A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression and foreign military aggression.
For example, Operation Northwoods was a proposed false flag operation against American citizens that originated within the US Department of Defense of the United States government in 1962. The proposals called for the CIA operatives to both stage and actually commit acts of terrorism against American military and civilian targets, blaming them on the Cuban government, and using it to justify a war against Cuba.
Now, unnamed descendants of that era claim Russia has deployed operatives to undertake a “false flag” operation in eastern Ukraine that would fabricate a pretext for invading the country.
“The operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s proxy forces,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the White House.
Ms. Psaki’s statement came after the U.S. and its European allies concluded a week of ultimately fruitless diplomacy with Russia aimed at persuading that country to accept the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to absorb Ukraine in a relentless march eastwards to Russia’s border. Russia has (allegedly) deployed more than 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine and has been moving tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, rocket launchers and other military equipment westward from their bases in its Far East, according to these same U.S. officials.
The movements of troops and materiel have prompted fears in the U.S. imperial center that their plans may be thwarted to push further east.
The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment. Russian officials have denied the country intends to invade Ukraine and said the troops are near the border on exercises. Russia says it has the right to move troops about on its own territory.
Ms. Psaki, an ‘influence actor’ herself, said Russian officials and “influence actors” had sought to spread misinformation about Ukraine to encourage domestic Russian support for military action there. “These media narratives also blame the West for escalating tension, highlight humanitarian issues in Ukraine that Russian intervention could solve and promote Russian patriotism to encourage domestic support for military action,” she said, reporting a 200% increase in the daily average of Russian-language content on such narratives from November to December.
On Monday, U.S. and Russian officials held bilateral security talks in Geneva, but both sides said the discussions had failed to narrow the gap between the sides.
Two days later, NATO and Russia held their first talks since 2019, with Moscow continuing to demand that the alliance scale back military activities in former Soviet states and deny membership to Ukraine and Georgia, which Russia considers part of its sphere of influence. NATO members have roundly rejected these demands.
Then on Thursday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which counts the U.S., Ukraine and Russia among its 57 members, met to discuss the situation. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said talks had stalled and raised the specter of a military deployment to Venezuela or Cuba, a prospect Mr. Sullivan characterized as “bluster” but which he said the U.S. would handle “decisively.”
Since the US ruling class’s Frankenstein Monster military industrial complex concluded its 20-year festival of horror in Afghanistan last year, it appears to be casting around for another target. It’s compliant representatives in Congress, unable to advance any other substantive agenda for the people, easily and without debate shoveled a trillion more dollars to feed the Monster last month, despite fresh reports of its targeting civilians and other atrocities.
A proxy war in Ukraine could be just the thing to keep it occupied for awhile. Former US regime head Trump said leaders at the Pentagon “want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, eh?