false flag

• false-flag

false flag (plural false flags)

1. (nautical) A ruse, in the days of sail, in which an attacking ship would fly the colours of its enemy until close enough to open fire.
2. (espionage, military, politics) A diversionary or propaganda tactic of deceiving an adversary into thinking that an operation was carried out by another party.
   • 1996 December, David Johnston, “F.B.I. Supervisor Charged With Spying for Russians”, in The New York Times:

     Using what the bureau calls a "False Flag" operation, F.B.I. agents posing as Russian intelligence officers contacted Mr. Pitts in August 1995, long after it believed he had ceased his spying activities, and feigned interest in reactivating him as a means of confirming his spying activities and determining how much information he may have provided to Moscow.

   • 2017, Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Jeff Maurer, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Seena Vali, Julie Weiner, “Trump vs. Truth”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 1, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

     Now, that is not just offensive, it’s stupid. If the government had actually hired child actors, there is no way their stage parents would have stopped talking about it. “Well, he didn’t get the Tide commercial, but he did book a leading role in a government-sponsored false-flag attack! It’s the same director who did the moon landing! We’re very excited!”

   • 2023 May 4, Jonathan Yerushalmy, Pjotr Sauer, “False flag or genuine attack? What we know about the Kremlin drone incident”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     The US has made noncommittal statements so far. Meanwhile, many experts on Russia have raised the possibility that the strike could have been a false-flag operation from Moscow.

false flag (third-person singular simple present false flags, present participle false flagging, simple past and past participle false flagged)

1. To target with a false flag ruse.
   • 1992, Steven Hartov, The Heat of Ramadan‎, page 424:

     He instinctively false-flagged Arthur's information. There was no reason to expose the CIA or one of its deep-cover agents.

   • 1996, John Laffin, Brassey's Book of Espionage‎, page 16:

     Some of its best agents have been Arabs false-flagged to believe that they were being paid by some other country or alliance.

   • 1997, James H. Cobb, Sea Strike‎, page 28:

     We were false-flagged, sir. Obviously the Nationalists and the UDFC

   • 2010, Keith Thomson, Once a Spy: A Novel, page 182:

     "Are you sure your orders came from Hen?"
     "You're suggesting I was false flagged?"
     "That 'Stop Duck Hunting!' ad could have been placed by anyone with a passing knowledge of our simple letter-drop cipher."

   • 2011, Mike Scott, Great American Youth: A True Saga, page 19:

     Lil Jason said that they almost snagged them after he had false-flagged, using fraudulent hand signs. Centuries ago Blackbeard the pirate false-flagged to entice lootful vessels to draw closer.

   • 2013, Andrew Kaplan, Scorpion Deception, page 23:

     Her family were Syrian Kurds from Aleppo, and Scale had false-flagged her by convincing her he was from the GSD, the Syrian internal security service.

• false flagger

• agent provocateur