Paladin Group
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The Paladin Group was a far-right organization created in 1970 by ex-Nazi Otto Skorzeny. Related to the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), it conceived itself as the military arm of the anti-Communist struggle during the Cold War. The Nouvel Observateur magazine, of 23 September 1974, qualifies the group as a "strange temporary work agency of mercenaries" (étrange agence d’interim-barbouzes); in "The Great Heroin Coup" (1976), Henrik Krüger calls it a “fascist group” or "neo-fascist group", while Stuart Christie speaks of a "security consultancy group" in "Granny Made me an Anarchist". Finally, Lobster Magazine describes it as a "small international squad of commandos".
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[edit] 1970 creation in Spain
The Paladin Group was created in 1970 in Albufera, near Alicante in the South of Spain by former SS colonel Otto Skorzeny. A former special operations officer, Skorzeny had become a member of the ODESSA network after the war, helping to smuggle Nazi war criminals out of Allied Europe to Spain, South America and other friendly destinations in order to avoid prosecution for war crimes. Skorzeny himself resided after the war in Spain, protected by Franco.
The Paladin Group recruited mercenaries from the ranks of a number of right-wing and nationalist organizations, including of the French Nationalist OAS, the SAC, and the ‘Légion étrangère’.
Its chief of operations, Dr. Gerhard Hartmut von Schubert, a former SS propaganda officer, claimed that the organization employed a variety of skilled members, claiming: “we have experts perfectly qualified in many missions all over the world” [1] Von Schubert became the head of the Paladin Group after Otto Skorzeny’s death in 1975.
Along with Franquist Spain, the Paladin Group was allegedly allied with a number of other right-wing governments, including Salazar’s Portugal, the Greek Regime of the Colonels, as well as with some of the Italian neo-fascists involved in the strategy of tension attacks of the 1970s and 80s. The Paladin Group also held offices in Zurich, Switzerland [2].
According to investigative journalist Martin A. Lee, the Paladin Group took on missions from a variety of national and non-governmental sources, including:
- The Greek secret services (KYP)[citation needed]
- The government of Libya under Muammar al-Gaddafi[citation needed]
- The South African Secret Service[citation needed]
- Anti-Israeli groups[3]
- The French secret services[citation needed]
- The South Vietnamese[citation needed]
- Franco's Spanish state[citation needed]
- Various corporations, such as the British Cadbury, and the West German Rheinmetall.[citation needed]
The arms dealing organized by Otto Skorzeny, owner of the Atlantico company, contributed to the financing of the group, while some operations were also financially supported by the CIA.[citation needed]
[edit] Following Franco’s death in 1975
Otto Skorzeny died the same year as Franco, whose death on November 20, 1975 opened up the way for the transition to democracy. Neo-fascist groups hosted by Franco ceased to be welcome in the new regime: henceforth, they fled to South America, in particular Augusto Pinochet’s Chile and Argentina, where the return of Peron after a 20 years exile in Spain had been the site of the June 20, 1973 Ezeiza massacre.
The Paladin Group became a member of the Fascist International at its creation in 1976.[citation needed] This umbrella organization connected together many different neo-fascist groups.
[edit] Actions
- December 1973 : the Paladin Group participates in the bombing of Rome Fiumicino airport, which killed 32.
- 1974: Take-over of the Cabinda region, rich in petroleum, to the Angola headed by the MPLA supported by the Soviet Union.
- 1974: Assassination of ETA members.
- May 3, 1974: Kidnapping of Balthazar Suarez, director of the Banco Bilbao, in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Paris).
- May 1976: Assassination of General Joaquin Zenteno Anaya, ambassador of Bolivia in France.
[edit] References
- ^ Patrice Chairoff, Dossier B... comme barbouze, 1975, éd. Alain Moreau, p.59 (French)
- ^ Patrice Chairoff, Dossier B... comme barbouze, 1975, éd. Alain Moreau, p.59 and p.254
- ^ Martin A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, page 185
[edit] Bibliography
- Stuart Christie, Granny Made me an Anarchist
- L'Express, 13 September 1976
- Henrik Krüger, The Great Heroin Coup : Drugs, Intelligence, and International Fascism, Boston : South End Press, 1980. 240 pages. (First published in Denmark under the tile : Smukke Serge og Heroinen en 1976.) ISBN 0896080315
- Martin A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, 1997. ISBN 0316519596 - (pages 185-6)
- Le Nouvel Observateur, 23 September 1974
- E. Gerdan, Dossier A ... comme Armes, édition Alain Moreau, 1975
- Le Monde 2, n° 60 - Special issue on Operation Condor
- Peter Dale Scott, Transnationalised Repression; Parafascism and the U.S., Lobster Magazine, N°12 : 1986.
- Frederic Laurent, L'Orchestre Noir, Stock, 1978.
