Stay-behind
The term
"stay-behind" is used to refer to a type of espionage operation, the purpose of which would be to retrieve secret information from a suspect group who are termed to be
"in front". The origin of the phrase is probably a metaphor for the activity of standing behind someone's back to read secrets over his shoulder without the that person's knowledge. Espionage agencies and other intelligence services are known to use these methods.
A parallel can also be made to the phrase
"behind enemy lines" which means having infiltrated into an enemy country without their knowledge of your presence. Were the enemy to know about it, you couldn't long remain behind their lines. The purpose of such an activity, besides gathering information for intelligence purposes, could be for sabotage or to stage a surprise attack.
The word
"stay" in "stay-behind" could alternatively be supposed to refer to long-term activities such as infiltrating the group previously called "the ones in front" to provide one's higher-ups either with general or readily-obtained information, prior to "getting behind the shoulder" to retrieve specific secrets that one was told to look for.
One of the most famous "stay-behind" operations was
Operation Gladio, acknowledged by Italian Prime Minister
Giulio Andreotti on
October 24,
1990, which was sponsored by
NATO and
CIA during the Cold War. In the following years, many hidden weapons caches were found, in
Austria,
Germany, etc., at disposition of the "stay-behind" secret NATO armies during the
Cold War, in the event of that country being taken over by the
Warsaw Pact to start a rebellion, i.e., to stay behind as the country gets taken over, rather than leaving. But as the opponents would know that use of the term, it could have been chosen as a cover for the mere espionage in peacetime discussed above. However, "stay-behind" armies became involved in
domestic terrorism campaigns, participating in Italy's
strategy of tension and supporting far-right military coups in
Greece (
the "Regime of the Colonels") and in
Turkey. In this last country, General
Kenan Evren, who staged the
1980 military coup, was a member of the "Counter-Guerrilla", Turkish "stay-behind" armies.
*
Operation Gladio*
Werwolf, the Nazi stay-behind
*Natos Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, by Daniele Ganser, ISBN: 0714656070
