Fact check
Is it true: Operation Tailwind: sarin-on-defectors claim (CNN 1998, retracted)?
No — this has been debunked.
CNN retracted the sarin-on-defectors claim on 2 July 1998, less than a month after broadcast, following an independent review by Floyd Abrams that found the allegations unsupported by the evidence gathered. Both producers were dismissed. Admiral Moorer stated he was misrepresented. Operation Tailwind occurred as a classified SOG mission; the sarin and defector-killing claims did not survive review.
The claim
In June 1998, CNN's NewsStand programme broadcast a report claiming that US Special Forces used sarin nerve agent during Operation Tailwind in Laos in September 1970, specifically to kill American def
Key evidence
Secret war in Laos was real — contextual plausibility
CNN full retraction issued 2 July 1998
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