A shiver runs down your spine. You feel a warm, romantic sensation or your goosebumps rise. However this stimulus manifests itself, the emotion we feel when listening to the radio is only comparable to that of reading a book. Broadly speaking, listeners tune in to these radio stations to catch the main news from around the world and the country, but they also expect entertaining, distinctive and engaging content. For this reason, all their senses are focused on the announcer's voice as their imagination and the narrative transport them to a world constructed by their mind.
And it is that radios have perhaps been the most important devices for over a century. From their origins in the early nineteenth century to the latest developments in recent decades, these apparatuses have provided communication, entertainment and, on many occasions, a drastic change in the lives of many cultures and society. All with a single mission: to provide the listener, within a theoretical framework for their characterisation, with information and a unique way to escape the day-to-day. However, there were exceptions.
It is true that, among the wide variety of content that radio programmes can offer, news bulletins attract the smallest audience. Although it is evident that these bulletins offer the day's events and key developments, the fundamental question is this: why are these programmes not appealing to listeners? Why don't they reach as wide an audience as other programmes? However, from 23 March 1959 until its closure on 25 May 2001, there was one station that broke all the established and familiar conventions in this respect.
Through its six 250-kilowatt shortwave transmitters, Radio Liberty in Pals (Girona, Catalonia, Spain), the largest and most powerful anti-communist broadcaster in the world, funded by the CIA and the United States Congress, generated in this news slot the staggering figure of 70 million potential listeners. But what was Radio Liberty's programming, and what did it consist of?
Werewolf: The Roots of Radio Liberty
Germany. Spring 1945. Adolf Hitler's Third Reich is collapsing. To the west of its borders, the Allied armies of, among other countries, the United States and Great Britain, are pressing inland and have already occupied much of German territory. In the west, the Soviet Union's Red Army, already at the gates of Berlin, has razed everything in its path since Operation Bagration was launched in June 1944; the Russian bulldozer shows no mercy, as Stalin has ordered.
During the Yalta Conference, held in February 1945, the Allied powers already considered the war won, and therefore finalised the division of the conquered territory once the most devastating conflict of the 20th century came to an end.
The German leaders, among them Heinrich Himmler, knew their people's history very well, especially the spirit of freedom that dwelt in the heart of every German, and they did not hesitate to adapt it to their own needs.
It was not the first time that the homeland had been invaded by foreign powers; to cite a few examples, one can recall the Napoleonic Wars or the Roman campaigns. In such cases, and in many others, appeals are made to ancient Germanic heroes and role models who defy the invading army. Perhaps the supreme exemplar celebrated by German literature was Arminius (or Hermann), who, alongside his men, stood up to the Roman legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus and succeeded in annihilating them at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
From this celebrated Germanic icon, as well as others that emerged later, numerous authors created a cultural foundation from which secret societies or nationalist organisations arose, giving rise to the creation of a kind of popular militia. (Landwehr or Freikorps), sometimes even authorised by the state, to fight the troops who, after the war, were stationed on German soil to dominate the people and exercise oppression and repression against which they were encouraged to revolt.
In the midst of the decline of the Third Reich, in September 1944, Himmler announced the creation of the Volkssturm (people's militia) and took the opportunity to affirm that he was taking his hat off to "the fanatic freedom fighters" of 1813, in a clear allegory to the ancestors who, on their homeland, had fought with the means at their disposal against the invading power.
Once again, The regime of Adolf Hitler resorts to historical examples and to Völkisch literature (translated from German: popular or relating to the people and their culture) to spur on its people and stir their conscience to take up arms against those who seek to curtail their rights and freedoms.. For this reason, they turn to the text. Werewolf, a work by the author Hermann Löns, which depicts an archetype of partisan or rural guerrilla, characterised as an honest man who, forced by war, is compelled to abandon his farm (or whatever occupation he may have) to form clandestine cells from remote strongholds. They will not hesitate to lash out at the enemy (bearer of values and ethnic traits different from their own), who seeks to destroy the values and qualities of the German people.
