A History of False Flag Events

A false flag event takes its name from the days of piracy. Before taking over a ship, pirates would sail the flag of a nation that was known to be friendly to their targeted ship. When they got close enough, the pirates would raise their flag, showing their true colors and commandeer the unsuspecting ship taking all its valuables and killing its crew. Today’s false flag operations are much more subversive and don’t give their victims the courtesy of knowing they’ve been duped. Instead, modern false flags go for the long play. This way they can maintain legitimacy and power and commit other false flag acts in the future to further their agenda.

Among the numerous instances of false flags, one event that has become synonymous with the term and effectively led to one of the most atrocious outcomes was the Reichstag Fire. The Reichstag Fire was an act of arson that was supposedly committed by a communist German, named Marinus Van Der Lubbe. Van der Lubbe set fire to the parliamentary Reichstag building, under the guise of a communist radical. While he was known to be eccentric and a mental patient who might commit such a crime, his behavior during the subsequent trial, as well as the extenuating circumstances surrounding German government at the time, tell a different story.

Before the Reichstag fire, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany during its nascent democracy. He of course wanted authoritarian power, which could only be attained by invoking an emergency clause called the Enabling Act. In order to pass the act, he needed a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag, but the Nazi party only controlled 32 percent. By burning down the Reichstag and blaming communists, he could manipulate the populace and use its fear to assume power.

There are a few pieces of evidence that exposed Nazi involvement in the fire after the Reichstag burned. Aside from the fact that it conveniently allowed Hitler to implement his fascist regime, he was immediately prepared with an emergency decree, laying out his plans. Also, Hitler’s right-hand man, Hermann Göring, showed up to the fire with arrest lists already prepared. All of the warning signs and the framework for a false flag were there, and although it is widely accepted to be a false flag, it has never officially been labelled such, making it a testament to its success.

The Telltale Signs of a False Flag Event

There are some key characteristics that can be indicative of a false flag event. The catalyst is typically an explosive, spectacular event, which is followed by immediate media saturation. Of course this is inevitable in any tragic scenario and simply the nature of news, but there are a few warning signs of a plotted false flag. If the major news outlets are all in sync, reporting on the event without thoroughly vetting the information available, then there is cause for concern. Within a relatively short period of time a scapegoat will be named, establishing an enemy with little to no trial or investigation into other possibilities. The case will be closed, government action will ensue, and, on a much more subversive level, someone will reap profit. And often those who profit are large corporations or military contractors that make exorbitant revenue through war and conflict.

These scenarios work best when the stakes are high. The greater the shock value, the less likely people are to question the authenticity of the event. If someone dares to question the mainstream’s sanctioned culprit in a tragedy, they’re labelled crazy, insensitive or unpatriotic. Skeptics are denounced as pacifists who are unsupportive of their country in a time of attack. Those who do succumb to the hysteria, perpetuate a groupthink that can be easily persuaded to allow government to restrict liberties and implement authoritarian laws. Examples of this can be seen throughout history and as recently as within the past few decades.

Proposed False Flags: Operation Northwoods

While it was never actually carried out, one proposal made to President Kennedy, laid out plans for an incredibly insidious false flag attack. Operation Northwoods was a plan concocted by the Department of Justice and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, intending to garner support for an unprovoked war against communist Cuba through a number of subversive means, making Cubans out to be the aggressors. The plans ranged from blowing up U.S. naval ships to hijacking commercial airliners and crashing them, faking the deaths of U.S. civilians.

The plan was meticulously thought out, providing an array of devious plots to manipulate the public perception of Cuba at the expense of Cuban and potentially American lives. Although it was rejected by Kennedy, similarly duplicitous tactics have been carried out by the U.S. and many other large governments with the resources to do so.

In the modern era, technological advents have allowed for surreptitious cyber attacks and widespread propaganda. In the U.S., this irregular style of warfare falls under the title Psychological Operations, or PsyOps, and is simply the contemporary term for the military’s propaganda tactics.

We now know the extent to which these tactics can be employed and how they’ve been willingly used on the country’s innocent citizens for surveillance purposes. Will they continue to find even more subversive measures to manipulate us and advance their self-serving goals? Or will this usher in an era of awareness and resistance to manipulation from the powers that be?