Projekt-26

[Magda Hassan]

Projekt-26



Projekt-26, best known as P-26, was a stay-behind army in Switzerland charged with countering a possible invasion of the country. The existence of P-26 (along with P-27) as secret intelligence agencies dissimulated in the military intelligence agency (UNA) was revealed in November 1990 by the PUK EMD Parliamentary Commission headed by senator Carlo Schmid. The commission, whose initial aim was to investigate the alleged presence of secret files on citizens constituted in the Swiss Ministry of Defence, was created in March 1990 in the wake of the Fichenaffäre or Secret Files Scandal, during which it had been discovered that the federal police, BUPO, had maintained files on 900,000 persons (out of a population of 7 million).[1]
Since the existence of P-26 was revealed a month after similar revelations made in Italy by the premier Giulio Andreotti, who disclosed to the Italian Parliament the existence, throughout the Cold War, of a Gladio stay-behind anti-Communist paramilitary network headed by NATO and present in all of Europe, Switzerland formed a Parliamentary commission charged of investigating alleged links between P-26 and similar stay-behind organizations. It was one of the three countries, along with Belgium and Italy, to create a parliamentary commission on these stay-behind armies.
Swiss authorities declared on November 21, 1990 the dissolving of P-26, since the clandestine organization operated outside of parliamentary and even governmental control, being an autonomous structure hidden inside the secret military services.[2]

Stay-behind plans during World War II

As the United Kingdom, which had prepared itself for a Nazi invasion during World War II, which led to the creation of the Home Guard and of stay-behind Auxiliary Units, Switzerland also prepared for such an eventuality, as its neutrality by itself did not constitute a sufficient guarantee against a military offensive of Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy. Thus, General Henri Guisan put in place the "Reduit Concept," according to which the best strategy for the military was to retreat in the highest parts of the Alps and abandon the plains to the enemy. From there, a guerrilla warfare would be launched against the invader.

Stay-behind in the Territorial Service

With the end of World War II and the official beginning of the Cold War, plans were made to prepare for an invasion by the Soviet Union. The PUK EMD Commission headed by Carlo Schmid discovered that a first stay-behind branch was created within the Swiss army in the Territorialdienst (Territorial Service). This military branch was considered best suited for this mission, as it was not trained to fight in the front but to carry out domestic police operations among the civilian population. However, the PUK EMD Commission was confronted by the destruction of many documents pertaining to these early stay-behind organisations:

"The historical record is fragmentary, because almost all documents of the resistance organization of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were destroyed around 1980."[3]

The first commander of this secret unit was Divisionär Franz Wey (1896-1963), who was succeeded by Burger, Amstutz and de Pury. The latter was promoted to Brigadier-General and Chief of the Territorial Service.
In December 1956, following the Suez Crisis and the crushing of the Budapest insurrection, Erwin Jaeckle asked in Parliament what "preparations can be taken in the fields of organisation and training in order to take up and secure total popular resistance, if necessary also outside the framework of the army."[4] A year later, in September 1957, Defence Minister Paul Chaudet, successor to Karl Kobelt (both members of the liberal FDP), replied that "The events in Hungary — seen from a military perspective only — have shown that the battle of a resistance movement alone can not be successful." He added that "This battle poses problems of a political and military nature, as well as juridical concerns in the context of international law and the conventions that we have signed." Finally, Claudet declared that "Although certain measures have been envisaged by the Territorial Service in this area, the possibilities in this field are limited."[4]
Swiss Major Hans von Dach published in 1958 Der totale Widerstand, Kleinkriegsanleitung für jedermann ("Total Resistance," Bienne, 1958) concerning guerrilla warfare, a book of 180 pages about passive and active resistance to a foreign invasion, including detailed instructions on sabotage, clandestinity, methods to dissimulate weapons, struggle against police moles, etc.[5]
A former, unnamed, Chief of Staff, declared in 1990 to the Swiss deputies that senior officers of the Swiss military, then led by Chief of Staff Louis de Montmollion, had taken Jaeckle's declined request as the legal basis for the organization of the stay-behind[6]

Stay-behind in the UNA

The stay-behind army was moved in 1967 from the Territorial Service to the UNA, the military intelligence agency, directed by Divisionär Richard Ochsner. It changed its codename to "Special Service," which was made up of three hierarchical levels. The top level consisted of members of the regular military. The second level was made up of "trusted persons" who recruited activists. These formed the third level. According to the PUK EMD Commission:

