false flag
A ruse, in the days of sail, in which an attacking ship would fly the colours of its…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.
» It's easy to fly a false flag on the Internet.
Meaning
2 sensesA ruse, in the days of sail, in which an attacking ship would fly the colours of its enemy until close enough to open fire.
A diversionary or propaganda tactic of deceiving an adversary into thinking that an operation was carried out by another party.
falsche Flagge
Examples
5 sentencesIt's easy to fly a false flag on the Internet.
The CIA used false flag operations to undermine Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Putin is preparing a false-flag attack on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant for next Wednesday.
If Washington stage false flag operations to justify its military interventions, why shouldn't Moscow do the same?
The Lavon affair was a planned series of false-flag bombings by Israel in Egypt to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood.