
                                         
                                         The officer sounded nervous and said, sir, we can't tell you over the phone.
                                         
                                         Cassone went to the police station to read the documents and was speechless.
                                         
                                         The documents confirmed hundreds of innocent people were killed in bombings
                                         
    
                                         by groups working for Italian military intelligence.
                                         
                                         Cassone followed the lead.
                                         
                                         He gained access to Italy's military intelligence archives.
                                         
                                         That's when he learned these attacks were connected to Operation Gladio, launched by the CIA.
                                         
                                         Cassone now had evidence that a secret unit in military intelligence
                                         
                                         was conducting guerrilla operations against its own people.
                                         
                                         Even more shocking, it wasn't just Italy.
                                         
                                         Operation Gladio was conceived in Germany by former Nazis, expanded in Italy, and then spread across NATO.
                                         
    
                                         Cassone uncovered attacks all over Europe. Germany, France, a few in Belgium. All were
                                         
                                         false flag operations where civilians were killed intentionally and communists were blamed. Cassone
                                         
                                         then realized Gladio was far bigger than he thought.
                                         
                                         He felt his life was in danger.
                                         
                                         From July until October of 1990, I was the only one who knew about Operation Gladio,
                                         
                                         who was not already part of the conspiracy.
                                         
                                         Prime Minister Andriotti initially denied knowing anything about Gladio.
                                         
                                         But in 1990, under political pressure, he confirmed Operation Gladio was real
                                         
    
                                         and had operations throughout Europe.
                                         
                                         Now, most countries denied involvement at first,
                                         
                                         but there was too much evidence.
                                         
                                         Finally, NATO said that these stay-behind armies were real,
                                         
                                         but only for defense.
                                         
                                         The US and UK continued to maintain
                                         
                                         a no-comment policy on Gladio.
                                         
                                         The truth coming out put Prime Minister Andriotti under tremendous scrutiny.
                                         
    
                                         Eventually, he was arrested and charged with being complicit in the murders of Peccarelli and Moro.
                                         
                                         After multiple trials and appeals, he was acquitted for lack of evidence and cleared of all charges.
                                         
                                         He had friends in high places, eh?
                                         
                                         He did. He was important to the cause.
                                         
                                         Andriotti oversaw Operation Gladio in Italy.
                                         
                                         About 30 acts of violence were directly linked to Gladio, with 150 more suspected.
                                         
                                         Around 600 innocent people died from Gladio bombs, with twice as many injured.
                                         
                                         If all suspected attacks are proven to be Gladio-related, the death toll is in the thousands.
                                         
    
                                         No one has answered for these crimes.
                                         
                                         Over the years, as more innocent bodies piled up,
                                         
                                         the CIA said it needed more money and power.
                                         
                                         Communism was taking root all over the world,
                                         
                                         so they got more money and power.
                                         
                                         The agency became militarized.
                                         
                                         It now had its own secret army
                                         
                                         that it could deploy anywhere there was a Soviet threat.
                                         
    
                                         Small problem.
                                         
                                         It was all a lie.
                                         
                                         From the 1950s through the 1980s, the USSR was an existential threat to America. The CIA was constantly warning us of Soviet strength, fueling massive military spending.
                                         
                                         But was the threat real?
                                         
                                         In the 1960s, Americans were terrified of the Soviets.
                                         
                                         Let us face, without panic, the reality of our times.
                                         
                                         The fact that atom bombs may someday be dropped on our cities.
                                         
                                         Sputnik launched. Yuri Gagarin went to space.
                                         
    
                                         Americans panicked. The Soviets seemed unstoppable.
                                         
                                         NASA had to be created. More military spending was needed.
                                         
                                         But was it? The CIA said yes.
                                         
                                         The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 almost started a nuclear war.
                                         
                                         It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile
                                         
                                         launched from Cuba against any nation
                                         
                                         in the Western Hemisphere
                                         
                                         as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States,
                                         
    
                                         requiring a full retaliatory response
                                         
                                         upon the Soviet Union.
                                         
                                         Clearly, war with the Soviet Union was coming.
                                         
                                         More military spending was needed.
                                         
                                         But was it?
                                         
                                         The CIA said yes.
                                         
                                         I grew up in the 1980s when military budgets exploded.
                                         
                                         Generation Xers like me believed that war was going to break out at any second.
                                         
    
                                         You can do it in the army.
                                         