In his book, Löns transforms this type of guerrilla into a kind of "werewolf", closely linked to the land and the forest. Their actions, in some cases very violent, fanatical and bloody, according to Löns, were quite justifiable, since the Wehrwolf (translated from German: wolves of defense or defending wolves) sought to restore a situation where true popular justice, the rule of law and order that had collapsed due to the presence of a foreign invader, prevailed.
It should be noted that this work, reissued in 1940 in a modern era and in a modern Germany, was well received by the public (over half a million copies were sold that year). Today it would be considered a bestseller. In fact, it was one of the most widely read works during the first decades of the last century.
With the reissue of the Werewolf de Löns, Himmler and the National Socialist Party had the perfect excuse to give free rein to their underground guerrillas. This text was "rewritten" for the members of the new organization of the German Reichsführer to study and internalize, and fragments of the work were even published in the regime's newspaper par excellence, the People's Observer. The context was also favorable to them, since the Allies in the West and the USSR in the East, presented an infinite number of possibilities to develop the sinister activities of these new "werewolf men" of the 1940s. They even had a clandestine radio station, Radio Werewolf, which plagued its broadcasts with content that ranged from the purest indoctrination to the broadcasting of orders with specific objectives against which it was necessary to act brutally and forcefully.
«"Hatred is our prayer and revenge our battle cry. Curse the foreigner who tortures and oppresses our people, but thrice curse the traitors of our own people who aid them."»
The new Werewolf (as they were called at the time) received a message from the announcers of the aforementioned station: "Each individual is his own judge and solely responsible for his own actions". That is to say, if necessary, each person was alone in choosing how to harass the approaching enemy forces; if they had already passed the guerrilla's location, they also had carte blanche to carry out any stratagem behind enemy lines. In addition to the aforementioned, Radio Werewolf encouraged its listeners to fight against the invading enemy, but also against "internal traitors", even beyond the defeat of Adolf Hitler's regime.
A belief began to spread from mouth to mouth: "With continued struggle we will make life hell for the enemy occupation troops." Nor can we leave aside a fragment of the inaugural broadcast of Radio Werewolf so that the reader can get a rough idea of the language used by its announcers: "Hatred is our prayer and revenge our war cry. Curse the foreigner who tortures and oppresses our people, but thrice curse the traitors of our own people who help them," clearly showing that the "rotten element" of German society ("lukewarm" and "deserters") had to be punished more severely than the foreigner who set foot in the beloved homeland.
The creation of the Werewolf group was not something spontaneous, left to the free will of those most fanatical subjects or those people who did not want to suffer the oppression or humiliation of defeat at the hands of a "racially inferior" enemy (as in the case of the Soviets).
This entire organisation was devised from the highest echelons of the German regime, where key figures such as Heinrich Himmler himself, Gottlob Berger (head of the Waffen-SS), Lieutenant General Von Voss (former head of the guerrillas during the Weimar Republic), Hans Adolf Prützmann (director of the Werewolf operations and the true visible head of Werewolf), Arthur Axmann (head of the Hitler Youth, from which the majority of recruits were expected to be drawn), Joseph Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda), Martin Bormann (Hitler's private secretary), Robert Ley (head of the Reich Organisation of the National Socialist Party and head of the German Labour Front), Ernst Kaltenbrunner (head of the Reich Main Security Office) and Herman Goering (Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe), among others.
But these names are only the tip of a pyramid that extends down to the more than five thousand members of the Werewolf who came to form part of the resistance movement (mostly from the SS and the Hitler Youth), from regional NSDAP leaders to mayors of villages and occupied towns (or about to be) and other intermediate ranks, not forgetting a number of fanatical civilians who also joined Werewolf.
It should not be forgotten that, during the preparatory phase of the entire Werewolf apparatus, a sizeable roster of historians, sociologists, psychologists, counter-intelligence experts and specialists in combating clandestine anti-German movements was assembled, with the aim of creating an organisation as solid as possible.
