"Una quinta columna" was a phrase first 'coined' by General Emilio Mola in 1936 when describing fascist sympathisers in Madrid.
The subversive group worked against Republican authorities from within, and then joined the four columns of besieging Franco forces when Madrid came under attack.
Whilst Franco understood the importance of a fifth column when attempting to subvert, and then overthrow, the democratically elected government, it would appear that western leadership has failed to learn from history.
Today, saw Austrian authorities put a married couple on trial for having links to al Qaeda and posting a video on the internet threatening Austria and Germany with attacks. The couple, who are Austrian citizens, had been arrested in September with the video claiming that the two countries would be targeted if they did not withdraw military personnel from Afghanistan. The fact that neither country is contributing in a material way, to the War on Terror, seemed more than a little ironic.
Returning to una quinta columna. Sun Tzu had written in The Art of War that "... the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve great results. Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army's ability to move."
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