"The persons recruited by the trusted men could themselves recruit a number of new members to join the resistance organisation; therefore, the exact number of members of the organisation is not known... They are said to have been 1.000 at maximum, divided among 30 to 50 centres."[6]

In 1973, the Swiss Federal Council formulated the national security strategy of the country, which included the need for resistance in occupied territory. It reported that "The occupation of the country must not mean that all resistance has ended. Even in this case, an enemy shall meet not only with aversion, but also active resistance." It also highlighted that "Guerrilla war and non-violent resistance in occupied areas are being prepared within the limits of international law, and will, if necessary, be carried out".[7] In a similar manner, the introduction of Der Totale Widerstand (Total Resistance) by Hans von Dach (1958) stated that "of course," the guerrilla methods (which involved various covert actions) were to respect the Hague Conventions on Laws and Customs of War on Land (1899) as well as the four Geneva Conventions of 1949.
At the time, Colonel Herbert Alboth commanded the stay-behind. He was replaced in 1976 by Colonel Albert Bachmann. The next year, Hans Senn became Chief of Staff of the Swiss armed forces, and reported on 5 September 1979 to the united seven Swiss Federal councilors on the activities of UNA and of the stay-behind units. He informed them that the stay-behind cost one million Swiss Francs a year, which were secretly invested. The councilors listened in silence, and their absence of objection was interpreted by Hans Senn as an implicit approval of the operation, in which they conserved the possibility of plausible denial.[8]
The UNA was discovered in the midst of the Bachmann-Schilling affair in November 1979, when Special Service commander Albert Bachmann sent UNA agent Kurt Schilling to Austria to observe military manoeuvres. There, he was arrested and sentenced for espionage by Austrian authorities, before being sent back to Switzerland, and sentenced again for having revealed classified information. A parliamentary commission was formed to investigate UNA, and reported in 1981:

"According to the security policy of the federation, the Special Service has the task of creating favourable conditions for active resistance in Switzerland against an occupying force."[9]

The report concluded that the task was legitimate, although "the internal control of these two services was insufficient."[9]

Stay-behind as P-26

Following this event, which led to the resignation of Colonel Bachmann, the stay-behind was recreated, under the code-name P-26. Defence Minister Georges-André Chevallaz gave his approval to Chief of Staff Hans Senn and UNA director Richard Ochsner. Bachmann was replaced by Colonel Efrem Cattelan, who headed the paramilitary organization starting in October 1979. The code-name alluded to paragraph 426 of the Security and Defence concept of the Federal Council of 27 June 1973, which stated the needs of "active resistance." (See above).

Assassination of Herbert Alboth

During the investigations concerning the secret files scandal and P-26, Herbert Alboth, leader of the P-26's predecessor organisation Spezialdienst (special service) until 1976, was assassinated on April 18, 1990, in his flat in Liebefeld near Bern. A short time before, he had written to the MP Kaspar Villiger, on March 1, proposing to reveal all that he knew on the stay-behind.[10] The press reported that Alboth had been "killed with his own military bayonet" with "several stabs to the stomach," while "on the chest of the victim the medical examiners have found a set of characters which were written in felt pen and puzzle the investigators."[8] His death was never resolved, while the Swiss deputies discovered in his flat pictures of senior P-26 members, old documents on training and courses, exercise plans of a conspiratorial character and address list of former members of the "Special Service."[8]

The Cornu Report

Following the November 1990 report by the Parliamentary Commission, the Swiss Socialist Party and the Greens requested further investigations concerning alleged ties between P-26 and other Gladio stay-behind organizations. Judge Pierre Cornu was charged with the investigation, and delivered a 100 page report known as the "Cornu Report." He met Italian and Belgian MPs, as well as P-26 members, but London declined to comment (the existence of MI6 was still un-confirmed by Britain).
The Cornu Report stated that P-26 was without "political or legal legitimacy", and described the group's collaboration with British secret services as "intense":

"Unknown to the Swiss government, British officials signed agreements with the organisation, called P26, to provide training in combat, communications, and sabotage. The latest agreement was signed in 1987… P26 cadres participated regularly in training exercises in Britain… British advisers — possibly from the SAS — visited secret training establishments in Switzerland."[11]

