The people who are susceptible to these theories are already distrustful of government and of the mainstream news media,” Olmsted said. “And fringe conspiracy theory entrepreneurs like Alex Jones amplify these fears and help spread them.” One of the best-known historical examples of a real false flag operation was mounted by Nazi Germany in 1939 as justification for starting World War II. Growing distrust in government, combined with the revelation that the Bush administration had been deceptive about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, helped produce a “9/11 truth” movement. Supporters of this movement offered a number of alternative explanations for the day’s events, despite the fact that their theories were repeatedly debunked. Historically, a false flag operation referred to a military force or a ship flying another country’s flag for the purposes of deception. Under international law, this is usually considered illegal. The Hague Convention IV of 1907, for instance, forbids any signatory from making “improper use of a flag of truce, of the national flag or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy.” What are some historical examples of false flag operations? Jones alleged that the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut, in which 20 children and six adults died, was faked to push gun control, and that the victims’ families were crisis actors. (Crisis actors are actors purportedly trained to portray victims during disasters and other emergencies.)

Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. PolitiFact has debunked a number of false flag claims in recent years. Why “false flag” internet rumors should be viewed skeptically

The revelation of real, proven, government lies and conspiracies helps explain the attraction of false flag conspiracy theories,” said Kathryn Olmsted, a professor of history at the University of California-Davis, and the author of a book on conspiracy theories. In legal terms false flags are commonly described as “stitch ups” and “setups”. Previous false flag operations She added: “The fact that we (as a broader public) can’t differentiate between a real threat and a conspiracy theory is the point of those kinds of active measures.” Another example, Silbey said, was the Mukden Incident of 1931, in which the Japanese Army blew up a section of railway line in northern China to justify its invasion of Manchuria.

Another possible example involving Russia occurred in 1999. Following a series of bombings believed to be carried out by Chechnyan militants, several people were apprehended planting a large bag of explosives in front of an apartment building in the city of Ryazan, said Scott Radnitz, an associate professor of Russian and Eurasian studies at the University of Washington.

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Russia’s agencies “both use false flag operations and accuse others of using false flag operations,” Starbird wrote. “It’s both projection and an effective tactic of making it difficult for people to make sense of events in the world. Undermining trust in information.” We should always ask the question: Does it seem likely that a conspiracy of this size could actually remain hidden?” Olmsted said. “It’s especially hard to keep secrets in the digital age.” Intelligence agencies do launch false flag operations, “but telling the difference between a real one and a false allegation is really hard,” said Lance Janda, a military historian at Cameron University. “It often amounts to how much faith you have in the source.”

The Gestapo staged a Polish raid on a German broadcasting tower at Gleiwitz, in current-day Poland. The Nazis left behind a dead “saboteur” — in reality a German farmer with Polish sympathies who’d been shot by the Gestapo — as well as several dead Germans, who in reality were concentration camp prisoners killed and dressed as German guards, said David Silbey, a Cornell University historian. “Hitler used the incidents to justify the invasion of Poland,” he said. False flags also refers to activities carried out by individuals or government organisations to undermine political opponents. The layers of deception that surround false flag operations make it hard to determine whether an incident is really a false flag — including the recent U.S. allegations against Russia.The Swedish National Assembly, which until then had refused to agree to a war against Russia, then launched an offensive in retaliation.