False Flag Terrorism: Myths and Reality - John Schindler

[sharedvalues]

Last edited Tue Oct 3, 2017, 10:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Worth a read.

http://observer.com/2017/10/lacking-evidence-some-claim-las-vegas-was-a-false-flag-operation/

In the absence of reliable information, the usual charlatans have jumped into the fray, offering fact-free speculation. Per sordid custom, this ghoulish gang is led by Alex Jones, the InfoWars doyen, who proffered his customary insta-explanation for the crime: False Flag!

In other words, nothing in Las Vegas is as it seems. Jones offered a tale that was convoluted even for him:

Snip

Seven succumbed to their injuries, including Linda Frazier, an American journalist whose legs were blown off by the bomb, which was hidden in a camera case. The La Penca bombing became an instant cause célèbre for many on the Left, who assumed the atrocity was the handiwork of the CIA. The investigation was led by a witness to the crime, Tony Avirgan, an American journalist who was wounded by the bomb. With the help of his wife, Martha Honey, plus financial backing from mainstream media outlets, Avirgan investigated the crime and discovered who the culprit was.

It didn’t take long to identify a suspect, a Danish photographer named Per Anker Hansen, who was at La Penca the day of the bombing, jealously keeping watch over his camera case—which contained the bomb. “Hansen” walked out of the jungle hut just before the bomb detonated, then disappeared.

Avirgan and Honey noted in the extensive report they compiled that “Hansen” didn’t speak Danish very well, and they uncovered that his passport was purloined. They alleged that “Hansen” was in reality a “right-wing Libyan” named Amac Galil who was hired by Pinochet’s Chile to work for the CIA—and kill Edén Pastora. This complex CIA assassination scheme, engineered with the assistance of other U.S. agencies including the State Department, was also a False Flag: “a right-wing plot which was intended to be blamed on the Sandinistas.”

Not content to stop there, Avirgan and Honey allied with the Christic Institute, a left-wing Washington law firm. Together, they unmasked the “secret team” that stood behind the La Penca bombing and countless other nefarious CIA activities in Central America. In 1986, the Christic Institute filed suit on behalf of Avirgan and Honey against 30 alleged players in the “secret team,” a mix of CIA and Pentagon officials plus some Contras and their supporters. They sought $24 million in damages for the bombing.

However, there simply wasn’t any evidence for Avirgan and Honey’s assertions, and the case was ignominiously thrown out of federal court in 1988 with the Christic Institute ordered to pay the defendants over $1 million in attorney fees and court costs. The case was deemed utterly frivolous, and in a rare move the IRS stripped the Christic Institute of its non-profit tax status. The firm folded soon after.

By then, the truth of the La Penca bombing was starting to emerge. In 1993, “Hansen” was identified as a leftist terrorist from Argentina named Roberto Vidal Gaguine who worked for Sandinista intelligence in the 1980s. He was already dead, killed in 1989 in his native country in an attack on an army barracks.

The bombing was the handiwork of senior Sandinistas, including Tomás Borge and Lenín Cerna, the regime’s top security officials, Torbiörnsson explained, based on what he personally witnessed. Wracked by guilt over his quarter-century of silence about the truth of the crime, Torbiörnsson made a documentary exposing the unpleasant reality of what happened at La Penca.

Therefore, it was a False Flag terrorist attack—yet the exact opposite of what left-wing activists claimed. Thirty-three years ago, at La Penca, the Sandinistas blew up 22 people, killing seven, to blame it on the Americans and the CIA—not the other way around. Given that Sandinista intelligence was trained by the KGB in provocation and deception, this does not surprise the initiated.

[robertpaulsen]

1. I would like to read the whole thing.

Can you provide a link?

[sharedvalues]

2. Oops

http://observer.com/2017/10/lacking-evidence-some-claim-las-vegas-was-a-false-flag-operation/

[robertpaulsen]

3. Thanks. It is a brilliant piece of disinformation.

Don't get me wrong, I think he's absolutely right in calling out the charlatans like Alex Jones who trade in false flag labeling like it happens on every corner drugstore. And there are a couple of incidents that Schindler accurately details their false flag origins. But here's the dead giveaway: if you're purporting to detail the realities of false flag operations and you don't even mention Operation Gladio, you're peddling pure disinfo. And Schindler is NSA, so he can't feign ignorance. It bothers me that the focus of his article is detailing the exception (left-wing op in Nicaragua designed to blame the right) rather than the rule (the vast majority are designed to blame the left). Perhaps that is Schindler's real agenda in writing this.

[sharedvalues]

4. Not about WHO gets blamed, but the technique

I think Schindler's real agenda is to say - false flags do happen (without taking a position on who gets blamed more often) - and we should be careful. Russia has engaged in the US frequently recently - Sputnik and RT are active, they hacked the DCCC, the DNC, intervened in the election on Facebook, Twitter, donated money to Trump campaigns, retweeted Fox, ran an "illegals program", met with the Trump campaign, did shady deals with Manafort, sowed discord on both sides about Bernie, about Ferguson and about Kaepernick. (all backed by solid journalism work, can provide cites)

That's a lot. I think Schindler is just saying - hey, watch out. The next attack in the US could be helped along by Russia or another foreign intel service.

[Hortensis]

5. False flag technique is seen all the time, so people need to know about it.

Of mild interest in this case but also worth knowing is that this article is from Jared Kushner's New York Observer, which has a right-wing orientation* but is reportedly factual in its reporting. Op-eds can be a very different manner. This is an opinion piece, so as always readers have to step carefully.

Its author is ex-NSA, college professor, conservative.

* One supposed bias checker, AllSides, itself a fake news site, rates it "center." Not.

[sharedvalues]

6. I don't think the NYO influences this op-ed writer.

Schindler did a lot of self-publishing before the Observer. 20committee.com. Style is the same.

But point taken on the NYO

[Hortensis]

7. Oh, sure. Point is, people should always examine the source, then read.

I don't remember enough about Iran-Contra to quick-evaluate Schindler's version, but it helps to know going in that where he's coming from.

So I learned that he's considered knowledgeable and reputable, worth reading, but not always considered intellectually unbiased. The part of his piece relating to the technique itself is clear enough, but knowing something about him might warn one that a secondary, or even primary, purpose for the article could to push a particular political or historical point of view.

[sharedvalues]

8. Yes I totally disagree with him on economics

But his whole 20committee website is a good read.

Esp on Snowden.

[Hortensis]

9. Yes, thanks for that site. I don't recall running across it before.