Aginter Press
Encyclopedia
Aginter Press, also known under the name Central Order and Tradition , was a pseudo press agency set up in Lisbon
, Portugal
in September 1966, under Oliveira Salazar's dictatorship (so-called Estado Novo). Directed by Captain Yves Guérin-Sérac, who had taken part in the foundation of the OAS in Madrid, a far-right terrorist group which struggled for "French Algeria" during the Algerian War (1954–1962), Aginter Press was in reality an anti-communist mercenary organisation with subsidiaries in the whole world. It trained its members in covert action techniques amounting to terrorism, including bombings, silent assassinations, subversion techniques
, clandestine communication and infiltration and counter-insurgency
.
, a campaign of false flag
bombings and an attempted coup d'état organised by the Italian neo-fascists with support from Propaganda Due
(P2) and Gladio, NATO's stay-behind
anti-communist networks during the Cold War
.
This agency carried out work for right-wing authoritarian regimes in the whole world (including Salazar, Franquist Spain, the Greek Regime of the Colonels after the 1967 putsch, etc.) Its agents worked under the cover of reporters or photographers, which allowed them to travel and investigate.
, the CIA has supported Aginter Press in Portugal. The Commission stated that:
(1945–54), the Korean War
(1950–1953) and the Algerian War (1954–1962). The Italian neo-fascist terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie
was another founding member of Aginter Press. Hired in June 1962 by Franco
, Yves Guérin-Sérac then chose to go to Salazar's Portugal, which was according to him the last stronghold against Communism and atheism.
as well as in Italy (thus the investigations of the Italian commission). It is suspected of having assassinated General Humberto Delgado
(1906–1965), founder of the Portuguese National Liberation Front
against Salazar's dictatorship - this is disputed since PIDE
's officer Rosa Casaco admitted he was involved in Delgado's assassination. According to disputed sources, Aginter Press was also responsible for the assassinations of anti-colonialist leader Amilcar Cabral
(1924–1973), founder of the PAIGC
(African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) and Eduardo Mondlane
, leader of the liberation movement FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique), in 1969. According to other versions, both Cabral's and Mondlane's assassinations were the result of struggles for power within the independentist guerrilla movements.
, in charge of the investigations concerning the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing
, explained to the Italian senators that:
which put an end to Salazar's Estado Novo, Yves Guérin-Sérac, João Da Silva and others associates quit Lisbon for Albufereta, Spanish siege of Paladin Group
(founded by ex-Nazi Otto Skorzeny
), near Alicante
(Southern Spain). They escaped with forged French passports to Caracas
, with "the benediction of the Foccart networks
."
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
in September 1966, under Oliveira Salazar's dictatorship (so-called Estado Novo). Directed by Captain Yves Guérin-Sérac, who had taken part in the foundation of the OAS in Madrid, a far-right terrorist group which struggled for "French Algeria" during the Algerian War (1954–1962), Aginter Press was in reality an anti-communist mercenary organisation with subsidiaries in the whole world. It trained its members in covert action techniques amounting to terrorism, including bombings, silent assassinations, subversion techniques
Psychological warfare
Psychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
, clandestine communication and infiltration and counter-insurgency
Counter-insurgency
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...
.
Strategy of tension
Aginter Press took part in Italy's strategy of tensionStrategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
, a campaign of false flag
False flag
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...
bombings and an attempted coup d'état organised by the Italian neo-fascists with support from Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
(P2) and Gladio, NATO's stay-behind
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
anti-communist networks during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
This agency carried out work for right-wing authoritarian regimes in the whole world (including Salazar, Franquist Spain, the Greek Regime of the Colonels after the 1967 putsch, etc.) Its agents worked under the cover of reporters or photographers, which allowed them to travel and investigate.
Aginter strategic document
An Aginter Press document, titled "Our Political Activity," was discovered at the end of 1974 and described the use of pseudo-operations and the involvement in the strategy of tension:"Our belief is that the first phase of political activity ought to be to create the conditions favouring the installation of chaos in all of the regime's structures. .. In our view the first move we should make is to destroy the structure of the democratic state under the cover of Communist and pro-Chinese activities. .. Moreover, we have people who have infiltrated these groups and obviously we will have to tailor our actions to the ethos of the milieu — propaganda and action of a sort which will seem to have emanated from our Communist adversaries. .. [These operations] will create a feeling of hostility towards those who threaten the peace of each and every nation. [i.e. Communists]"
Italian Senate report
According to the Italian Senate report on Gladio and on the strategy of tension, headed by senator Giovanni PellegrinoGiovanni Pellegrino
Giovanni Pellegrino is an Italian politician.Born in Lecce and a lawyer by profession, he was a Senator of the Republic from 1990 with the Italian Communist Party and the Democrats of the Left to 2001...
, the CIA has supported Aginter Press in Portugal. The Commission stated that:
"Aginter Press was in reality, according to the last obtained documents acquired by the criminal investigation, an information centre directly linked to the CIA and the Portuguese secret servicePIDEIn 1969, Marcello Caetano changed the name PIDE to DGS . The death of Salazar and the subsequent ascension of Caetano brought some attempts at democratization, in order to avoid popular insurgency against censorship, the ongoing colonial war and the general restriction of civil rights...
, that specialized in provocative operations."
