NORD STREAM EXPLOSIONS

NancyDrewberry · 8 March 2023 19:44

"Coordinated Media Hoax Campaign" - Russia Blasts NYTimes Report On Nord Stream "Monstrous Crime"

As a reminder, last month, Pulitzer prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh concluded that the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream natural gas pipelines last September as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise.

nordstream

Yesterday, four weeks after Hersh's bombshell report, anonymous US intelligence officials told the NY Times that the saboteurs are likely "pro-Ukraine, possibly government-trained Ukrainian or Russian nationals, or some combination of the two," but that "no American or British nationals were involved."

In response, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of President Zelensky's office said:

"Ukraine has nothing to do with the incident in the Baltic Sea and has no information about "pro-Ukrainian subversive groups."

That should not be a surprise as the report goes on (multiple times) to claim that there's "no evidence so far of the Ukrainian government's complicity in the attack on the pipelines."

https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1633455285619630081

As Paul Joseph Watson writes at Summit News, Russia reacted to the New York Times report by dismissing it as a propaganda ploy designed to obfuscate the truth.

“I wonder who allows such leaks, filling the media scene with them?” asked Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“The answer is: those who do not want to conduct an investigation in the legal field and are going to divert the attention of the audience from the facts in every possible way.”

Andrey Ledenev, Minister Counselor of the Russian Embassy in the United States, said the report served to protect the true culprits behind the attack.

“We have no faith in the “impartiality” of the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence. We perceive anonymous “leaks” as nothing more than an attempt to confuse those who are sincerely trying to get to the bottom of things in this egregious crime. Shift the blame from the statesmen who ordered and coordinated the attacks in the Baltic Sea to some abstract individuals,” Ledenev said.

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said the New York Times story had “instantly got a ‘green light’ in the local information field” and was intended to distract from the facts presented in Hersh’s piece.

“Obviously, those who have masterminded the [Nord Stream] attack want to divert attention. Obviously, this is a coordinated media hoax campaign,” he asserted.

Further, Peskov said the Kremlin is wondering how US officials can suggest anything regarding the 'terrorist' attack on Nord Stream without an investigation, while he suggested it is strange and smells of a "monstrous crime", according to RIA.

Needless to say, the twitterverse mocked the clear distraction:

https://twitter.com/samfbiddle/status/1633159211441082368

https://twitter.com/GarlandNixon/status/1633283512479494150

https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1633146952887185409

However, NakedCapitalism's Yves Smith points out that even though the US has succeeded in burying the Sy Hersh story depicting Biden and his top foreign policy officials as the instigators of the bombing, it’s gotten traction in Germany .

Moon of Alabama provided a more detailed takedown, relying on the Die Zeit account:

The new claim is that some rather small sailing yacht, which would not even be able to carry the necessary equipment to perform such a deed, was the main instrument in this:

Following joint research by [German main public TV news unit] (ARD’s capital city studio), the ARD political magazine Kontraste, [German public TV] SWR and DIE ZEIT, it was possible to reconstruct to a large extent in the course of the investigation how and when the explosive attack was prepared. According to this, traces lead in the direction of Ukraine. However, investigators have so far found no evidence of who ordered the destruction.

Specifically, according to information from [these news sources], investigators have managed to identify the boat that was presumably used for the secret operation. It is said to be a yacht rented from a company based in Poland, apparently owned by two Ukrainians. The clandestine operation at sea is said to have been carried out by a team of six people, according to the investigation. It is said to have involved five men and one woman. According to the report, the group consisted of a captain, two divers, two diving assistants and a female doctor, who are said to have transported the explosives to the crime scenes and placed them there. The nationality of the perpetrators is apparently unclear. The assassins used professionally forged passports, which are said to have been used, among other things, to rent the boat.According to the investigation, the commando set sail from Rostock on September 6, 2022. The equipment for the clandestine operation was previously transported to the port in a van, it is said. In the further course, the investigators succeeded in locating the boat the following day again in Wieck (Darß) and later at the Danish island Christiansø, northeast of Bornholm, according to the research. The yacht was subsequently returned to the owner in uncleaned condition. On the table in the cabin, the investigators were able to detect traces of explosives, according to the research. According to information from [the mentioned news sources], a Western intelligence service is said to have sent a tip to European partner services as early as in the fall, i.e. shortly after the destruction, according to which a Ukrainian commando was responsible for the destruction. Thereafter, there have allegedly been further intelligence indications suggesting that a pro-Ukrainian group could be responsible.

