The Paladin Group was a far-right organization founded in 1970 in Spain by former SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny: security consultancy group described as a "small international squad of commandos" - the military arm of the anti-Communist struggle during the Cold War. Ostensibly a legitimate security consultancy, the group's real purpose was to recruit and operate mercenaries for right-wing regimes worldwide as well as serve the role of political subversion in Europe.
The Nouvel Observateur magazine, of 23 September 1974, qualifies the group as a "strange temporary work agency of mercenaries" (étrange agence d’interim-barbouzes).
Background
Created in 1970 in the Albufereta neighborhood of Alicante, Spain, by former SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny and former US Colonel James Sanders. A former special operationsofficer, 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 to avoid prosecution for war crimes. Skorzeny himself resided after the war in Spain, protected by Franco. Skorzeny envisioned the Paladin Group as
"an international directorship of strategic assault personnel [that would] straddle the watershed between paramilitary operations carried out by troops in uniforms and the political warfare which is conducted by civilian agents".
In addition to recruiting many former SS members, the Group also recruited from the ranks of various right-wing and nationalist organizations, including the French Nationalist OAS, the SAC, and from military units such as the ‘Légion étrangère’.
The hands-on manager of the Group was Dr. Gerhard Hartmut von Schubert, formerly of Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry, who had trained security personnel in Argentina and Egypt after the war. Under his guidance, Paladin provided support to the PFLP - EO led by Wadie Haddad. The Group's other clients included the South African Bureau of State Security and Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi. They also worked for the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 and the Spanish Dirección General de Seguridad, who recruited some Paladin operatives to wage clandestine war against Basque separatists. The Group is also reputed to have provided personnel for José López Rega's notorious Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance death squad.
The Paladin Group was also allegedly allied with a number of other right-wing governments, including Salazar’s Portugal, and 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.
The Soviet news agency TASS alleged that Paladin was involved in training US Green Berets for Vietnam missions during the 1960s, but this is considered unlikely, since Skorzeny's methods were considered somewhat antiquated, and he resented the USA for its role in destroying Nazi Germany.
Von Schubert became the head of the Paladin Group after Otto Skorzeny’s death in 1975.
Otto Skorzeny - the most dangerous man in Europe
A former special operations officer of the SS, Skorzeny is described as "the Bond villain that never was". The British called him the most dangerous man in Europe - the man with the fearsome scar earned as an accomplished master of fencing.
He was everything a true villain of the cold war era should be. Did I say Cold War era? Make it the James Bond era - a giant of a man at a staggering 6’4”, he was Hitler’s favourite commando who was then elite soldier, who after fighting on the Eastern Front, accompanied the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity before his countrymen could hand Il Duce over to the Allies. And he did all of this from a glider from a mountaintop. And that was just the start of an infamous if not outright illustrious career, all of whuch makes him read like a story that is simply larger than life - another example that real life outdoes fiction.
Skorzeny was also the leader of Operation Greif of the Battle of the Bulge, in which German soldiers were to infiltrate through enemy lines, using their opponents' language, uniforms, and customs. At the end of the war, Skorzeny was involved with the Werwolf guerrilla movement that fought against the Allied occupation of Germany, the diehard SS man who became a legend.
"Any brief biography of SS Lieutenant Colonel Otto ‘Scarface’ Skorzeny reads like a character sketch from an Ian Fleming novel. A legend in his own lifetime, his exploits are spoken about in the kind of reverent tones normally reserved for the greatest of combat heroes, not an accused war criminal who escaped custody before he could fully face trial. But if Skorzeny’s resume reads a little too much like a far-fetched adventure story, it might be for good reason. If this real life Bond villain seems like he stepped from the pages of fiction, perhaps it’s because his legend is almost entirely that: fiction." (Author Stuart Neville)
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| Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R81453 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 |
The Dachau Military Tribunal acquitted Skorzeny after the war. He fled from his holding prison in 1948, first to France, and then to Spain. He later lived in Ireland.
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 to avoid prosecution for war crimes. Skorzeny himself resided after the war in Spain, protected by Franco.
Links
http://operation-gladio.net
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paladin_Group