Members
The group was headed by Yves Guérin-Sérac, a Catholic anti-communist activist, former officer of the French Armed Forces and veteran of the Indochina WarFirst Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
(1945–54), the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
(1950–1953) and the Algerian War (1954–1962). The Italian neo-fascist terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie is a neofascist Italian activist . He went on to become a wanted man worldwide, suspect to be involved in Italy's strategy of tension, but was acquitted. He was a friend of Licio Gelli, grandmaster of P2 masonic lodge...
was another founding member of Aginter Press. Hired in June 1962 by Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
, Yves Guérin-Sérac then chose to go to Salazar's Portugal, which was according to him the last stronghold against Communism and atheism.
Actions
Beside Portugal itself, Aginter Press engaged itself against the independentist movements struggling against the Portuguese empirePortuguese Colonial War
The Portuguese Colonial War , also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of liberation , was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974, when the Portuguese regime was...
as well as in Italy (thus the investigations of the Italian commission). It is suspected of having assassinated General Humberto Delgado
Humberto Delgado
Humberto da Silva Delgado, GCL was a General of the Portuguese Air Force and politician.Delgado was born in Brogueira, Torres Novas. He was the son of Joaquim Delgado and wife Maria do Ó Pereira and had three younger sisters, Deolinda, Aida and Lídia....
(1906–1965), founder of the Portuguese National Liberation Front
Portuguese National Liberation Front
Portuguese National Liberation Front was a Portuguese political movement, founded in Rome in 1964 by General Humberto Delgado, following a split from the Patriotic National Liberation Front , founded two years earlier, in December 1962, and based in Algiers...
against Salazar's dictatorship - this is disputed since PIDE
PIDE
In 1969, Marcello Caetano changed the name PIDE to DGS . The death of Salazar and the subsequent ascension of Caetano brought some attempts at democratization, in order to avoid popular insurgency against censorship, the ongoing colonial war and the general restriction of civil rights...
's officer Rosa Casaco admitted he was involved in Delgado's assassination. According to disputed sources, Aginter Press was also responsible for the assassinations of anti-colonialist leader Amilcar Cabral
Amílcar Cabral
Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was a Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, writer, and a nationalist thinker and politician. Also known by his nom de guerre Abel Djassi, Cabral led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence...
(1924–1973), founder of the PAIGC
African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde
The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde or PAIGC is a political party that governed Guinea-Bissau from the independence of the then Portuguese Guinea in 1974, until the late 1990s, and from 2004 to 2005. Currently it is the party with the largest number of seats in the...
(African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) and Eduardo Mondlane
Eduardo Mondlane
Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane served as President of the Mozambican Liberation Front from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his assassination in 1969.-Early life:...
, leader of the liberation movement FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique), in 1969. According to other versions, both Cabral's and Mondlane's assassinations were the result of struggles for power within the independentist guerrilla movements.
1969 Piazza Fontana bombing
Italian magistrate Guido SalviniGuido Salvini
Guido Salvini is an Italian judge, based in Milan. He issued European arrest warrants in 2005 against approximatively 20 CIA agents accused of having taken part in the abduction of Abu Omar, the Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. The case is known in Italy as the Imam Rapito affair...
, in charge of the investigations concerning the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing
Piazza Fontana bombing
The Piazza Fontana Bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on December 12, 1969 at 16:37, when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88...
, explained to the Italian senators that:
"In these investigations data has emerged which confirmed the links between Aginter Press, Ordine NuovoOrdine NuovoOrdine Nuovo , full name Centro Studi Ordine Nuovo, "New Order Scholarship Center") was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and terrorist organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956...
and Avanguardia Nazionale... It has emerged that Guido GiannettiniGuido Giannettini- Activism :He was active in the OAS support networks, and arrested in 1961 in Madrid along with Pierre Lagaillarde.Giannettini participated to the newspapers Il Roma and Il Secolo d'Italia, as well as to L'Italiano, headed by Pino Romualdi...
[one of the neo-fascist responsible of the bombing] had contacts with Guérin-Sérac in Portugal ever since 1964. It has emerged that instructors of Aginter Press. .. came to Rome between 1967 and 1968 and instructed the militant members of Avanguardia Nazionale in the use of explosives."
Carnation Revolution: the end
During the April 1974 Carnation RevolutionCarnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
which put an end to Salazar's Estado Novo, Yves Guérin-Sérac, João Da Silva and others associates quit Lisbon for Albufereta, Spanish siege of Paladin Group
Paladin Group
The Paladin Group was a far-right organization founded in 1970 in Spain by former SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny. It conceived itself as the military arm of the anti-Communist struggle during the Cold War...
(founded by ex-Nazi Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...
), near Alicante
Alicante
Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...
(Southern Spain). They escaped with forged French passports to Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, with "the benediction of the Foccart networks
Jacques Foccart
Jacques Foccart was a chief adviser for the government of France on African policy as well as the co-founder of the Gaullist Service d'Action Civique in 1959 with Charles Pasqua, which specialized in covert operations in Africa.From 1960 to 1974, he was the President of France's chief of staff...
."
See also
- History of PortugalHistory of PortugalThe history of Portugal, a European and an Atlantic nation, dates back to the Early Middle Ages. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it ascended to the status of a world power during Europe's "Age of Discovery" as it built up a vast empire including possessions in South America, Africa, Asia and...
- History of the Italian Republic
- Portuguese Colonial WarPortuguese Colonial WarThe Portuguese Colonial War , also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of liberation , was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974, when the Portuguese regime was...
s - History of far-right movements in France