False Flags for Skeptics

When it comes to a conspiracy theory claiming something like 9/11 was an inside job, the first question any skeptic asks is "Why would a government do that to itself." Typically, a skeptic is not aware of the term false flag and if they are they seem to believe the term is rather new, possibly created by the conspiracy community itself. Without a healthy understanding of the term and a knowledge of its history, we cannot expect a skeptic to even begin to believe even the most plausible of theories. Even then, the term is used at such a rate that it has fallen victim to semantic satiation on a vast scale.

False flag, as a term, finds it origins in naval warfare. A ship, in order to close the distance between itself and the enemy, would raise a flag other than it's own so as to fool the opposing ship into thinking they were friendly. This ruse was an acceptable tool of war but only if the ship's original flag was restored before the attack commenced, otherwise it was a violation of the laws of war. In modern times the term has been expanded to describe any covert operation designed to appear as though an entity or nation, separate from the actual perpetrators, is carrying out the activity or attack. The means and motives of false flags can vary from case to case, being used as a pretext for war, oppression, and persecution. 

The earliest known false flag operation dates all the way back to the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. The infamous Emperor Nero secretly ordered men to go out into the city and set fire to it and subsequently blamed the already unpopular Christian sect. This incident gave the Roman Empire a pretext to carry out its first persecution of Christians. Weather or not this was the actual intention in setting the fire is debatable. 

The Russo-Swedish War was built on the pretext of a false flag attack carried out by Swedes dressed as Russian soldiers. The attack on Puumala, a Swedish outpost on the border of Russia, gave King Gustav III the support he needed to initiate a war with Russia in 1788. The war was rather insignificant and only lasted two years. King Gustav III was assassinated in 1792, although it was most likely unrelated.

In 1931, Japan invaded a region in northeast China known as Manchuria after Chinese dissidents attempted to destroy a Japanese railroad using dynamite. It wouldn't be until the Lytton report of 1932 that the truth of the situation would be realized. It was actually Japanese military officers who carried out the bombing, which explains why the rail wasn't even damaged in the process. This incident lead to Japan withdrawing from the League of Nations and is cited as one of many precursors to the Second World War. 

Although it was never implemented, the U.S. Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff plotted to use false flag tactics in order to start a war with Cuba in 1962. Operation Northwoods called for CIA operatives, posing as Cuban nationals, to hijack planes and carry out terror attacks inside U.S. cities. Documents pertaining to the operation detailed plans to sink boats of Cuban refugees, blowing up U.S. ships off the coast of Cuba and orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo. The only thing that prevented this atrocious plan from being carried out was President Kennedy rejecting it. One year later, JFK was assassinated. 

I can understand skepticism to an extent but when it comes to false flags you need to understand that it is a reliable tactic that has been practiced throughout history with much success. Ignoring these facts will only allow the deceit to continue unchecked, leading to more and more unnecessary wars. 

It's not paranoia, it's informed vigilance. 

Eisenhower and the Military Industrial Complex

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

In his 1961 farewell address, Eisenhower issued a grave warning to the Unites States of America concerning the ever-growing military industrial complex. Most people would be shocked to discover that Eisenhower was actually responsible for the vast expansion of American militarism. It has been said that no man did more for the military industrial complex than the ex-general himself. 

The military budget in 1950 was $141.2 billion, by 1960 it had tripled to $344.3 billion. In 1956, The Republican Party called for establishing American bases all over the world and by 1958 the United States had military alliances and agreements with close to 60 countries. Under the Eisenhower administration, the CIA shifted away from its original intelligence-gather operation and became a secret army for the president. The Agency was now dedicated to overthrowing foreign governments, such operations included Iran, Guatemala, Egypt, Indonesia and Laos. The covert-action budget in 1952 sat at $82 million, after 1956 it was sitting at $800 million. 

To further illustrate the militaristic mindset of President Eisenhower, one need look no further than the expansion of the Unites States' nuclear arsenal. When he entered the oval office, the U.S. had roughly 1,000 nuclear warheads, the arsenal included 18,000 warheads by the time he left. Eisenhower made nuclear weapons an essential component of his military strategy by using the U.S. Strategic Air Command as a spearhead for the nations military might. 

"I see no reason why they shouldn't be used just exactly as you would us a bullet or anything else."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, speaking on nuclear weapons

In many ways Eisenhower was a wolf who, well, cried wolf. He was well aware of the monster he had been feeding for the better part of a decade. His warning about the military industrial complex came at a point in time when it was far to late to reverse, instead, he stressed to the people of America that they remain informed and vigilant. It was the only way to ensure the preservation of a peaceful democracy in the face of militaristic ambitions. Needless to say, the notion is extremely complex. Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, Forty years after his farewell address, it seemed the American people had slumped into a state of ignorance and complacency and for the first time in history, our need for security outweighed our love for liberty. 