                                         We were in an arms race that we couldn't afford to lose.
                                         
                                         It was a race for survival.
                                         
                                         But was it?
                                         
                                         The CIA's job is to gather intelligence so the U.S. government can make informed decisions.
                                         
                                         Somehow these decisions always led to more military funding and more power for intelligence agencies.
                                         
                                         But the CIA knows best.
                                         
                                         Or does it?
                                         
    
                                         You searched for your informant. Or does it? closer to the truth, while curled up on the couch with your cat.
                                         
                                         There's more to imagine when you listen.
                                         
                                         Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible.
                                         
                                         While the Soviets puffed out their chest in Cuba,
                                         
                                         their people back home were starving.
                                         
                                         From 1953 to 1964, they couldn't produce enough food to feed their population.
                                         
                                         The CIA didn't know?
                                         
                                         In the 60s, Americans were told more military spending was the only way to stop Soviet world domination.
                                         
    
                                         In reality, 1964 started 20 years of the Soviet era of stagnation, not domination.
                                         
                                         Their economy was falling apart.
                                         
                                         The CIA didn't know?
                                         
                                         Yes, in the 1960s, the Soviets poured resources into their space program and their military.
                                         
                                         But at the expense of everything else.
                                         
                                         The state-run system was failing.
                                         
                                         Productivity was low.
                                         
                                         Their technology was outdated.
                                         
    
                                         There's no incentives for innovation. Their scientists and engineers were fleeing. It was called a brain drain.
                                         
                                         The CIA didn't know? In 1985, Soviet President Gorbachev tried to revitalize the Soviet system.
                                         
                                         Part of his plan was glasnost, which means openness. He allowed Soviet citizens more
                                         
                                         freedom to express themselves.
                                         
                                         What the people expressed was they were miserable. We finally learned the truth.
                                         
                                         Defending against Soviet aggression wasn't a strategy. It was a sales pitch.
                                         
                                         Throughout the entire Cold War, American military contractors got wealthy and intelligence agencies
                                         
                                         grew powerful,
                                         
    
                                         protecting us from a country that was going bankrupt
                                         
                                         and whose citizens were sick and starving.
                                         
                                         When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989,
                                         
                                         the Soviet Union had already been in ruins for years.
                                         
                                         The whole world saw it.
                                         
                                         Somehow, the CIA didn't know.
                                         
                                         Gladio was funded right up until it was exposed in 1990.
                                         
                                         Gladio still had armies ready to repel the expansion of the Soviet Union.
                                         
    
                                         But by then, there was no Soviet Union.
                                         
                                         The Baltic states left.
                                         
                                         Ukraine, Belarus, the Central Asian republics, they were on their way out.
                                         
                                         The CIA didn't know?
                                         
                                         In 1991, the USSR was officially dissolved.
                                         
                                         How did the U.S. respond to its greatest enemy being defeated?
                                         
                                         It increased its military spending by 12%.
                                         
                                         Why?
                                         
    
                                         The Cold War was over.
                                         
                                         The Soviets lost.
                                         
                                         But I guess the CIA didn't know.
                                         
                                         Operation Gladio was real, but is still controversial and classified.
                                         
                                         The version I've told today isn't official because nobody knows the whole truth.
                                         
                                         The CIA does.
                                         
                                         Well, they do, but they won't tell us.
                                         
                                         The CIA can't confirm or deny its participation in any covert operations.
                                         
    
                                         Bulls**t.
                                         
                                         Now, the CIA claims it was never involved in drug trafficking.
                                         
                                         They admit Air America existed for intelligence gathering and transporting supplies.
                                         
                                         Yeah, supplies are smack.
                                         
                                         Smack?
                                         
                                         Yeah, you know, skag, horse, brown sugar, china white.
                                         
                                         Heroin.
                                         
                                         What'd I say?
                                         
    
                                         The CIA said it never happened. In 1996, journalist Gary Webb linked the CIA to Nicaraguan Contras
                                         
                                         trafficking cocaine into the U.S. to fund rebels.
                                         
                                         That sounds familiar.
                                         
                                         Doesn't it?
                                         
                                         Did the CIA put drugs into black community?
                                         
                                         We don't have any evidence so far that they did it directly.
                                         
                                         And what we have evidence of is that men working for a CIA-run army did do that.
                                         
                                         I will get to the bottom of it, and I will let you know the results of what I found.
                                         
