False-Flag Operation: Difference between revisions
→Real Life: Adding example
m (clean up) |
(→Real Life: Adding example) |
||
| (31 intermediate revisions by 10 users not shown) | |||
Line 8:
Whenever people from one nation or organization pretend to be members of another, [[Pretext for War|to stir up trouble]]. Common scenarios include:
* Pretending to be an enemy and attacking another enemy, [[Let's You and Him Fight|to get them to fight]];
* Pretending to be an enemy and [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit|attacking
* Pretending to be a member of a terrorist organization and attacking your own people, to better control them.
* In espionage, pretending to be from either the victim's nation or an allied one to fool someone into betraying secrets.
Line 14:
It's not limited to violence; spreading [[Malicious Slander|misinformation]] or committing sabotage in someone else's name can work wonders too. Basically it is a [[Frame-Up]] scaled up to target large organizations and nations.
This is an example of [[Truth in Television]], since false flag operations have been used in real life to do all of this. It's generally frowned upon by the [[The Laws and Customs of War|Geneva Convention]]. You're allowed to do it in naval warfare, but have to raise your true colours before opening fire.
Any '''False-Flag Operation''' can be used to generate a [[Pretext for War]]. If a '''False-Flag Operation''' is perpetrated by an individual villain to start a war for his own benefit, it's a case of [[War for Fun and Profit]]. If the attack is directly against the guys you're posing as (as opposed to your own), it's [[Dressing as the Enemy]]. When they disguise ''someone else'' it's [[Disguised Hostage Gambit]]. If the intent is to incite two villainous groups to wipe each other out, it can either be [[Evil Versus Evil]] or [[Enemy Civil War]]. [[Gambit Pileup]]s occasionally involve these - sometimes more than one per plot.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Baroque Works in ''[[One Piece]]'' occasionally pose as Alabastan troops attacking civilians in order to discredit the real army. Later, one agent actually transforms to look like the King of Alabasta to drive people into violent rebellion.
Line 39 ⟶ 38:
* The origin of the [[Golden Age]] [[Western]] heroine Firehair involved a group of whites disguising themselves as Dakota Indians and attacking a wagon train to steal the shipment of rifles on board.
* The [[Batman|GCPD]] pulled a few of these to get various gangs to fight each other during the ''No Man's Land'' arc by painting over the territory markers of Gang A with the markers of Gang B and vice versa.
* ''Deff Skwadron'', of all things. Orks probably won't bother to do it on purpose, but since they stole an enemy aircraft already... could as well take "a ''quick detour'' over [[The Rival|Karnage Sqwadron]]'s base" on the way home.
{{quote|'''Uzgob''': We've got a ''bommer 'ere painted with enemy markings'', so who's gonna know it's really us if we bombs the place to zog?! }}
== Fan Works ==
Line 64:
* ''[[The Long Kiss Goodnight]]'' has the [[Harsher in Hindsight]] plot of the CIA staging a terrorist attack and "blaming it on the Muslims" so as to justify a budget increase. [[Paranoia Fuel]]? ''They were referencing the... oddities... surrounding the '''1993''' World Trade Center bombing.''
{{quote|'''CIA man''': ''During the trial, one of the bombers claimed the CIA had advance knowledge. [Chuckling] The diplomat who issued the terrorists visa was CIA.''}}
* In Terry Gilliam's ''[[Brazil (film)|Brazil]]'', random bombings
* In ''[[Where Eagles Dare]]'', the British shoot down one of their own planes, containing a (fake) American general, over Germany as a pretext to sending in a team of undercover agents {{spoiler|in a [[Mind Screw|convoluted]] effort to flush out [[The Mole]].}}
* In ''[[
* The film version of ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)|The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' starts with the Fantom and his [[Mook]]s attacking the Bank of England in London disguised as Germans and speaking German. They then attack a zeppelin factory in Berlin disguised as British soldiers. This is done for two purposes. First, the Fantom wants to escalate the animosity between the European powers in order to start [[World War
* In ''[[Canadian Bacon]]'', the government wants to create another [[Cold War]], this time with [[Canada, Eh?|Canada]], in order to shift the blame from the current President to the hypothetical enemy. Besides a massive propaganda campaign, they send a squad of troops in Canadian uniforms to sabotage the Niagara Falls power plant. Unknown to them, the local sheriff believes all the anti-Canadian propaganda and organizes a militia to defend his town, including the power plant. The saboteurs are caught before they can do any damage. Despite this, the operation still succeeds, as the news of the attempt achieves the same result as an actual sabotage.
* ''[[Sleeping Dogs]]'' has a member of the government pay thugs to shoot soldiers during an altercation with pro-union protesters to escalate tensions and give them an excuse for creating a police state.
