Glenn Greenwald debates former NSA director Michael Hayden on state surveillance
The Unhived Mind
Glenn Greenwald debates former NSA director Michael Hayden on state surveillance
Published time: May 02, 2014 23:56
http://rt.com/usa/156536-hayden-greenwald-state-surveillance-debate/
FULL DEBATE; http://new.livestream.com/Munk-Debates/events/2939050/videos/49783440
The ongoing debate over whether Americans should value privacy or security stretched into Toronto, Canada Friday night when four of the most influential voices on the matter sat down to discuss the leaked NSA surveillance programs and their fallout.
Former National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency chief Michael Hayden joined with Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz to argue that the ongoing surveillance programs first revealed in June last year by Edward Snowden are necessary to prevent terrorism.
Arguing that national security is merely an excuse for an “insatiable appetite for data” was Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Glenn Greenwald – one of the few journalists working with Snowden who now works at The Intercept, a magazine on FirstLook.org.
Organized by Munk Debates, which brings together high-profile pundits on a number of issues, the debate started at 7:00 p.m. EST and streamed live on FirstLook.org. Users participated in the debate both in the hall and online by tweeting in remotely with the hashtag #MunkDebate.
A poll of the Toronto audience before the beginning of the debate found that 32 percent agreed that “state surveillance is a legitimate defense of our freedoms.” Forty-seven percent disagreed, and 21 percent were undecided.
“The internet is a fundamentally global, democratic platform. It must stay that way.” @alexisohanian #munkdebate
— Micah Lee (@micahflee) May 2, 2014
“There is virtually nothing that is immune from the eyes, ears, and even noses of the new generation of big brothers,” Dershowitz said in his opening statement. “Those who oppose all surveillance are as dangerous as those who uncritically support all surveillance. I believe it’s possible to strike a balance in a manner that protects our freedoms, and that is where our efforts should be directed.”
Greenwald, perhaps the most recognizable face on the stage because of his frequent cable TV appearances, argued that limited, targeted surveillance – which Hayden and Derhowitz promoted – makes perfect sense. The journalist compared the actual surveillance state, in which the NSA collects nearly two billion individual communications every day, to a notion that far exceeded even the predictions of 1950s science-fiction authors.
“What state surveillance actually is is best understood by the NSA’s own documents and own words, which I think as you know I happen to have a lot of,” Greenwald said. “That phrase that they use over and over again to describe the state of surveillance they’ve constructed is called Collect It All.”
.@ggreenwald: “There wud be no controversy if #surveillance was being done in a balanced way–as Hayden & Dersh say it is.” #munkdebate
— Jesselyn Radack (@JesselynRadack) May 2, 2014
Greenwald went on to spar with Hayden and Dershowitz over whether the current method of metadata collection would have prevented the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Hayden argued that intelligence analysts would have noticed the number of calls from San Diego to the Middle East and caught the terrorists who were living inside the US illegally. The problem, he said, was that when the NSA prevented the attack, they would still have to defend the surveillance program because as far as the public would be concerned, nothing went wrong.
But Greenwald stated that a number of experts have come forward to say that such a claim is not only false, but also offensive to the public. Lawrence Wright, the winner of a 2003 Pulitzer Prize for his Al-Qaeda coverage, wrote in the New Yorker earlier this year that one of the primary reasons US authorities failed to stop 9/11 is because they were taking in too much information to accurately sort through.
The sheer data volume that such a method of surveillance has created is now threatening to ruin the very internet that so many people now rely upon.
“The gift and the curse of all that data, aside from the civil liberty violations, is that yeah there may be some signal but there’s a lot of noise,” Ohanian said. “It’s a very hard software problem to solve…through the efforts of this mass surveillance we’ve also undermined so much of the technology that makes the internet work, that keeps us safe. It threatens the technology of how the internet works, and works well.”
Dersh concedes the point: we need less #surveillance than what we have now. Need targeted #surveillance–which is what ‘@ggreenwald’s pt is
— Jesselyn Radack (@JesselynRadack) May 3, 2014
“The internet is a fundamentally global, democratic platform. It must stay that way.” @alexisohanian #munkdebate
— Micah Lee (@micahflee) May 2, 2014
Munk Debate Results: 41% agree, 59% disagree (32 agree, 47 disagree pre-debate). Narrow win for @ggreenwald and @alexisohanian.
