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Did the US Army just lose and then recover sixty stolen M55 Sarin gas rockets?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the FACTS really are!

Claim : US Army Lost + Recovered Stolen Sarin Gas Rockets!

On 9 and 10 July 2023, Michael Baxter (real name : Michael Tuffin) wrote two articles claiming that the US Army just had sixty M55 Sarin gas rockets stolen from its Kentucky facility, but managed to recover them using Special Forces!

As usual, his articles are long, rambling and confusing, so please feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

Chemical Rockets Stolen from Army Weapons Depot in Kentucky

Sixty chemical rockets went missing from a U.S. Army chemical weapons depot in Kentucky last week as workers—military and civilian contractors—rushed to destroy the old ordnance per the International Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries.

On July 7, a U.S. Army CBRN specialist (MOS 74D) stationed at BGAD contacted the office of Col. Brent Lindemen, 5th Special Forces Group commander and member of the White Hat Council, saying he had to discuss a crucial military matter. The colonel’s adjunct asked the soldier why he reached out to Special Forces instead of following his chain of command.

“Sir, I apologize for the improper protocol, but I don’t know who I can trust. I’ve been led to believe I can trust anyone answering this line,” the soldier reportedly said.

The adjunct implored him to not share his concerns on an open line and instructed him on how to send an encrypted message.

In the message, the soldier identified himself as a CBRN specialist at BGAD tasked with logging serial numbers of weapons scheduled for destruction. He said 60 GB nerve agent rockets scheduled for demolition on Friday were not in their storage racks where he had seen them Wednesday, having had Thursday off. He wrote that no one at the site seemed particularly concerned that he couldn’t account for the rockets’ whereabouts. He described the stringent regulations for weapon destruction. Serial numbers get checked three times—before a weapon leaves the bunker, as it’s placed on a truck for transport, and at the disposal facility. Once a weapon is destroyed, its serial number, stored and color-coded on iPad-like devices, is changed from red (live round) to green (destroyed or inert.) The rockets were missing, and the serial numbers had been entirely wiped from the database, he said.

“It’s been made to look like those rockets never existed,” he wrote.

The message went to Colonel Keirsey, who forwarded it to General Smith. If the CBRN’s story was true, only someone at the regime’s criminal Defense Department could have purged serial numbers from a restricted database and orchestrated the theft of deadly chemical weapons.

One cannot simply walk off with M55 rockets on his shoulder; each is 75lbs. and 78 inches long. The thief would also have to reconcile the theft with the armed guards protecting the storage facilities—a problematic heist.

A source in Gen. Smith’s office told Real Raw News that the general has confirmed the CBRN’s version of events, which contradicts public statements given by regime officials.

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Special Forces Recover Stolen Sarin Gas Rockets

United States Special Forces and chemical weapon specialists have recovered the GB rockets that inexplicably vanished from what should have been an impregnable concrete bunker at Army Blue Grass Weapons Depot in Kentucky, a source in General Eric M. Smith’s office told Real Raw News.

Our source said the general cashed in favors to acquire security recordings that showed protocol violations and evidence of rockets leaving the base, the most egregious being missing timestamped footage, 90 minutes of it, between 1:30-3:00 Friday morning, four hours before the whistleblowing specialist started work. Two cameras inside the bunker had been selectively disabled, as had three exterior cameras that, if working, would’ve shown persons or vehicles approaching the bunker’s impenetrable steel doors, sealed shut by massive shackle locks.

“Even with today’s tech, those old bunkers were never fitted with biometric security. Just good old-fashioned keys. And as you can imagine, access to those keys should be tightly controlled. As far as we know, there are only two sets on base. The commander has one, and one is in the security building. Live footage is also fed to the security shack,” our source said.

He mentioned that the whistleblower saw no physical evidence of a break-in—other than the missing rockets. The locks were intact, and no one besides him seemed to notice or care that 60 lethal rockets weren’t in their assigned location.

General Smith also reviewed the video of the base’s entrances and exits. Cameras covering the main gate, the only thoroughfare to weapon bunkers, had 90 minutes of lost time identical to that of the burgled depot.

Two guards, civilian contractors, should have been protecting the main gate at the time.

By Saturday, General Smith and 5th Special Forces Group commander Brent Lindemen had recalled a Special Forces detachment from an ongoing assignment, investigating a famous Hollywood producer suspected of running a child sex trafficking ring, and put them on the case of the missing rockets, which, our source said, took priority, at least temporarily. The general also recruited trustworthy CBRNs from the 48th Chemical Brigade to aid the recovery in case the rusty rockets had sprung leaks.

At 3:00 p.m. Sunday, Special Forces spotted a tractor-trailer with a green cab on an isolated stretch of road near Plover Pit Lake. Thermal scans showed a cold engine and an empty cab.

