Claims that a Muslim man was arrested after an Amtrak train derailed in Washington State come from a known fake news website.
The claims are linking back to an article that claims police apprehended a suspect only minutes after the incident, and police chatter had indicated the suspect managed to derail the train by placing a gold coin onto the tracks.
That article was originally published on NoFakeNews.Online, a site that ironically publishes fake news articles. That site contains a disclaimer but it has also been published on other sites known to peddle fake news. An excerpt from the article reads –
UPDATE: Derailed Amtrak Train Was No Accident After All, Muslim Man Arrested
Breitbart reports that police scanners at the time of the derailment, cops were searching for a “man of Middle Eastern appearance” in the area who was seen walking away from the overpass from which part of the train hung for hours with passengers inside.
Twenty minutes later, Patrol Car 42 announced, “suspect apprehended.” While no official report has been released, chatter on the radio indicates that someone had placed a gold dollar on the track — a trick anyone can learn from children’s television — in an effort to derail the train.
The man in the article presumably used to illustrate the arrested man is actually a man named Shaker Aamer, who had been arrested and detained in late 2001 by US forces but was never formally convicted of a crime, and who was later released from custody.
There has been no reputable reports that anyone was arrested for intentionally derailing the train. Reports suggest the train was travelling around a corner in the tracks at a speed that was considered unsafe.
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NoFakeNews.Online features a disclaimer at the end of each article that contains a definition of satire. The website claims its works are satirical in nature, presumably because they trick readers into believing them to be genuine, thus exposing their stupidity.
sat•ire ~ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
If you disagree with the definition of satire or have decided it is synonymous with “comedy,” you should really just move along.
As such, the story isn’t true, and we don’t recommend circulating it.