    
                                         An official 1998 report investigated Webb's claims and finally put the issue to bed.
                                         
                                         The reports acknowledged that the CIA had worked with individuals known to be involved in drug trafficking, but did not find conclusive evidence that the CIA itself had facilitated or condoned these activities.
                                         
                                         Who conducted that investigation?
                                         
                                         The CIA did.
                                         
                                         They investigated themselves?
                                         
                                         Yep.
                                         
                                         Do you know, as well as everyone else, that the CIA has been dealing drugs throughout the world
                                         
                                         and bringing drugs into this country since Vietnam's war.
                                         
    
                                         You brought them in here in body bags.
                                         
                                         You were in the Golden Triangle.
                                         
                                         So you're going to come in this community and insult us
                                         
                                         and tell us that you're going to investigate yourself?
                                         
                                         You've got to be crazy.
                                         
                                         Whistleblowers, including federal agents, said they witnessed CIA involvement in moving drugs.
                                         
                                         The head of the DDA at the time, Robert Bonner,
                                         
                                         said that a ton of pure cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars
                                         
    
                                         had been smuggled into the United States.
                                         
                                         And he blamed the CIA.
                                         
                                         Now, we understand what you're saying.
                                         
                                         A ton of cocaine was smuggled into the United States of America.
                                         
                                         Well, in cooperation with the CIA?
                                         
                                         That's what, that's
                                         
                                         exactly what appears to have happened.
                                         
                                         Declassified documents show
                                         
    
                                         the U.S. government, including CIA,
                                         
                                         associated with known drug traffickers.
                                         
                                         They overlook these activities
                                         
                                         to... Is that communism?
                                         
                                         Yep.
                                         
                                         If you ask the question,
                                         
                                         did the CIA sell drugs
                                         
                                         in the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles
                                         
    
                                         to finance the Contra War,
                                         
                                         the answer will be a categorical no.
                                         
                                         Now, having said that,
                                         
                                         and what is true is
                                         
                                         the policymakers absolutely closed their eyes
                                         
                                         to the criminal behavior of our allies and supporters in that war.
                                         
                                         The policymakers ignored their drug dealing, their stealing, and their human rights violations.
                                         
                                         The CIA didn't admit to working with organized crime,
                                         
    
                                         but investigations and declassified documents show they did.
                                         
                                         The Vatican and CIA haven't confirmed any financial arrangement,
                                         
                                         but there's a lot of indirect evidence of Vatican support for anti-communist activities, but no hard proof.
                                         
                                         That's why they used that bank.
                                         
                                         Right. So what's the truth?
                                         
                                         We don't know.
                                         
                                         All I can do is give you my opinion.
                                         
                                         I know we need a strong military
                                         
    
                                         and intelligence agencies.
                                         
                                         And this episode isn't about communism
                                         
                                         or the military.
                                         
                                         This episode is about the lies
                                         
                                         we've been told for years
                                         
                                         by the people who swore to protect us.
                                         
                                         And do I believe that the Soviet threat
                                         
                                         was exaggerated in order to line the pockets
                                         
    
                                         of military contractors and expand the power of the CIA?
                                         
                                         Come on. Of course. We were told this would happen.
                                         
                                         President Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex.
                                         
                                         He said if we let the defense companies become too powerful, they'll undermine democracy and influence policy to serve their own financial interests.
                                         
                                         Ike nailed it.
                                         
                                         That's what happened.
                                         
                                         CIA operations like overthrowing governments concerned Eisenhower.
                                         
                                         He knew intelligence agencies were necessary,
                                         
    
                                         but stressed the need for transparency and oversight.
                                         
                                         Otherwise, the agencies would become a law unto themselves.
                                         
                                         Ike nailed it again.
                                         
                                         That's what happened.
                                         
                                         JFK often asked Eisenhower for advice.
                                         
                                         Ike told him, don't let the intelligence agencies have too much power.
                                         
                                         At first, JFK trusted them.
                                         
                                         But then in 1961, he signed off on the CIA's plan to overthrow Cuba's government.
                                         
    
                                         The Bay of Pigs invasion was a disaster.
                                         
                                         The CIA botched it.
                                         
                                         It embarrassed America and solidified the relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union.
                                         
                                         JFK started to believe that maybe the CIA was doing more harm than good
                                         
                                         and needed to be reformed or even dismantled and rebuilt.
                                         
                                         Their growing power was undermining democracy, just as Eisenhower warned.
                                         
