Can someone explain "fifth column" to me?

[vi5]

I know the term somehow is used frequently by the right to refer to liberals or the media or other groups they regard as somehow treasonous. But what is the meaning of the term, where does it come from, and to what does it refer. I honestly have no idea.

[soothsayer]

1. from yahoo

ear Matt:
Great question! The Fifth Column. The Fourth Estate. The Third Man. All of these phrases can get confusing. According to Britannica.com, a fifth column refers to any clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation's solidarity.

Who came up with the phrase, and what's with the columns? Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), originally coined the term. As four of his army columns moved on Madrid, the general referred to his militant supporters within the capital as his "fifth column," intent on undermining the loyalist government from within.

So the fifth column is a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders. Recent conflicts have had their fifth columns: Iraqi insurgents in the Gulf War, Cuban rebels in the Bay of Pigs. Those columns didn't fare quite as well.

[wurzel]

5. By that definition the media is a Republican "Fifth Column".

[BrotherBuzz]

7. You're right

But in my world, when the Forth Estate is in bed with the enemy, we at DU become part of the Fifth Column.

[wurzel]

9. Without this internet we wouldn't have a prayer.

[Cleita]

8. The Project For A New American Century would be the Fifth

Column in this country by that definition. I think any institution like the media that is controlled by them would be part of the Fifth Column, not the entire column itself.

[amber dog democrat]

2. I think it has to do with the collapse of the French Republic

in 1940. This refers to Marshall Petain and Vichy ?

[mopinko]

3. my understanding

there's this, but
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column

it was my understanding that it most recently referred to japanese citizens during wwII. this was part of the rationalization for the interment camps.

[LuminousX]

4. Bartleby's definition

http://www.bartleby.com/61/31/F0113100.html

Origins are the Spanish 4 columns attacking the 5th.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. It was from the Spanish Civil War.

The "Fifth Column" was the supposed fascist supporters in Madrid who were to rise up against the Republic and join the 4 columns besieging the city.

It now refers to traitors inside almost anything.

Hence, Zell Miller is a 5th columnist. For we on the left, the DLC is the Democratic Party's 5th column.