Conspiracy Encyclopedia

False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. Numerous conspiracy theories have developed suggesting that false flag operations have been carried out throughout the 20th century, and the secrecy of the true nature of the events have been maintained by successful cover-ups. The following are some attacks that are believed by some to be examples of false flag attacks:

• On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building was subject to an arson attack; as a result, it is seen as the pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany.
• Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories.
• The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was orchestrated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• Martin Bryant, the perpetrator of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, is said to have been framed, and that the massacre was engineered by the Australian government in order to facilitate gun control.
• Former GRU officer Aleksey Galkin , former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko and other defectors from the Russian government and security services have asserted that the 1999 Russian apartment bombings, which precipitated the Second Chechen War, were false flag operations perpetrated by the FSB, the successor organization to the KGB.
• Many 9/11 conspiracy theories have been presented to explain the September 11, 2001 attacks, many of them claiming that individuals in the United States government knew about the attacks beforehand and purposefully allowed them to occur, or orchestrated the attacks themselves, as a pretext for the “War on Terror”, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, increased militarization, expansion of the police state, and other intrusive foreign and domestic policies by which they would benefit. Proponents point to the Project for the New American Century, a conservative think tank that argues for increased American global leadership, whose former members include ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Vice President Dick Cheney and several other key Bush administration figures. A 2000 report from the group stated that “some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor” would be needed as a pretext for carrying out their plans for “United States global hegemony” in the 21st century. The 9/11 Truth Movement is the self-bestowed name of those who seek the purported “truth” about 9/11.
• It is theorized that the 2004 Madrid train bombings were not carried out by a local group of Islamist radicals, as the judiciary indictment states, but by a group which in various versions includes the Basque terrorist group ETA, socialist government officials, police forces, foreign secret services, the Spanish secret service, a powerful media group and members of the judiciary in different combinations. A lighter version accuses the government and police forces of cover up.
• Rumours and conspiracy theories about the July 2005 London bombings allege that intelligence services were behind the attacks.