According to the account of the report from Richard Norton-Taylor, from The Guardian, "The activities of P-26, its codes, and the name of the leader of the group, Efrem Cattelan, were known to British intelligence, but the Swiss government was kept in the dark."[11]
Despite a parliamentary motion deposed by MP Josef Lang, which requested the full, non-censored, publication of the Cornu Report, large sections of the latter remained classified and will remain so for the next thirty years.[10] Since Gladio stay-behind organizations were coordinated by secret organizations of SHAPE and ultimately responded to SACEUR, head of NATO in Europe, any relationship between P-26 and SACEUR would be an obvious breach of Swiss neutrality. Thus, the matter remains controversial and confidential. A 17-page summary, titled "P-26 not part of an international network," was published on 19 September 1991.
Confronted by a question from Socialist deputy Paul Rechsteiner on 30 September 1991, concerning the non-publication of the Cornu Report, Defence Minister Kaspar Villiger declared that:

"The Cornu Report contains numerous pieces of information on foreign secret services and resistance organisations, as well as their structures, hierarchies, and connections... The Cornu Report will not be released and published because it is not the business of the Federal Council to reveal the secret affairs of foreign states."[12]

To that, Socialist MP Susanne Leutenegger-Oberholzer replied: "is the Council not of the opinion that it is deplorable if foreign secret services receive more information than, for instance, Swiss parliamentarians?"[13]

Actions of the P-26 and alleged international contacts

However, according to a ETH universitary study by Daniele Ganser, "P26 was not directly involved in the network of NATO's secret armies but it had close contact to MI6," the British secret service which worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War and trained Gladio paramilitaries in Italy.[14]
While responding to a question in Parliament concerning the assassination of Herbert Alboth (related to the discovery of P-26), National counsellor Remo Gysin has described the relations between the Swiss stay-behind, MI6 and NATO as "notorious".[15]
Like other stay-behind organizations in Europe, P-26 had weapons caches in Switzerland, while some of its members took paramilitary and guerrilla warfare training courses with the MI6 in Great Britain.[2] Foreign instructors also followed courses in Switzerland with P-26.[16]
Swiss military instructor Alois Hürlimann revealed that he had taken part in secret military training in England, which allegedly included a real assault on an Irish Republican Army (IRA) arms depot, in which at least one IRA activist was killed[17]
In 1976, Colonel Bachmann, head of the Special Service, allegedly reached a mutual cooperation agreement with the British SAS.[18]
British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Deputy Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Europe from 1951 to 1958, was in the Bernese Oberland each February from 1946 to 1962, for military affairs. He met in 1946 Swiss Defence Minister Karl Kobelt, Foreign Minister Max Petitpierre and Chief of Staff Louis de Montmollin to discuss Swiss neutrality and strategy in the post-war period.[19] According to researches by Swiss historian Mauro Mantovani, Montgomery met again Montmollin in February 1952 to discuss plans in case of a Soviet invasion. They agreed that in case of an emergency, Switzerland would need help from NATO, leading Mantovani to conclude that:

"Switzerland during the Cold War was so obviously part of the western camp that western leaders could only wish that all neutrals would take Switzerland as an example.[12]

Italian magistrate Felice Casson, who first discovered Gladio in Italy, declared: "I am sure that I also saw documents on Gladio contacts with Switzerland" in the Palazzo Braschi in Rome, headquarters of the SISMI military intelligence agency.[20]
Furthermore, P-26 used Harpoon radios, a powerful encrypted communication system, which was used by the Belgian stay-behind network as discovered by the Belgian Parliamentary Commission.[21] The Harpoon system, bought by NATO from the German firm AEG Telefunken in the beginning of the 1980s, permitted stay-behind members to send encrypted radio messages across 6.000 km, thus enabling them to maintain relations between themselves. This system is not compatible with the standard communication system used by the Swiss army. However, magistrate Pierre Cornu found that in 1987, P-26 had connected foreign stations of the Harpoon system for around 15 million Swiss francs. Historian Daniele Ganser observed that:

"The purchase of the Harpoon equipment linked to NATO command centres in Brussels, the CIA in the US, and MI6 in Great Britain realised the integration of the Swiss stay-behind in the European stay-behind network at a very basic, hardware level."[22]