Line 73:
** Actually, the raid itself was real (though presumably on the protagonists tip off). The two detectives who came to pick up the evidence, on the other hand, ''weren't.''
* Gabriel Shear in ''[[Swordfish]]'' is, supposedly, part of a secret U.S. government agency that attacks the U.S. under the guise as terrorists in a more grossly horrific manner than any terrorist group has tried. The idea is the other terrorist groups become too afraid of one that can carry out such attacks that no group would attack the U.S.
== Literature ==
Line 79 ⟶ 78:
** False flagging of this sort happened (or was suspected to happen) all the time in those days. The infamous Protocols of Zion was in fact written by a Tsarist secret service agent to discredit revolutionary groups as working for an "international Jewish conspiracy." This has been proven repeatedly, but it keeps resurfacing nonetheless.
*** The American variation is "[http://www.manuampim.com/lynch_hoax1.html Willie Lynch Speech]".
* Subverted in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[
* In the [[Frederick Forsyth]] novel ''The Fourth Protocol'', a Soviet spy pretends to work for South Africa to get a British official to reveal secrets. The British official was a staunch anti-Communist who felt that South Africa needed to know information to help fight the USSR and that South Africa was being denied information because of their "minor" problems with oppressing blacks. So he tells the spy classified information to help South Africa fight Soviet influence. Ironic, huh?
** Not to mention the Russian plot in the book to detonate a nuclear bomb near a US Air Force base, to cause the election of an anti-nuclear, pro-Soviet government (Labour at that time were anti-nuclear. While not pro-Soviet, they had quite a few fellow travelers attempting to influence them from within. In the novel a faction of these are thus waiting in the wings to take control and remove the US nuclear missiles from the UK, eliminating this threat to the Soviet Union).
* In one of Daniel Silva's novels about an Israeli spy, the hero is captured by Palestinian terrorists who want to place him at a suicide bombing in France they carry out as a False-Flag Operation framing Israel for a False-Flag Operation, like the odious conspiracy theory Israel was behind 9/11. Sadly, it works at least temporarily all too well.
* In [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''Executive Orders'', China heightens political tensions in Asia by orchestrating an air battle between their air forces and the air forces of Taiwan. It fits this trope, in that the Taiwanese pilots were tricked into opening hostilities when they were caught in the middle of a Chinese "training mission."
** For a more straight-up example, see ''[[Red Storm Rising]]'', when the KGB sets up a bombing of the Politburo to manufacture a ''[[casus belli]]'' as part of their "maskirovka" (Russian for "camouflage" or "concealment").
** The terrorists in ''[[The Sum of All Fears]]'' have several False Flag operations going, first trying to frame the Russians for nuking Denver, and starting a shooting war in East Germany, and when that falls through, blaming the Iranians (who in this case actually had nothing to do with it) for being behind the whole thing.
** Also discussed in ''[[The Bear And The Tiger]]'', when China is preparing to invade Russia. The Chinese Defense Minister suggests that they shoot down a Russian recon plane, and then claim that it had invaded Chinese airspace as a justification for the invasion. Whether that actually happens is not mentioned (but it probably doesn't, as the Russians stop their recon flights in favor of the American UAVs).
Line 90 ⟶ 89:
* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Cain's Last Stand'', Cain is suspicious of some soldiers and sees they are wearing standard Imperial armor. When one says he has a message for Cain, Cain shoots him: any message would have been sent through secure official channels. With the ploy blown, the others open fire.
* Earlier, in ''For The Emperor'', a Tau ambassador is killed during a fete at the governor's palace; naturally, the Imperials and the Tau blame each other for setting up the murder and nearly come to blows. In truth, {{spoiler|the whole thing was set up by an underground Genestealer cult--including the governor himself--in order to provoke a war between both parties and soften them up for the coming Tyranid invasion}}.
* In Graham McNeill's [[Warhammer
* Done several times in ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]''. One of the most important ones was the raid on Wu Chao which has two of these occur. First, Cao Cao disguises his troops as Yuan Shao's soldiers to get to Wu Chao in the first place. Then, once Wu Chao has been raided and burnt to the ground, he sends several soldiers in the guise of the Wu Chao garrison to tell Yuan Shao that Cao Cao's raid has been successfully fought off. This causes Yuan to divert forces that would have gone to the defense of Wu Chao to help raid Cao Cao's camp...where the rest of Cao's forces were waiting in ambush. This victory is almost enough to transform [[Smug Snake]] Cao Cao into a [[Magnificent Bastard]].
* Done by Darken Rahl in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series. His forces disguised themselves as soldiers from Westland and began sacking towns loyal to him, making him appear like a benevolent savior and Westland as a nation of [[Knight Templar]] fanatics.
