The Gestapo staged a Polish raid on a German broadcasting tower at Gleiwitz, in current-day Poland. One of the best-known historical examples of a real false flag operation was mounted by Nazi Germany in 1939 as justification for starting World War II. The Hague Convention IV of 1907, for instance, forbids any signatory from making “improper use of a flag of truce, of the national flag or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy.” What are some historical examples of false flag operations?
Under international law, this is usually considered illegal. Historically, a false flag operation referred to a military force or a ship flying another country’s flag for the purposes of deception. The original definition of “false flag” stems from the misuse of literal flags. How should Americans reconcile the existence of false flag operations throughout history with the rise in dubious conspiracy theories alleging, for example, that school shootings like the Sandy Hook massacre were staged to push gun control? What is a false flag operation? “The revelation of real, proven, government lies and conspiracies helps explain the attraction of false flag conspiracy theories,” said Kathryn Olmsted, a professor of history at the University of California-Davis, and the author of a book on conspiracy theories. These include the 9/11 attacks and school shootings such as those in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida. Perhaps the greatest legacy of these faux events is that they laid the foundation of distrust that has fueled some of the most high-profile modern-day conspiracy theories that allege that real, well-documented events were also staged. In fact, some confirmed false flag operations have occurred throughout history, though they were difficult to pull off. They said if they did exist, it was only within the diseased imaginations of conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and his minions in QAnon.” Because until yesterday, we were under the impression that false flag operations didn’t exist. “That is a jarring term to hear from a Joe Biden employee, much less an official. “A false flag operation? Really?” Carlson said mockingly on Feb. intelligence showed Russia was planning to stage a fabricated attack. He aired and reacted to a clip of State Department spokesperson Ned Price saying that U.S. government’s allegation a focal point of his show. 6, 2021, was a “false flag” orchestrated by the FBI - made the U.S. Fox News host Tucker Carlson - a promoter of the baseless claim that the storming of the Capitol on Jan. Some proponents of “false flag” conspiracy theories were quick to conflate the two. In recent years, the term “false flag” has been invoked to explain everything from the 9/11 attacks to school shootings to the Jan. The allegation of a staged event carried out by an adversary evoked memories of other claimed “false flags” that have driven conspiracy theories for decades. They said Russia has a history of running similar operations to justify action against Ukraine. The officials said they went public with the information in order to thwart Russia’s alleged scheme and to make it known that future military action could be premised on falsehoods. But they said the disinformation campaign could involve the dissemination of a propaganda video featuring faked explosions, images of destruction and crisis actors posing as mourners. officials provided few details about the alleged “false flag” attack, saying it could jeopardize sources and methods used to obtain the intelligence.
in early February accused Russia of plotting a fake attack by Ukrainian forces as a pretext for invading the neighboring country. Citing newly acquired intelligence, the U.S.