Difference between revisions of "False flag"

Revision as of 10:53, 18 March 2012

False flag attacks are carried out in ways calculated to deceive the victim as to the nature of the perpetrator, conventionally (though not necessarily) by a device such as flying false colours. Operations of this nature have sometimes been used in commerce and politics.

Please Note - This article is offered as an adjunct to the Wikipedia article "False Flag". It aims to fill in some otherwise puzzling gaps, presenting missing incidents from a "Neutral Point of View" to the "Reliable Source" standard of Wikipedia. However, see "Notes" at the end, where some information acceptable to the Wikipedia, and quoted from there, is not to a high standard.

Important examples inadequately covered at WP

September 11 Attacks

Main Pages: category:9/11

On September 11, 2001, a complex attack was carried out for which no one has been brought to justice. US government continues to deny reponsibility, or to investigate the evidence or answer further questions. Two US passenger planes were flown into two of the World Trade Center Towers, both of which were subsequently destroyed by explosives, as was WTC7, a third tower in the World Trade Center. An attack was launched against the Pentagon, which was subject to a military stand down. Official procedure was followed neither before, during or after the attack. None of the hijacked aircraft were intercepted, fighter jets were not scrambled, and the evidence of the demolished World Trade Center buildings was removed without being subjected to any investigation. Wikipedia editors seem determined to remove any evidence from the 9/11 pages which contradicts the US government's official conspiracy theory. Subsequent to the 9/11 attacks, another possible false flag was carried out - the '[Anthrax Attacks 2001 | Amerithrax]' Anthrax attacks, which were blamed on Islamic Terrorists at the time, although a $100M FBI investigation concluded that the Antrax used was of US military origin. The case is now closed and some of the evidence remains 'under seal'^[1] .

1954 Lavon Affair

Main Article: Lavon Affair

This was an Israeli plan to place bombs in Egypt against Egyptian, American and British-owned targets, to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone. It was uncovered when an israeli was caught planting a bomb. Despite almost entirely ignoring this affair at the article on "False Flag", there is a Wikipedia article on it at Lavon Affair. The Wikipedia says that it was "disastrous for Israel in several ways" but fails to mention any of the very serious effects on Egypt or Egyptian Jews (mentioned below). It may otherwise be largely complete and trustworthy.

1950 Baghdad Bombings

Never acknowledged by Israel

The April 1950 bombings that helped panic most of the 150,000 Jews of Iraq to leave for Israel have never been claimed by the Zionists.

For and against the Zionists having done it

The Wikipedia generally presents a large number of other reasons why the Jews would have wanted to leave and strongly implies that the existence of Israel, and the activities of the Zionists in Iraq did nothing to cause problems for the Jews. But in the article on "Jews in Iraq" (Oct 2011) it admits:

The true identity and objective of the masterminds behind the bombings has been the subject of controversy. A secret Israeli inquiry in 1960 found no evidence that they were ordered by Israel or any motive that would have explained the attack, though it did find out that most of the witnesses believed that Jews had been responsible for the bombings.^[2]^[3] The issue remains unresolved: Iraqi activists still regularly charge that Israel used violence to engineer the exodus, while Israeli officials of the time vehemently deny it. Historian Moshe Gat reports that "the belief that the bombs had been thrown by Zionist agents was shared by those Iraqi Jews who had just reached Israel".^[4] Sociologist Phillip Mendes backs Gat's claims, and further attributes the allegations to have been influenced and distorted by feelings of discrimination.^[5]

Journalist Naeim Giladi's position that the bombings were "perpetrated by Zionist agents in order to cause fear amongst the Jews, and so promote their exodus to Israel" is shared by a number of anti-Zionist authors, including the Israeli Black Panthers (1975), David Hirst (1977), Wilbur Crane Eveland (1980), Uri Avnery (1988), Ella Shohat (1986), Abbas Shiblak (1986), Marion Wolfsohn (1980), and Rafael Shapiro (1984). In his article, Giladi notes that this was also the conclusion of Wilbur Crane Eveland, a former senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who outlined that allegation in his book "Ropes of Sand".

Other accounts state that arms were stock-piled in synagogues by the Zionists and were shown to the Iraqi services by a captured member of the underground.

International Law, with examples

Naval warfare

The Wikipedia section here says that "This practice was considered acceptable in naval warfare, provided the false flag was lowered and the national flag raised before engaging in battle" and covers (as at Oct 2011) the following: "Auxiliary cruisers" in both World Wars, Q-ships, the German commerce raider Kormoran sinking the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney in 1941, the use of a Kriegsmarine Ensign in the St Nazaire Raid and the destroyer Campbeltown made to resemble a German destroyer.