A Floating City: Revisited

China is known for inventions that pave the way for the future of humanity. In 1000 C.E., they introduced us to gunpowder and 100 years later they were navigating with compasses but, the innovative country's newest addition to the world is quite controversial and I'm not talking about the production of cheap electronics. Nope, this time we're talking about China's futuristic city. That just so happens to be floating among the clouds at about 15,000 feet. So, Let's take an in-depth look at this bizarre phenomena!

Sightings

June 2011
Hundreds of residents from the city of Penglai in the Shandong Province of China witnessed the floating city for an extremely brief moment. One resident, out of hundreds, was fortunate enough to capture the city on footage. Shortly after, the video began circulating on the internet and sparked all sorts of speculation.

October 2015

Four years after the initial sighting, the floating city made a dramatic reappearance. Residents from both the Jiangxi province and the Guangdong province claimed to have spotted the city-like apparition in the clouds. The floating city was again captured on film but this time Chinese news media actually acknowledged the sighting and proceeded to interview locals. News agencies around the globe followed suit.

March 2016

The floating buildings, apparently becoming more frequent, appeared twice in six months.  This time, residents reported seeing the cloud based city from the Liaoning Province. It made its appearance over the sea to the east, which seems to be a first, and CCTV - China's 24 hour English language television channel - ran the story on March 19th.

January 2017

The floating city made its fourth and last recorded appearance in China, just after the new year began. Allegedly, thousands of people, including both residents and tourists, reported seeing the so-called 'mirage' from the Hunan Province. 

Note: This is not a complete list. There have been sightings reported in Nigeria (2011), California, USA (2015), Ireland, UK (2015), as well as many others that remain unconfirmed.

Possible Explanations 

Fata Morgana (Mirage)

A hypothesis from an unnamed, atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, put forth the idea that the floating city was nothing more than a mere optical illusion called Fata Morgana. Fata Morgana is a complex, superior mirage seen in a narrow band right above the horizon and can sometimes rapidly change. The issue with this hypothesis, if you haven't already figured it out, is that the footage captured clearly shows the floating city is not right above the horizon but rather thousands of feet in the sky. 

Example of Fata Morgana

Media Magic
An independent filmmaker and YouTube personality named Alan Melikdjanian (a.k.a. CaptainDisillusion) released a video on the subject following the sighting in 2015. Melikdjanian has a track record for exposing viral online videos as fakes by showing his viewers the media magic that takes place behind the scenes. His video pertaining to the floating city is no different but that's not to say there aren't some issues with his explanation. For instance, he falls short of explaining how they added onlookers into the footage, as is the case with the 2017 sighting. The sheer number of people who reported seeing the floating city also causes issues with this explanation.
CaptainDisillusion's Debunk Video

Atmospheric Projections

Conspiracy theorists have put forth the idea that the floating city was actually the Chinese government testing an atmospheric projection technology. This wouldn't be the first time a government delved into this technology either. In fact, a United States Major General Edward Lansdale devised a plan, revieled in a 1975 document, to overthrow Fidel Castro by convincing the Cuban population that Jesus Christ had returned by projecting images on low lying clouds using a submarine.

1975 Document

Parallel Universe

This explanation holds very little water due to the extreme difficulty of proving and/or disproving it but the idea is that the floating city was actually from a parallel universe. I am unable to find an original source but rather a vague conspiracy involving radical experiments at the Large Hardron Collider (LHC) complex in Geneva, Switzerland. To be honest, if it wasn't for the news media constantly echoing this idea I wouldn't have even addressed it. 

My Theory 

I typically try to remain objective when writing informative pieces but, after spending hundreds of hours researching this subject I have formed my own theory. I would like to remind everyone that this is nothing more than informed speculation. 

I believe there is an actual city floating somewhere high above the surface of earth. 

yes, really. I know I sound crazy, that's how I know I'm not.

If you aren't familiar with the Denver Airport conspiracy, you should do a little research because there are some very strange occurrences. One of the many oddities surrounding the Denver Airport involves painted murals that have since been either moved or painted over. The paintings have a very eerie vibe to them and contain a vast amount of symbolism. There is one in particular that is relevant to my theory. 

  (Notice anything strange?)

(How about now?)

There is a floating city in the Denver Airport murals!!

Now, the real kicker is that these murals were painted in the early 90's. The first 'public' sighting of the floating city wasn't until almost twenty years later in 2011. Until I found this mural I was on board with the atmospheric projection theory but this changes everything. Could this be the result of the secret space program's breakaway civilization? If so, I'm willing  to bet the only reason we even saw it was because the cloaking technology was acting up or they wanted us to see it. The latter would explain why the sightings are becoming more frequent. It would also explain the space nation of Asgardia.(I totally signed up) 

Often enough, truth really is stranger than fiction...