On 13 March 1991, Socialist MP Esther Bührer asked in a parliamentary request to the Federal Council if members of P-26 had been involved in the "Kaiseraugst" sabotage operations, which had occurred in 1975 during anti-nuclear protests against the establishment of a nuclear plant in Kaiseraugst, near Basel. Between 1974 and 1984, more than 30 sabotage operations had been carried out there, and investigations were abandoned without results, although they pointed that they had been "professional" operations. Defence Minister Kaspar Villiger denied any involvement. The left-wing weekly Wochenzeitung also declared the request unlikely, as some violent anti-nuclear protesters had allegedly taken credit for the sabotage operations.[16]
Former MP Helmut Hubacher, president of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland from 1975 to 1990, declared that the existence of P-26 was more disturbing than what professional soldiers alleged it was, since it was not only to counter a possible Soviet invasion, but also had a mandate to become active should the left win the elections and gain parliamentary majority.[14]

P-27 Files

Beside P-26, the military intelligence agency also dissimulated P-27, charged with domestic surveillance. According to Richard Norton-Taylor from The Guardian...

"P26 was backed by P27, a private foreign intelligence agency funded partly by the government, and by a special unit of Swiss army intelligence which had built up files on nearly 8,000 "suspect persons" including "leftists", "bill stickers", "Jehovah's witnesses", people with "abnormal tendencies" and anti-nuclear demonstrators. On November 14, the Swiss government hurriedly dissolved P26 — the head of which, it emerged, had been paid £100,000 a year."[23]

References

1. ^ The British Secret Service in neutral Switzerland, Daniele Ganser, in Intelligence and National Security, Vol.20, n°4, December 2005, pp.553-580
   
2. ^ a b Daniel Ganser: The Secret Side of International Relations: An approach to NATO’s stay-behind armies in Western Europe, Published in the Steton Hall Journal of Diplomacy, pages 38-40.
   
3. ^ Daniele Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.560
   
4. ^ a b Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.560
   
5. ^ Major Hans von Dach, 1958. Der totale Widerstand...; Total Resistance reed. Paladin Press, 1992 ISBN-13: 978-0873640213
   
6. ^ a b Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.561
   
7. ^ Ganser, Daniele (PDF). The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland. pp. p.562. ISSN 0268 4527. http://www.danieleganser.ch/e/fachzeitsc...Armies.pdf.
   
8. ^ a b c Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.562
   
9. ^ a b Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.563
   
10. ^ a b Parliamentary motion deposed by Josef Lang
    
11. ^ a b Richard Norton-Taylor, UK trained secret Swiss force in The Guardian, September 20, 1991
    
12. ^ a b Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," quoted p.572
    
13. ^ Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," quoted p.573
    
14. ^ a b Conference "Nato Secret Armies and P26" - The Dark Side of the West by the ETH Zurich Institute, by Felix Wursten, published on 10 February 2005 (English)/(German)
    
15. ^ Parliamentary question of MP Remo Gysin concerning the assassination of Herbert Alboth
    
16. ^ a b Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.566
    
17. ^ Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.568
    
18. ^ Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.570
    
19. ^ Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.571
    
20. ^ Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," quoted p.574
    
21. ^ Belgian parliamentary report concerning the stay-behind network, named "Enquête parlementaire sur l'existence en Belgique d'un réseau de renseignements clandestin international" or "Parlementair onderzoek met betrekking tot het bestaan in België van een clandestien internationaal inlichtingenetwerk" (Parliamentary investigation on the existence in Belgium of an international clandestine intelligence network)
    
22. ^ Ganser, "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland," p.575
    
23. ^ Richard Norton-Taylor, "The Gladio File: did fear of communism throw West into the arms of terrorists?", in The Guardian, December 5, 1990
    

Bibliography

• The British Secret Service in neutral Switzerland, Daniele Ganser, in Intelligence and National Security, Vol.20, n°4, December 2005, pp.553-580
  
• Daniele Ganser (2005). NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe, London, Franck Cass. ISBN 0-7146-8500-3 (a quick resume available here)
  
• Bericht der Parlamentarischen Untersuchungskommission zur besonderen Klärung von Vorkommnissen von grosser Tragweite im Eidgenössischen Militärdepartement, Bern, 17 November 1990 (PUK EMD report)
  
• Short Cornu Report. The complete version remains classified.
  
• Bachmann 1981 Report from the Commission headed by MP Jean Pascal Delamuraz. Parts remained classified.
  

[Magda Hassan]

The Fichenaffäre or Secret Files Scandal shook public opinion in Switzerland in 1989. That year, it was revealed that the Swiss federal authorities, as well as the cantonal police forces, had put in place a system of mass surveillance of the population.

