Al Qaeda

Does a viral video show NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte excitedly saying "I just got viral! Yaaay! Because my good friend Donald J. Trump, he re-posted, he re-tweeted a message from me ... " ? No, that's not true: The man in the video is Dutch comedian Remko Vrijdag. Vrijdag's Instagram account shows him playing numerous roles including, from time…

Does an authentic photo show five men dancing while waving an Israeli flag as New York's World Trade Center towers burn in the background on September 11, 2001? No, that's not true: This photo was created using AI. Portions of the image are distorted, and a massive fireball appears to be in the sky beside the Twin Towers, not on…

Did former Mossad director Efraim Halevy say in 2024 that Israel armed Al Qaeda? No, that's not true: A viral video did not contain the words described in social media posts. The footage was 8 years old when it resurfaced on social media in 2024. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, by…

Did the Denver Police Department arrest "over 50 Al-Qaeda members in the last two months"? No, that's not true: The Denver Police Department has refuted that claim. Lead Stories did not find any credible evidence for this claim in a search of online news indexes, either. The claim appeared on X, formerly Twitter, (archived here) where it was published on…

Did no Republicans thank U.S. President Joe Biden for taking out the leader of Al Qaeda? No, that's not true: Several GOP members of Congress publicly acknowledged Biden for the July 31, 2022 drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda and one of the conspirators behind 9/11. The claim was shared on a…

Did then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld report that $2.3 trillion was missing the day before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks? No, that's not true: Rumsfeld gave a speech on September 10, 2001 about the bureaucratic red tape in the U.S. government and his plans to update processes. He remarked that it was difficult to track financial transactions within…

Did the militant group ISIS not exist before Barack Obama became president of the United States in 2009? No, that's not true: Since 2006 ISIS has existed, according to a former member of the National Security Council and according to The Wilson Center, a nonpartisan policy forum in Washington, D.C. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on…

Does this video show a Taliban killing in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021? No, that's not true: This footage of the public execution of a woman accused of adultery was identified in 2015 as having been carried out by Nusra Front jihadists outside Idlib, a city in Syria. Nusra Front is the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. Reuters reported on…

Was the fifth Mike Lindell election fraud video correct in claiming a major American voting machine company is controlled by Chinese Communist Party investors and that voting machines used in the 2020 election were hacked via the internet? No, the claims were made without accompanying evidence. Federal banking and finance forms fall well short of supporting the claim that Dominion…

Did a video featuring Lt. General Tom McInerney and Maria Zack show proof of election fraud? No, that's not true. The retired general and the Nations in Action website founder repeated previously debunked claims about election fraud in the 2020 presidential race, offering no new proof or evidence of their claims. The claims appeared in a video (archived here) published…