A video is going around saying three attacks on American cities were just stopped, including one in Philadelphia. It is not new. The arrests in it happened in June 2024.
The video, posted to TikTok by a user going by @j5024f04 and reposted to Facebook over the last two days, is labeled “BREAKING NEWS: 3 ATTACKS ON US CITIES CONFIRMED.” It names Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia, says eight suspects with ISIS ties were arrested, and warns viewers to expect more arrests. It is cut over stock footage of missile trails and smoky cityscapes, old Fox News and CBS News clips, and a clip of former FBI Director Christopher Wray warning about foreign threats.
Here is what the clips actually show. In June 2024, ICE arrested eight Tajikistan nationals with suspected ties to ISIS in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, after they crossed the southern border. That is the event the news clips are reporting. The arrests were for suspected ties, not convictions, and they happened more than two years ago.
People in the comments on the Facebook reposts are already catching it, pointing out that the events took place in June 2024. There is no new foiled attack in Philadelphia this week in any credible source, and no FBI or Department of Homeland Security statement about a new Philadelphia plot.
Two real cases may be feeding the confusion, and both are worth dating honestly. In September, the Justice Department charged a 21-year-old in Butler County, in western Pennsylvania, with receiving a rifle and ammunition tied to a planned ISIS-inspired attack. Agents recovered a semiautomatic rifle, five magazines, and about 190 rounds from him and his hotel room in Cranberry Township. Officials have not publicly linked the case to a specific target list or time window. That is Butler County, not Philadelphia, and it is from September, not this week.
The other is from 2023, when a 17-year-old in West Philadelphia was arrested for allegedly plotting a national attack with a group affiliated with Al Qaeda and building improvised explosive devices. That case is three years old.
This is how it works. An old clip gets a new caption, a dramatic voiceover, and a “BREAKING NEWS” banner, and by the time it reaches your feed it looks like it happened this morning. The tells are usually the same: no date on the footage, no named official speaking this week, and stock images of missiles and smoke standing in for an attack that never happened.
If something real happens, it will come from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, or the Philadelphia Police Department, not from a TikTok montage. Until then, Philadelphia was not almost attacked this week. It was almost fooled.
