I was considering that a falling satellite, reported to possibly hitting a population center, would be GREAT cover for an RfromG event.
Only, that the US would do it...
It sure would. We need to keep that in mind for future.
So so. Most satellite reentries produce very mild impact on earth. They are not designed to reenter, so mostly burn up leaving a few relatively slow moving and low mass objects for impact.
Rods from God are massivve and designed to survive reentry to deliver substantial kinetic energy at a selected destination.
Just saying, satellite reentry simultaneous with a tungten rod release would not be good cover for those in the know. The cover story might fool half of the public.
More likely cover is explosives planted by spooks - e.g., the 9/11 truther sort of story.