LA TIMES torture memo author calls for al qaeda false flag operations

[yurbud]

There has been some talk on DU lately about what constitutes "conspiracy theory" crap. One of the things that seems to set off alarms for people is any discussion of "false flag" operations, when intelligence operatives or troops attack someone while pretending to be someone else.

The odd thing is, John Yoo, one of the authors of the torture memos, recommended doing this as a way of fighting terror, set up fake organizations or al qaeda cells, and have them do fake terrorist acts to "confuse" al qaeda. The problem with that is they would more likely use it to confuse the public and inflate fears of terrorism or worse, commit terrorist acts with these phony groups to keep the public whipped up, which many of us suspect is what they have been doing all along.

I included some of his other points including one that is just stupid, trying to change the course of Islam. That would be about as effective as Hindus coming over from India and telling our Born Agains to chill out, but Cons come back to that trope like a dog to his vomit because they really think of everyone in the world as children they can easily fool (including us).

July 13, 2005

Go on the offensive against terror

By John Yoo, John Yoo

law professor at UC Berkeley and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, served in the Justice Department from 2001 to 2003.

<snip>

This could require a change in the way the United States deals with Islam. Under the Constitution's religion clauses, government neither can support nor interfere with religion — as the Supreme Court has reminded us. To create an alternative network, however, the U.S. must discredit Al Qaeda's fundamentalist vision of Islam, and it must support moderate versions compatible with democracy and markets. The U.S. must ask the courts to give us flexibility to combat fundamentalist Islam as it would any other hostile ideology, such as communism during the Cold War.

Another tool would have our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps and fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within Al Qaeda's ranks, causing operatives to doubt others' identities and to question the validity of communications.

Renewing the Patriot Act and staying the course at Guantanamo Bay remain important tools for gaining the intelligence that can prevent another Sept. 11. But we should realize that these measures remain fundamentally defensive. In order to prevail, we must develop an offensive strategy that focuses less on controlling territory or cities, none of which Al Qaeda possesses, and more on new ways to disrupt and destroy networks.

see the rest at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-yoo13jul13,0,5549037.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

[joemurphy]

1. Methinks John should rethink n/t

[yurbud]

2. these guys accidentally spill the beans every once in a while

Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

[IndianaGreen]

3. President Arroyo staged terrorist attacks in the Philippines

in order to gain support for her scheme to allow US combat troops to be deployed to the Philippines. Arroyo failed when a Filipino newspaper ran a story exposing the military as the culprit. Nothing happened to Arroyo, but a couple of low ranked officers were punished.

[Igel]

4. Would fake deaths result from fake terrorist operations?

I don't understand what he means by "fake terrorist operation": an operation that is loudly thwarted? A non-operation that's loudly reported? A real operation that leads to real deaths and is reported?

Not enough information for me to draw a conclusion.

[bemildred]

5. I thought about posting this, but it was just too dumb to bother with.

WRT False Flag ops:

Anybody who was around in the VietNam days knows perfectly well that the spooks do false flag ops, it's like their standard MO, not even an exceptional thing, but they don't want us to think about it because then it won't work so well. The sheep have to stay sheeplike to be herded. Every anti-war group with any panache had it's FBI "infiltrator" trying to get somebody to do something stupid that the "left" could be prosecuted or discredited with, and it gets even more overt overseas.

Whether any particular event is a false flag, and by whom, is a different question, and needs to be considered carefully.

But the idea that our government or any other government would not lie or play dirty tricks is just ignorant.

[reprehensor]

6. Meanwhile in Iraq...

So, is he one of the 'best and brightest' over at AEI?

If so, that's not very impressive.

[RageFist]

7. Anyone else worried about fascists?

Yoo suggests "flexibility" in combating fundamentalist islam like "any other hostile ideology, such as comminism during the Cold War" Is this guy calling for McCarthyism, Round 2? Scary...and I thought berkeley was supposed to be liberal.