Daniele Ganser

Daniele Ganser (born 29 August 1972, in Lugano ) is a Swiss author and conspiracy theorist. He is best known for his 2005 book NATO's Secret Armies.

Background
His father Gottfried Ganser-Bosshart (1922–2014), whose parents were Germans, was a Protestant pastor of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (SEK). His mother Jeannette Ganser was a nurse. He has a sister named Tea.

Daniele Ganser was a senior researcher at the ETH Zurich, Center for Security Studies (CSS). He was president (2006–2012) of the Swiss branch of the "Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas" (ASPO), and taught a course (2012–2017) titled History and Future of Energy Systems at the University of St. Gallen.

NATO's Secret Armies
In 2004, Ganser published NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe. In this book, Ganser claims that Gladio units were in close cooperation with NATO and the CIA and that Gladio in Italy was responsible for terrorist attacks against the Italian civilian population. Security analyst John Prados observed that Ganser presented evidence that Gladio networks amounted to anti-democratic elements across many nations.

Beatrice Heuser praised the book while also commenting Ganser's book would have been improved by the author using a less polemical tone and had occasionally conceded problems with the Soviets. The political scientist Markus Linden said that Ganser fostered anti-Americanism under the label of Peace Research, while he unilaterally presented Russia positively.

Critics charged that the book failed to provide proof or an in-depth explanation of a conspiracy between NATO, the United States, and European countries. Peer Henrik Hansen criticized Ganser for basing his claim on the US Army Field Manual 30-31B which members of the intelligence community claim is a "Cold War era hoax document." Philip H.J. Davies concluded that the book is marred by imagined conspiracies, exaggerated notions and misunderstandings of covert activities and operations within and between the countries, and a failure to place their decisions and actions in the appropriate historical context. Davies argued that Ganser did not perform the most basic necessary research to be able to discuss them effectively. Olav Riste of the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies mentions several instances where his own research on the stay-behind network in Norway was twisted by Ganser. Riste and Leopoldo Nuti concluded that the book's "ambitious conclusions do not seem to be entirely corroborated by a sound evaluation of the sources available." Lawrence Kaplan commended Ganser for making "heroic efforts to tease out the many strands that connect this interlocking right-wing conspiracy", but also argued that connecting the dots required a stretch of facts. Kaplan believes that some of Ganser's theories may be correct, but they damage the book's credibility. John R. Schindler wrote: "With few exceptions, specialists in the history of intelligence considered Ganser's book to be a shoddy work of scholarship.  In the first place, he made no effort to hide his biases, noting that he considered CIA covert action to be "terrorist in nature." Then there was the problem that Ganser was making incendiary assertions he could not prove, as he himself admitted to "not being able to find any official sources to support his charges of the CIA's or any Western European government's involvement with GLADIO.""

Daniele Ganser was shown as expert in the German TV documentary film Stay Behind: Die Schattenkrieger der NATO by Ulrich Stoll about stay-behind armies which was broadcast on ZDFinfo in 2014.

Later work
Ganser calls into question the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission. He also promotes skepticism of the COVID-19 pandemic. Americanist Michael Butter calls Ganser the "best-known conspiracy theorist in the German-speaking world". His public doubts about the "official version" of the 9/11 attacks had led to the termination of his university employment. Though affirming that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is illegal, Ganser has stated that the United States is responsible for it. He has further claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a pawn of the United States and that Crimea and Eastern Ukraine wanted to separate from the rest of the country. Ganser believes the United States instigated the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine in 2014 and that following the removal of pro-Russian president Yanukovych: “The US installed Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the new prime minister and Petro Poroshenko as the new president".

In 2020, Ganser published Imperium USA: Die Skrupellose Weltmacht in German, a book which was republished in English in 2023 as USA: The Ruthless Empire. It received little to no coverage in the general and academic presses. One of the few reviewers, Jakob Kullik (of the German strategic studies magazine Zeitschrift für Strategische Analysen), strongly criticized the book for its "one-sided" and "superficial" portrayal of the US as the sole perpetrator of global conflicts. Kullik states that Ganser ignores counter-evidence and utilizes historical revisionism and conspiracy theories to support his anti-American criticism. Kullik further notes that while the book offers a wealth of details, it "lacks analytical depth" and context. Kullik also criticizes Ganser for blaming the US for almost all the world's ills while ignoring other actors such as Russia or China. He concludes that his book falls short of even popular science standards and that Ganser does not engage critically with his sources.

