Social media users are sharing online content that says thousands of US troops were sent to Europe in March 2020 for child trafficking. This statement is false.
Examples can be seen here, here, here, here and here.
One report here reads: “Mid to late 2019, the Vatican was raided by the police and on 17 March 2020, Operation Defender Europe began. 50,000 troops from the USA, the UK and Europe landed on Rome. Remember the height of Corona in Italy at that time. Think of the Vatican & its child trafficking mafia. ”
The “Operation Defender Europe” that the report mentions most likely refers to the exercise Defender-Europe 20, a multinational exercise led by the US with NATO allies (here).
The purpose of the US Army was to prevent Russia from any repetition of the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and was to test its ability to transport the troops across the Atlantic to Belgium and the Netherlands and then quickly east by moving Germany to Poland and along the East of NATO. flank (here).
The U.S. Army said in a January 22, 2020 announcement about the Defense Europe 20 exercise that ‘about 37,000 U.S. Allied and Partner service members are expected to participate, with approximately 20,000 troops and 20,000 equipment coming from the United States. States. “(Here)
The exercise was resized in size and scope on March 13, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The transportation of all personnel and equipment from the United States to Europe has stopped (here; here).
The operation did not start on March 17, 2020, as the posts claim. In a message dated January 22, 2020, the U.S. military said here that it would begin preparations on January 23, 2020 by loading vehicles, heavy equipment, and materials for rail transportation and further shipping. ‘Phase I’ of the exercise took place in Poland from 5 to 19 June with about 6,000 American and Polish soldiers. It was originally planned for May and has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (here).
The reports do not contain supporting information regarding the Vatican attack they mention. Vatican police raided the offices of the Secretariat of the Holy Sea’s State and Financial Information Authority on October 1, 2019, but this was due to an investigation into alleged financial irregularities, not child trafficking (here ). Reuters Fact Check earlier dismissed a false allegation that Pope Francis had been arrested here.
Reuters could find no evidence that 50,000 troops from the United States, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe were in Rome for the child trafficking rescue operation. A spokesman for the U.S. military said in a statement to Reuters that the allegations about the Defense Europe 20 exercise related to child trafficking were untrue.
Reuters has in the past dismissed various allegations regarding trafficking in child sex (only a few examples can be seen here, here, here, here).
The child trafficking narrative is common among QAnon conspiracy theorists, who often alludes to a “secret campaign” waged by US President Donald Trump against a sex trade involving prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites and allies of “deep state” ‘(here) include.
The New York Times reported in August 2020 that supporters of the conspiracy theory shared the hashtag ‘SaveTheChildren’ and ‘SaveOurChildren’, taking away sources from real child trafficking hotlines and groups that are addressing them (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no evidence to support the claim that US troops were sent to Europe to free child trafficking victims in a 2020 mission.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.