The Agency: 5 Things They Don't Want You to Know

The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States is tasked with gathering and analyzing information that is crucial to national security. Since its formation in 1947, the CIA has been heavily involved with some very bizarre, secretive dealings that mimic absurdity. The public knows only what they choose to tell us and the rest is shrouded in mystery. If you don't already consider yourself a conspiracy theorist, you might change your mind after reading about a few of the Agency's declassified dealings. 

Operation: Paperclip

On May 7th, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered to the ally forces, bringing about the end of the European theater of the second world war. By September of the same year, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) formed the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency with the purpose of overseeing the recruitment of German scientists, engineers and technicians. The recruitment program was given the code name Operation: Overcast and was later renamed to Operation: Paperclip. More than 1,500 German intellectuals were recruited by the United States and many of them were formerly registered members of Germany's National Socialists Party, some of these men even held leadership positions within the party. One of the most notable mentions of Operation: Paperclip is that of Wernher Von Braun, a former member of the Nazi party and the SS. Von Braun was on of the leading forces in the Nazi Rocket program and is credited for inventing the  Nazi V-2 Rocket, as well as NASA's Saturn V rocket that got the Apollo astronauts to the moon. In fact, Von Braun became NASA's first director, serving from July 1960 to February 1970. Other German recruits went on to serve in high-level positions inside the Central Intelligence Agency in East Germany following it's formation in 1947.

Operation: Paperclip

Operation: Mockingbird

Beginning in the early 1950's, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began a large scale program that aimed to manipulate news for the purpose of spreading propaganda. The CIA funded student and cultural organizations and magazines that served as fronts for the operations. The first mention of Operation: Mockingbird was in Katherine the Great, a biography of Washington Post owner Katherine Graham, written by Deborah Davis. According to Davis, the CIA recruited leading American journalists into networks that spread propaganda and oversaw the front organizations. The Watergate scandal created a high level of concern for presidential abuse of the CIA within congress and subsequently lead to congress authorizing a multitude of congressional investigations into the agency's activities. The Church Committees final report was published in April 1976 and stated that approximately 50 of CIA assets, at the time, were either American journalists or employees of U.S. media organizations. According to the report, former CIA director William Colby informed the committee that in 1973 he had issued instructions that "As a general policy, the Agency will not make any clandestine use of staff employees of U.S. publications which have a substantial impact or influence on public opinion." Needless to say, the CIA brings a whole new meaning to Fake News.

The Church Committee

Project MKUltra

Project MKUltra was a series of experiments carried out on human subjects undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Often referred to as the CIA's mind control program, the purpose of the experiments was to identify and develop drugs and operational procedures to use during interrogation as well as torture. From 1950 to 1973, the Scientific Intelligence Division of the CIA used various methods to manipulate subjects mental states and even alter brain function, including drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation and many other forms of psychological torment. The research was carried out at as many as 80 institutions that included colleges, hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies. A Freedom of Information Act request uncovered 20,000 documents related to MKUltra, which lead to U.S. Senate hearings in 1977. In 2001, information related to MKUltra that survived over the years was declassified for anyone to read.
MKUltra Declassified

Operation: Northwoods

Declassified on November 18th, 1997, Operation: Northwoods was a proposed false flag operation presented to the U.S. Secretary of Defense by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962. The proposal called for the CIA to carry out acts of terrorism against American civilians and military targets in order to justify a war with the island nation of Cuba. The false flag attacks ranged from sinking boats of Cuban refugees while at sea to hijacking planes to even staging an attack on Guantanamo Bay. It's important to understand some of these acts would be real, while others would be simulated along the same lines as the Gulf of Tonkin incident that lead to the U.S. intervention in Vietnam but never actually occurred. The proposal of Operation: Northwoods was authorized by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, however, it was ultimately rejected by the Kennedy administration.
Operation: Northwoods

The Heart Attack Gun

Our final stop on this list is somewhere between reality and a spy novel and before 1975 this idea would undoubtedly be laughed off as nothing more than make-believe. Developed by the CIA, the Heart Attack Gun utilizes a small dart-like projectile made from ice, upon entering the victim the dart would melt leaving only a small red dot on the skin. Frozen inside the dart was a rare, untraceable toxin that would mimic the effects of a heart attack. It was made public during a U.S. Senate testimony during the aforementioned Church Committee. Many conspiracy theorists have speculated that the CIA used the Heart Attack Gun to assassinate Andrew Breitbart, who died from heart failure in 2012.
Congressional Hearing (video) 

This stuff seems crazy, right? Nazi scientists at NASA, staged terrorist attacks and even a heart attack gun, it all seems like a work of fiction. Can you imagine, if this is the stuff we know about, what aren't they telling us? Oh, Big Brother...