No. You do not dive down to 80+ meter for an industrial size job, involving the placement of hundreds of pounds of explosives in eight individual charges on very sturdy pipelines, from a sparsely manned sailing boat. Such deep dives require special gases, special breathing equipment, special training, a decompression chamber for emergencies and lots of well trained people to maintain all that stuff.

This is just more chaff thrown up to divert the attention from Seymour Hersh’s revelations that the U.S. military, under order from the White House, carried out the sabotage act.

There is the cynical take that the “blame it on people who like Ukraine” is meant to weaken Ukraine support. That seems unlikely. Pinning blame on mystery operatives with superpowers turns scrutiny as far as possible from government actors, and the big point is to exculpate the US, particularly its top brass. Conveniently, that sort of caper is such a staple of action movies that great swathes of the public have been pre-programmed to believe it.

But the alleged “link” may still blunt Germany sympathy for Ukraine:

https://twitter.com/apocalypseos/status/1633386857403920385

But, as Yves Smith notes, before you get your hopes up, until Robert Habeck and Annelina Baerbock get lobotomies, I don’t see German policy changing. They are diehard hawks and still very much in the driver’s seat.

It’s clearly the US hope that this deflection will make the Nord Stream “whodunit” go away.

But Sy Hersh was already promising more stories on this case, and this mini-barrage gives him additional grist. Pass the popcorn.

As Summit News previously highlighted, both China and Hungary have called for a full international investigation into the pipeline attack under the auspices of the United Nations.

cybe.old · 24 March 2023 05:17

cybe.old · 25 March 2023 06:48

NancyDrewberry · 25 March 2023 19:44

Punishing Germany: Seymour Hersh makes new Nord Stream sabotage claim

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2023/03/24/punishing-germany-seymour-hersh-makes-new-nord-stream-sabotage-claim/

The Pulitzer Prize winner has alleged the US blew up the pipelines because it was unhappy with a lack of German support for Ukraine

US President Joe Biden ordered the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines because he was unhappy with the level of support provided by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed.

Hersh first accused Washington of destroying the key European energy route in an article released in February, and made more allegations in an interview with the China Daily newspaper published on Friday.

“The [US] president was afraid of Chancellor Scholz not wanting to put more guns and more arms [forward for Kiev]. That’s all. I don’t know whether that it was anger or punishment, but the net effect is that it cut off a major power source through Western Europe,” Hersh claimed.

Despite attempts by the US to deny its involvement in the Nord Stream attack, “Europe is in crisis now” and Biden will receive “a lot of criticism for what he did” in the coming months, the journalist argued.

The Pulitzer Prize winner alleged that “the people that were initially asked to do the job” of destroying the pipelines were contacted by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan towards the end of 2021.

READ MORE: Danish Navy present near Nord Stream 2 – media

The initial purpose of mining Nord Stream 1 and 2, built to deliver Russian gas to Europe through Germany, was “to give the [US] president an option to say to [Russian] President Putin, ‘If you go to war [in Ukraine], we’re going to destroy the pipelines,’” Hersh claimed.

‘The US and Norway Blew Up Nord Stream,’ Controversial Journalist Says

In a self-published investigative report, Seymour Hersh, argues that Washington was behind the “act of war,” staking his legacy on a single unnamed source.

by Kyiv Post | February 14, 2023,

The U.S., with the help of Norway, sabotaged the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany in a covert operation last September, according to a report by renowned but controversial American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, published Feb. 8 on his Substack page.

Hersh achieved notoriety as an exposé reporter when he revealed the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war in 1969, for which he won the Pulitzer prize in 1970. He has since shaken U.S. governments with various investigations, including incidents of U.S. soldiers torturing prisoners in Iraq, and has drawn criticism from peers for shoddy reporting on the killing of Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin-Laden.

The White House has categorically denied Hersh’s claim as “false, a complete fiction.” The CIA also responded to the reporter’s request for comment in no uncertain terms: “This claim is completely and utterly false.”

The original pipeline, Nord Stream 1, went into service in 2011. A second pipeline, Nord Stream 2, had just been completed in 2022, before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Combined, the two pipelines would provide Germany with more than half of their gas needs. Nord Stream AG, the holding company that runs the pipeline is 51-percent controlled by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom, the rest by four European energy companies.

The pipeline has been a source of controversy since its inception. The Trump administration had imposed sanctions on companies working to build Nord Stream 2, and the Biden Administration reluctantly removed those sanction in 2021.
On Sept. 26, 2022, multiple ruptures in both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were detected, with methane gas bubbling up to the surface of the Baltic Sea. Subsequent investigations by Swedish authorities determined sabotage to be the most likely cause.

