A false flag attack is a hostile action orchestrated by its perpetrators so that they do not appear to be responsible for it. These covert operations seek to attribute responsibility for the aggression to other people with the aim of starting a conflict or obtaining political gain.
The concept false flag first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1569. However, its use spread several centuries later in the naval world. At the beginning, the false flag alluded to when pirates raised the flag of other ships in order to get closer to their targets and attack them. This ruse spread throughout the military world and was accepted by international maritime law. The only condition was that the attacking ship raised its national flag just before embarking on its offensive.
During both world wars, navies frequently employed the false flag tactic, but it would not be until the 1980s when columnist London Daily Telegraph, Robert Moss popularized the current meaning of the term. Moss used the notion of false flag to refer to Soviet-led weapons manufacturing during the Cold War with the purpose of accusing the West of its development and its support for terrorist organizations.
The false flag, an ancient practice
Despite being a recent concept, false flag operations have been present perhaps since ancient times. The accession of Darius I to the throne of the Persian Empire in the 6th century BC. C. is considered one of the first manifestations of it. The king’s version states that he murdered the magician Gaumata, who had usurped the throne from Cambyses II by posing as his brother Smerdis. On the contrary, contemporary historiography considers that Darío used this story to hide the assassination of his predecessor and legitimize his seizure of power.
However, false flag attacks became more evident in the 20th century. Most of them served to justify a military offensive prior to World War II. In September 1931, a group of Japanese soldiers blew up a part of the railway they were building in the Chinese town of Mukden, located in the Japanese occupation zone of Manchuria. Japan blamed China for the alleged aggression and began its invasion of the region.
In August 1939, Nazi officers dressed in Polish Army uniforms attacked a radio station in the Polish municipality of Gleiwitz, on the border with Germany, and threatened to go to war against Hitler. That incident served as a pretext for the Third Reich to begin its invasion. Two months later, Soviet artillerymen fired on the Russian village of Mainila and blamed Finland for the attack. Thus began the Winter War between the USSR and the Finns. In this way, false flag operations were shown to be a useful instrument for war.
Controversies and conspiracies: from Nazi Germany to 9/11
Beyond their war potential, false flag attacks have also been used to discredit the opposition and entrench government power. An example could be the Reichstag fire in February 1933. Although the Nazis accused the communists and socialists of perpetrating it, there are indications that point to Hitler’s men as material authors, who would have provoked this alibi to suspend the Constitution. of 1919 and establish the Third Reich. Something similar would happen with Operation Gladio. This name refers to the secret activities supposedly supported by the CIA and NATO to discredit the communists in Italy. These actions included the Piazza Fontana attack in 1969, the Bologna massacre in 1980 and, especially, the kidnapping and murder in 1978 of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, attributed to the Red Brigades.
However, the clandestine nature of these operations has led to suspicions and accusations. The lack of evidence and the contradiction of testimonies made it impossible to demonstrate with certainty the causes of the burning of the German Parliament or the explosion of the battleship Maine in Cuba in 1898, thanks to which the United States began its war against Spain for the independence of the then colony. In other cases, the concept of a false flag attack has been used to stir up conspiracy theories, such as the one that accuses the United States Government of having been behind the attacks of September 11, 2001.