Are false flags a thing?

Or are "false flag" narratives simply the propaganda streams targeted to the 10% disbeliever profile so we're all duped, believers and disbelievers alike?

Coincidentally, while drafting this article Kit Knightly published his own, The Rise of the False False Flag, in Off-Guardian. I cite his introduction as it will serve as well for my own.

A false flag operation is generally defined as ”an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party”

The phrase originates in naval warfare, when ships would literally fly a flag of another nation’s navy.

Historically speaking, they are covert military operations carried out with the aim of creating a cassus belli, either initiating, justifying or perpetuating a war.

The attack is very real, only the flag is false.

But recent years have seen the rise of a new idea – the false false flag. That is to say – entirely fake “events” with only the barest relationship to objective reality. Blanks and crisis actors, fake victims and fake shooters.

My question though is has there ever been a “real” false flag? Are all alleged false flags really just 100% psyop where not only is the claim of who’s responsible false but the alleged act also false? A priori, why not? Why should we believe any part of a story without very clear evidence when we know that part of it is false and if the perps can make the anticipated disbelievers of their obviously false story get it at least partly wrong, wouldn’t they prefer to engineer that situation rather than let them get it completely right?

In this article, I will make the case that “false flag” is a propaganda term designed to mislead those who recognise the falsity of official stories in order that they only get half the truth … as they say, half-truths make great lies.

Pearl Harbour, JFK, RFK and Shinzo Abe assassinations, Bologna Station bombing 1980 (and other bombings in Italy), Oklahoma bombing 1995, 9/11, post-9/11 anthrax, attacks and other events are referred to by some as “false flags” where it is assumed that the issue is only about who is responsible for the event … however, why should the issue only be about WHO, what about WHAT? When we examine these so-called false flags what we find is that it is not just the WHO part that is false, it is also the WHAT.

An important lens when considering obviously false government narratives

1. Controlling our minds is of utmost importance to those in power and they are loath to remove that control by doing something for real unless they want it for real. If it’s done for real that element of dupery is removed and maximising dupery is the name of the game, not minimising it.

2. Moreover, seemingly counterintuitively but, in fact, only in line with the mechanisms of power, propaganda works better the less it corresponds with reality providing further reason to fake rather than do for real unless wanted.

3. In addition, doing for real is often impracticable to the point of impossible in the context - see Item 4.

4. Those in power always let us know when they’re fakin’ it using the Revelation of the Method technique. Always, no exceptions.

USS Liberty attack by Israel, 8 June 1967

I’ve put links to analyses of other alleged false flags mentioned above but as there is no single analysis to link to, I will make it here.

Wikipedia tells us:

The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship (spy ship), USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two marines, and one civilian NSA employee), wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nautical miles (47.2 km; 29.3 mi) northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish.

The reason-for-it-happening problem

Why would Israel attack BFF USA? Makes no sense in the same way the catastrophic failure four times in one morning of the US multi-trillion dollar military and intelligence infrastructure on 9/11 makes no sense. No plausible explanation is given as there seems to be no reason at all that Israel would mistake the USS Liberty for an enemy ship and too much happened before the alleged attacks for things not to be cleared up. Are we supposed to believe that the USA had a ship in the vicinity of the Sinai peninsula without Israel’s knowledge and with the USA not being confident of Israel’s knowledge?

The false flag show-and-tell problem

What often tells us that a false flag is really 100% psyop is the discrepancy between show and tell. What they tell us about the nature of the attacks to the ship and the death and injury caused to the people doesn’t match the images.

Allegedly, there was a very significant number of attack types on the ship including air assault by rockets, machine guns and napalm bombs; torpedoes (with only one hitting but making a 40 ft hole) and machine gun strafing from the torpedo boats … and yet all we see are some cannon holes that could easily fit “target practice”. With such heavy damage inflicted we would not expect to see navy crew standing onboard the ship looking relaxed and hanging over the railings.

From what my mother told me of my father’s experience in the Italian navy in WWII his experience (not discussed with me while he was alive) of his boat being torpedoed by the British was immediate scrambling to evacuate into lifeboats.

Similarly, the images of the wounded are not what we might expect considering the nature of the alleged attacks.

