As a giant container ship blocked the Suez Canal in Egypt for almost a week, the ships had a large build-up of the waterway, reports spread on social media claiming that Q, the anonymous web poster whose followers the QAnon conspiracy theory, the prediction of the jam, and that the crisis was organized by the Clinton Foundation. These allegations are unfounded.
Examples of posts that make such claims can be found here, here and here.
The Ever Given, a 400-meter-long container ship, docked diagonally across a southern section of the canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, in early March 23.
At dawn on March 29, rescue workers from the Suez Canal Authority, who were working with a team from the Dutch firm Smit Salvage, partially transferred the ship and corrected it in the canal. After a few hours, it moved briefly back across the canal before being freely maneuvered by tugs when the tide changed (here).
The Ever Given was completely disrupted later in the day and passed by the important trading artery on April 3 (here).
V DID NOT PREDICT THE SUEZ CHANNEL STOP
For more than three years, supporters of the sprawling QAnon conspiracy have been scouring anonymous websites of a figure named “Q” (claiming to be a government insider with a secret security clearance) and analyzing the statements made by the former US president, Donald Trump to secretly fight a cabal of child sex predators that allegedly includes prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites and ‘deep-state’ allies (here).
Social media users claiming that Q predicted the Suez Canal crisis point out that Q said “look at the water” and “look at the water”, a reference to a message Q posted on February 15, 2018 has (archived here).
As explained here by Vice, the phrase “has been rolled out over the years as ‘proof’ that the QAnon conspiracy is real when something happens on or near water”.
In January, for example, QAnon fans referred to the phrase while falsely claiming that a video of cargo and cruise ships in the port of Long Beach one day before the inauguration of US President Joe Biden showed that military vessels were arriving around Trump in to hold the office (here).
Q has not made a self-described ‘intelligence decline’ since December 8, 2020 (here).
A search for Q posts by the terms “Suez Canal” and “Ever Given” returned no results.
NEVER GIVEN TO THE CLINTONS
QAnon fans on social media claim that the crisis was linked to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, pointing out that “Evergreen”, the Taiwanese maritime conglomerate leasing the Ever Given ship, Clinton’s “code name” is from the US Secret Service. (here) and that the call sign of the ship was further proof (here).
In an AQ post from 12 February 2020, it is mentioned, with the heading: “ALWAYS Define [HRC USSS code name]”(Archived here).
According to the Washington Post, Hillary Clinton’s secret service code name is actually Evergreen (here). However, this fact is not proof of Clinton’s involvement in the Suez crisis.
An Evergreen Line spokesman told Reuters in an email that the shared name was merely an “unfortunate coincidence”.
It’s true that Ever Call’s call sign is H3RC (here), which according to QAnon followers is a reference to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s initials, HRC. However, there is no evidence that the call sign’s slight resemblance to Clinton’s initials is more than a mere coincidence.
TUGBOATS NOT CONNECTED TO OBAMA OR THE MOSSAD
In addition, reports indicate that the Mosaed 2, the Mosaed 3 and the Baraka 1 were among the tugs that unleashed the Ever Given, linking it to the foreign intelligence service of Israel, the Mossad and former US President Barack Obama (here , here).
Mosaed, also spelled as Musaid, is an Islamic boy’s name of Arabic origin meaning ‘helper’ (quranicnames.com/musaid/). According to data from Vessel Finder, Mosaed 1 and 2 are both registered in Egypt, where Arabic is the mother tongue (here, here).
Meanwhile, Mossad is the Hebrew word for ‘institute’ (here).
In Islam, the term baraka refers to “a blessing regarded in various Eastern religions as an indwelling spiritual power and divine gift inherent in saints, charismatic leaders, and natural objects” (here, here).
While it is true that the name Barack, also spelled Baraq or Barak and meaning “blessed”, comes from baraka, it is not proof that the ship is linked to the former US president whose first name is common in Arabic and Swahili is not. speaking world (www.babynames.com/name/barack, nameberry.com/babyname/Barack). According to Vessel Finder, the Baraka 1 was also registered in Egypt (here).
For a previous Reuters Fact Check debut on social media alleging that a Clinton Foundation cargo ship was wrecked at the port of Baltimore, a spokesman confirmed to Reuters by email that the foundation does not own any ships (here ).
Some posts said the containers on the ship were carrying trafficked children rescued by Navy SEALS, a claim made down in detail by Reuters here. Others say the shipping company is linked to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who also denounced Reuters.
VERDICT
Untrue. QAnon claims that Q predicted the March 23-29 Suez Canal crisis and that the jam linked to the Clintons, Barack Obama or Mossad is unfounded.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work here to check out social media posts.