Line 117 ⟶ 116:
* ''Mockingjay'', the final book of ''[[The Hunger Games]]'' trilogy, describes a bomb attack on children from {{spoiler|the Capitol}} using a plane with {{spoiler|the Capitol}}'s emblem. Katniss recognizes the attack as a strategy developed by {{spoiler|Gale and District 13}}.
* ''[[Star Trek:
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' did this in one of its most celebrated episodes, "In the Pale Moonlight". Sisko puts aside his principles to get the Romulans to join the war against the Dominion. First a holographic recording is faked to make it appear that the Dominion were intending to attack the Romulans, and when this falls through, the Romulan ambassador is assassinated, his shuttle bombed, to make it appear that the Dominion didn't want the truth to be discovered. It is learned that this was the plan all along, Garak knowing the recording would not pass inspection...unless the flaws could be explained as being due to the explosion.
** In another (two-part) episode, a Starfleet admiral brings down Earth's power grid and blames it on Changeling sabotage, so that the Federation will declare martial law (which he thinks is necessary to prepare for a Dominion invasion).
** The Founders of the Dominion also employ this trope by using shapeshifter infiltrators to manipulate the Klingon invasion of Cardassia, not to mention the the withdrawal of the Klingon Empire from the Khitomer Accords, and the Second Federation-Klingon War that results, all in order to weaken the Alpha Quadrant powers for a Dominion invasion
** Also used by the main cast in a captured Jem'Hadar warship to take out a White facility.
** ''[[Star Trek:
* In ''[[V (TV series)|V]]'', the Visitors use a staged terrorist attack against a Visitor-run chemical processing plant as grounds to institute martial law throughout most of the world. ''V'' being loosely based on the rise of fascism in pre-[[WWII]] Germany, this incident was inspired by the Reichstag fire of 1933, supposedly set by Nazi operatives posing as Communists.
** Also in ''[[V (TV series)|V]]'' the Visitors claim a conspiracy by Earth scientists is the reason they must take control, to keep order.
* A group of English football (soccer) fans pull one of these to incite a riot with a rival group of fans in ''[[Life On Mars]]''.
* The Drakh run a False-Flag Operation to get the entire galaxy mad at the Centauri in ''[[Babylon 5]]''.
Line 137 ⟶ 135:
* ''[[The Lone Gunmen]]'' pilot had the heroes foil a plot to slam a 727 into the towers. Somebody obviously thought they could do better...
== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'' has a call to Rat's Late Night Radio Show - "[http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2009/11/18 Hang up the phone, Guard Duck]".
== Tabletop Games ==
Line 142:
** Later on [[Our Vampires Are Different|Manfred von Carstein]] tried to do it again, by resurrecting dead Dwarfs in an Elf-Dwarf alliance and having them turn on their allies.
* Happens repeatedly in the ''[[BattleTech]]'' universe, where interstellar communications lag makes it hard enough to get accurate intelligence in a timely fashion even ''without'' any deliberate trickery. Which doesn't prevent the assorted players from trying their hand at deception anyway, of course. Just three of the better known examples are: ComStar troops striking at a Davion research center disguised as Capellans, ComStar faking a Davion strike on one of their own installations as an excuse for Interdiction, and rogue Jade Falcons posing as pirates in an attempt to break the truce between the Clans and the Inner Sphere.
* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' have [[Gambit Pileup]] as one of inherent features, so it should not be surprising.
** ''Volo’s Guide to the North'' mentions that one of the nastiest secret societies of the Sword Coast started this way:
{{quote|According to Elminster, one of the founding reasons for the Kraken Society was the need of the bargewrights for constant employment. For years, certain agents of the merchants of Yartar have carried on a practice of destroying barges up and down the Three Rivers. They'd do their work at night, leaving orc bodies or weapons to suggest that the deed was done by raiders. }}
** Surface dwellers usually interact with the drow too rarely to tell the factions apart anyway, so it's not hard to set up another. Some Vhaerunites raid humans near cave exits used by Lolthites, then call it win-win when "spider-kissers" who only wanted to attack ''them'' (this time, anyway) walk out and find themselves swarmed by angry locals.
** Zhentarim pretend they are "honest traders" and as such raid unaffiliated caravans under [[Plausible Deniability]], including trying to pass as yet another rival merchant group. Not that they were alone in this.
** It's not quite all over the place because of the Heralds. Their main job is to keep straight use of heraldry (all sorts) and prevent confusions in this area. And for the same reason they got mighty influence, especially with feudal types and anyone even considering to work for or with them, or contemplating a diplomatic visit anywhere in indefinite future... and that's almost everyone with formal power and/or military force. [http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1901&whichpage=12#35454 Thus] -
{{quote|it’s absolutely verboten to ride into battle in the colours or displaying the arms of someone else, as a deception, for example, and no mercenary will accept employment with someone the Heralds have deemed to have done so, for fear of themselves being declared “outlaw,” and therefore reduced to brigandry }}
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', the [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[Civilization]]'', your Probe Teams can perform various acts of terrorism at your opponents - and with an
* In ''[[Master of Orion]]'' framing another empire is an option for ''very'' successful spy missions. Or just about any spy mission if you're playing the Darloks.