Many of the members who formed part of Werewolf had to attend a specialised course in the sinister arts of sabotage and assassination. They even enlisted figures such as Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, an expert in anti-partisan warfare, so that, together with other specialists, one or more training manuals could be drawn up. What ultimately saw the light of day was Werewolf: Advice for Special Units. Attendees at these courses attended specialised centres such as, among others, those at Kloster Tiefentahl, Neusterlitz, Unter den Eichen, Wallrabenstein, Passau, Dresden or Koleschowitz (the latter located in Czechoslovakia).
Throughout the training days, the students were instructed in the use of conventional weapons, explosives, sabotage and infiltration techniques, hand-to-hand combat, the operation and maintenance of radio equipment, and the use of poisons., as well as in any other useful training to carry out the assigned tasks with maximum efficiency. They were also branded with some mottos such as: "Orders must be obeyed at all costs" and "In case of disobedience, the offender will be killed by his own comrades". Once the training was completed, the new members of the Werewolf chose the place in Germany where they preferred to "work" and, days later, they were sent there to join groups that were already operating in the destination selected by the student.
At this point, the Werewolf movement can be defined as an organised group of individuals who, with varying degrees of indoctrination, intended to provoke disorder, confusion and cause as much damage as possible to the occupying forces (during and after the war), as well as the execution of those individuals who collaborated with the enemy or openly expressed their opposition to Adolf Hitler's regime.
Throughout its operations, the Werewolf acted against targets such as material depots, food, enemy fuel, vehicles, and even flirted with the possibility of sinking ships, but it also acted against specific individuals, as was the case with the mayor of Aachen, murdered in cold blood by "one or several unknown persons". Sometimes they did so in a planned manner, with sufficient advance notice, but on other occasions they did so, as Radio Werewolf established, "whenever an opportunity arose, facilitated by any possible method". To carry out their actions, the members of the Werewolf had several hidden supply points in different locations in Germany, in remote places, forests, etc., where explosives (such as the famous Nipolit), materials for building incendiary or explosive traps, weapons, detonators, mines, ammunition and food were stored.
The official end of the Werewolf came about for two major reasons. First, the limited response from potential volunteers to swell the ranks of the Werewolf and, second, perhaps most importantly, the lack of appreciation from Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (Hitler's successor as leader of Germany), which prompted him to broadcast a note in the early hours of May 6, 1945: "By virtue of the proclaimed armistice (Germany was about to surrender to the Allies), I call on all German men and women to refrain from carrying out any clandestine guerrilla activity." (illegal), whether in the Werewolf or in any other organization, in the Western territories occupied by the enemy (no allusion was made to those occupied by the USSR), since such activities can only be to the detriment of our people.".
This second reason is what leads us to believe, with good cause, that Dönitz wanted the peace negotiations with the victorious powers of the Second World War to reach a successful conclusion, and that the Werewolf movement could jeopardise them. Albert Speer, who had been Hitler's favourite architect and Minister of Armaments, appealed during those confused early May days to foster an atmosphere of peace and order, as he too was not in favour of such clandestine actions now that the war was drawing to a close.
So, Many members of the Werewolf, little committed to the cause or doubtful, after hearing Dönitz's words, deserted its ranks despite the risk hanging over them: a more than certain death at the hands of the most fanatical or of the conventional forces of the USSR, the United States or Great Britain., before whom, in a desperate attempt to survive, they surrendered, confessing their membership of the Werewolf.
Himmler, faithful to the National Socialist creed until the date he committed suicide (May 23, 1945), made it clear that any member of the Werewolf who showed "softness" in his actions or flirted with capitulation was to be automatically "dismissed". In the case of those members who had been entrusted with the command of several individuals, who showed the same "symptoms", they would be relieved of command and replaced by other men willing to keep up the fight. The door was therefore left open so that the subjects most loyal to Hitler's dying regime could continue their particular fight against the enemy.
From 1944 to 1947, according to what is recorded in official documentation and in the works of various authors, is when the period of action of the "official" Werewolf can be established, that is, the actions developed by members or groups that acted under the umbrella of the organization. Beyond 1947, until the end of the decade, numerous cases were recorded where individuals alone perpetrated their "works" with clear influence of the techniques and procedures made in Werewolf.
