by Stephen Lendman

False flags are an American tradition. They go way back. The Boston bombings appear the latest. More on that below.

Notable earlier false flags or incidents approximating them include:

In 1845, America lawlessly annexed Texas. It was Mexican territory. President James Polk deployed US troops. A future president led them. General Zachary Taylor paraded them along the disputed border.

In May 1846, Polk told cabinet officials that if Mexican forces retaliated, he'd ask Congress to declare war. He wanted it whether or not Mexico attacked. After an incident occurred, Polk told Congress:

"Mexico has passed the boundary of the US and shed American blood on American soil." The Mexican War followed.

Half of Mexico was annexed. Included were California, Utah, Nevada, as well as parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming and Colorado. The Rio Grande became the Texas-Mexico border.

In 1898, Cubans neared freeing themselves from Spanish colonial rule. US President William McKinley promised to respect its sovereignty.

In January 1898, the USS Maine entered Havana harbor. Allegedly it was to protect US Consul Fitzhugh Lee and other American citizens.

On February 15, a huge explosion sank the Maine. Doing so killed 266 crew members. The Spanish-American war followed.

At the time, publisher William Randolph Hearst hyped the big lie. He claimed Spain sunk the Maine. An internal coal bunker explosion caused it.

Notably Hearst told his Havana illustrator: "You furnish the pictures, and I'll furnish the war." Big lies launch them. Doing so enlists public support.

America became Cuba's colonial power. The Philippines, Guam, Samoa, Hawaii, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Canal Zone, Puerto Rico and other territories were annexed.

In May 1915, a German U-boat sank the Lusitania. It carried US munitions for Britain. Over 100 Americans on board died. US newspapers expressed outrage. Congress authorized increasing US military forces.

In 1916, Woodrow Wilson was reelected after pledging: "He Kept Us Out of War." Straightaway he planned US involvement. The Lusitania incident and British allegations about Germany seeking to ally with Mexico to regain lost territory were used advantageously.

In April 1917, Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (CPI or Creel Committee). It operated through August 1919. Its mission was enlisting public support for war.

Undermining opposition sentiment was essential. It succeeded. He turned pacifist Americans into raging German haters. Propaganda worked as intended. Wilson got the war he wanted.

Franklin Roosevelt manipulated Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. Doing so let him wage war. He had to convince Congress and a pacifist public to go along.

What better way than by manufacturing terror. Japan's fleet was tracked across the Pacific. Pearl Harbor's Admiral HE Kimmel wasn't warned. He was denied intelligence. Waging war demanded mass casualties. WW II followed.

Complicit with Washington, numerous 1949/1950 South Korean cross-border incursions provoked Pyongyang's June 1950 response. Truman got the war he wanted.

In 1962, Kennedy rejected a proposed US Joint Chiefs of Staff false flag. Operation Northwoods was part of a covert anti-Castro scheme. Called Operation Mongoose, a document titled "Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba" explained.

Plans included assassinating Cuban Americans, manufacturing fake "Communist Cuban terror" in US cities, shooting down one or more US commercial airliners, blowing up a US ship in Cuban waters, attacking Guantanamo, and blaming Castro for what happened as reason for war.

Full-scale war against North Vietnam followed the fake August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Doing so authorized war without declaring it.

In October 1983, US forces invaded Grenada. Allegedly it was to rescue American medical students. Operation Urgent Fury's mission reflected US imperialism, Cold War politics, and replacing the leftist New Jewel Movement government with a pro-Western one.

In December 1989, manufactured incidents precipitated America's Panama invasion. Former US ally Manuel Noriega was deposed. At issue was forgetting who's boss.

Operation Just Cause killed thousands. Crimes of war and against humanity included mass murder, indiscriminate destruction, extrajudicial assassinations, illegal weapons use, arbitrary detentions, and replacing Noriega with pro-American Guillermo Endara.

