Opening and Introduction (00:01:51–00:05:00)
The episode opens with a montage of audio clips — Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex warning, Oswald’s “I’m just a patsy,” Obama’s insurance promise, and a Trump exchange with tech executives — before Peter Duke delivers the standard Duke Report introduction. He frames this episode as a return to one of the books that launched his own political reeducation: Paul Williams’ Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance Between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia.
How Duke Discovered Gladio (00:05:00–00:08:30)
Duke credits independent journalist George Webb for first putting Gladio on his radar seven or eight years ago. He recounts a personal story from his years as a fashion photographer, when he visited friends in Bologna, Italy, and arrived at the train station completely unaware of the 1980 bombing that killed 85 people there. His Italian hosts had to explain the history to him. That bombing, he later learned, was a central Gladio operation. At the time, Duke’s world revolved around fashion magazines, models, hairdressers, and photographers — he had no political awareness whatsoever……………