* And in ''Birth of the Federation''. After a successful espionage/sabotage op, you can either leave no trace, or plant evidence incriminating another faction. It's a lot easier for the Cardassians and Romulans to do this than the Federation though.
Line 156 ⟶ 158:
** There's also the infamous Kalekka Incident, mentioned a few times in [[Suikoden I|the first Suikoden]], in which Scarlet Moon soldiers slaughtered the entire town of civilians, while claiming it was actually Jowston soldiers that had done the horrible deed, in order to rouse support for the coming war among the anti-war citizens of the empire.
** According to the [[Backstory]] of ''[[Suikoden IV]]'' and ''[[Suikoden Tactics]]'', Scarlet Moon did this ''before'', trying to spark a war with the Kooluk Empire. Unfortunately for them, they weren't aware that {{spoiler|a little boy in the town they attacked had the Rune of Punishment, which he used to destroy them all before the Rune ate his soul and jumped to another host. That boy also happened to be the son of one Graham Cray; the empire then blamed ''him'' for the incident, causing his [[Start of Darkness]], defection to Kooluk and setting him up as the [[Big Bad]] of IV.}} So they had a history of pulling this sort of stunt, ''and'' having it blow up in their faces.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'':
** One quest
** There are a couple of other examples from that game, too. Often, you end up having to [[Fetch Quest|gather the flags yourself]]. Also, a short example from ''[[Warcraft]] III'': in the expansion Undead campaign, a couple of banshees [[Grand Theft Me|body-jack a group of guards]] in order to get close to [[Jerkass|Arthas]], who is in for some serious hurt from the banshees' leader. They pull it ''again'' against a different foe's mooks to get into a fortified city.
** Occurs again in the expansion for both Alliance and Horde. During the Nagrand questline that puts you in service to Lantresor of the Blade. In order to stop the Boulderfist Ogres from attacking Telaar (Alliance) or to gain a powerful Ogre ally (Horde), the player needs to stop the two enemies of the Boulderfist Clan, the Laughing Skull Clan and the Warmaul Clan, from attacking. Obviously, Lantresor of the Blade suggests that you use flags and corpses to create the appearance of a battle between the two. It works.
** In ''[[The Shattering Prelude to Cataclysm]]'', some orc members of the Twilight Hammer cult attack a meeting of druids and kill all the night elves present while pretending that Garrosh ordered the massacre. Cairne is outraged at Garrosh's apparent responsibility for the attack, and challenges him to a duel for leadership of the Horde.
** In ''Battle for Azeroth'', the Alliance does this before the Battle of Dazar'alor. They send a relatively small force of soldiers to Nazmir while cloaking the swamp in mist using magic to make the small force seem larger than it appears. Th Horde sends a large force to intercept, believing the Alliance is invading through Nazmir. While the small force is cut down with ease - as they were [[Suicide Mission]] volunteers - the true Alliance fleet assaults Dazar'alor itself. This leads to the Battle of Dazar'alor Raid Instance, where the Horde is dealt their most serious defeat in the war to date.
* Sturm's plan in [[Nintendo Wars|''Advance Wars'']] was to incite a war between various countries with clones of their commanders so that he could sweep in when each faction was at its weakest and attack. He gets found out at the last minute by Sonja, who notices that Orange Star forces (led by Andy) were attacking Green Earth at the same time the real Andy was attacking Blue Moon.
* ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' occasionally does this with Nod campaigns. In ''Tiberian Sun'', the Brotherhood uses stolen GDI units against the mutant faction in order to win their trust. In the ''Kane's Wrath'' expansion to ''Tiberium Wars'', Alexa Kovacs runs a ''double'' false flag - first she disguises her army as troops loyal to Kilian Qatar, then she has them assist GDI in attacking Temple Prime (thus framing Qatar as a GDI mole).
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Dycedarg Beoulve and Duke Larg]] [[Evil Plan|conspire to have Princess Ovelia kidnapped]] (and subsequently assassinated) by agents wearing the colors of Larg's rival, Duke Goltanna. This would remove Goltanna as a rival to the crown and allow Larg to enthrone his own candidate, Prince Orinus. However, the captain of the operation, a sellsword named [[The Chessmaster|Delita]], is actually a [[Double Agent]] working in Goltanna's favor, and instead [[Out-Gambitted|has Larg's agents die to Ovelia's bodyguards]] [[Gambit Pileup|as he rescues the princess himself and delivers her to]] [[Corrupt Church|the Church]].
