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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke August 19, 2021

No, the chaos in Afghanistan isn’t a ‘false flag’

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  • The chaos unfolding in Afghanistan is real. 
 

A disturbing video recording of people in Afghanistan crowding and clinging to a U.S. military aircraft as it took off from Kabul’s airport spurred both criticism of President Joe Biden and calls to help Afghans desperate to leave the country after the Taliban recently took over. 

Some social media posts are claiming that this was staged by secret hands. 

"I find it an odd ‘coincidence’ that the US plane that was in the Afghanistan Taliban video was 1109, which seems to be hinting at 9/11 and thus another false flag event to provoke WW3 and order out of chaos and the crowning of the antichrist false savior and one world leader," one post said, referring to the tail number on the plane.    

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Multiple news outlets have been reporting on chaos at and around the airport in the days since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. 

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On Aug. 17, the New York Times reported that body parts had been discovered in the wheel well of the plane that took off from the airport as Afghans climbed onto its wings. 

On Aug. 18, Reuters published diagrams, maps and photos documenting the "chaos in Kabul." The caption of one Aug. 16 photo, that shows people standing around and on a wall topped with barbed wire, says: "A man pulls a girl to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul." 

Clarissa Ward, a CNN journalist reporting from Kabul, has shared harrowing details from the ground there. On Aug. 19, she tweeted footage of Taliban fighters accosting her and a CNN producer, writing: "Our story from the madness outside Kabul airport where we witnessed Taliban fighters whipping people, shooting into the crowd."

To claim that these events aren’t actually happening ignores the turmoil, violence and trauma people in Afghanistan are experiencing. 

They aren’t actors. This is real. We rate this post Pants on Fire.

 

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No, the chaos in Afghanistan isn’t a ‘false flag’

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