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Afshin Rantansi introduces an episode of *Going Underground* from the UAE, saying that tomorrow Donald Trump is set to host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose kingdom has called out the UK-U.S. EU-armed genocide in Gaza and is refusing to normalize relations with Israel. He also links current events to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and claims that Cy Hirsch, in *The Samson Option*, says Kennedy tried to push Israel to open up its Dimona nuclear weapons reactor for inspection. Rantansi argues that another secret apparatus—Operation Gladio, NATO’s clandestine terrorism network run with the CIA and MI6—was used to stage mass murder atrocities to be blamed on the left, preventing legitimate parties from coming to power in Cold War Europe and opposing Washington imperialism in the Global South, adding that “Gladio never truly ended.”
Colonel Roxantana Watkins, a 30-year U.S. Air Force veteran, explains that Operation Gladio ran out of NATO and relied on secret agreements among NATO-aligned organizations to create “stay-behind units.” She says the United States, as a NATO country, also had Gladio units, and she claims that Gladio was used “everywhere,” including Iran before the overthrow of Mossadegh, Korea before the Korean War started, and Vietnam by the French. She says Gladio is a generic term because each country’s program had different names, but Italy did an in-depth study and revealed that its program was called Gladio—leading to the generic reference.
Rantansi connects this to Italy’s post-1945 political situation, saying Italy had the largest Communist Party in Europe and that fake atrocities at railway stations were used to discredit the left. Watkins responds by claiming that “communism” became a boogeyman attributed to the Soviet Union and points to declassified CIA documents, including a story about Guatemala, saying labor organizing was often attributed to the left. She adds an account from Italy under Mussolini: she says workers’ rights were abolished, international corporations dominated transactions, and she claims the National Cash Register enabled an intelligence network to identify finances and target people. She says these “tentacles” go deep and are orchestrated around what she calls an “international syndicate” of oligarchs controlling societies to prevent democracy.
Discussing the war on Russia via Ukraine, Zelensky, and Western Europe’s behavior, Watkins argues that elites maintain control by preventing societies from becoming democratic. She gives examples to support her framework: she claims Libya’s assassination after Gaddafi defied a central banking system; Venezuela’s overthrow as she describes it; and the murder of Patrice Lumumba in the early 1960s, saying Lumumba sought to use uranium to enrich his own people, and that “Operation Gladio elements” were involved, referencing Otto Skorzeny and Reinhard Gehlen’s German intelligence structures.
Rantansi asks how Gladio could relate to Israeli interests rather than only U.S. empire. Watkins claims James Angleton sat at the Mossad desk in the CIA and the Vatican’s desk, and she links her view of Gladio to a “strategy of tension” concept. She says this concept involves creating “left and right” camps to control people, and she claims Israel became part of that strategy of tension, citing the Middle East and also describing Taiwan as a friction point in Asia. She says covert operations were funded “under the table” with drug networks, referencing Chiang Kai-shek and opium trade, and names Paul Helliwell and Castle Bank as part of her account.
In part two, Rantansi asks Watkins about the live-streamed assassination of Charlie Kirk and what she thought, asserting an Israeli motive. Watkins says Kirk’s ability to get people to talk to each other threatened the apparatus, and she claims youth movements around the world are central to the “current Gladio,” citing student organizing mechanisms and saying Mossad, MI6, and CIA recruit “foot soldiers” at college age. She adds that unity-building movements have been targeted historically, and she connects this to her view of Trump’s political rise.
Rantansi then raises the scale of poverty and government shutdowns, and Watkins argues that funding is cut to prevent people from rising up. She claims planned “targeted radicalizations” and says she was surprised no false flag occurred during the shutdown, comparing this to Venezuela efforts in 2019–2020 that she says failed. She also claims she has tracked “over 400 attempts to overthrow governments” with “90 successful coups.”
Rantansi asks about Jeffrey Epstein revelations and whether such exposures could shock the public into overthrowing oligarchic power. Watkins describes Gladio-style operations as needing “grease” and frames blackmail as the grease that keeps the system operating, citing Epstein and alleging similar systems in other countries. She also responds to questions about Israeli influence on Trump’s administration by saying Israel comes up repeatedly in her Gladio research, including claims about Israel being involved in Reagan-era covert actions, diamond trade, and as a “cutout,” and she says it is “very troubling” to have Israeli support for politicians because of “a lot of pull” in funding.