Belgian stay-behind network
The Belgian Stay Behind Network was a secret, mixed civil and military unit that was trained to be a resistance movement in the event of a Soviet invasion and was part of a network of similar organizations. It existed from 1951 to 1990.
history
The history of the Belgian network begins in 1948 when Prime Minister Paul-Henri Spaak and Justice Minister Paul Struye gave the State Security of Belgium permission to discuss the organization of a secret, permanent network with allied intelligence agencies. These negotiations took place mainly with Sir Stewart Menzies from the British SIS and representatives of the then newly formed CIA . The explicit goals of this collaboration were outlined in a top secret letter from Menzies to Spaak:
"The present subject of American-Belgian cooperation between the secret services should be directed towards two main objectives:
- Improving our information on Cominform and potential enemy activities as they affect our two countries.
- The preparation of suitable reconnaissance and action organizations in the event of war. "
The influence of the CIA at this early stage varied from source to source. The CIA did not yet have full authority over the Office of Policy Coordination , which ran US intelligence until 1952. During the initial negotiations, Menzies suggested keeping the US out of the organization. Spaak contradicted a further development that was not based on a tripartite division of Great Britain - United States - Belgium or a multilateral institution. The CIA's involvement is barely mentioned in the final report of the parliamentary inquiry, but the Pentagon-based report by investigative journalist Walter de Bock points to the important early organizational role of the CIA and its actual control up to 1968. Similarly, in an internal communication dated April 8, 1959, Colonel Margot complained about the influence of US intelligence on the Belgian network.
These first negotiations led to closer cooperation between the secret services of the three countries under the name Tripartite Meeting Belgium . After this meeting, the Belgian stay-behind network came into operation, but it was not until January 4, 1952, that Ludovicus Caeymaex (Belgian State Security) and General Etienne Baele were given the first formal instructions for stay-behind operations.
The growing polarization between East and West and the awareness of the need for continental cooperation led to the establishment of the Comité Clandestin de l'Union Occidentale (CCUO) in 1949, to which Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , France and Great Britain belonged.
In the following decades, stay-behind activities were mainly coordinated through ACC meetings. These activities officially consisted of (multinational) training activities such as infiltration, skydiving and long distance communication, many of which took place between 1972 and 1989. The last documented meeting of the ACC took place on October 23 and 24, 1990 under the leadership of General Van Calster, at which the participants discussed, among other things, a return of the network, taking into account changing international relations.
After Giulio Andreotti's disclosure of Gladio in Italy on October 24, 1990, Defense Minister Guy Coëme and Prime Minister Wilfried Martens made the existence of the Belgian stay-behind organization public in a press conference on November 7, 1990.
The government decided on November 23, 1990, a few days after the proposal of a parliamentary inquiry, to officially dissolve the network.
Organization, activities and resources
control
During the parliamentary inquiry, the committee accidentally stumbled upon the existence of the secretariat of the Coordination and Planning Committee that formed SDRA XI, but which was funded by secret NATO payments. When Paul Detrembleur, former head of the SDRA and last administrator of the SDRA XI / CPC Secretariat, was asked to testify prior to the parliamentary inquiry into the activities of this section in relation to the Gladio activities, he refused to divulge any information.
Military instructors, staff and civilians
Both the military intelligence service and the state security maintained dossiers on Gladio's training activities, incomplete versions of which were made available to the parliamentary committee. Events from the list of operations of the military branch were provided by Coëme and marked with an A, while events from the list of the State Security Archives (titled Overzicht oefeningen in het kader ACC - period 1980-199 ) are marked with B:
- (A) 1972: Training in secret techniques.
- (A) 1976: Training in the areas of radio communications, secret services, maritime traffic, flight operations and escape routes.
- (A) 1977: Training to optimize techniques for locating downed pilots and for using escape routes.
- (A) 1978: In-door training on secret missions.
- (A) 1980: Training in parachuting, long range radio and secret techniques.
- (B) June 1980: OREGAN II
- (A) 1981: Lessons and training on illegal activities.
- (A) 1983: Training on escape routes, intelligence, flight operations and radio communications.
- (A) 1985: Six training courses (at least two outside of Belgium, one in Belgium): infiltration by means of parachuting, removal of material via escape routes.
- (A) 1986, 1987 and 1988 :: Training outside Belgium on reconnaissance and radio communications.
Minister Melchior Wathelet testified before the parliamentary inquiry that secret depots were set up in the 1950s, the first of which was discovered by a landslide in 1957 and a second by children playing in 1959. He went on to explain that following these discoveries, it was decided to abandon the depots and move the weapons to a military depot. A 1991 inventory report for Gladio's military section mentions inflatable boats, video equipment and around 300 weapons, including M1 carbines, MP40 submachine guns, and "Armes en Cocon", weapons packaged for long-term storage.
Parliamentary inquiry
After the existence of the stay-behind organization Gladio in Italy became known in 1990, a parliamentary investigation was to clarify whether the Belgian “stay-behind organizations” were involved in Belgian terrorist attacks. The Senators found no solid evidence that criminal groups had infiltrated the stay-behind network. They confirmed in the final report that there had been two stay-behind networks in Belgium for decades, called SDRA VIII and STC / Mob . The department SDRA VIII was a sub-unit of the military intelligence service SGR (Service Général de Renseignement) . Until spring 1990, their mission consisted on the one hand of organizing a radio network that would have enabled agents in occupied Belgium to contact the Belgian government in exile and on the other hand of setting up evacuation routes in the event of an occupation of Belgium. The second assignment was canceled in May 1990 and the number of instructors deployed was halved. The civilian branch STC / Mob was part of the civil intelligence service ( Sûreté de l'Etat ) and was subordinate to the Ministry of Justice. Its mission consisted mainly of gathering information in occupied Belgium that would have been of importance to the government in exile. The network was created in 1969/1970 and would not have been combined with SDR VIII until it had been occupied.
References and footnotes
- ↑ 11/12 / 13-06-1991, De Morgen
- ↑ Hugo Gijsels: Netwerk Gladio . Uitgeverij Kritak, Leuven 1991, ISBN 978-90-6303-386-6 , p. 80.
- ↑ Gijsels (1991), p. 69.
- ↑ a b Gijsels (1991), pg. 71
- ↑ Parlementaire Commissie (1991), p. 22nd
- ↑ Gijsels (1991), pp. 69-70
- ↑ Gijsels (1991), pg. 89
- ^ Belgian Senate: Enquête parlementaire sur l'existence en Belgique d'un réseau de renseignements clandestin international. Brussels October 1, 1991 (French / Dutch; PDF file ; 28.29 MB)
- ^ Belgian Senate: Enquête parlementaire sur l'existence en Belgique d'un réseau de renseignements clandestin international . Brussels October 1, 1991, p. 36 .
- ^ Belgian Senate: Enquête parlementaire sur l'existence en Belgique d'un réseau de renseignements clandestin international . Brussels October 1, 1991, p. 56 .