Daniele Ganser ames that the covert warfare is still going on
In an interview with Telepolis, Swiss historian and peace researcher Daniele Ganser discusses current developments on the Oktoberfest attack, the image of Islam as an enemy, and the conflict between the West and Russia. Ganser argues that Ukraine should remain neutral and not seek to join NATO. Daniel Ganser is director of the Swiss Institute for Peace and Energy Research.
Mr. Ganser, new investigations into the Oktoberfest attack began at the end of 2014. What do you think about it? Daniele Ganser: I think it is right and valuable that the Attorney General is re-investigating the Oktoberfest attack, because in my opinion this crime has not been comprehensively clarified. A press release from the Federal Prosecutor General states: "Most recently, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office has followed up on a tip about the involvement of an intelligence agency "stay behind"-Organization pursued. However, no promising leads have emerged for the involvement of persons still alive in the attack." Oktoberfest attack and stay-behind: What comes to mind? Daniele Ganser: In Germany, the existence of a stay-behind secret army was confirmed by the Kohl government in 1990. That is a fact. But when the Oktoberfest attack was investigated in the 1980s, the existence of stay-behind was not yet known. Therefore, it could not be investigated at that time, or at least this trail was very much in the dark. Today we are in a better situation. It is possible to investigate specifically whether the secret army was involved in the attack, for example whether explosives from Stay-behind weapons depots were used or whether the deceased Heinz Lembke was a member of the Stay-behind secret army. Shortly after the attack, members of the German Action Groups had declared that Lembke had repeatedly supplied them with weapons and explosives. It was essential to compare the explosives found at Lembke with those found at the Oktoberfest.

Crest and motto of the Italian stay-behind unit Gladio: "Through silence I preserve freedom". Picture: Marcok Not only in Germany, but also in other European countries there have been terrible terrorist attacks. Again and again, the involvement of parts of the stay-behind groups has been mentioned. Can you briefly summarize how the judiciary in other countries has dealt with this, for example the judiciary in Italy? Daniele Ganser: In Italy, the judiciary has done a very good job. It was investigating magistrate Felice Casson who discovered the stay-behind armies and set the Gladio scandal in motion after looking more closely into the 1972 Peteano terrorist attack. After that, Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti had to admit that NATO had secret stay-behind armies set up by the CIA and that these secret armies existed in other countries as well, whereupon Germany, Belgium, France and other countries also had to admit that they had secret armies. The scandal did not lead to control of the CIA, as the CIA torture scandal shows.
Extremists in both groups must not be allowed to call for a clash of religions
What has happened since the publication of your doctoral thesis on NATO secret armies?? Do you have any new findings? Daniele Ganser: I have the impression that the topics "strategy of tension" and False Flag Terrorism are increasingly discussed in the media today. The courts are also dealing with this complex of ies. In Luxembourg, covert warfare is currently being researched and debated. The Bommeleer trial is currently taking place there, and it is also being investigated whether the stay-behind secret army was involved in a series of terrorist attacks in the 1980s. The trial is ongoing. As a historian, covert warfare is one of your fields of work. What is the situation today?? Is covert warfare still used today?? Daniele Ganser: Unfortunately, we have to ame that this is the case. Let’s take Ukraine as an example. There on 20. February 2014 on the Maidan in Kiev there was a massacre by snipers. The massacre led to the fall of Yanukovych and then to the outbreak of war in Ukraine. A political scientist in Canada, Ivan Katchanovski, has now done research on that 20. February and found out that probably not Yanukovych but allies of the current government are behind the attack (see Telepolis: Sniper Murders in Kiev). If this is true, and it would be outrageous, then we had a very recent example here of False Flag Strategy of Tension, i.e. exactly this technique, which I described in my book on NATO secret armies for the Cold War. What has it to do with the "Enemy Image Islam" is all about? Daniele Ganser: Unfortunately, tensions between Christians and Muslims are increasing. This is very unfortunate. Because we have more than 2 billion Christians and more than 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. It must not be that now the extremists in both groups call for the fight of the religions. In northern Sudan, the Muslim dictator Omar al Bashir has described his opponents as "Insects" and "poisonous vermin" Designated. Many Christians have been killed. This means that in some Muslim countries, religious freedom is not protected as it is in Germany and Switzerland. This is very worrying and increases tensions. Also ISIS in Syria and Iraq has no respect for other religions, they are fanatics. On the other hand, we also have Christian preachers of hate in the USA who call for a fight against Islam. These are also fanatics. In addition, it is still very difficult in the U.S. to explain the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. September 2001, which strongly fueled the clash of religions, especially the collapse of WTC7, which was not hit by an airplane at the time. In short, from the point of view of peace research, it is very important not to leave the field to violent extremists from whatever religion. We need more voices for peace, non-violence and tolerance. How do you assess the confrontation between Russia and the West?? Daniele Ganser: In my opinion, the expansion of NATO, which has taken place in the last 25 years, is not treated critically enough in the media. In 1990, after the reunification of Germany, the Russians were promised that NATO would not expand. This promise was broken. Television and newspapers in Germany and Switzerland are currently engaged in a constant criticism of Russia and of Putin, thus fueling the war. This is wrong. Europe and Russia should be friends. Europe must understand that Russia will not allow Ukraine to join NATO. The USA will not tolerate China forging an international military alliance and including Mexico and Canada in it. The USA would reject this as encirclement. But this is exactly what NATO is doing with Russia, which is wrong and dangerous. Ukraine must remain neutral and not seek to join NATO. I hope that this will reduce tensions. (Marcus Klockner)