A video falsely depicting President Joe Biden calling a draft amid "an impending ground operation of Iran" has been viewed millions of times following Iran's attempted missile strikes on Israel this weekend.
Israeli Defense Forces say Iran fired over 200 drones and missiles in the attack on Saturday, which included more than 100 bomb-carrying drones toward Israel followed by a wave of cruise and ballistic missiles. Biden has said the U.S. helped take down "nearly all" of the drones and missiles launched.
Tehran had been threatening to launch an attack on Israel after an airstrike on Iran's embassy in Damascus, Syria, killed 12 people, including two top Iranian generals and five officers.
Biden met with national security advisers at the weekend, and spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reaffirming Washington's "ironclad commitment to the security of Israel."
In what appeared to be a new commitment to supporting Israel, a video shared on Sunday, viewed 2.5 million times, suggested the president had announced a "Selective Service Act" or draft to put U.S. infantry in Iran.
It was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by conservative commentator Jack Posobiec, who wrote: "UNREAL: 'To combat Russia and Iran, the recommended way forward will be to invoke the Selective Service Act.'
"'The first to be called will be men and women who's [sic] 20th birthday falls during calendar year 2023.'
"A preview of things to come."
The video shows what appears to be a broadcast on Real America's Voice of Biden calling out the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which he also mentions an "impending ground operation of Iran." A title card along the bottom of the video reads "BIDEN ANNOUNCES DRAFT."
It depicts Biden announcing his invocation of the "Selective Service Act, as is my authority as president."
"The first to be called in a sequence determined by national lottery will be men and women whose 20th birthday falls during calendar year 2023," Biden adds.
"Remember, you're not sending your sons and daughters to war, you're sending them to freedom."
However, not only is there no draft but the video is an edited version of an AI fake that Posobiec helped create more than a year ago.
The original video was a deep fake, created for Posobiec, to show what a national draft announcement could look like. In the clip, Biden seemingly announces that he is reinstating the military draft for both men and women to help Ukraine's military, with no mention of Iran.
While Posobiec and some other commentators highlighted that the video was fake, it was widely disseminated without context elsewhere. Many high-profile social media users, including prominent Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, reshared it last year, apparently taking the statement at face value.
This newest version dubs in a poorly edited and recorded reference to an "impending ground operation of Iran." While the low quality of the video and the reference to an Iranian ground operation hints at inauthenticity, Posobiec does not explicitly say the video is bogus, despite it being based on a fake he previously shared.
Whatever the intent, the video and the claims within it are fake.
The claim that the president can unilaterally reinstate the draft is also false. As stated on the Selective Service System website, "a national emergency, exceeding the Department of Defense's capability to recruit and retain its total force strength, requires Congress to amend the Military Selective Service Act to authorize the president to induct personnel into the armed forces."
Newsweek has contacted a White House media representative for comment via email and Human Events, a media company Posobiec works for, via a contact form.
In a post on social media, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to punish Israel in response to the deadly strike on the Islamic Republic's embassy in Syria.
A letter obtained by Newsweek Saturday night that was written by Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani and addressed to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and U.N. Security Council President Vanessa Frazier contained Iran's reasoning for the historic attack.
It provided official notice and informed U.N. leadership that, "in the late hours of 13 April 2024, the Islamic Republic of Iran carried out a series of military strikes on Israeli military objectives."
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