“They expected to find an empty trailer. But the CBRNs put on protective gear, used infrared detectors to check for nerve agent vapors, and broke the lock. And the rockets were in there, but no sign of the driver or passenger,” our source said.

Someone, he added, had retrofitted the interior with racks designed to safely cradle the rockets.

“Now, it was sitting there a damn long time, Friday morning until late Sunday afternoon, unattended before we arrived. Abandoning a truckload of WMDs made no sense. The general assumed the occupants expected another driver to come along and drive it to its final destination, but again, you’d think they’d have timed it better. Or something happened to delay a relief crew that long. We weren’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth,” our source said.

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Truth : US Army Did NOT Lose / Recover Stolen Sarin Gas Rockets!

The truth is – this is just another FAKE STORY created by Real Raw News, just to generate page views and money.

Everything posted by Real Raw News must be regarded as FAKE NEWS, until proven otherwise.

Fact #1 : Real Raw News Is A Fake News Website

Real Raw News is a FAKE NEWS website that capitalises on making shocking but fake stories to generate page views and money.

To protect himself from legal repercussions, the owner and writer, Michael Baxter (real name – Michael Tuffin), claims that his articles are “humour, parody, and satire“.

This disclaimer, which is not clearly mentioned in his articles, lets him keep creating fake news to go viral, and generate him money.

His articles have been regularly debunked as fake news, so you should NEVER share anything from his website. Here are some of his fake stories that I personally debunked earlier:

A March 2018 screenshot of Michael Tuffin, who goes by the pseudonym Michael Baxter

Fact #2 : Last M55 Sarin Gas Rocket Was Destroyed On July 7, 2023

It is impossible for any M55 Sarin gas rocket to be stolen, because they were all destroyed by Friday, July 7, 2023. In fact, President Joe Biden publicly announced the achievement that day:

Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile — bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons.

This occurred two days before Michael Baxter / Tuffin claimed that sixty M55 Sarin (NATO designation GB) gas rockets were stolen from the Blue Grass Army Depot!

Fact #3 : Chemical Weapons Are Stored + Processed On-Site

The M55 Sarin gas rockets at stored and processed on-site at the Blue Grass Army Depot, and are heavily monitored at all points.

They are removed from their on-site storage igloos, and loaded into large pressure tanks called Enhanced ON-site Containers (EONCs) for transport to the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP). There, the weapons are kept in the EONCs, as these old chemical weapons are notorious for leaking!

Only when it is time to destroy them, do technicians test the EONC for leaks before removing the rockets for destruction. All this happens within the Blue Grass Army Depot itself, so it would be impossible for anyone to smuggle one M55 Sarin gas rocket out, never mind sixty of them!

Fact #4 : Destruction Process Is Automated + Monitored

The M55 Sarin gas rockets are removed from the EONC inside the BGCAPP by multiple technicians, and monitored on CCTV. After that, the process is pretty much automated, and handled by robots for safety reasons.

It is therefore impossible for any person to steal a single M55 rocket, especially when each rocket is 2 metres long and weighs 26 kg!

Fact #5 : BGCAPP Is Run By Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass Team

Even though the BGCAPP is located within a US Army facility, it is not manned by the US Army using its own soldiers.

Instead, the BGCAPP was built and operated by private contractors – specifically, the Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass Team – a joint venture of Bechtel National and Parsons Government Services.

So, the claim of US soldiers working at the BGCAPP is utter nonsense. They are all civilians.

Fact #6 : BGCAPP Is Monitored By OPCW

On top of that, operations in BGCAPP are monitored by witnesses representing the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) at the on-site Treaty Office Facility.

Even if BGCAPP technicians collude to steal M55 rockets, OPCW monitors would have spotted them trying to haul away sixty heavy rockets!

Fact #6 : General Smith Is Commandant Of US Marine Corp!

Michael Baxter / Tuffin appears to be simply Googling and using the names of US military officers without bothering to ensure consistency, or even logic!

The Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) is a US Army facility. Even if some kind of nefarious theft occurred, General Eric M. Smith would not be in charge of investigations. After all, he is a general in the United States Marine Corps, not the US Army!

On top of that, he is currently serving as acting commandant of the Marine Corps – its highest position! Why on Earth would the Commandant of the Marine Corps be investigating a US Army depot, even if it involves the theft of dangerous chemical weapons??

Everything posted by Real Raw News should be regarded as FAKE NEWS.

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Donald Trump just accused Iran of the rocket attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, threatening retaliation!

Take a look at the picture of three rockets he posted, and find out what the facts really are!

Donald Trump : Iran Responsible For Rocket Attack On US Embassy

Even in the waning days of his Presidency, Donald Trump isn’t quite done with Iran.

