Rumor Scanner Bangladesh
Search
Fact CheckInternationalFact Check

Old Vietnam War Photo Falsely Shared as Turkey Child Kidnapping for Epstein

On August 17, 1999, a powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Izmit, Turkey, in which more than 17,000 people lost their lives. Recently, a photo has been circulated on social media claiming that it captures the moment children were kidnapped from Turkey at that time and supplied to the much-discussed Jeffrey Epstein. Additionally, the circulated post claims that an alleged associate of Epstein confessed that they received $300 for every kidnapped child at that time.

See such posts circulated on Facebook here (Archive), here (Archive), here (Archive), and here (Archive).

See the post containing the same photo circulated on Instagram here (Archive).

Fact Check

The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation reveals that the discussed photo is not of the child kidnapping incident from Turkey in 1999. Furthermore, it has no connection with Jeffrey Epstein. In reality, the photo was taken towards the end of the Vietnam War during the fall of US-backed South Vietnam, at the moment of evacuating orphan children from there.

Investigating this matter, no information was found in the media or any other reliable source regarding the discovery of the discussed photo in the Epstein files. Additionally, the claim of kidnapping children from there in exchange for $300 during the Turkey earthquake could not be substantiated.

Subsequently, investigating the photo, a report containing the said photo published on April 4, 2014, was found on the website of the Defense Intelligence Agency of the US Department of Defense.

Reviewing the report, alongside photos of multiple individuals with children, another photo of the woman seen in the discussed photo was also found. It is known that in 1975, during the Vietnam War, at the moment of the fall of US-backed South Vietnam, an operation named Operation Babylift was conducted under the directive of the then US President to evacuate orphan children located there. The photos are from moments of that operation.

It is further known from the report that this first flight of Operation Babylift seen in the photo malfunctioned due to a mechanical failure and crashed, resulting in the deaths of approximately 138 people.

The same information regarding Operation Babylift is also found in another report. Which confirms that the discussed photo has no connection with Epstein.

Therefore, a photo of evacuating orphan children during the Vietnam War has been circulated with the claim of kidnapping children from there during the Turkey earthquake and selling them to Epstein; which is completely false.

Sources

Share: