The Founders initiate a campaign of sabotage and terror against the Alpha Quadrant, which leaves many governments fearful of Changeling infiltrators, who are able to assume any physical form. When Earth is attacked, a band of Starfleet officers illegally attempt to impose martial law at the heart of the Federation. The Klingon Empire invades Cardassia on the incorrect suspicion that the Dominion is influencing its government; this idea turns out to have been planted by a Changeling infiltrator posing as Martok, an influential Klingon general. The invasion of Cardassia leads to a dissolution of the Federation's alliance with the Klingons. The Founders plant false intelligence that it is the Klingon Chancellor, Gowron, who is a Changeling, intended to induce the Federation to assassinate Gowron and further intensify the rift between the Federation and Klingons. The Founders' plan fails when the assassination team, led by Sisko, realize that Martok, not Gowron, was the actual shapeshifter.