Did Alex Jones predict war about four months ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022? Yes, that's true: But the American conspiracy theorist said nothing about the two European neighbors during his InfoWars show on October 21, 2021. Instead, he said that "the smart money is on a war with China." The video clip included in the social post that touts Jones' prediction is taken out of context, editing out any mention of China that he made before and after it.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post and video (archived here) published on February 24, 2022. It opened:
Alex Jones on 10-21-2021 stating that a war was scheduled for this month. I need new conspiracy theories. All my old ones came true.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook on March 4, 2022:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Mar 4 18:50:26 2022 UTC)
The edited version of Jones' claim appears in a 35-second clip in the Facebook post. This is what it says:
But we're looking at a giant war in February right now. Currently, that's the projections with the top people on the Earth who claim they're not with the New World Order combine ... is war in February. This is the type of time like right before World War I, right before World War II, when everything kicks off. And I hope that doesn't happen. But currently, that is the trajectory we're on and there is a consensus on that.
Jones hit the mark with the right month -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022 -- but not the right nations. On his InfoWars website, Jones mentions China both before and after the clip used in the Facebook post. Here's the transcript of the segment in its entirety (in the video from the entire October 21, 2021, show, it starts just before the 26-minute mark. The original clip is in bold):
What you've got to understand here is the smart money is on a war with China. And, I don't want a war.
But we're looking at a giant war in February right now. Currently, that's the projections with the top people on the Earth who claim they're not with the New World Order combine ... is war in February. This is the type of time like right before World War I, right before World War II, when everything kicks off. And I hope that doesn't happen. But currently, that is the trajectory we're on and there is a consensus on that.
And a large consensus. I don't mean a consensus with people who just live here in Austin ... I'm talking about all over the world we have contacts and ... Gen. [Michael] Flynn thinks war with China is imminent.
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict can be found here.