— The Munk Debates (@munkdebate) May 3, 2014
theunhivedmind says:
Once you understand that the terrorist programmes are run by Israel, United States and Great Britain then all this arguing by Hayden and his stooge becomes totally irrelevant. Just study state-sponsored false-flag terrorism and the likes of Operation Northwood and Operation Gladio. Hows about how Al-Jazerra constantly had access to fake Al-Qaeda videos whilst no one else did and why was this? Al-Jazerra is a front for the Central Intelligence Agence who happen to control Qatar the very base of Al-Jazerra. When Hayden mentions Mohammed Atta he forgets to mention he was paid a large sum by the Pakistani ISI who happen to be controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency and all ISI members have to be vetted by the U.S agency. Yes the same Mohammed Atta who’s almost perfect passport was found in New York City without it being burned all whilst most of the Twin Towers and its steel and concrete were pulverized into dust with hardly anything being able to be found not even telephones or chairs. Then the Western intelligence agencies have the balls to attack Russia for finding a Right Sector card in the Ukraine. Even if Russia did pull the same con as the U.S did on 9/11 it still shows how the nefarious U.S is a hypocrite.
Al-Qaeda was created by the family of Carl M. Marcy out of Chicago using the Senior Executive Service and the U.S Small Business Administrations 8(a) program. Mossad, MI6 and the CIA control and create all the different terrorist groups in order to bring about control over the people of the world and also manipulate economics through resources and similar. This system is designed to simply bring in a totalitarian police state in a post-democratic society. No Al-Qaeda could attack the United States and keep the U.S forces from defending it. No Al-Qaeda can free-fall demolish the Twin Towers with weapons only the U.S Military and similar have access too. With all what I have said combined with the Project for a New American Century, Patriot Act, National Defense Authorization Act and the Civil Contingencies Act (UK) these will answer everything you question. Glenn Greenwald quickly speaks about the Boston Marathon and we know a U.S intelligence team named Craft made up of U.S Navy Seals who planted and exploded the backpacks and we have the pictures of this very team and the people involved.
-= The Unhived Mind
U.S. INTELLIGENCE BOMB BOSTON ON PATRIOTS DAY
http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress2/?p=21379
U.S. INTELLIGENCE BOMB BOSTON ON PATRIOTS DAY
16 April 2013 Last updated at 00:40
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22160691
Explosions hit Boston Marathon
Two people have been killed and dozens more injured in two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, police say.
TV footage showed bloodied runners and spectators being treated at the scene and the road strewn with debris.
Boston police said a third incident occurred at the city’s JFK Library and was under investigation.
In a TV address, President Barack Obama said those responsible would feel the “full weight of justice”.
“We don’t yet have all the answers,” he said. “We still do not know who did this or why.”
President Obama said he had called Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to offer federal assistance.
He said the government would increase security around the US “as necessary” but did not say whether the White House thought the incident was part of a larger plot.
Mr Obama stopped short of calling the incident an act of terrorism.
The BBC’s North America editor Mark Mardell says perhaps this was merely caution, although given that the president will face criticism for not using that word, it is certainly deliberate and may be significant.
Boston’s police commissioner has urged people in the city to stay indoors, and not congregate in large groups.
The city mayor’s office has set up an emergency hotline for friends and relatives on +1 617 635 4500.
A spokeswoman for Massachusetts General Hospital in the city told Reuters news agency that it was treating 19 victims of the explosions in its emergency room, but information about their condition was not immediately available.
President Obama: “We will find out who did this and hold them accountable”
The Federal Aviation Administration has created a no-fly zone over the area, while security at key sites in Washington DC and New York has been tightened.
Vice President Joe Biden – breaking off from a telephone conference call on gun control – said: “Our prayers are with those people in Boston who have suffered injury.”
State police officer Roupen Bastajian had just finished the race when he heard the blasts.
“I started running toward the blast and there were people all over the floor,” he said.