In 2023, Ganser’s presentations (which German public broadcaster ZDF found can bring him around 80,000 Euros of revenue per night through ticket sales alone - A separate Swiss public broadcasting report mentioned he made over 100,000 Swiss Francs based on tickets at a presentation in Basel in May 2023 ) are considered to contain anti-Americanism, historical negationism, Kremlin propaganda, alternative facts and half-truths and have an audience of over 1000 people in Germany. Ganser implies that government and mainstream media would predetermine the way of thinking of the population. The content of Ganser's presentations is popular with a target audience of "conspiracy theorists and democracy skeptics". The director of the Institute for defence policy of the Kiel University, Joachim Krause, criticized: "Mr. Ganser is not a scientist. He's a dumbing down entrepreneur who makes his living by contaminating the brains of people with conspiracy fantasies." Eva Binder and Magdalena Kaltseis from University of Innsbruck described Ganser his presentation in Magic Castle of Austrian city Seefeld in Tirol as "pseudoscientific seduction".

English
Articles
 * "Terrorism in Western Europe: An Approach to NATO's Secret Stay-behind Armies." Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, vol. 6, no. 1. pp. 69–97.
 * "Fear As A Weapon: The Effects Psychological Warfare on Domestic and International Politics." World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, vol. 9, no. 4 (2005), pp. 24–40..
 * "The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland: An Unfinished Debate on NATO's Cold War Stay-behind Armies." Intelligence and National Security, vol. 20, no. 5 (2005). pp. 553–580..
 * "The Ghost of Machiavelli: An Approach to Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Cold War Italy." Crime, Law and Social Change, vol. 45, no. 2 (Mar. 2006), pp. 111–154..
 * "The CIA in Western Europe and the Abuse of Human Rights." Intelligence and National Security, vol. 21, no. 5 (Oct. 2006), pp. 760–781..

Books
 * Reckless Gamble—The Sabotage of the United Nations in the Cuban Conflict and the Missile Crisis of 1962. New Orleans: University Press of the South (Dec. 2000). ISBN 978-1889431727.
 * NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe. London: Routledge (2005). ISBN 978-1135767853.

Book contributions
 * "The 'Strategy of Tension' in the Cold War Period" (Chapter 6). In: 9/11 and the American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out. Edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott. Northampton, Mass.: Olive Branch Press (2007), pp. 79–99. ISBN 978-1566566599.
 * "America is Addicted to Oil: U.S. Secret Warfare and Dwindling Oil Reserves in the Context of Peak Oil and 9/11." In: The Dual State: Parapolitics, Carl Schmitt and the National Security Complex, by Eric Wilson. UK: Ashgate (2012). ISBN 978-1409431077.

Other languages
Articles
 * "L'OTAN Menace Notre Sécurité," with Hans von Sponeck and Gabriel Galice. Le Temps [Genèva] (3 April 2017), pp. 6+.

Books
 * Der Alleingang—Die Schweiz 10 Jahre nach dem EWR-Nein, with Uwe Wagschal and Hans Rentsch. Zürich: Orell Füssli Verlag (Dec. 2002). ISBN 978-3280050415.
 * English: "Going it Alone—Switzerland 10 Years After the EWR-Nein."


 * Europa im Erdölrausch: Die Folgen einer gefährlichen Abhängigkeit. Zürich: Orell Füssli Verlag (2012). ISBN 978-3280054741.
 * English: "Europe in the Oil Frenzy: The Consequences of Dangerous Addiction."


 * Illegale Kriege: Wie die NATO-Länder die UNO sabotieren. Eine Chronik von Kuba bis Syrien. Zürich: Orell Füssli Verlag (2016). ISBN 978-3280039434.
 * English: "Illegal Wars: How the NATO Countries Sabotage the UN. A Chronicle from Cuba to Syria."


 * Imperium USA: Die Skrupellose Weltmacht. Zürich: Orell Füssli Verlag (2020). ISBN 978-3280090886.

Book contributions
 * "Peak Oil: Erdöl im Spannungsfeld von Krieg und Frieden." In: Energie, by Phillip Rudolf von Rohr, Peter Walde, Bertram Battlog. vdf Hochschulverlag an der ETH Zürich (2009), pp. 45–60. ISBN 978-3728132192.
 * English: "Peak Oil: Crude oil in the Field of Tension Between War and Peace." In: "Energy."