This episode is a sort of European equivalent to our look (from episode 684) at the Deep State in USA - where similar processes and people were at work, exercising a covert, international influence over supposedly "democratic" governments. This is a necessarily less coherent narrative than our look at the US Deep State, since the topic has note been as systematically researched. Nevertheless, the last couple of decades have revealed a remarkable collection of evidence which tells a story greatly at odds with the comfortable official narrative of freedom loving people choosing democratic leaders. Most of this episode's content has arisen directly from my researches for Wikispooks - where I encourage you to join me if you are interested in exploring the deep political realities which underlie the superficial explanations given by the commercially-controlled media.

We begin with a short introduction into False Flags from James Corbett, followed by a reading of a 2014 paper by Daniele Ganser, who uses an examination of Operation Gladio to disprove the main two reasons given for not looking at the evidence of 9/11:

No Western democratic government would directly attack its own people.
If it had been an inside job, someone would have talked by now.

While the trail of evidence still contains plenty of gaps, Ganser's analysis of Gladio is clear and well referenced - as one would expect from the foremost researcher on the topic. He explains how a network of terrorist groups was created after WW2 - more or less autonomous from national governments, nominally under NATO auspices, one that was vehemently opposed to the USSR and communism in general. The EU demonstrated that national governments lack real power by calling in vain for them to investigate Operation Gladio. The modern deep state is supranational, and a gradual process of interlocking has been taking place - which we first looked at in episode 685 with mention of the "The Safari Club".

We continue our analysis of the history of the deep state in Europe with a 25 minute reading of David Teacher's article, "The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe". He uses the Langemann Papers, which were leaked to a German newspaper by senior BND officer, Dr. Hans Langemann to introduce "Le Cercle" (or the "Pinay Cercle" or "Cercle Violet"). At this gathering a group of Europe's top intelligence agents and politicians engage in secret biannual meetings alternately in Europe and Washington. The meetings discuss what would be desirable outcomes of "democratic" elections, and how they might collaborate to bring these about. In the light of this, it is notable how many Cercle members share not only to share a vehement opposition to communism, but also an interest in the "subversion" of governments, including by terrorist means. The article traces a bigger picture which makes sense of a wide variety of political destabilizations in the 1970s and 1980s which the official narrative presents as isolated incidents, accidents or the work of "lone nuts". Then we note some remarkable connections between Cercle members and arms deals; as Cercle chairman, Jonathan Aitken, was involved in both the Arms-to-Iraq affair and the Al-Yamamah weapons deal (UK's biggest ever, of the order of £50,000,000,000). A range of fellow UK cercle members appear in supporting roles, most notably as UK Minister For Defense Procurement, even Louis Freeh, whose legal counsel to Prince Bandar was unable to prevent charges of receiving illegal commissions. Oh well, what's a few hundred million dollars of fines, eh? In UK, a "secret and personal" letter from Tony Blair was sufficient to close down the investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Next we leave the UK to hear a short but to the point interview from 2008 with Francesco Cossiga, who was Minister of the Interior when Aldo Moro, head of the Christian Democratic Party, which was moving towards a coalition with the communists - supposedly kidnapped and murdered by communist terrorists. He explains why he refused to negotiate.

The 1986 murder of Olof Palme is a complex topic about which there isn't time to say much, but we conclude with a couple of minutes from LWT, a UK television channel. In the first few seconds of their report, they are quick to echo the line already put out by the Swedish police, that they "don't suspect a political motive... they think, it could be the work of a madman". The logic of the lone nut.

Thanks to Euro News for the interview, and to Wikispooks for the documents.