It should be borne in mind that the Werewolf movement was a source of inspiration for individuals who, whether acting alone or in groups, subsequently carried out attacks on targets deemed enemies. To date, it is estimated that since 1944 Werewolf caused the deaths of thousands of people, inflicted material damage that today could be valued in millions of euros or dollars, and sowed terror wherever the organisation's shadow fell; In certain parts of Germany, members of some splinter groups called themselves names that, like the aforementioned example, are capable of sending a shiver down our spines: Unternehmen Sterben (Operation Death).
At present there are documented cases of actions clearly inspired by Werewolf that have taken place over the decades since the end of the Second World War right up to the early twenty-first century, not only in Germany but also in other parts of the world. Arrests in the 1950s and 1960s of former Werewolf members who were scrawling slogans in public places with the aim of encouraging others to fight, by subterfuge, against the enemy.
Radical subjects, fed up with the oppression exerted by the GDR in their homeland throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, carried out subversive actions that resulted in violent acts and murders. And even with the proliferation of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, blacklists of targets to be attacked were posted on some websites in order to resurrect the old Werewolf movement.
This movement, the German-origin Werewolf, also had its counterparts in other nations with certain similarities throughout history. But if anything has become evident up to the present day, it is that it can indeed be regarded as one of the driving or inspirational germs, alongside other similar movements, of organisations such as the Stay-Behind network—the effects of which were evident throughout another war, the so-called Cold War—, which counted among its ranks former members of the NSDAP and Werewolf experts in anti-communist struggle.
NATO's Secret Army
As soon as World War II ended, another unarmed war conflict immediately began and would last until 1991. This struggle would be known as the "Cold War", a political, military, social, economic and informational confrontation that pitted the Western bloc (Western-capitalist) led by the United States against the Eastern bloc (Eastern-communist) led by the Soviet Union. However, Long before this chapter of military history began, United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill had already sounded the alarm on several occasions, openly stating that the Eastern armies led by the Soviet dictator Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known as Stalin, intended sooner or later to invade Europe. As it turned out, not only was he right, but his words did not fall on deaf ears.
On 4 April 1949, in Washington, an intergovernmental military alliance was established, headquartered in Brussels, with the aim of defending any of its member states against an attack by an external power. This coalition is known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. (in English: North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO; in French: Organisation du Traité de l'Atlantique Nord, OTAN), also called the Atlantic Alliance.
Stay Behind Network
At this moment, an unprecedented military, propaganda, espionage and terrorist machinery is being set in motion. On the one hand, NATO sought to combat and overthrow the communist bloc during the Cold War, and it distributed radio stations across half the world that were supposedly intended to flood the countries beyond the Iron Curtain with anti-communist propaganda. The invisible wars of the airwaves are characterised above all by their incredible offensive nature: if you try to silence my broadcast, I will move to another frequency while attempting to intercept your propagandistic transmissions. On the other hand, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation deployed what would later become known as NATO's secret army, the Stay-Behind network or Operation Gladio., whose existence was recognised by the Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti on 24 October 1990, and which were financed by the CIA and MI6.
This operation was launched by secret organisations from various Atlantic Alliance countries, prepared to act in the event that an enemy decided to attack their territory. In this case, the movements of partisans and the resistance, the members of which, in their vast majority, had belonged to the Nazi Party or the feared SS, who were not tried, but if recruited and reassigned to new tasks after Operation Paperclip (20 July 1945), they were distributed throughout the Eastern Bloc awaiting further orders.
They were tasked with acting as spies behind enemy lines and even going much further. The operations could cover small areas or be capable of reacting to the conquest of an entire country, and were directed from NATO by Reinhard Gehlen, a general in Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht during the Second World War, where he served as head of counter-intelligence on the Eastern Front.
Normandy
These clandestine soldiers, ready to act, were activated by encrypted radio messages. The United States were once again employing the same tactic they had used during the Normandy landings. Through its special services, the BBC broadcast regular messages to the continent to alert the French Resistance to the exact day of the landing. One of those verses, the authorship of which is attributed to the celebrated poet Paul Verlaine, was broadcast on 1 June:
«"Les Sanglots largos des Violons de l'automne ..."»
