Joe Olson is an engineer with an extensive library of knowledge across multiple fields.
What is a false flag?
For clarity, a false flag is a covert operation in which an individual or group carries out an action, such as an attack or sabotage, while disguising their identity or attributing the act to another party.
In other words, it’s like someone committing a crime but making it look like someone else did it. Imagine a guy breaks his neighbour’s window but leaves evidence suggesting another neighbour did it.
By way of deception, thou shalt do war.
Mossad motto
For example, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964) involved the alleged attack on two US Navy destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The event served as a justification for the escalation of US military involvement in the Vietnam War.
However, declassified documents later revealed that the second attack, which was used to justify further military action, did not occur.
False flags are common throughout geopolitical history.
More examples of false flags
Reichstag Fire (1933)
The Reichstag Fire in 1933 is one of the most infamous ‘false flags’ in history.
The German parliament building, the Reichstag, was set ablaze. The Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler, blamed the fire on the communists and used it as a pretext to ‘suppress political opposition and consolidate Nazi power in Germany’.
Many mainstream historians believe the Nazis themselves orchestrated the fire, although this claim seems lacking in evidence (hence putting ‘false flag’ between quotation marks, in this instance).
Operation Northwoods (1962)
Operation Northwoods was a proposed false flag operation by the US Department of Defense.
The plan, which was never executed, suggested staging acts of terrorism on American soil to be falsely attributed to Cuba.
The US government really hated Fidel Castro.
The aim was to create public support for a war against Cuba during the Cold War. The plans included hijackings and bombings but was eventually rejected by President John F Kennedy (JFK).
The Lavon Affair (1954)
The Lavon Affair was a failed Israeli covert operation in Egypt known as Operation Susannah.
In 1954, Israeli military intelligence planted bombs in several buildings, including US and British-owned civilian targets, in Egypt.
The aim was to blame the attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian communists and ‘unspecified malcontents’ to provoke British intervention in Egypt.
The plot was uncovered, leading to a political scandal in Israel and the resignation of Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon.
The Mukden Incident (1931)
The Mukden Incident, also known as the Manchurian Incident, occurred in 1931 when a section of the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railway was dynamited.
The Imperial Japanese Army accused Chinese dissidents of the act, using it as a pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria.
Later investigations showed that Japanese military personnel had staged the explosion to justify their aggressive expansion into China.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Sun Tzu
Here’s my conversation with Joe in which he discusses false flags over the last century.
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Winston Churchill