“We started grabbing tourniquets and started tying legs. At least 25 to 30 people have at least one leg missing, or an ankle missing, or two legs missing.”
Graphic showing Boston Marathon explosions
The first explosion came at about 14:50 local time (18:50 GMT), approximately two hours after the winners crossed the line.
There was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street just before the finish line sending some runners tumbling to the pavement while others were knocked down by those rushing to the scene.
Another loud explosion occurred a few seconds later, and smoke rose from the scene of the blasts.
Bloodied victims were initially rushed to a medical tent set up to care for fatigued runners.
Emergency services descended on the scene, which was quickly locked down.
Stragglers heading for the finish line were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts.
Mike Mitchell of Vancouver, Canada, a runner who had finished the race, said he was looking back at the finish line when he saw a “massive explosion.”
Smoke rose 50ft (15m) in the air, he told Reuters news agency, and people began running away and screaming after hearing the noise. “Everybody freaked out,” he said.
A fire then broke out at the John F Kennedy presidential library a few miles away from the finish line.
Police said it may have been caused by an incendiary device but did not appear to be related to the bombings.
The annual Boston Marathon this year had a field of about 23,000 runners and was watched by hundreds of thousands of spectators.
It is held on Patriots Day, a Massachusetts state holiday which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution in 1775.
British police are reviewing security plans for Sunday’s London Marathon, the next major international marathon, following events in Boston.
TheUnhivedMind says:
Is this a sign that the economy is on the way out? Gold is being bought up by the Nazi DVD/CIA by the bucket loads. George H.W Bush’s DVD Agent, Josef Ackermann is buying up gold in Thailand like there is no tomorrow. Gold has been hammered today below $1400 which makes it easier to buy gold both in price and availability as idiots run from the market and sell their physical gold for paper trade ETF rigged prices by JP Morgan an extension of The Worshipful Company of Mercers.
What we could be seeing here is an attempt to round up three-hundred thousand American patriots under the guise of protecting the homeland from domestic terrorists. Patriots of the American Republic and freedom will be demonized in the media as will firearms ready for a massive assault on the American Constitution. What we may see shortly is more of these events and they may get more violent each time and faster at coming forth. This will bring about the excuse for Obama to bring about Martial Law. This Martial Law and curfews will be fully in place just prior to the planned collapse of the global economy.
I have warned you for years that they would cover-up for economic collapse by using a pandemic scare where quarantine would be used to keep people off the streets and in fear of exiting outside. Well we may see this type of scenario but with a martial law system.
Those three-hundred thousand American Patriots are all on the ADEX list created by Hillary Clinton and in the hands of Janet Napolitano. Now does it make sense why the National Defense Authorization Act was passed? Hows about why the East German STASI trained Homeland Security have been buying up so much ammo in preparation for a massive civil war on American soil.
It will be interesting to see who gets the blame for this event. I cannot see them blaming North Korea for this event, that one would have to be a huge event instead. I can see them possibly false-flagging Syria and Iran. The Worshipful Company of Fuellers are already demonizing Syria with lies of Syria using chemical weapons, even though they ignore the blatant chemical weapon attacks by the Al-Qaeda germ rebel terrorists backed by the West. This could be the excuse to get acceptance from the herd for military intervention in Syria. If this happens expect World War III as Iran will come to defend Syria which will bring Russia and China into the game. North Korea may be flashed in order to aid military draft and conscriptions whilst the conscripted are filtered to the Middle Eastern crusade instead. There is a World War III on the horizon and it is getting very close indeed. Right now we are in a covert World War III already. Study the geopolitics behind these wars as well as the energy reasons such as the natural gas pipelines. Lastly make sure you understand the Temporal Power of the Jesuit Pope of Rome and how the Shia Caliph is the only challenge to this power of the World by the Pope. This is why the Pope uses his Sunni moslem puppets to aid the destruction of Iran.
