Examining False Flag Operations And Black Propaganda In Modern History

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS A 'FALSE FLAG?'

False flag operations are covert operations which are designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. *

False flag operations can be used to incite a war while making the country guilty of the false flag appear as if they are engaging in justified retaliation, to get out of peace treaties (in the fact they make the other side look like the one who originally broke the treaty), or to rally support from citizens to engage in an offensive.

False flags personally intrigue because nothing gets under my skin more than being falsely accused. Additionally, having to pay for something you have not done is a gross injustice. Essentially, in a false flag operation, an innocent party is falsely accused of committing the act. It is an act of propaganda in that the alleged guilty party is often demonized, wrongfully held responsible, and the public is manipulated into accepting action being taken against the 'offending' party.

Since the concept of false flags and the suspicion of several incoming news events being false flags is popular ATS speculation, I thought it might be a fun project to take a look at false flags throughout history.

EXAMPLES OF HISTORICAL FALSE FLAG OPERATIONS

THE MANCHURIAN INCIDENT (1931).



This event began when stretches of Japanese owned railroad were destroyed via dynamite in the Chinese region of Manchuria. The explosion was blamed on Chinese rebels and allowed the Japanese to invade and take control of the area. The incident is still debated to this day, with Japanese military officials remaining prime suspects.

FURTHER READING

THE REICHSTAG FIRE (1933).



The Reichstag building is the now defunct German parliamentary building that was set on fire in February of 1933. The arson was immediately pinned on a communist immigrant who was eventually sentenced to death by beheading. He was posthumously pardoned in 2008. Many suspect the Nazi party set the fire themselves in order to justify their crusade against an alleged communist plot to overthrow the German government. As a result of the fire, the Nazi party gained momentum due to their propaganda and fear campaign and rapidly rose to power.

FURTHER READING

THE SHELLING OF MAINILA (1939).



In an attempt to be free from a peace treaty made with Finland, Soviet Union military agents opened fire on The Russian border village of Mainila. Finland was then accused of firing the shots and was declared an act of aggression by Russia, thereby releasing them from their peace pact. Four days later, the Soviets launched an offensive against Finland under the guise of retaliation. Thus began the 'Winter War' between Finland and Russia.

FURTHER READING

OPERATION HIMMLER (1939).



Another false flag executed by the Nazis to gather support for an invasion of Poland. It mainly consisted of German soldiers dressing up in Polish uniforms while carrying out acts of vandalism and violence. They would also take concentration camp prisoners, dress them in Polish uniforms, kill them, and leave their dead bodies at the scene to make it appear the attacks were carried out by Polish soldiers. Thanks to the Nuremberg Trials, the truth behind the attacks surfaced and German forces were shown to have been behind the attacks.

FURTHER READING

OPERATION SUSANNAH (1954).



This was a false flag operation undertaken by Israeli intelligence agents who attempted to detonate bombs throughout Egypt (Including American and British ally sites) and frame Arabs as the guilty party. The operation failed when one of the bombs prematurely detonated and one of the real culprits was caught. At first Israel denied responsibility but too much evidence came to light that this was indeed a false flag operation. The scandal became known as the Lavon Affair, named after Pinhas Lavon, Israel's defense minister at the time, who was forced to resign although he was later absolved. In 2005, the Israeli government officially admitted responsibility.

FURTHER READING

OPERATION NORTHWOODS (1962).



Fortunately, this plan never came to fruition. It was kept concealed until the records were released to the public in 1997. The proposal is eerily similar to 9/11 conspiracy theorists who believe 9/11 attacks were a false flag operation carried out by the U.S. government to support a war in the Middle East. Operation Northwoods proposed engaging in terrorist acts against U.S. civilians on U.S. soil and then blaming the acts on Cuban militants.

FURTHER READING

EXAMPLES OF SUSPECTED RECENT FALSE FLAGS

Because the following events happened in the last ten years, they are still subject to immense and divisive debate. Many conspiracy theorists suspect the following attacks to have been false flag operations. Note: I personally do not believe the below are false flags (although I do believe some foreknowledge was held by the governments above). I'm simply including them in this piece since there are many who do believe they were false flag operations and welcome any and all disagreement.

RUSSIAN APARTMENT BOMBINGS (1999).