* In [[Tactics Ogre]], this is done at the end of chapter 1, {{spoiler|by your own side.}}
Line 181 ⟶ 185:
** Likewise in Rome; the VCI are hired to set off a "terrorist" attack, in order to influence an upcoming vote on terror and terror protection device system [[Buffy-Speak|things]]. Beyond that, of course, the evil plot is a False-Flag Operation writ large; Halbech wants to keep the world angry and scared so they'll continue buying Halbech systems; The China/Taiwan war will make a huge market for weapons, as will the continued hunt for terrorists in the Middle East following the airliner incident that kicks everything off, and the Italian paranoia over terrorists will provide an endless market for terrorist-stopping systems.
* ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' begins with this as [[Evil Twin|Gabranth]] poses as [[Knight in Shining Armor|Basch]] and assassinates [[Reasonable Authority Figure|King Raminas]], preventing him from signing [[The Kingdom|Dalmasca's]] formal surrender to [[The Empire|Archadia]], giving [[Magnificent Bastard|Vayne]] [[Big Bad|Solidor]] the pretext to move in and serve as regent to clamp down on the resulting unrest. {{spoiler|In a twist of fate, Basch ''permanently'' poses as Gabranth at the end.}}
** This happens again near the end. {{spoiler|[[Decoy Protagonist|Vaan]] uses [[Sky Pirate|Balthier's]] [[Chekhov's Gun|vocal modulator]] to pose as [[Magnificent Bastard|Larsa]] [[The Wise Prince|Solidor]] to convince [[Wild Card|Marquis Ondore]] to hold back his [[Leeroy Jenkins|airship charge]] against the [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier|Sky
* In ''[[Mechwarrior]] 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy,'' the sequel to the original Mechwarrior 2, the player takes the role of a Ghost Bear Mechwarrior and fights their canonical Inner Sphere enemy, the Draconis Combine, whose 'Mechs are responsible for a raid on a Ghost Bear genetics facility. Naturally, the Bears attack the Combine, {{spoiler|but in this case, it actually ''is'' Draconis 'Mechs that were first captured by the Smoke Jaguars, which in turn leads you to fight the Jaguars, only for the Jaguars to admit they lost the 'Mechs to Clan Wolf's Crusader elements, finally leading you to the real culprits. That's a double false flag op, first discrediting the Combine, then the Jaguars.}}
* ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' has one in which [[Smug Snake|Sister Petrice]] {{spoiler|murders the Viscount's son and makes it look as though Qunari had murdered him on holy ground while he was praying in an attempt to start a war with the Qunari, whom she regards as blasphemous heathens.}}
* During the [[Guild Wars 2]] Charr storyline if you're an Ash Legion soldier, you have to fight a plot of the Flame legion to attack Blood and Iron legion leaders while wearing Iron and Blood legion uniforms respectively.
* One of ''[[Vega Strike]]'' loading screens involves the screen with Luddite propaganda apparently inserted where it was via hacks, followed by a message of the user being automatically fined by the Homeland Security. The thing is, while "Luddites" is the commonly used moniker for the guys from "Interstellar Church of True Form's Return", they don't appreciate it. In fact, addressing them this way is how you [[I Shall Taunt You|taunt]] them to stop whatever they're doing and try to shoot you instead.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'' [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0265.html used to prevent Stratus from warning anyone.]
* ''[[What's New with Phil and Dixie]]'' illustrated "[[Gambit Pileup|an
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the first episode of ''[[The Legend of Calamity Jane]]'', outlaw Bill Doolin fakes raids by both the Comanche tribe and the
* In ''[[South Park]]'', the US Government is ''trying'' to convince the world that 9/11 was a False Flag in order to make them to look more competent. They do this by posing as conspiracy nuts, and running an actual False Flag campaign. This is subverted in that the plan is apparently to prevent trouble: the idea is that if people are determined to suspect the Government of treachery, those people should believe the Government is all powerful, so that they cause don't cause problems.
** What's actually amazing is how many conspiracy theories have similarly sinister origins.
* In ''[[Regular Show]]'' episode Prankless, Pops sets up one of these to make Muscle Man go back to the park and help stop the prank war, which had devastated the Park at that point. Gene ''was'' hurting people, but after Muscle Man accidentally injured Pops with one of his pranks (making him skip town in the first place), he needed an extra nudge in the right direction.
* The ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' cartoon has this happen when Megatron has the Stunticons built. People automatically assume that 'car transformer = Autobot" and think they're the good guys, until the Stunticons go wild. The Autobots are, naturally, blamed for the attacks.