Let me remind you people that Al-Qaeda was created by the Jesuit trained daughter-in-law of Carl M. Marcy. Al-Qaeda was created by the Chicago Marcy family through the powerful and very secretive Senior Executive Service through the U.S. Small Business Administrations 8(a) program. Osama Bin Laden did not commit 9/11, Osama was a U.S. Intelligence asset working with the Deutsche Verteidigungs Dienst Nazis which hide within the Directorate for Intelligence division of the Central Intelligence Agency. Osama’s code name was Tim Osman and he was the puppet of George H.W. Bush the head of the DVD. George H.W Bush serves Great Master Prince Charles of the Order of the Bath (9/11 terrorists with the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators) and the Order of Malta Grandmaster, Matthew Festing.
The clue to this event is it occurring on Patriots Day and at the JFK Library. John F. Kennedy was a true American patriot and that is why The Worshipful Company of Mercers assassinated him with the Permanent Industrial Exposition team paid through the Bank of Montreal. Notice its the same intelligence agency propaganda whores, British Broadcasting Corporation (British SIS) and Cable News Network (CIA) running off about right-wing terrorists. May I remind you that Knight of Malta, Ted Turner fronts the control of CNN for George H.W Bush who also controls most of the alternative media mastered by the continuum of the old American Protective League serving Rome. Study the Council for National Policy to see through who controls most of the big named alternative media outlets. They have lists of all your ip addresses ready to monitor you and if need be round you up with the other American patriots.
Why are the U.S. Citizens who believe this false-flag propaganda not up in arms that their taxpayers’ currency funneled by the barrel loads into organizations like Homeland Security cannot stop some basic attacks like this? Why do these people not use logic and ask these types of questions? It is all a staged film and you are an actor in this stage film but you do not know you are acting and you do not get paid for the privilege.
-= The Unhived Mind
UHM – MERCERS HIT GOLD PRICES IN APRIL 2013 PRIOR TO PLANNED FINANCIAL COLLAPSE
http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress2/?p=21364
Feds Identify 300,000 Americans as Terrorists
http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress2/?p=21293
Chinese H7N9 Bird Flu is made a moving target by gene swapping
http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress2/?p=21395
TheUnhivedMind says:
Eyewitness: Authorities Announced “Drill” Before Boston Explosions
UM coach “thought it was odd” bomb sniffing dogs were at start and finish lines
Paul Joseph Watson
April 15, 2013
http://www.infowars.com/eyewitness-authorities-announced-drill-before-boston-explosions/
An eyewitness to the two explosions at the Boston Marathon today said that a “drill” was repeatedly announced before the bombs exploded and that he “thought it was odd” bomb sniffing dogs were in place before the blast.
Image: Twitter
University of Mobile’s Cross Country Coach Ali Stevenson told Local 15 News, “They kept making announcements on the loud speaker that it was just a drill and there was nothing to worry about. “It seemed like there was some sort of threat, but they kept telling us it was just a drill.”
The news station also reports that Stevenson “thought it was odd there were bomb sniffing dogs at the start and finish lines.”
Stevenson then describes hearing the explosions as he ran away from the scene, having just completed the marathon.
If this report is accurate, it clearly suggests there could have been some degree of prior knowledge of the bombing, which killed two people and injured at least 23.
The fact that the explosions were preceded and overlapped by a”drill” of an almost identical nature mirrors other major terror attacks, such as the 7/7 bombings in London.
It is important to emphasize that the New York Times recently reported that most of the recent domestic terror plots in the United States “were facilitated by the F.B.I.,” suggesting that today’s incident in Boston may have been part of such an operation.
It remains to be seen how the media and the Obama administration will exploit this incident depending who gets the blame, but Rahm Emanuel’s “never let a serious crisis go to waste” advisory is sure to be in play.
More on this story as it develops…..
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
· TheUnhivedMind says:
UM Coach: Bomb Sniffing Dogs Were at Start, Finish Lines for “Drill”
April 15, 2013
[Editor's Note: Just as with the Madrid bombing and 7/7 bombings in London and countless others, a drill coincides with the real event. This is done so that if the compartmentalized operation is exposed the operatives executing the attack can simply claim they were part of the drill.]
University of Mobile’s Cross Country Coach, who was near the finish line of the Boston Marathon when a series of explosions went off, said he thought it was odd there were bomb sniffing dogs at the start and finish lines.
“They kept making announcements on the loud speaker that it was just a drill and there was nothing to worry about,” Coach Ali Stevenson told Local 15. “It seemed like there was some sort of threat, but they kept telling us it was just a drill.”