The French, members of the Resistance who recognised the Chanson d'automne (Song of Autumn) at the event, held their breath. The liberation of France cannot be far off! The second part of this eagerly awaited message had to wait until after 9 pm on 5 June 1944. The invasion is about to begin!
«"...Versen (Blessent in the original) mon cœur d'une langueur Monotone".
Who would have thought! A simple fragment of a poem symbolised the start of the invasion! After hearing the coded message, hundreds of members of the French Resistance in the Normandy area dust off their weapons and leave their hiding places to begin a large-scale sabotage operation. Any relevant German installation or communications network must be struck or put out of service as soon as possible to facilitate the task of the Anglo-American troops who, within hours, will arrive in France.
In this case, the radio messages, disguised as simple programmes on economics, sport, politics, music or leisure, could only come from a broadcaster that could not be intercepted. Situated in a strategic location, far from enemy lines, under the protection of a highly anti-communist government, and which had under its command the largest of the Gladio networks. A site with sufficient power that, thanks to the screen provided by the sea, allowed shortwave signal reflections off the water to penetrate the Iron Curtain and reach Soviet territories more effectively. There was only one station that met these characteristics. The world's most important anticommunist broadcaster: Radio Liberty of Pals.
Spain: Operations Centre
Supervised by the National Committee for a Free Europe founded in 1949 in New York City, and subsidized by the United States Congress, the CIA and private funds (on several occasions the station denied its connection with the CIA, an accusation that would be made on more occasions, and assured that its work was merely "informative and cultural"), Radio Liberty was originally to be located in the Azores. However, the Portuguese government demanded a large sum of money for the land, and in the end the negotiations did not reach a successful conclusion. It is at this moment that the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, intervenes once again in this operation.
In this case, urges the President of the United States and former general of the Second World War, Dwight Eisenhower, to negotiate with the government of the Spanish Catholic national leader so that it would agree to grant him not only protection but also an idyllic site, far removed from any danger, in order to build the mega-structure that would be the heart of Operation Gladio. The chosen site was a plot of over 300,000 square metres that the Americans bought and then handed over to the Spanish government at Pals Beach.
The North American government agreed in 1953 to govern jointly with its fascist regime in exchange for scraps of technology, admission to UNESCO, economic aid, missiles, and in turn securing the establishment of American military bases on Spanish territory, such as the LORAN base. Located in l'Estartit (Torroella de Montgrí) or the EVA 4 air surveillance base, located in Roses and in direct contact with the Torrejón de Ardoz base. Both were just a few kilometres from Radio Liberty, thereby ensuring that the spearhead of these clandestine networks on the other side of the Iron Curtain were protected and guarded at all times. However, there was a darker underbelly.
The writer Daniele Ganser refers to this idyllic relationship between Franco's fascist Spain and the "advanced" Western democracies in his book The Secret Armies of NATO, specifically in Chapter 8 called "The Secret War in Spain": Washington and London, who had had no scruples about allowing General Franco to end the Spanish Republic, also had no objection to establishing an alliance with the Caudillo, making a clean sweep of the dictatorship. However, it must be understood that after World War II, the only country in Europe that had not succumbed to communism was Franco's Spain. For this reason, negotiations with him began. But why go to so much trouble for a simple propaganda station?
Gladio
The confessions of a member of the Belgian secret military service, André Moyen, highlighted that Spanish agents of Franco's military intelligence had been fully involved in the direction of the Spanish Gladio network.. It was Carrero Blanco who forged links with Gladio's terrorist armies; he used them as a kind of low-intensity state terrorism experiment aimed at pursuing dissent in Spanish universities and on other fronts, including trade union ones.
A perfect piece for the CIA's objectives and interests in controlling Spanish communist and left-wing movements. The Gladio network in Spain was known as the GAL (Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups), the CSID (Centre Superior d'Informació de Defensa), the SECED (Central Documentation Service) and the CNI (National Intelligence Centre). Moyen himself had taken part directly in Operation Gladio and in secret missions against the communist parties of numerous countries.