In August 1990, Washington colluded with Kuwait's al-Sabah monarchy. Saddam Hussein was entrapped to invade. In January 1991, the Gulf War followed. Over two decades of sanctions, war, occupation, and destruction of the "cradle of civilization" followed.

The 9/11 false flag launched over a decade of imperial wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, parts of Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Palestine allied with Israel, as well as numerous proxy wars and homeland ones against Muslims, Latino immigrants and working Americans.

Post-WW II, CIA operatives targeted over 50 foreign leaders for removal. Some died. Others lived. Fidel Castro survived hundreds of assassination attempts.

Hugo Chavez replaced him as America's top hemispheric bete noire. His death likely wasn't accidental. America had opportunity and motive.

CIA rogues operate globally. They're expert killers. They've had decades of experience.

Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen said the Agency "pioneered" cancer-causing agent experiments. Focus was on infecting victims multiple ways. They include "injection, inhalation, (and) skin contact through contaminated clothing, especially underwear."

On April 19, America's latest black ops ended. Boston police discovered Dzhokar Tsarnaeva's whereabouts. He was shot, seriously wounded and hospitalized.

Media scoundrels rejoiced. A Washington Post headline was typical, saying: " 'WE GOT HIM.' " Post editors said:

"….Americans and their homeland security forces are better prepared to respond to terrorism than they were a decade ago." Surveillance camera videos enabled "singl(ing) out the Tsarnaev brothers in just three days…."

A Wall Street Journal editorial headlined "The Brothers Tsarnaev. The terrorist suspects next door," saying:

We'll "learn more about their motives, their training and whether they acted alone or as part of a network." Journal editors suggested their Chechen roots "turned to jihad."

It wasn't "the first time. The radicalization of young Muslims in the West….is by now a familiar story."

"The Tsarnnaev brothers may be an example….The 'homegrown' radical threat is really an argument for vigilance….This means surveilling foreign student groups in the US, certain immigrant communities….even mosques and other Muslim venues."

"As the week's events in Boston show, the cost of doing otherwise are too high."

Numerous op-eds reflected similar sentiments. None explained what matters most. Vital information was suppressed. Lies and distortion substituted for truth and full disclosure.

It's standard scoundrel media practice. A previous article explained. Tsarnaev brothers were patsies. They were set up. Reports falsely suggested they're Islamofascist terrorists.

Their father, Anzor, said his sons had nothing to do with the bombings. US "special services went after them because my sons are Muslims and don't have anyone in America to protect them."

"I'm sure about my children, in their purity. I don't know what happened or who did this….I fear for my son, for his life."

He feared police would kill him and claim he had a gun. Older son Tamerlan died that way. Younger son Dzhokar was shot and seriously wounded. It's unclear if he'll survive.

He added that neither son was trained or had knowledge of explosives or firearms.

Their mother, Zubeidat, told Russia Today (RT) both sons were set up. FBI operatives followed them for years. Her eldest son Tamerlan "was controlled by the FBI, like for three, five years," she said.

"They knew what (he) was doing. They knew what actions and what sites on the Internet he was (accessing). They used to come (to our) home."

"They used to talk to me. They were telling me that (Tamerlan) was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him."

"They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremist sites."

"They were controlling him. They were controlling his every step (and) now they say that this is a terrorist act. Never ever is this true. My sons are innocent."

Asked if they had secret aspirations and dark secrets, she said "That's impossible. My sons would never keep a secret."

Russian Alpha Special Forces team veteran and vice president of its International Association, Aleksey Filatov, told RT much more is going on than meets the eye.

Everything was premeditated and planned, he said. He pointed fingers the right way. "Putting a young Chechen in those shoes was top-notch professionalism in distracting everyone from the true identity and motives of the planner."

"The executors were chosen to confuse the American public and simultaneously untie the White House’s hands in a way that would justify a departure from the rhetoric of non-involvement in military action on foreign territories."

Post-9/11 2.0 may follow. Perhaps greater new world order harshness will unfold. State-sponsored terror facilitates it. Forewarned is forearmed.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

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Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com

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