* [[Archer]]'s mother, in a drunken fit of jealousy, issues a burn notice on her son after he quits ISIS to work for the agency's nemesis ODIN. To save Archer from being killed by his new coworkers, Lana sends a retraction of the burn notice from a Telex in the ODIN office building. Lana's false flag is compounded, as it implies that the burn notice itself was an ODIN false flag operation designed to discredit ISIS and its best field agent.
* In ''[[DuckTales (2017)|DuckTales]]'', General Lunaris successfully persuades his people that the citizens of Earth are evil and that they're plotting to invade the Moon (which he humorously continually refers to as a planet), so he advises them to beat them to the punch. He then takes charge and spearheads the invasion. They realize their mistake when General Lunaris decides to blow up Earth with his people still on it, since apparently having the citizens of Earth die in fear of the moon is just as good as having them live in fear of it.
* The [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] episode "Shopping List". Mr. Krabs tells Spongy and Sandy that they're getting low on the [[Secret Ingredient]]s for his Krabby Patties, and sends them on a mission to get them. Plankton overhears and decides to follow in order to discover what the ingredients are. This mission seems rather dangerous, requiring them to gather get a hair of a yeti, milk from a fangtooth fish, and dandruff from the Flying Dutchman. They succeed at getting them without getting hurt; Plankton isn't so lucky. It turns out, however, that Mr. Krabs was purposely sending them out to get fake ingredients to fool Plankton so he could go shopping for the ''real'' ones. Unfortunately, Krabs ''really'' should have let them in on this first, considering how angry Sandy is once she finds out...
== Real Life ==
* Some claim the Israeli attack on the [[wikipedia:USS Liberty incident|USS ''Liberty'']] during the Six Days War was one of these. On the one hand, the fact that Israel quickly accepted blame for the incident, claiming it to have been a tragic mistake, sort of defeats the notion of it being a "false flag". On the other hand, there is still much controversy over aspects of the incident and how deliberate it may have been, and the theory that Israel would have shifted responsibility to Egypt, if it could have, is certainly in the spirit of the term.
* The [[wikipedia:Celle Hole|Celle Hole]]
* The German police has used (and may still use)
* The Gleiwitz incident, when Nazi Germany provided justification for its war with Poland at the start of World War II by having some soldiers dress up in Polish uniforms, then attack a German radio outpost and broadcast anti-German messages. Then they dressed up concentration camp prisoners as Polish soldiers and shot them "in self-defense". It was just one of a number of independent operations collectively named "Operation Himmler". Noteworthy in that this was such an [[Epic Fail]] (absolutely no one believed it), the fact that Germany claimed self-defense as a reason to go to war is regarded as an interesting bit of trivia instead of an important historical fact.
**They never explained of course why the German Army was fueled and equipped and capable of starting a massive campaign without a hitch. One supposes they could have said that there was a diplomatic crisis going on at the time so naturally they would have sent the word round. But no one bothered to ask anyway so they never gave that excuse.
**More to the point, why in the heck was the first thing they did to launch a massive campaign? Surely if they were honestly haggling over disputed borders and there had been a minor skirmish on the borders, the thing to do would be to make a complaint, demand reparations, and all the other stuff to be expected of such an event? Unless they were actually claiming the Poles were [[Fridge Logic|about to make a major invasion]] of Germany of which their False Flag gave no hint. In fact, were it not for the fact that real people got killed in the process, the whole thing looks as gawky as a High-school prank.
* Some [[Image Boards|Anonymous]] accuse the Church of Scientology of trying a form of this during the earliest parts of Project Chanology. The problem being, it may never, ''ever'' be clear which actions being accused as a False-Flag Operation actually were, especially since being Anonymous is rather easy, and anything evil Anonymous does could just as easily be [[For the Evulz]].
** On the other hand, the Church ''did'' use stationery stolen from the apartment of author Paulette Cooper, who wrote an anti-Scientology book, to fake two bomb threat letters sent to Scientology facilities, and as part of [[wikipedia:Operation Freakout|Operation Freakout]] were planning on faking some more bomb threat letters to send to (among others) the US Secretary of State at the time, Henry Kissinger.
* [[Rush Limbaugh]]'s "Operation Chaos" during the 2008 Democratic primaries certainly tried its very hardest to be one of those. The idea was for Republicans to switch their party registration to Democrat and then vote for [[Hillary Clinton]] (the underdog, at that point) in the primaries, in an effort to draw the primaries out and encourage more intra-party warfare between Clinton and Obama supporters, with the end result of a divided Democratic Party, who would then lose to the Republicans in the general election. How well it succeeded in its initial goals is debatable—the primary fight went through all 50 states (an event not seen in American politics for close to 40 years prior), and False Flagging Republicans certainly had ''some'' effect, but it's hard to know precisely how much and where. How well it succeeded in the "split the Democrats down the middle and make McCain win" goal is a bit more obvious.