In 1999, four mid-rise apartments were bombed which killed over 300 civilians. Other bombs were found but defused. A militant group took responsibility for the attacks but various Russian military and political personnel object to this. They claim it was a false flag in which the Russian government bombed their own civilians in order to gather support for a war with Chechnya.

FURTHER READING

SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS (2001).



A very popular conspiracy theory is that the United States (and in some circles, the Israeli Mossad) orchestrated the attacks to justify various levels of Middle East involvement. To a lesser extent, some claim the United States, at the very least, had foreknowledge of the attacks. Some theorists notice the startling similarities between the never executed Northwoods Operation and the attacks of 2001 in that our government proposed terrorist attacks on U.S. soil as well as the hijacking of commercial airliners to engage Cuba back in the 1960's.

FURTHER READING

MADRID BOMBING (2004) & LONDON BOMBING (2005).





In Madrid Spain, over 2,000 individuals were either wounded or killed in the explosions of passenger trains. In the London attacks, over 750 were either wounded or killed in the explosions of the underground commuter system. In both cases, the attacks were officially declared the actions of Islamic terrorist organizations protesting Western involvement in the Middle East. In conspiracy circles, theorists speculate the bombings were inside jobs of their respective governments to instill fear in the people and to increase support for the war on terror.

FURTHER READING

BLACK PROPAGANDA TACTICS

WHAT IS 'BLACK PROPAGANDA?'

Black propaganda is false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side. It is typically used to vilify, embarrass or misrepresent the enemy. *

Similar to false flags which are generally action-oriented, black propaganda usually takes form in printed material or radio broadcasts where the material appears to come from another source. For instance, a radio personality claiming to be a broadcaster for 'Side A' spewing insults towards 'Side B' but in reality the host is a member of 'Side A.' In essence, it is a type of false flag as the material is presented as coming from an opponent. It is the opposite of 'white propaganda' that comes from the claimed source.

EXAMPLES OF BLACK PROPAGANDA

BRITISH POSTCARD CAMPAIGN OF WORLD WAR II

During WWII, Britain circulated a wide range of printed material presumably of German origin that portrayed Britain and its people in an extremely negative light. The material came in the form of post cards, book order forms, and other material purported to be the works of famous German authors.

FURTHER READING

THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION

Possibly one of the most famous examples of black propaganda, PEZ was presented as evidence of a Jewish conspiracy to secretly control the world through media and finance. It was later revealed to be a hoax perpetrated by Russian agents.

FURTHER READING

CONCLUSION

It is unknown exactly how many false flags have occurred throughout history. Some have been proven and admitted while others still fall into the gray area of conspiracy. It's still a topic that I find fascinating and which is fun to speculate on.

Please feel free to critique any of the above information or disagree if you do or do not believe any of the above fit the description.

Great thread

Made me laugh hearing mainila was a FF i was thinking about this

Regarding your black propaganda section.

I have always wondered about the plans within plans within plans component of black propaganda.

As an example (example only-please do not go there!) let us say Obama really was born in another country. Sooner or later this is going to come out so what you do is release some type of faked documents proving he is a foreign national. The info comes out this is a fake so what happens, the movement is ridiculed.

This could be said of such things as movies that depict certain things before the actual event. Another example, 2012.

Deception, within deception, within deception.

I know if I was part of the elite these things would be my bread and butter.

What can anyone trust anymore?

I do my part on this theory on the old racist joke. I am not racist, I hate everybody.

I am not paranoid that someONE is out to get me, I distrust everyone!; so to speak.

Excellent layout Ashley.

One thing on the false flags of today, it is amazing how on the day of 9/11 and the England bombings, both times the governments were conducting drills for the EXACT thing that happened.

I am not one to see correlation as absolute proof, but it does make the conspiracy theorist in me say WTH!

reply to post by AshleyD


You are right that we can never know how many false flag operations has occurred in history, after all winners of war writes history.

That being said there is so much in history which is outright fantasy based and yet we believe it as history not taking in to consideration the human side to it.

We have no idea how much BS has been added over the truth when it comes to Nazi Germany hence as you mentioned your self Black Propaganda is merely used to "vilify, embarrass or misrepresent the enemy."

We don't know how much BS has been added over the truth when it comes to the Mujahideen etc.

What I find amusing is the fact that so many individuals actually believe something which is used as a tactic of war. At the time of war it is incredibly hard to differentiate between the truth and BS hence Black Propaganda.

