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Article: The sword's other edge. (Italy)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 15, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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EAST and west, the secret policemen are creeping out of the woodwork. In Italy, a natural home of conspiracies, the ghost of a secret anti-communist network is threatening the president himself, Mr Francesco Cossiga. At the end of November the commander of Italy's military secret services, General Paolo Inzerilli, announced that the paramilitary organisation called Gladio (Sword), set up in 1956 to counter a Warsaw-pact invasion, had at last been dissolved. Mr Cossiga, who would normally continue as president until 1992, is furious about the handling of the affair.
Mr Cossiga points out that Gladio's sister organisations elsewhere-in France, Belgium, Holland, ...