The trajectory of the American Empire has relied so heavily on false flag attacks one could describe it as a false flag empire.

AMERICAN PRESIDENTS like to describe the United States as a force for freedom, but by any measure America has, from its early days, been an imperial power subjugating and ruling other people’s lands mainly through bloody conquests, often using false flags or provocation in order to have a casus belli.

Based on past American behaviour, everybody should be very sceptical of the American claim of Iranian involvement in the recent attack on the oil tankers.

The timing is suspicious. In this recent case of ships in the Persian Gulf, why would the Iranians blow up ships when the Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was in Tehran — the first by a Japanese prime minister since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, in a visit aimed at reducing tensions between the U.S. and Iran?

After a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Mr Abe warned the region could “accidentally” slip into conflict. Just hours before the attacks, Abe had publicly declared that, contrary to U.S. accusations, Iran had “no intentions” of building a nuclear weapon. United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed the U.S. assessment was “based on intelligence,” but no details were given and, sadly, the UK Government has fallen into line.

The operator of the ship Kokuka Courageous, Japanese company Kokuka Sangyo, said the crew saw "flying objects" just before the attack, suggesting the tanker was damaged by something other than mines. Yutaka Katada, the company president, said reports of a mine attack were "false".

If there is war, it will be as false as Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction”, or attack on a U.S. ship in the Gulf of Tonkin used to justify the Vietnam War, which killed over 3.5 million people in Indochina.

Pompeo conveniently ignores U.S. interference in the region, particularly that there would have been no Khomeini Revolution if the U.S. had not overthrown the democratically elected Mohammad Mosaddegh.

In the chapter on false flags in his book, author David Griffin discusses many of the false flag operations the U.S. has engaged in, including Operation Gladio. This was a U.S./NATO terrorist operation throughout Europe, which Swiss historian Daniele Ganser has extensively documented — an operation meant to discredit Communists and socialists.

Such operations were directly connected to the OSS, the CIA and its director, Allen Dulles, as well as Dulles' henchman, James Jesus Angleton.

It should not be forgotten that as late as 1750 – 150 years after Britain established Jamestown and 250 years after Europeans first set foot in the continent – the American Indians constituted a majority of the population. Even a century later, in 1850, they still retained formal possession of much of the western half of the continent.

The final assault on Indigenous land tenure, lasting roughly from the mid-19th century to 1890, was rapid and murderous. After John Sutter discovered gold in California’s Central Valley in 1848, colonists launched slaving expeditions against native peoples in the region. "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between races, until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected", the State’s first governor instructed the legislature in 1851.

In short, in the mid-19th century, Americans were still fighting to reduce, if not to eliminate, the continent’s original residents.

America’s history of using false flags to start wars

1. Mexican wars of 1819 and 1846-48

Florida, Texas, New Mexico and California were Spanish possessions that revolted for independence. The U.S. built a fortification 150km inside the Mexican border.

2. Annexation of Hawaii, 1893

Queen Liliukokalani proposed changing the Hawaiian Constitution, so U.S. Marines aided the leaders of a pro-American coup and a provisional government was proclaimed. In the last days of the Harrison presidency, a Treaty of Annexation was drawn up.

3. Spanish-American War, 1898

The surprise explosion of the battleship Maine at Havana, Cuba, in which 255 of the crew died. The Hearst press accused the Spanish, claiming that the explosion was caused by a remote-controlled mine. The U.S.A. declared war on Spain, and conquered Philippines, Guam and Cuba. Subsequent investigations revealed that the explosion originated inside the Maine and that it was either an accident, such as a coal explosion, or some type of time bomb inside the battleship. Divers investigating the shipwreck found that the armour plates of the ship were blown bending outwards, not inwards

4. Korean War, 1950-1953

South Korean incursions into North Korea (1949) led to war. It involved leaders of Taiwan, South Korea and the U.S. military-industrial complex (John Foster Dulles has been mentioned as an organizer of the hostilities).

5. Vietnam War Tonkin Incident, 1964

The National Security Agency admitted it lied about what really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 by manipulating data to make it look like North Vietnamese boats fired on a U.S. ship so as to create a false justification for the Vietnam War.

6. Grenada invasion

The reason for the invasion given by the U.S. was that American medical students studying in the Grenada were in danger due the Cuban presence. The U.S. supported a new rightwing leader.

7. Panama invasion

An incident between American and Panamanian troops led to invasion. The leader Manuel Noriega was changed and the earlier Carter administration plan to hand the control of the Canal over to Panama was cancelled.

8. U.S. and Israeli sponsored war between Iraq and Iran, 1980-1988

The CIA-organised coup of 1953 replaced Iranian Prime Minister Mosaddegh with the dictatorial Shah, who was given the best Western military equipment. But after the revolt against the Shah, the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein to attack Iran with strategic support and weapons, including gas warfare agents. "Too bad they both cannot lose", is how Kissinger evaluated this situation.

9. Bombing of Lybia, 1984

A Mossad agent admitted that, in 1984, they had planted a radio transmitter in Gaddaffi’s compound in Tripoli, Libya, which broadcast fake terrorist trasmissions in order to frame Gaddaffi as a terrorist supporter. Ronald Reagan bombed Libya immediately thereafter.

10. Desert Storm (First Gulf War), 1991

Saddam Hussein asked for permission from the U.S. (via their ambassador, April Glaspie) to attack Kuwait, which had been asked by the U.S. to put pressure on Saddam to pay back money lent to fight against Iran. Kuwait was also illegally siphoning off oil from Iraqi fields. Saddam was told by Glaspie that the U.S. does not care about Arab quarrels. That was a trap, and after Saddam occupied Kuwait, George Bush Snr mobilised a coalition of some 40 nations to "liberate Kuwait" and to smash the recently-built Iraqi military power base. This also involved a media hoax, where the daughter of Kuwaiti U.S. ambassador played nurse on TV and testified to "witnessing" Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of incubators in Kuwait.

11. Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan invasion), 10/7/01

Without any evidence, the former CIA-asset, Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden, was claimed to be the mastermind behind the 9/11 strikes at the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. The leaders of Afghanistan were willing to hand over Osama for trial to a neutral nation, but the U.S. refused this compromise.

12. Enduring Justice (Second Gulf War), 3/20/03

The claimed reason of the attack was that Iraq was a clear and present danger to the U.S., with WMD's available within less than an hour after the decision to assemble them had been made.

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Sorry America we don’t believe you. Please return to the comprehensive treaty negotiated with Iran and try diplomacy for a change.

Fadlullah Wilmot has served at Universities in Malaysia and Indonesia and been involved in charitable humanitarian and development work in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.