Radio Liberty became an enemy to be defeated. Every paragraph, every verse had to be minutely structured and revised, so that those who listened to the broadcasts and had to decipher them using a guide of "assault codes" would have no problem.
Beats of Freedom
Their programming was meticulously prepared and organised at the Munich studios. As these were close to the Iron Curtain, the counter-intelligence services proved a highly valuable asset, especially when it came to creating the content that would be overseen by the United States and subsequently forwarded to Radio Liberty for broadcast in more than 16 languages. (with the Russian being the only one occupying the full 24-hour time slot). A highly effective and dangerous triangle.
The Soviets knew this, and Radio Liberty became an enemy to be defeated. Every paragraph, every line had to be minutely structured and revised, so that those who listened to the broadcasts and had to decipher them using a guide of "assault codes" would have no problem. This would also explain why Radio Liberty could never stop broadcasting. A break in its programming was equivalent to an incomplete message, an incomplete message was equivalent to an order that would not be carried out due to lack of information.
A clear example of what the Munich studies meant and how they worked is found in the secretary Heidrun Hofer, who, while working in Department IV of the BND (the foreign agency of the German government, linked to the Stay Behind Network), was recruited by the STASI in 1970. Known as the "agents", they were preparing for an invasion by the armies of the Warsaw Pact. Documentation belonging to the Polish secret services declassified in 2007 provides exceptionally interesting details, such as the scope, power or number of agents of some of the stations located in West Germany, belonging to the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the secret services of the FRG.
The Hidden Voice of Radio Liberty
As the phenomenon of encrypted messages is presented, it gives the impression that it was something very complex, but as we shall see, it was a fairly simple task. Following an equivalence table or assault codes, the encryption process first involved assigning a letter to a word in a specific verse of a broadcast programme. The agent responsible for this task knew in advance the programme schedule, the exact day and the precise time at which he had to be listening. Once the days had passed and the message was complete, he would type the content on a typewriter and deliver it to the other sleeper cells. However, to date, the exact codes governing the Radio Liberty process are entirely unknown.
After the scandals over the distribution of secret documents by WikiLeaks and the revelations of Edward Snowden in 2009, a lot of secret information came to light, such as how to operate typewriters and how to send coded messages. As former Soviet intelligence agent Viktor Suvorov put it in an interview with Boris Maksimov for BBC Russia: "A single copy was typed. Then it was given to a cryptographer; he made a copy of the document on microfilm, which was placed in special containers with acid. These containers were placed in diplomatic suitcases; if someone tried to seize the suitcase, the courier released the acid with a button and destroyed the microfilm. If the briefcase arrived safely in the Soviet Union, we were notified and we had to destroy the original," Suvorov explained.
If no programmes were produced at the Pals facilities and none were broadcast live, why select certain workers who had been victims of communism or fascism and who spoke several languages?
It is particularly noteworthy that of the nearly 300 employees the station had in its early days, almost none were aware of Radio Liberty's background, although some have told us they suspected it was not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill broadcaster.. However, others, those with a more specific profile, have ultimately admitted to being aware of their connection to Gladio and to knowing about the content of the programmes being broadcast.
In fact, Every space was meticulously listened to and transcribed by machine, and if at any point Spain was mentioned they had a direct telephone line to Franco's office, to whom they reported the content; he then decided whether to activate his secret Gladio armies for a counter-offensive.. One thing that makes us suspect that perhaps those who had this mission were, in a sense, members of Gladio and that, once all the programmes had been transcribed and broadcast over the airwaves, the texts were sent to franked postal addresses where someone was to receive and decrypt them.
Therefore, if no programmes were produced at the Pals facilities and there were no live broadcasts, why select certain workers who had been victims of communism or fascism and who spoke several languages? Why not simply hire ordinary operatives to get the broadcasts up and running? Perhaps that is the answer. Something that might at first seem irrelevant led us to raise some truly curious questions, such as the lives of the people involved in the operation and maintenance of the stations, or the origins and past of those who listened to all those programmes for hours on end.