Stevenson had just finished the marathon. His wife had been sitting in one of the seating sections where an explosion went off, but thankfully she left her seat and was walking to meet up with him.
“There was just smoke, another explosion went off,” Stevenson said. “We all started running. There were people crying.”
Stevenson said there was no question in his mind that this was an intentional act.
Local 15 News is talking with more locals who were taking part in the run.
TheUnhivedMind says:
A Brief History of False Flag Attacks: Or Why Government Loves State Sponsored Terror
Kurt Nimmo
August 14, 2012
False flag attacks occur when government engages in covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations seem as if they are being carried out by other entities.
False flag terrorism is a favorite political tactic used by governments worldwide. They influence elections, guide national and international policy, and are cynically used to formulate propaganda and shape public opinion as nations go to war.
Nero and the Great Fire of Rome
The Roman consul and historian Cassius Dio, his contemporary Suetonius and others say the Emperor Nero was responsible for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD.
Legend claims Nero had one-third of the city torched as an excuse to build Domus Aurea, a 300 acre palatial complex that included a towering statue of himself, the Colossus of Nero.
Prior to the fire, the Roman Senate had rejected the emperor’s bid to level a third of the city to make way for a “Neropolis,” an urban renewal project.
The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that when the population of Rome held Nero responsible for the fire, he shifted blame on the Christians for “hating the human race” and starting the fire.
The Spanish American War: Remember the Maine
By the late 1800s, the United States was looking for an excuse to kick Spain out of Cuba. U.S. business was heavily invested in sugar, tobacco and iron on the Caribbean island.
The U.S.S. Maine was sent to Havana in January of 1898 to protect these business interests after a local insurrection broke out. Three weeks later, early on the morning of February 15, an explosion destroyed the forward third of the ship anchored in Havana’s harbor, killing more than 270 American sailors.
President McKinley blamed Spain after the U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry declared that a naval mine caused the explosion.
American newspapers blamed the Spanish despite a lack of evidence. “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war,” newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst told Frederic Remington after the illustrator reported that the situation in Cuba did not warrant invasion.
A number of historians and researchers later argued that the ship was blown up by the United States to provide a false flag pretext to invade Cuba and expel Spain.
The United States occupied Cuba from 1898 until 1902, although an amendment to a joint resolution of Congress forbid the U.S. to annex the country.
Wilson’s Pretext for War: The Sinking of the Lusitania
Nearly two thousand travelers, including one hundred Americans, were killed on May 7, 1915, when a German U-boat torpedoed the RMS Lusitania, a luxury Cunard Line British ocean liner.
Prior to the sinking, the German embassy in Washington issued a warning. Newspapers in the United States refused to print the warning or acknowledge the German claim that the ship carried munitions.
Wilson’s government issued a flurry of diplomatic protests after the sinking and exploited the tragedy two years later as a pretext for America to enter the First World War.
Nearly a hundred years later, in 2008, divers discovered the Lusitania carried more than four million rounds of rifle ammunition.
“There were literally tons and tons of stuff stored in unrefrigerated cargo holds that were dubiously marked cheese, butter and oysters,” Gregg Bemis, an American businessman who owns the rights to the wreck and is funding its exploration, told The Daily Mail.
Hitler’s Fascist Dictatorship: The Reichstag Fire
In February of 1933, a month after convincing Germany’s president that parliament must be eliminated, Hitler and the Nazis instigated the Reichstag fire.
Hitler then urged president Hindenburg to issue an emergency decree restricting personal liberty, including the right to free expression and a free press, limitations on the rights of association and assembly, warrantless searches of homes, property confiscation, and violations of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications “permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.”
The Nazis used the decree and cracked down on their political opponents . They worked behind the scenes to force through the Enabling Act, which legally allowed Hitler to obtain plenary powers and establish a dictatorship.
Gestapo Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring would admit that “the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
Prelude to World War: The Gleiwitz Incident
Six years after the Reichstag Fire, the Nazis staged the Gleiwitz incident. Nazi commandos raided a German radio station in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany. The raid was part of Operation Himmler, a series of operations undertaken by the SS as Hitler set the stage for the invasion of Poland and the start of the Second World War.