The scandal

Following allegations that within the Federal Department of Justice and Police (EJPD), the BUPO (Bundespolizei, or Swiss Federal Police charged with domestic intelligence) was secretly and illegally keeping secret files on both Swiss citizens and foreigners, a special parliamentary commission (PUK EJPD) was established. It gave its report in November 1989, demonstrating that the BUPO had kept more than 900,000 files in secret archives. With a population of approximately 7 million, that meant almost one citizen out of every seven had been put under surveillance[1]. Files targeted Eastern European nationals, but also Swiss citizens, organizations, firms, and various political groups, mostly on the left.
The scandal led to the reorganization of the BUPO, which since 1992 has been observed by a delegation of a Parliamentary Commission[2].

Second commission and discovery of P-26

Furthermore, similar allegations concerning the Defence Ministry and its UNA department (Untertruppe Nachrichtensdienst und Abwehr) emerged, to the effect that they too were storing files. The Defence Department denied these charges, but a new parliamentary commission (PUK EMD) was formed in March 1990, under the direction of Senator Carlo Schmid, with the task of investigating the Defence Department. In November 1990, this second commission confirmed the existence of secret, illegal files, as well as revealing the existence of P-26, a secret stay-behind army, and a secret intelligence gathering unit called P-27, both hidden inside the Swiss military secret service UNA[1]. Only a month before, Italian premier, Giulio Andreotti, revealed the existence of Gladio, a NATO stay-behind network present in all of the European countries.

Transfer of files

The police files themselves were transferred to the Swiss federal archives. A jurist, René Bacher, was designated "special officer" to take care of the political scandal. 300,000 people requested to see their files following the revelation of their existence[3].

2005 trial

Left-wing activists had been the object of surveillance by Swiss authorities since the 20th century. In 2005, a Swiss trade-unionist indicted for having blocked public transport in Geneva was surprised to see that the police files contained all of his activities since 1965, although he had never been indicted before. The court had asked the police for his file. Rémy Pagani, also a member of the Syndicat des services publics (SSP, Public Services Trade-Union) and MP for the Alliance de gauche (Left-wing coalition, a party based in Geneva), confirmed during the same trial that the file listed his presence in demonstrations where he had not been arrested, as well as his participation in the occupation of a building in support of Nelson Mandela, although he had not been arrested either for this act[4].
According to Rémy Pagani, Bernard Ziegler, state counsellor in Geneva, had ensured after the files scandal that only those files containing information on crimes for which the citizen had been convicted would be kept. However, the 2005 trial showed that it hadn't been the case[4].

References

1. ^ a b The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland, Daniele Ganser, in Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 20, nº 4, December 2005, pp. 553–80 (p. 557).
   
2. ^ Public statement concerning the Bacher report, May 1996.
   
3. ^ Les services de renseignements suisses, p. 27.
   
4. ^ a b L'inculpation des syndicalistes fait resurgir les fiches, Le Courrier, March 1, 2005 (French).
   

Further reading

• JOST Hans Ulrich, VUILLEUMIER Marc, UDRY Charles-André (et al.). Cent ans de police politique en Suisse (1889–1989). Histoire. Coéd. AEHMO (Association pour l’étude de l’histoire du mouvement ouvrier), Editions d’En Bas, Lausanne
  
• Engeler, Urs Paul (1990). Grosser Bruder Schweiz: wie aus wilden Demokraten überwachte Bürger wurden: die Geschichte der politischen Polizei. Weltwoche-ABC-Verlag, Zürich 1990.
  

[Magda Hassan]

Parlamentary Investigation of the Swiss Defense Ministry's Secret Army P-26

17 Nov 1990
Description: This report on the Swiss secret army P-26 illustrates how the idea of organized resistance was realized and analyzes the role of intelligence services in Swiss security policy. An excursus addresses the murder on Herber Alboth, former commander of the P-26. The report also refers to P-27, a private foreign intelligence agency funded by the government and by a special unit of Swiss army intelligence. The parliamentary fact-finding commission concludes that these clandestine units, operating outside the law and without parliamentary control, represent a danger to the democratic system and must be dissolved.

