Understanding the Empire’s false flag operation in Palmo City
Ghorman, a human world located in the inner colonies, lies near the Rimma Hyperspace lanes. A peaceful world, with a very proud and respectable people, Ghorman is located between Giju and Thyferra.
The people of Ghorman are known and respected throughout the galaxy, due to their unique silks which are a by-product produced from the Ghorlectipods; an arachnid native only to Ghorman. So we see a peaceful and prosperous world that is part of the galactic trade, that should be anything but the epicenter of chaos.
In Andor Season 2, we find Ghorman is one of many worlds that have come under Imperial rule since the end of the Clone Wars. The Ghormans however, have attracted the undue attention of the Empire. It begins with the people of Ghorman petitioning the senate for their rights to be preserved under Imperial rule.
They have faced unjust rule from Imperial overseers and military forces, who have abused them and mistreated them. In the wake of their petitions, Grand Moff Tarkin lands his personal ship on the planet, crushing more than five hundred Ghorma protestors underneath it who refused to move.
This drew sympathy for the Ghormans in the Senate, and unwelcome attention for the Emperor. Subsequent to this, the Empire learns that Ghorman has large deposits of Kelkite, an untapped mineral resource that they need for their new “energy project.”
To obtain it, Director Orsen Krennic and the Imperial Security Bureau, or ISB, create a plan to utilize Ghorman’s resistance front in a false flag operation. They allow the local resistance fighters to hijack and steal Imperial weapons shipments, in order to set the stage for the operation.
The ISB then secretly manipulates the local Ghorman resistance in Palmo City, and uses intentionally leaked intelligence, as well as psychological warfare, to push the Resistance to instigate violent contact with Imperial forces.
What the ISB does not divulge to local Imperial commanders on Ghorman, is that they intend to use one of their own as bait for the attack. During a protest in Palmo square, a lone ISB sniper shoots and kills a fellow Imperail soldier, thus providing the authorization for the remaining Imperial forces to justify using force on the Ghorman resistance.
It turns into a bloodbath, with the strategically positioned Imperial soldiers cutting down the civilians. This in turn justifies Imperial control and occupation of the planet, allowing Imperial engineers to mine the Kelkite in the hills, while enforcing a loacal blackade of the planet.
This blockade prevents the Ghorman people from having access to necessary food staples in order to survive, and the resulting outcome is poverty and starvation. The Ghormans then become, for all intents and purposes, prisoners on their own planet.
Asymmetric Warfare
The Ghorman operation is a classic example of Imperial use of Asymmetric Warfare. The planners understood that they could not risk anyone generating sympathy for the Ghormans in the senate, and thus needed to “prove” to the galactic populace who the real aggressors were.
They then set out to plan the operation to infiltrate the Ghorman Resistance through an extended hand, Syril Karn. He would know only enough to carry out what was needed, while the counter insurgency operation was closely guarded.
This again, is a textbook example of compartmentalized information at work. Each section involved in the operation knows only as much as they need to carry out their orders, while contributing to the larger operation as a whole.
By utilizing Imperial Army and Stormtroopers, the ISB could position them to react to contact, without having knowledge of the false flag operation. If the assassination of one of their own were compromised, it could be leaked to the Galactic News Network, turning the opinion of the people against the Emperor.
The Empire itself manipulated the news by utilizing reporters who were loyal the Empire and thus suppressing the truth in the wake of Imperial operations. Ghorman then, would be no different, and anyone caught speaking anything other than what was planned would be silenced.
The ISB knew from years of psychological operations how local populaces behaved in the wake of Imperial oversight, and they fueled that fire to push the Ghormans to react. So, from the perspective of the ISB, the killing of one individual soldier was deemed acceptable and necessary, to create the conditions for complete control of the planet.
Opposite side of the coin
As appaling as this operation was, we must not forget the many instances which the early Rebellion engaged in the exact same type of operation, in order to preserve operational security, and to achieve their goals. The very same thing occured when Anto Kreegyr led an X-Wing squadron to attack an Imperial power station on Spellhaus.
Rather than compromise his mole in the ISB and warn Kreegyr, Luthen Rael allowed the attack to commence, resulting in the loss of Kreegyr and his forces. The result was the ISB being misdirected and not being alerted to the rebel forces. This gave the Rebellion something that it desperately needed, time. Time to build, time to muster their forces, and time to plan.
A false flag operation is both ethically and morally wrong, and I do not see this type of action on the part of the Rebellion as something that is condoned. Conducting such an operation goes against what the Rebellion stands for, and Luthen’s use of it should not be accepted as the norm, but rather the exception.
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