SS operatives dressed in Polish uniforms attacked the radio station, broadcast an anti-German message in Polish, and left behind the body of a German Silesian known for sympathizing with the Poles. The corpse was then offered to the press as evidence that the Poles had attacked the radio station.
Israeli False Flag Terror: The Lavon Affair
In 1954, the Israelis activated a terrorist cell in response to the United States making friends with the Egyptian government and its pan-Arab leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Israelis were worried Nasser would nationalize the Suez Canal and continue Egypt’s blockade of Israeli shipping through the canal.
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion decided a false flag terrorist attack on American interests in Egypt would sour the new relationship. He recruited and dispatched a terror cell that pretended to be Egyptian terrorists.
The plan, however, contained a fatal flaw. Israel’s top secret cell, Unit 131, was infiltrated by Egyptian intelligence. After a member of the cell was arrested and interrogated, he revealed the plot and this led to more arrests. Israeli agents were subjected to a public trial revealing details of the plan to firebomb the U.S. Information Agency’s libraries, a British-owned Metro-Goldwyn Mayer theatre, a railway terminal, the central post office, and other targets.
In order to deflect blame, the Israeli government tried to frame its own Defense Minister, Pinhas Lavon, but the true nature of the plot was eventually made public.
Operation Northwoods: Targeting American Citizens
In the covert war against the communist regime in Cuba under the CIA’s Operation Mongoose, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously proposed state-sponsored acts of terrorism in side the United States.
The plan included shooting down hijacked American airplanes, the sinking of U.S. ships, and the shooting of Americans on the streets of Washington, D.C. The outrageous plan even included a staged NASA disaster that would claim the life of astronaut John Glenn.
Reeling under the embarrassing failure of the CIA’s botched Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, president Kennedy rejected the plan in March of 1962. A few months later, Kennedy denied the plan’s author, General Lyman Lemnitzer, a second term as the nation’s highest ranking military officer.
In November of 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Gulf of Tonkin: Phantom Attack on the U.S, Military
On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson went on national television and told the nation that North Vietnam had attacked U.S. ships.
“Repeated acts of violence against the armed forces of the United States must be met not only with alert defense, but with a positive reply. That reply is being given as I speak tonight,” Johnson declared.
Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which provided Johnson with pre-approved authority to conduct military operations against North Vietnam. By 1969, over 500,000 troops were fighting in Southeast Asia.
Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, had bamboozled Congress and the American people. In fact, North Vietnam had not attacked the USS Maddox, as the Pentagon claimed, and the “unequivocal proof” of an “unprovoked” second attack against the U.S. warship was a ruse.
Operation Gladio: State Sponsored Terror Blamed on the Left
Following the Second World War, the CIA and Britain’s MI6 collaborated through NATO on Operation Gladio, an effort to create a “stay behind army” to fight communism in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe.
Gladio quickly transcended its original mission and became a covert terror network consisting of rightwing militias, organized crime elements, agents provocateurs and secret military units. The so-called stay behind armies were active in France, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Germany, and Switzerland.
Gladio’s “Strategy of Tension” was designed to portray leftist political groups in Europe as terrorists and frighten the populace into voting for authoritarian governments. In order to carry out this goal, Gladio operatives conducted a number of deadly terrorists attacks that were blamed on leftists and Marxists.
In August of 1980, Gladio operatives bombed a train station in Bologna, killing 85 people. Initially blamed on the Red Brigades, it was later discovered that fascist elements within the Italian secret police and Licio Gelli, the head of the P2 Masonic Lodge, were responsible for the terror attack. Other fascist groups, including Avanguardia Nazionale and Ordine Nuovo, were mobilized and engaged in terror.
Operation Gladio ultimately claimed the lives of hundreds of people across Europe.
According to Vincenzo Vinciguerra, a Gladio terrorist serving a life-sentence for murdering policemen, the reason for Gladio was simple. It was designed “to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security. This is the political logic that lies behind all the massacres and the bombings which remain unpunished, because the state cannot convict itself or declare itself responsible for what happened.”