The Profile of the Workers
Without a doubt, any mystery with a solid foundation immediately piques the interest of anyone who stumbles upon it by chance. And the inhabitants of the coastal town of Pals did not take long to realise that none of it was normal. Since the acquisition of the land in 1958 and the start of construction on the main building, with the first paved road linking the town of Pals to the beach, with the gigantic hangars containing six 250 kW shortwave transmitters each and diesel generators that ensured the facilities would never stop operating.
With the power station capable of supplying electricity to an entire town, with the perimeter fence designed and built by the Israeli secret service, better known as Mossad, or with the immense antennae spread across the 33 hectares of land, the smallest reached 78 metres in height — the two tallest, situated at the extremes, reached 165 metres —, Radio Liberty became a veritable hive of speculation and conjecture. A perfect asset for the United States intelligence services. If you want to hide a secret, put it in plain sight. But the real secret, the true driving force behind this broadcaster of freedom, was some of its staff.
From its first broadcast on March 23, 1959, with the legendary phrase "Habla Radio Libertad" to its last, on May 25, 2001, authentic characters worthy of history books passed through the Pals facilities. We were able to contact some of them and this is what they told us. It should be noted that above all we will safeguard anonymity.
1
Employee number one joined Radio Liberty after the Second World War. He had been held in a concentration camp in Ukraine and, when German troops liberated them, he was recruited and served during the military conflict as a member of the feared Nazi air force, the Luftwaffe, commanded by Hermann Göring.
When the Allies arrive and liberate Berlin, he decides to come to Spain. Thanks to his background and the many languages he speaks, he takes up a position as an interpreter and translator at Radio Liberty. This employee acknowledged the existence of Gladio and its connection to the Pals broadcaster; he also asserted that the station had a dual function: as a shield to halt invading forces and as a spear to liberate oppressed peoples. Interestingly, the emblem of the Stay-Behind Network is a shield and a sword. Was the Liberty translator trying to reveal something to us with this simile?
2
Worker Two was another of Radio Liberty's interpreters in its early days. In this case, between German and American technicians. He had a background similar to that of Worker One, but had not actually fought during the Second World War. The son of the director of the National Library of Budapest, when his father died he and his family became political refugees, and when he was seven they were offered the opportunity to come to Spain, but on the condition that he attend the German School in Barcelona.
There, he was indoctrinated in the ideals of National Socialism. It is known that he had political inclinations aligned with the Croatian terrorist Ustaša party, led by Ante Pavelić and closely linked to the Nazi Party. Even his son, who also worked at Radio Liberty, told us how on several occasions he attended meetings with his mother that his father held with former members of the Nazi Party.
At his home, the American anti-communist publication Common Sense was received periodically. His relatives also tell us that he had a diploma or plaque on the wall in which the Ustaša leader thanked him for his services. It was after a visit from the secret police that that mention disappeared. Moreover, he was a close friend of the station's director at the time – a luxury not everyone could boast of. Until the end of his career at Radio Liberty, he openly displayed his toughest stance against communism.
3
Worker Three was the one who, to this day, is known as a war child. She spent part of her childhood in the Soviet Union and worked at Radio Liberty as an interpreter and translator thanks to the many languages she knew, and she always supported communism. So much so that Santiago Carrillo himself would come to spend his summers at her house in Palamós.
4
Worker Four joined the facilities during the final years of Radio Liberty as a Senior Telecommunications Technician and shift leader. From the very first moment he knew it wasn't an ordinary radio station, but he simply did his job and asked no questions. However, he never understood why they couldn't stop broadcasting, nor why they had to provide so many reports and explanations if they did.
On one occasion, when he saved one of the broadcasts, he received a letter from President Clinton himself thanking him for such commendable work. He also singled out several colleagues for their profiles as potential candidates for the Gladio network.
He remembers how every year several FBI agents interviewed him and other colleagues in which secrets of his intimate and past life were revealed that he never revealed, and he remembers a phrase that these agents used to repeat: "if you tell us the truth and don't lie about anything we know, everything will be fine." He also remembered another conversation with a more veteran colleague than him at the Pals station, who was in charge of all the maintenance of the antennas, in which he told him: "if I told you everything I know, we would have serious problems.".