Collection: NATO's Secret Armies

Download in:

• German (1.0 MB )
  

Document Type: Public Report
Origin (Agency): Swiss Parliamentary Commission
Sender: Carlo Schmid, President of the Swiss Parliamentary Commission
Language of Original Document: German
Number of Pages: 53
Cold War Period: 1985-1991
Persons: Alboth, Bachmann, Schilling
Document Source: Eidgenössisches Militärdepartement (EMD): Bericht der parlamentarischen Untersuchungskommission zur besonderen Klärung von Vorkommnissen von grosser Tragweite im EMD, pp. 175-277.

[Magda Hassan]

UK trained secret Swiss force

Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 20 September 1991, page 7 British secret services collaborated closely with an armed, undercover Swiss organisation which formed part of a west European network of "resistance" groups, it was officially disclosed yesterday.
Unknown to the Swiss government, British officials signed agreements with the organisation, called P26, to provide training in combat, communications, and sabotage. The latest agreement was signed in 1987.
The disclosures are made in a report by a magistrate ordered by the Swiss government to investigate the activities of P26 after a parliamentary outcry last year.

The existence of P26, which is in the process of being dismantled, came to light last year following the disclosure of a Europe-wide Gladio network of "stay behind" groups originally set up to organise resistance in the event of a conventional attack by the Warsaw Pact.
P26 was backed by P27, a Swiss secret intelligence agency which built up files on nearly 8,000 "subversives".
The report by the magistrate, Pierre Cornu, was released yesterday by the Swiss defence ministry. It says P26 was without "political or legal legitimacy".
It describes the group's collaboration with British secret services as "intense", with Britain providing valuable know-how.
P26 cadres participated regularly in training exercises in Britain, the report says. British advisers - possibly from the SAS - visited secret training establishments in Switzerland.
The activities of P26, its codes, and the name of the leader of the group, Efrem Cattelan, were known to British intelligence, but the Swiss government was kept in the dark, according to the report.
It says that documents giving details about the secret agreements between the British and P26 have never been found.

[Jan Klimkowski]

If Swiss banking laws are about to be changed as one criminal group goes after the assets of another criminal group, P-26 may well be mobilised to perpetrate some false flag Gladio atrocities...

To distract and terrorize the masses.

[Magda Hassan]

Several top secret files associated with the operations of Switzerland's top-secret Project-26 military unit are missing from official archives.

Projekt-26, or P-26, was Switzerland's now-defunct "stay-behind" army, established some time during the Cold War to frustrate any potential military occupation by Warsaw Pact forces, were World War III to ever break out in Europe. In a "stay-behind" operation, secret organizations are established within a country to counter enemies in the event of an invasion and occupation.





The clandestine army was part of a network of anti-communist paramilitary groups deeply involved with secret military services that operated outside parliamentary and government control.
The existence of the organization became known in the early 1990s after a national commission started an investigation to determine if the military was compiling secret dossiers on "suspect" Swiss citizens. The probe was prompted by the revelation that Swiss police were secretly keeping surveillance files on around 900,000 citizens.
When P-26 was dissolved in 1991, Switzerland's Socialist and Green parties called for an investigation of its activities, which led to what became known as the "Cornu Report." According to the report, P-26 was without "political or legal legitimacy."
A top secret, unredacted copy of the report is in Switzerland's National Archives. However, some 27 associated files and dossiers on the investigation, believed to be in the country's Defense Department, have mysteriously vanished.
"There are three possibilities: the papers were shredded, hidden or lost, in that order of likelihood," said Josef Lang, a historian and former Swiss Parliament member. "But even if the most innocent option is the case, that's also a scandal," he added, according to Business Insider.
Some experts are concerned that the documents were destroyed because they contained sensitive information regarding foreign armies.


"It could well be that these files [include details of] actions against domestic targets and people would rather not know about that now," Lang postulated, the Local reported.
However, Gruppe Giardino, a pro-army lobby group founded in 2010, is unsurprised that the documents are missing.
"The Defense Department is a pigsty in which unsustainable conditions are the order of the day," Gruppe Giardino President Willi Vollenweider recently told the Tages-Anzeiger.
To make matters even more confusing, management at the national archives seems unsure as to whether they even have the files. Handwritten records show that files were handed from the Defense Department to the organization in 1993, and a Defense Department spokesperson told Reuters that efforts are currently underway to locate them.
"Defense Department and Federal Archives staff are sifting through papers now," the spokesman said. "Whether documents have been destroyed is pure speculation for now."


https://sputniknews.com/military/2018020...o-missing/