Would a time come when the general population demand from their government the abandonment of such tactics? That is what I would like to predict and to know.

Originally posted by endisnighe
As an example (example only-please do not go there!) let us say Obama really was born in another country. Sooner or later this is going to come out so what you do is release some type of faked documents proving he is a foreign national. The info comes out this is a fake so what happens, the movement is ridiculed.

This one reminds me of when I was a kid and showed my mom the stains on the shoes so that she wouldnt look at my pants and notice they are torn



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Ashley - thanks for putting a Context and History to the words we see thrown around here every day. Thats very important work.

This is an excellent and informative article. It brings to light the reality that we are manipulated to be angered and support war propaganda.

I know pearl harbor is potentially another type of black op meaning the US let it happen but did nothing to prevent it so the US could go to war.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

reply to post by YouAreDreaming


There was a thread about PH being a false flag recently:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

The reason I didn't include it is because it technically was not a false flag. As in, the U.S. posing as the Japanese. The attack was executed by the Japanese.

However, some do believe the U.S. had foreknowledge of the attacks but did not stop them. Some speculate they allowed it to happen to gain the support of American citizens to enter WWII and purposely kept the military vessels in the harbor (opposed to practicing out at sea) decreased the loss but was enough to get us into the war.

reply to post by AshleyD


IMO false flags are more in the fore front these days because--
They are to often directed towards citizens. In the past they were usually of a military nature.
USS Liberty and many in your OP.
Also since the discovery of the treasonous attempt by the Joint Chiefs
by President Kennedy there have been more inside attempts at and false flags than ever before on US soil.
So many considered INSIDE .Making the act much more deplorable.
The Lusitania was one of the older most atrocious false flags.
Add to all this ---the splintered relationship and negitive influence Israel has cast over the USA.

A false flag operation is one of the most sadistic and well thought out operations in a country/agency's arsenal. It takes a complex amount of planning but is severely compartmentalized on a strict need to know basis. There is a saying about 'Painters' such as the individuals in the WTC that were re-painting the collumns in the buildings with a super-thermite coating without their knowledge. So a 'false flag' operation can consist of an apparatus of skilled individuals carrying out various parts of the operation without knowing they are in fact doing so. They may even think they are accomplishing a completely different task and perform it with absolute resolve. Even after the operation takes place the people who made it happen may have no idea they had a hand in it. Case in point; Painters.

It only takes a man and a dog to move a herd.

[edit on 12-2-2010 by Blood Eagle]

reply to post by AshleyD



Great thread Ashley! - good work!

About the Madrid bombings, It was a political mess of great proportions which led to the defeat of the Government in the election a couple of days later.

I lived in Spain when the bombs exploded on the trains that awful morning, and José María Aznar and Partido Popular (PP) thought they were gonna take some political political points of the event - so they blamed ETA directly in the press and on TV.

But that backfired on them directly when the people of Spain felt and thought & knew they were being bombed by Islamists because Aznar had sent Spanish troops to Iraq as requested by G.W.Bush.

So the people took to the streets in millions in nationwide demonstrations and protests and screamed that the Government and José María Aznar were liars for blaming ETA - and demanded that the troops should come home because the people didn't want to fight Bush's war!

So a couple of days later, José María Aznar and Partido Popular lost the election.

The losely mixed militant group responsible were brought to trial and most of them were hash traffickers of Moroccan origin and a few from Pakistan & Algeria - 21 were found guilty on a range of charges from forgery to murder. Two of the defendants were sentenced each to more than 40,000 years in prison.

The September 2007 Court sentence established no known mastermind nor direct al-Qaida link.


The conspiracy theories

Sectors of the People's Party (PP), now in opposition, as well as certain media, such as El Mundo newspaper and the COPE radio station, continue to support theories relating the attack to a vast conspiracy to remove the governing party from power. Support for the conspiracy was also given by the AVT, Spain's largest association of victims of terrorism.

These theories speculate that ETA and members of the security forces and national and foreign (Morocco) secret services, were involved in the bombings. The CIA operatives version is not ruled out by the European society at large. Defenders of the claims that ETA participated in some form in the 11th of March attacks have affirmed that there is circumstantial evidence linking the Islamists with two ETA members who were detained while driving the outskirts of Madrid in a van containing 500 kg of explosives 11 days before the train bombings

en.wikipedia.org...