                                         During the 1960s, there was another serious threat to democracy, organized crime.
                                         
                                         The mob ran the labor unions and important businesses.
                                         
    
                                         They could buy judges, influence politicians.
                                         
                                         They were powerful enough to change the outcome of elections.
                                         
                                         Some say the mafia helped JFK get elected, which would be ironic because JFK's victory brought the mafia a big problem, his brother Robert.
                                         
                                         As Attorney General, RFK prioritized fighting organized crime. because JFK's victory brought the mafia a big problem, his brother Robert.
                                         
                                         As Attorney General, RFK prioritized fighting organized crime.
                                         
                                         I think we're playing the role of organized crime.
                                         
                                         I think it's a very serious situation that's facing the country at the frozen time.
                                         
                                         John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
                                         
    
                                         Robert F. Kennedy, about to run for president, was assassinated five years later in 1968.
                                         
                                         As JFK's attorney general and confidant, RFK would have continued his brother's policies.
                                         
                                         He also pledged to reopen the investigation into JFK's murder if he was elected.
                                         
                                         Now, why reopen an investigation? I thought this was all solved. A president on a crusade against the CIA, killed.
                                         
                                         A potential president on a crusade against the CIA, killed. A potential president on a crusade against the mafia, killed.
                                         
                                         Now, we know the official stories, JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, a lone gunman, case closed.
                                         
                                         RFK, Sirhan Sirhan, lone gunman, case closed.
                                         
                                         But there are other theories, with real evidence, that place the blame not on lone gunmen, but on two powerful organizations.
                                         
    
                                         Two organizations with the motive, opportunity, and means.
                                         
                                         The CIA and the Mafia.
                                         
                                         Now, whether the CIA and the Mafia were involved in the assassinations, I'm not sure.
                                         
                                         But I am sure of one thing.
                                         
                                         They've both mastered organized crime.
                                         
                                         Thank you so much for hanging out today. To be continued... share. That stuff really makes him happy. Like most topics we cover on this channel, today's is recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to see or learn more about,
                                         
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                                         Those are the plugs and that's going to do it.
                                         
                                         Until next time, be safe, be kind,
                                         
                                         and know that you are appreciated. Oh, oh, oh, yeah I played Polybius in Area 51
                                         
                                         A secret code inside the Bible said I was
                                         
                                         I love my UFOs and paranormal fun
                                         
                                         As well as music, so I'm singing like I should
                                         
                                         But then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth
                                         
    
                                         My friends, and it never ends
                                         
                                         No, it never ends
                                         
                                         I feel the crab cat and I got stuck inside Mel's home
                                         
                                         With MKUltra being only two away
                                         
                                         Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone
                                         
                                         On a film set or were the shadow people there
                                         
                                         The Roswell aliens Just fought the smiling man
                                         
                                         I'm told
                                         
    
                                         And his name was cold
                                         
                                         And I can't believe
                                         
                                         I'm dancing with the fish
                                         
                                         Heck, I'll fish on Thursday night
                                         
                                         Wednesday, J2
                                         
                                         And the white balls of the breeze
                                         
                                         All through the night
                                         
                                         All I ever wanted Was to just hear the truth
                                         
    
                                         So the world falls on my feet
                                         
                                         All through the night The Mothman sightings and the solar storm still come
                                         
                                         To a god, the secret city underground
                                         
                                         Mysterious number stations, planets are both two
                                         
                                         Project Stargate and what the Dark Watchers
                                         
                                         found.
                                         
                                         We've been a simulation,
                                         
                                         don't you worry though.
                                         
    
                                         The Black Knight said
                                         
                                         a lot, he told me
                                         
                                         so. I can't believe
                                         
                                         I'm dancing with
                                         
                                         the fish, heck of a fish
                                         
                                         on Thursday nights when they
                                         
                                         chase you, and the weapons have been beat all through the night
                                         
                                         All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth
                                         
    
                                         So the wild birds have been beat all through the night
                                         
                                         Headful fish on Thursday nights when they chase you
                                         
                                         And the wild birds have to beat all through the night
                                         
                                         All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth
                                         
                                         So the wild boars have to beat all through the night Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance.
                                         
                                         Gertie loves to dance on the dance floor, because she is a camel. Camels love to dance when the feeling is right I'm wasting time
                                         
                                         Getting lucky
                                         
                                         Getting lucky
                                         