5
Worker Number Five also began working at the facilities when she was taking her first steps as an interpreter. The curious thing about this profile is that whenever a Soviet ship arrived at the port of Palamós, its crew would come to pick her up at home. The question is: who, from the Eastern Bloc countries, informed them whom they were supposed to go and fetch and for what reason? Let us remember that she worked for a broadcaster that was trying to overthrow the communist regime and, therefore, holding conversations with certain people could be considered treason.
The true objective of the Gladio networks was to maintain a state of tension in Eastern countries, to oppose left-wing movements and to provide justification for the establishment of right-wing governments favourable to the United States.
The Aftermath of Gladio
It soon became evident that the real objective of the Gladio networks was to maintain a state of tension in Eastern countries, to oppose left-wing movements and to provide justification for the establishment of right-wing governments favourable to the United States. But Gladio soon spread like a spider's web to countries outside the military conflict known as the Cold War, even crossing the Atlantic. For almost 60 years, genuine massacres were carried out.
Some of the insurgent and terrorist actions carried out by its members were: In Italy, the massacres at Peteano in 1972, at Piazza Fontana in 1969, at Bologna railway station in 1980, the failed Borghese coup in 1970 and the assassination of Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978. In 1967 in Greece, Gladio forces were involved in the coup d'état that initiated the Colonels' Dictatorship. In Turkey, the Counter-Guerrilla, the name of Gladio's Turkish branch, was linked to the Taksim Square massacre in 1977 in Istanbul, and also to the 1980 military coup.
In Spain, members of the Italian branch of Operation Gladio took part in the Montejurra events during the Transition. Its members were deeply infiltrated into the mechanisms of Francoist Spain and throughout the Transition. Likewise, some authors indicate that the Scala case (a police-judicial setup launched against Spanish anarchist organisations) in January 1978, and many of the attacks carried out by far-right groups were also supported, if not orchestrated, by Gladio..
Presence in Spain
Spain had cells in San Sebastián, Barcelona, Madrid and the Canary Islands. But perhaps the most important news concerning these clandestine networks was revealed on 27 April 2013, when La Vanguardia published an article stating that Andreas Kramer, 48, son of Johannes Kramer— an officer of the German secret service (BND) who worked for NATO's terrorist groups (Gladio-stay-behind) —, claimed that his father confessed to him that he was the author not only of the majority of the 24 bomb attacks recorded in the Grand Duchy between 1984 and 1985, but also of the deadliest terrorist attack in post-war Germany: the Munich Oktoberfest bombing on 26 September 1980, which killed 13 people and injured 213, a massacre never fully explained with children among the victims and many people left amputee.
The True Heroes
Everything that has been presented so far about the nature of the Pals facilities is neither speculation nor supposition. Everything recounted has been verified and corroborated by Radio Liberty staff and various news sources. Furthermore, it would be impossible to detail every attack and innocent victim who fell victim to these encrypted messages that led the Stay-Behind Network to become relentless, especially since many government bodies now deny all of this information.
However, beyond all this, the true heroes, The true liberators were those who, throughout their lives, gave their all, body and soul, to this anti-communist broadcaster because they believed in freedom and in a more just life for all human beings.. One must never forget what Radio Liberty was or what it meant for the rest of Europe, nor should any of the workers who, at some point in their lives, however brief, passed through the Pals facilities be forgotten. Europe owes them eternal gratitude.
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Thanks to Francesc Mányik, Vannesa Mányik and Vladimir Borachock for their tireless work compiling information, as well as to many other friends who wish to remain anonymous. And thanks to José Luis Roche and Clara Feliu for their commendable work in this research.
Article written by Daniel Ortega del Pozo: writer and researcher; Jorge Rios: writer, researcher and radio program director Enigma Report en Radio latja d'Aro; Pau Roig: redactor de la Revista del Baix Empordà. First published in Revista del Baix Empordà in the year 2020.
Cover photo: Jcomp
Article creation date: 3/6/2021.
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