The deep state is a complex topic, and we begin the show this week with a warning against simplistic thinking from FBI translator turned whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds. She opines that a lot of people (especially in the US) are conditioned to think in terms of "white hats" versus "black hats" and really struggle to make sense of more complex narratives. While this does not apply to Unwelcome Guests listeners, a warning against jumping to simplistic explanations is in order.

Our first speaker is the Swiss academic, Daniele Ganser, who maintains a steady academic demeanor while explaining NATO's "stay behind network". He is an expert on the sprawling Europeanwide clandestine military operation which has come to be known as 'Operation Galdio', but which, as he notes, had different names in the different countries of Western Europe. The supposed aim of arming gangs of people with guns and bombs was to act as a fifth column inside Western European nations in the event of a Soviet takeover, but the operation's extreme secrecy has meant that even now, many key facts remain unclear, such as the command hierarchy - which seems to have often bypassed national political leaders. How many countries are/were affected? How large were these groups? Who established and funded them and why were some countries' networks populated largely by "right extremists"? Like many deep state matters, these are not on the public record. What is clear, however, is that these networks were used (most notably in Italy) for false flag terrorism; Gladio networks were used politically - to detonate a series of bombs at Italian railway stations, attacks that were blamed on left wing terrorists.

His interviewer is Tania Gálvez San José, who asks for details of Gladio in Spain, such as why a dictator would need to have secret armies. Ganser is characteristically reserved in his answers, avoiding jumping to conclusions, but noting a set of suggestive facts. Ganser concludes with a call for a deeper look into the Kosovo conflict, which appears to have been deliberately intensified by outsiders (such as the UK's SAS and the US Green Berets).

Next we continue with James Corbett's interview of Sibel Edmonds. She describes her motivation for starting the US national security whistleblowers' commission:- exasperation at how the government's "investigation" into 9/11 deliberately ignored a large chunk of testimonies which would have gainsaid its conclusion. Edmonds was joined by John Vincent, Colleen Rowley, Tony Schaeffer and dozens of other agents with decades of experience in government agencies such as the CIA, DEA or the Pentagon. Their shared opinion, said Edmonds was that "It's a huge cover-up. All this information has been omitted." Corbett asks Edmonds a range of questions, including about the Ergenekon case. This, says Edmonds, was an orchestrated removal of a bunch of key members of the Turkish military top brass as a a consolidation of power by the US. I could not find much material in English on Ergenekon, but I was found one short video which gives a quick overview, and this makes up the conclusion of this episode.