The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘False flag’ bomb theory looks false
Was the sending of bomb packages to prominent Democrats and other critics of President Donald Trump a “false flag?”
Some media conservatives said so.
They contended that Democrats had secretly arranged for the delivery of the bombs to make Republicans look bad before the Nov. 6 midterm election.
A false flag is an operation in which the perpetrators want to be misidentified as members of a different group.
The term originally referred to the flag of another country flown over a pirate ship to fool those aboard vessels about to be attacked.
Calling the bomb deliveries a false flag moved to the conservative media’s mainstream from the fringe.
Early on, Jacob Wohl of Gateway Pundit said on Twitter, “These ‘Suspicious Package’ stories are false flags, carefully planned for the midterms.”
The conspiracy theorists — fringe and mainstream — presented no evidence to support their case. In fact, the evidence that has emerged blows holes in it.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told a news conference that the crude pipe bombs sent in padded manila envelopes “are not hoax devices.”
Arrested and charged with assembling and sending the bombs was Cesar Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Fla., a registered Republican and fervent Trump supporter.
The FBI said Sayoc’s fingerprint was on one of the envelopes and his DNA was on the bomb components in two envelopes.
On social media, Sayoc has praised Trump and denounced Democrats.
His van was plastered with pro-Trump and anti-Democrat images.
An amateur body builder and male stripper, Sayoc has a large criminal file, which includes his fingerprints and DNA.
He was once accused of threatening to use a bomb against someone with whom he had a disagreement.
Before Sayoc was named as the bomber, radio talk-show host Michael Savage said there was a “high probability that the whole thing had been set up as a false flag to gain sympathy for the Democrats.”
Other conservative commentators did not necessarily say “false flag,” but that was clearly what they meant.
Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh suggested that a “Democratic operative” was more likely to have sent the devices than a Republican.
“Republicans just don’t do this kind of thing,” Limbaugh said.
After a bomb was found in CNN’s New York bureau and the staff ordered out, Ann Coulter, author and frequent guest on Fox News, tweeted that “bombs are a liberal tactic.”
Lou Dobbs, Fox Business host and Trump confidant, posted a message on Twitter that said, “Fake News — False Bombs.
Who could possibly benefit by so much fakery?’ The tweet was later deleted.
After the first bombs were discovered, Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera said, “This whole things is an elaborate hoax.”
Later he walked back his assertion with this tweet: “Actual alleged perp 56-year old #CesarSayoc, a middle-aged, rabid, extreme right winger w a troubled past & long criminal record.”
Rivera admitted he had “outsmarted myself.”