* Britain used disguised ships to trap German commerce raiders during WWI. They sailed under neutral flags (often American) with the guns hidden, lured a commerce raider into challenging them, then hoisted the [[wikipedia:White ensign|White Ensign]] and opened fire. Since the raider was 1) at close range and 2) probably surprised, this was an effective tactic. (Supposedly, at least one of these ships had special rigging to let it lower the decoy flag and raise the correct one simultaneously with a pull on a single rope.)
Line 217 ⟶ 224:
** The Gulf of Tonkin is still disputable, particularly since Hanoi can't make up its bloody mind and even admitted to it once before retracting. The Reichstag fire is also disputable: for all we know the Nazis actually DID catch the guys responsible, it just that that wasn't the reason they were interested in it. Indeed, that's actually the most commonly accepted explanation in the mainstream.
* Otto Skorzeny of the Waffen SS was [[wikipedia:Otto Skorzeny#Operation Greif and Eisenhower|a Class S dick]], among his other exploits he organized a team of Nazis to ride around in captured American uniforms and jeeps to screw with the Allies during the Ardennes Offensive, and even getting General Eisenhower put on lockdown during Christmas due to rumors of Skorzeny himself coming to kill him. While many of his men were killed as spies when captured, Skorzeny himself made it out of a post-War tribunal unscathed, as technically none of his men were ordered to engage in offensive action.
** This had more to do with the fact that the West viewed him as being potentially useful in any shooting war with the Soviets than because they believed he was on the up and up. Indeed, they actually went so far as to hang a noose in his bedroom with an attached note saying that he would make himself
* Operation Northwoods, a [[Cold War]]-era program declassified in the 2000s, was a series of military proposals to commit false-flag operations and frame Cuba for it to justify an invasion, such as pretending to send a plane full of college students over the Gulf of Mexico, shooting it down, and blaming Castro; and planting false evidence of a Cuban attack should John Glenn be killed in his spaceflight. The scary thing? The plan was approved by all the Joint Chiefs of Staff and sent to the desk of the Secretary of [[Dramatically Missing the Point|Defense]]. JFK however, was not at all amused when he found out, as General Lemnitzer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was forced to resign afterwards. Cue conspiracy theories galore in 1...2...3...
* The [[wikipedia:Mukden Incident|Mukden Incident]] provided the pretext for the invasion of Manchuria by Japan.
Line 223 ⟶ 230:
** However a real terrorist group will often invert this trope, claiming responsibility for crimes they didn't do.
* You know those ads for secrets "the credit card companies don't want you to know"? Most of those companies are ''owned'' by credit card companies. The logic being that if one goes bankrupt, they get nothing, but if they arrange even a partial payment, they get some kind of money.
* The [[wikipedia:Lindsay pamphlet scandal|Lindsay Pamphlet Scandal]]: Prior to the 2007 Australian election, Liberal Party members were caught distributing pamphlets
** While in American politics this sort of provocations seems to be no less popular than [[419 Scam]] in Nigeria. Loud, memorable pratfalls include [https://www.gwhatchet.com/2007/11/05/freshman-who-reported-swastikas-drew-them-as-well/ the Mysterious Swastikas Case] in 2007 and [http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/desperate-hoax-kkk-trump-supporters-were-black/ black "KKK members"] "supporting" [[Donald Trump]] in 2016. Then cases of self-bullying Jussie Smollett (who went for silly implausible theatrics and hired two assistants) and self-burglarizing [//www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/breaking-gwinnett-business-owner-accused-staging-racially-motivated-burglary/8yfD8wy2nf8kIwtVLQ1SSP/ Edawn Louis Coughman] (who in addition to false report caught a bonus charge of insurance fraud).
*** Done ''several times'' and on a large scale for 2016 Alabama senate race Doug Jones vs. Roy Moore — or, as ''The New York Times'' [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html called it], "secret experiment" — by "New Knowledge" group (it's a [https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/04/new-knowledge-and-the-same-old-same-old/ rather curious organisation]).
** And when entertainment gets overrun by politics, it results in things like "Down With Disney" account on Twitter and Facebook, aka "[https://twitter.com/EthanVanSciver/status/1005665248077123589 WORLD’S MOST HILARIOUS FAKE ACCOUNT]". Which despite having tiny following was promoted by Disney-friendly press as the typical example of hatey haters in "toxic fandom". It even tried to associate itself with specific fans decrying Disney ''Star Wars'', then vanished soon after being caught and denounced as fake.
*** …which turns out to be a part of larger campaign using the same tactics more. One participant even resorted to stealing the identity of his then- (now ex-)wife in order to collect a male fan following in an attempt to [[Divide and Conquer]] the fandom, and disseminate fake inside information. Articles [https://disneystarwarsisdumb.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/lucasfilm-orchestrated-kmt-harassment/ here] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20170730000223/http://millenniumfalcon.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=2015&t=9605 here].
