Scoop of a Pulitzer Prize: It was the USA that blew up Nord Stream with subs
Renowned reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh, who for decades was a top reporter for the New York Times and The New Yorker, posted a new bombshell Wednesday as his first Substack post, prompting a swift response from the White House.
After conducting its own investigation into who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines in a series of underwater explosions on Sept. 26, Hersh concluded that the United States detonated the Russia-Germany pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the NATO exercise BALTOPS 22.
Hersh, relying on uncited national security sources, describes months of discussions and back and forth involving the Biden White House, the CIA and the Pentagon. According to the report, planning had been underway since December 2021, with a special task force being formed under the aegis of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Navy has proposed using a newly built submarine to attack the pipeline directly. The Air Force discussed dropping bombs with time-delay fuzes that could be triggered remotely. The CIA maintained that whatever was done, it should have been secret. Everyone involved understood what was at stake ,” reads the report, titled How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline .
“ The Biden administration was doing everything it could to avoid leaks as planning unfolded in late 2021 and early 2022 ,” the report continued. “ Over the next few weeks, CIA task group members began hatching a plan for a covert operation that would use deep-sea divers to cause an explosion along the pipeline,” Hersh writes.
Simon Hersh
The intelligence community put up considerable resistance at that stage, but reserves were overcome in the run-up to and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. According to the investigative report:
During “ all this machination ,” the source said, “ some men who work in the CIA and the State Department were saying, 'Don't do this. It's stupid and it will be a political nightmare if it gets out."
However, in early 2022, the CIA task force reported to Sullivan's interagency team, " We have a way to blow up the pipelines ."
What followed was astounding. On Feb. 7, less than three weeks before the seemingly inevitable Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in his White House office who, after some hesitation, was now firmly on the American team. During the press briefing that followed, Biden defiantly stated, “ If Russia invades… there will be no more Nord Stream 2. We will put an end to this .” A clear warning that you can see below
Twenty days earlier, Undersecretary Nuland had delivered essentially the same message at a State Department briefing, with little press coverage. “ I want to be very clear with you today,” she said in response to a question. " If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not go ahead ."
Regarding Washington's motives in such a risky covert sabotage mission, Hersh writes: “As long as Europe remained dependent on pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington feared that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply 'Ukraine the money and weapons needed to defeat Russia ".
Biden in February last year: “ There will no longer be a Nord Stream 2, we will put an end to it “.
Norway played an important intelligence and logistical role in assisting an elite US Navy dive team based in Panama City to carry out the operation:
In March, members of the team flew to Norway to meet with the Norwegian Navy and intelligence services. One of the key questions was where exactly in the Baltic Sea was the best place to place the explosives. Nord Stream 1 and 2, each with two sets of pipelines, were separated for much of the way by just over a mile as they made their way to the port of Greifswald in far northeastern Germany.
The Norwegian navy was quick to find the sweet spot, in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea, just a few miles off the Danish island of Bornholm. The pipelines ran more than a mile apart over a sea bed that was only 85 meters deep. This was an area easily accessible by divers who, operating from a Norwegian minesweeper of the Upper class, would have dived with a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and helium coming out of their cylinders and would have placed shaped charges of C4 on the four pipes with covers concrete protectors. It would have been tedious, long and dangerous work, but the waters off Bornholm had another advantage: there were no large tidal currents, which would have made the task of diving that much more difficult.
Hersh's sources point out that the order came directly from President Biden's office:
The C4 connected to the pipelines would have been activated by a sonar buoy dropped from an aircraft at short notice, but the procedure involved state-of-the-art signal processing technology. Once in place, time-delay devices attached to any of the four pipelines could be accidentally triggered by the complex mix of ocean floor noises throughout the heavily trafficked Baltic Sea from near and far vessels, underwater drilling, events seismic, waves and even sea creatures. To avoid this, the sonar buoy, once positioned, would emit a sequence of unique low-frequency tonal sounds – similar to those emitted by a flute or piano – which would be recognized by the timing device and, after a delay of hours predetermined, they would set off the explosives.
…On 26 September 2022, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance aircraft made an apparently routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then to Nord Stream 1. A few hours later, high-yield C4 explosives were ignited and three of the four pipelines were put out of action. Within minutes, pools of methane gas left in closed pipes could be seen spreading across the surface of the water, and the world knew that something irreversible had happened.
Given that it was Hersh – who covered such famous stories as the My Lai massacre and the Abu Ghraib scandal and has long been known for his impeccable insider sources – behind the new bombshell “whodunnit” report, the mainstream media couldn't ignore him. this time
The mainstream media is the main source of disinformation today pic.twitter.com/QreqONGS7h
The mainstream news media is the main source of disinformation today pic.twitter.com/QreqONGS7h
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 8, 2023
The allegations were quickly picked up by the Times (UK), Reuters and other media, including Russian state media, prompting the White House to promptly deny:
The White House said Wednesday that a blog post by a US investigative reporter alleging the United States is behind the Nord Stream pipeline explosions "is absolutely false and completely fabricated."
Russia's Foreign Ministry says Hersh's report reveals new facts that need to be answered, however spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed: “ We have repeatedly stated Russia's position on US and NATO involvement, noting that not the they hid, boasting to the whole world of their intention to destroy the civilian infrastructure through which Europe received Russian energy resources .”
He added: “ We have also regularly highlighted the reluctance of Denmark, Germany and Sweden to conduct an open investigation and the opposition to Russia's participation in it. And this despite the fact that our country has suffered enormous costs. Now, the White House should comment on all these facts ."
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The article Scoop of a Pulitzer prize: it was the USA that blew up Nord Stream with subs comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/scoop-di-un-premio-pulitzer-sono-stati-gli-usa-ad-aver-fatto-saltare-coi-sub-nord-stream/ on Wed, 08 Feb 2023 21:33:04 +0000.