After the Islamic State group that was once known as ISIS claimed responsibility for the March 22 terror attack on a Moscow concert venue, conspiracy theorist and InfoWars creator Alex Jones pointed a finger at former President Barack Obama.
“It is a fact that Obama created ISIS with the help of Israel,” Jones said in a March 23 X post.
Jones’ post was also reshared on Instagram, where it was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
(Screengrab from X)
In 2016, PolitiFact fact-checked a similar claim from former President Donald Trump that Obama “founded ISIS.” We rated that Pants on Fire.
The Islamic State group’s long, complex history predates Obama’s presidency, which started in 2009. The terrorist group’s founder and subsequent leaders have been well documented; Obama is not among them.
Jones also claimed that Obama had help from Israel, but we found no evidence to support this claim. The Anti-Defamation League said this is part of the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Israel is linked to the Islamic State group.
Experts told PolitiFact in 2016 that it could be argued Obama’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq in 2011 contributed to the Islamic State group’s expansion in the region. But the group was active before Obama took office. During his presidency, the U.S. military targeted the Islamic State group and Obama said destroying the group was his “top priority.”
PolitiFact contacted Jones through InfoWars, but did not hear back.
When Jones made this claim, he shared another X post that said, “Here’s Obama admitting to training ISIS (ISIL),” above a 15-second clip of Obama.
In the clip, Obama said, “So, with the additional steps I ordered last month, we’re speeding up training of ISIL forces, including volunteers from Sunni tribes in Anbar Province.”
This social media post takes Obama’s remarks out of context. The clip is from a July 2015 press conference in which then-President Obama discussed efforts to fight the Islamic State group.
“Meanwhile, we continue to ramp up our training and support of local forces that are fighting ISIL on the ground. As I’ve said before, this aspect of our strategy was moving too slowly. But the fall of Ramadi (in Al Anbar province, Iraq) has galvanized the Iraqi government,” Obama said at the press conference. “So, with the additional steps I ordered last month, we’re speeding up training of ISIL forces, including volunteers from Sunni tribes in Anbar Province. More Sunni volunteers are coming forward. Some are already being trained, and they can be a new force against ISIL.”
Obama was not discussing training the Islamic State group’s members, but bolstering forces in the Middle East to combat the terrorist group.
The Islamic State group’s origins
The foundation of what is known today as the Islamic State group was laid in the 1990s and early 2000s, Stanford University researchers said.
In 2004, an Iraqi extremist group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi merged with al-Qaida to form al-Qaida in Iraq, or AQI, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. In 2006, following Zarqawi’s death, the terrorist group was renamed the Islamic State in Iraq, or ISI. In 2013, the name changed again to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which is sometimes translated from Arabic to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
In 2014, the terrorist group’s then-leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the establishment of a caliphate and renamed the group the Islamic State, the National Counterterrorism Center said. Baghdadi was killed in a U.S.-led raid in Syria in 2019, while Trump was president.
The Islamic State group has conducted and inspired numerous terrorist attacks worldwide, which killed and injured thousands of people. Although the Islamic State group no longer controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group remains active in the region and has affiliated groups elsewhere in the world, the National Counterterrorism Center said.
Our ruling
Jones claimed in an X post that “Obama created ISIS.”
The Islamic State group’s inception and its creators and leaders have been well documented. Obama did not create the terrorist group.
The group operated before Obama’s presidency. During Obama’s time in office, he made targeting the terrorist group a top priority.
We rate this claim Pants on Fire!