Surviving USS Liberty crewmembers following Israel’s June 8, 1967 attack on their unarmed ship. (www.gtr5.com)

In the image above, why are this navy crew sitting around, relaxed and smiling with one guy’s shirt seemingly covered in blood but no sign of any injuries.

Surviving USS Liberty crewmembers following Israel’s June 8, 1967 attack on their unarmed ship. (www.gtr5.com)
Why are this navy crew sitting around, relaxed and smiling with one guy’s shirt seemingly covered in blood but no sign of any injuries.

The testimony problem

Just like the 9/11 firefighter testimonies the USS Liberty testimonies do not add up.

EDIT: 30 September 2024
I analysed testimonies from the alleged USS Liberty survivors below that were posted on the USSLiberty.org website on the page, Survivor Statements. However, I’ve just discovered that since I wrote this article in July all evidence of this page has vanished. The reader will have to take it on trust that the words I cite below were, in fact, taken from the survivor statements.

There is a USS Liberty YouTube channel and I may go to this channel and analyse the testimonies there but, of course, readers may do their own analyses.

David Lewis

Prior to and during the attack I was in my office below decks supervising my department, especially after the attack began, in the hopes of identifying our attackers so I witnessed personally no part of the actual attack.

Allegedly, there were multiple attacks on the ship – strafing runs, the use of rockets and napalm and a torpedo, from morning to afternoon so to simply speak of “the attack” seems odd. Did he simply stay below decks through all these attacks? How would staying below decks “supervising his department” especially help in the hopes of identifying the attackers?

Donald Pageler

When the Mirage fighters left the Liberty they had inflicted 820+ rocket and cannon holes. They were followed by Mystere bombers dropping napalm.

While we can see holes made by cannons can you point out evidence of impact by rockets or napalm?

Ernest Gallo

Pools of blood seemed to be in every passageway. We were warned not to go the forecastle area as there dead and body parts thrown helter-skelter.

There is no evidence of this kind of carnage.

Gary Brummett

Extremely rambling piece about fixing boilers with virtually no testimony about the attack. Why not?

Glenn Oliphant

After the torpedo hit:

Then the ship started sinking to starboard and it kept sinking and sinking and I thought we might turn over.

I looked forward to the rack that held my life raft and discovered that all of the rafts and even the rack itself had burned up.

While standing there I observed three inflated life rafts floating behind the ship at a range of 100 to 150 yards. Then suddenly, tiny splashes appeared around the rafts and then they deflated. Within minutes a torpedo boat appeared and stopped by the rafts. I observed someone pick up one of the rafts and put it in the torpedo boat.

If the boat went into the process of sinking what stopped it sinking?

Where are any signs that things have burned up and why was no one else concerned about getting into life rafts? Where did the inflated life rafts come from? Why would the torpedo boat bother with life rafts?

Was, in fact, the Six-Day War (5-10 June, 1967) itself a psyop?

Dave Johnson points out unconvincing images of death and injury in this video.

I am too ignorant of military strategy and US/Israel/Arab politics to make an educated guess for the staging of the USS Liberty attack, however, I’ll make a wild one: I believe that there may have been quite a lot of immigration from Middle Eastern countries to the US post the Six-Day War so in that context perhaps it was politic to suggest that the US was also in a hostile relationship with Israel - suggestions for this psyop welcome.

Let’s drop “false flag” in favour of psyop

As the term false flag misleadingly suggests that it is only the WHO that is the problem not the WHAT wouldn’t it be better to dispense with it and simply use the great catchall psyop … because, after all, these ops no matter what, by whom, when or where are all about mind control.

“False flags” that were 100% psyops - if you know of a “real” one, please let me know

• Pearl Harbour, 1941 - evacuated bombing

• USS Liberty, 1967

• JFK assassination, 1963 - faked

• RFK assassination, 1968 - faked

• Bologna Station bombing 1980 (and other bombings in Italy) - evacuated

• Oklahoma bombing 1995 - evacuated

• September 11, 2001 - evacuated demolition, faked plane crashes

• Post-9/11 anthrax attacks, 2001 - faked

• Shinzo Abe, 2022

Related reading

• Psyops: Nobody dies nobody gets hurt ... unless wanted

• Blood and bandages: are they real?

• 12 logical fallacies unmasked in the use of the terms "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracy theorist"