* Operation Trust, in which the Cheka (the first USSR state security service) ran fake counter-revolutionary groups so they could expose and arrest real Soviet counter-revolutionaries.
* In 1975, Indonesia tried to convince the international world that their invasion of East Timor was in fact an independent action by pro-Indonesia factions such as APODETI by giving their paratroopers Russian weapons, and... [[Too Dumb to Live|not much else]]. If that's too hard for you to believe, consider the fact that during the invasion, Indonesian cargo planes accidentally dropped troops on the sea and the forces on the ground traded so much friendly fire that there might've been more Indonesian casualties from friendly fire than from the poorly-armed Fretilin resistance fighters.
* It is widely suspected that members of British intelligence (rogue or otherwise) secretly colluded with UVF terrorists and the RUC Special Branch in carrying out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in order to influence a anti-terrorism vote which was going before the Irish parliament the next day.
* In 66 AD, a band of Jewish Zealots known as the ''Sicarii'' infiltrated the city of Jerusalem and
* [[wikipedia:Masada Action and Defense Movement|An incident in France]] involved Mosques being bombed and Muslim neighborhoods being vandalized; notes were sent with the perpetrators claiming to be a radical Zionist group. Once French police tracked and caught the perpetrators, they found them to be Neo-Nazis who were trying to stir up tensions between Muslims and Jews.
* This is what [[troll]]s use the anonymity of the internet for.
* The [[wikipedia:Cinema Rex fire|Cinema Rex fire]] in Iran.
* The [[wikipedia:Marxist-Leninist Party of the Netherlands|Marxist-Leninist Party of the Netherlands]], a fake pro-China communist party in the Netherlands set up by the Dutch secret service to develop contacts with the Chinese government for espionage purposes.
* Mountain Meadows.
** Possibly [[Truth in Television|the inspiration for]] the scene with Sand People in ''[[Star Wars]]''. Quite obviously among the sources of inspiration for ''Hellstrom's Hive'' by [[Frank Herbert]].
* You know those "hidden camera" operations by certain animal rights groups which shall remain nameless? The ones where the camera is right in front of the workers abusing the animal, on a table? Bingo.
* The presence of [[Pinkerton Detective]]s as agent provocateurs has been suspected in the Haymarket Riots; if not the bombing itself, the violences of the previous day.
* According to Occupy Wall Street, just about any incident of anybody in the protest doing no-nos like setting a fire, breaking a store front window, or throwing something at the cops is
** The same can be said of the [[Conspiracy Theorist|more radical]] opponents of the US/NATO intervention in the [[Libya]]n civil war. There were claims flying all over the internet that the rebels were CIA stooges and that Gaddafi otherwise had the people's full support.
* During the early stages of of the Russian-Ukraine conflict in 2014, there were many reports of "pro-Russian separatists" wearing unmarked (Russian-style) fatigues and performing military operations inside Ukraine with a remarkable professionalism.
* During the 2019 Hong Kong protests, a violent, destructive attack on a government building was performed by the Chinese government to discredit the movement. Aside from the total lack of resistance by present police, the dead give away was that they followed it up with a press conference that was clearly filmed before the incident took place (as shown by an errant wristwatch).{{context}}
* Almost immediately after the end of the attack upon and occupation of the United States Capitol Building by a pro-[[Donald Trump|Trump]] mob on January 6, 2021, right-wing news outlets Newsmax and One America News began pushing the false narrative that the attack was in fact orchestrated and performed in large part by left-wing Antifa (anti-fascist) operatives to besmirch the "good name" and reputation of the MAGA movement.
** It didn't end there either. [https://www.thedailybeast.com/right-wing-influencers-deny-reality-by-claiming-neo-nazis-are-feds?ref=scroll Phony claims of False-Flag Operations] has become the catch-all excuse given by conspiracy theorists pushing "deep state" claims whenever blatant displays of hate groups publicly support their side, almost to the point where it has become a [[Dead Horse Trope]] as far as American politics is concerned.
* [[Alex Jones]] notoriously claimed the Sandy Hook shootings was a hoax perpetrated by “crisis actors” in a broad scheme to trample on Second Amendment rights. Given the lawsuits that resulted and the media platforms he's been kicked off of, it seems this was one time he crossed the line and was unable to do so "twice".
** Also, Jones is so nuts that many other [[Conspiracy Theorist]]s who believe in [[New World Order]] scenarios have claimed he is pulling this type of thing on their behalf! Of course, he makes the same accusations towards ''them.''
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Espionage Tropes]]
Line 245 ⟶ 261:
[[Category:Blame Tropes]]
[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]
[[Category:
| |||