In a new threat against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump posted a picture of three unfired rockets, which he claimed were from Iran.

Our embassy in Baghdad got hit Sunday by several rockets. Three rockets failed to launch. Guess where they were from: IRAN. Now we hear chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq…Some friendly health advice to Iran: If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.

As Trump isn’t a very popular president outside of his fanatical base (no kidding), there is much skepticism about his post.

Some have pointed out that the rockets have English markings and could be American-made. Others wonder if these are even rockets – they look more like large versions of a rifle cartridge than rockets.

Rocket Attack On US Embassy : A Quick Primer

Before we look into the veracity of Trump’s claims, here’s a quick primer on the rocket attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.

At around 8:30 PM on Sunday, 20 December 2020, approximately 21 rockets were fired on the US embassy in Baghdad.

Only about half of the rockets hit the embassy compound, while the others missed and hit an Iraqi apartment complex and vehicles near the embassy.

Photo Credit : Reuters/Landov

In the end, two buildings and a gym in the embassy, vehicles outside the embassy and a generator at the apartment complex, were damaged.

There was only one injury – an Iraqi soldier – no one else died or were injured by the attack.

Is Iran Responsible For Rocket Attack On US Embassy?

Unfortunately, the answer isn’t quite so simple as yes or no, Iran did or did not fire those rockets at the US embassy in Baghdad.

Let’s take a look at the facts…

Fact #1 : Those Are 107 mm Haseb Rockets

The Haseb is an Iranian copy of the Chinese Type 63-2 – a spin-stabilised 107 mm rocket with a high-explosive (HE) warhead.

The entire rocket weighs about 18 kg, with an 8 kg cast TNT warhead and a Chinese MJ-1 (Jiàn-1) impact and graze fuse.

Fact #2 : Iran Manufactures + Uses 107mm Haseb Rockets

Haseb rockets are manufactured by Iran’s Armaments Industries Group (AIG), and used by Iranian forces as a short-ranged barrage weapon.

In this picture, IRGC commandos are seen loading a Type 63 rocket launcher mounted onto a pickup truck.

Fact #3 : The English Markings Are Genuine

Some sharp-eyed netizens noticed that rockets have English words on them, instead of Farsi or Arabic words :

107mm ROCKET
LOT : 573
DATE : 2016
N.W : 18kg
R.No. : 2103

This has led to suggestions that the rockets may be fake, or made by Americans themselves, or replicas of the real rockets used in a false flag operation.

Here you can see the actual rockets (on the left) and inert replicas of the Haseb rockets. No doubt they look very similar.

However, there is really no need for the US military to purchase replicas even for a false flag operation. Many Haseb rockets have been captured over the years.

The English markings do not mean they are American-made. The Haseb rocket is also made for export by Iran’s Armaments Industries Group (AIG), and so uses English markings.

The inert replica above has English markings, because the real Haseb rockets have English markings.

Fact #4 : Haseb Rockets Have A Very Short Range

Haseb rockets have a very short range – up to 9 kilometres, and are not very accurate.

That means they would have to be fired very close to the Baghdad Green Zone in order to have a reasonable chance of hitting the US embassy inside.

Any suggestion that Iranian forces fired them inside Baghdad itself would be ludicrous. Even if Iran wanted to strike at the Americans, they would use an allied militant group to make attribution difficult.

Fact #5 : Attribution Is Difficult

The Haseb rockets are not exclusively used by Iranian forces. They are exported to Iranian auxiliary forces and allied militant groups like the Hezbollah.

So it would not be possible for the United States to directly attribute the rocket attack to Iran, unless they capture the people who actually fired the rockets.

It could also be a rogue militant group, or even a false flag action by a rival nation-state. After all, numerous examples of the Haseb rocket have been captured by other militant groups and even countries like Israel.

In fact, Gen. Frank McKenzie, who leads the US Central Command and once warned that American forces imminent threat from Iran specifically told The Wall Street Journal,

“I do not know the degree to which Iran is complicit. We do not seek a war, and I don’t actually believe they seek one either.“

Even Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah described the rocket attack on the US embassy as “undisciplined“.

Fact #6 : We Don’t Know Who Owned Those Rockets

The three Haseb rockets that Donald Trump posted were obviously not fired.

But whether they “failed to launch” as Trump claimed, or were simply captured unfired, is unknown. Trump likely can’t tell the difference.

Unless the rocketeers were captured together with these three rockets, it would be impossible to also attribute the rocket attack to any particular group, never mind Iran.

Even so, the mere possession of these rockets does not mean that they actually launched that particular attack.

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Did US Army Lose + Recover Stolen Sarin Gas Rockets?!