Hersh’s investigation came to the conclusion that the U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center in Florida had elaborated a plan that would use the annual NATO Baltic Sea exercises, (BALOPS 22) as cover to plant explosive devices on the pipeline. The ideal location for the detonation was in the relatively shallow waters, less susceptible to currents, off the coast of the Danish Island of Bornholm.

Planners chose the obscure diving center for a “vital bureaucratic reason,” Hersh’s lone unnamed source with direct knowledge of the operational process said. The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022. Since the divers were Navy only, and not members of U.S. Special Operations Command, whose covert operations must be reported to Congress and briefed in advance to the Senate and House leadership, it would be easier to maintain the necessary level of secrecy.

How Hersh says it was done

The details of Hersh’s report read like the treatment for an action thriller. The original plan was supposedly to blow up the pipeline within days of concluding the BALOPS 22 exercises. The explosive charges, placed by specially trained divers, would be detonated by remote control. At the last minute, Biden wanted the possibility of setting off the charges at a much later date. The extended time frame risked having the charges detonated inadvertently by underwater activity.

Roughly two months after the charges were first placed on the pipeline, according to Hersh’s reconstruction, Biden gave the green light to blow up the pipeline.

On Sept. 26, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane made a seemingly routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. The buoy would emit a sequence of unique low frequency tonal sounds that would be recognized by a timing device and, after a pre-set hours of delay, trigger the explosives. The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then on to Nord Stream 1.

Many analysts had suspected Biden of being behind the sabotage after watching video of a Feb. 7 press conference at the White House with German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz. Standing beside Scholtz, less than a month before Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Biden fielded a question from a Reuters reporter asking what the president intended to do about Nord Stream in the event of a Russian invasion. Biden’s response was striking for its terse delivery: “If Russia invades… there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

As Hersh’s lone source in the report put it: “Well, I gotta admit, the guy has a pair of balls. He said he was going to do it, and he did.”

Cui bono?

While it must be emphasized that Hersh’s account is based entirely on a single unnamed source – which does not meet basic journalistic standards and perhaps accounted for the fact that he didn’t publish it in any major newspaper – the report’s plausibility is hard to overlook. This is especially true when considering who is to gain. If Germany is forced to look for other sources of natural gas, then two of the largest exporters of natural gas ready to fill the shortfall are Norway and the U.S.

Indeed, in 2022 Norway provided 33 percent of Germany’s natural gas needs, replacing Russia as the largest supplier of gas to Germany. The previous year, imports from Norway accounted for just under 20 percent of Germany’s supply.

In January of this year, the first U.S. tanker carrying liquified natural gas (LNG) arrived in Germany. U.S.-produced LNG, which is more expensive than the gas Germany had been receiving from Russia, will now make up an increasing portion of Germany’s energy mix.

Pipelines as spying platforms

Apart from economic incentives to bringing an end to gas flowing from Russia, there is also a tactical consideration. Pipelines nowadays are often used to spy on other countries, and Russian has long been at the forefront of such activities.

Andrii Ryzhenko, a former officer in the Ukrainian Navy and a graduate of the U.S. Naval War College, has written extensively on the efforts of the Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research (GUGI), a highly secret Russian military unit, and Moscow’s pursuit of Russian national interests in the underwater domain, particularly in surveillance of NATOs communications cables.

For security reasons, gas pipelines have specially designated sonars which ensure safety in the vicinity. “However, it is very easy and comparatively inexpensive to connect aside lines composed of a number of sonars for military purposes,” he writes.

“Using facts of the shallow depths of the Baltic Sea and the short distances from the Nord Stream to the coasts of neighboring countries and to the critically important Åland Islands, Gotland and Bornholm, Russia can deploy a passive underwater surveillance system in a relatively short period of time at the base of several lines.”

These factors, combined with Washington’s overriding concern over Germany’s reluctance to join in hardline sanctions against Russia and vigorously support Ukraine, would presumably account for Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipeline, if Hersh’s report is to be believed.

NancyDrewberry · 22 July 2023 20:49

Leaked Video: Retired Four-Star General McChrystal Claims US Behind Nord Stream Pipeline Bombing

https://www.newswars.com/leaked-video-retired-four-star-general-mcchrystal-claims-us-behind-nord-stream-pipeline-bombing/

"If you really want to get conspiracies, the United States made more money off that deal than anybody else," says former Joint Special Operations Command leader.

Retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal, who formerly led all the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, suggested in leaked video that the United States perpetrated the Nord Stream pipeline bombing.

The leaked video obtained by Valuetainment Media shows McChrystal, best known for heading the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) during the Iraq War, having an off-record conversation about Russia.

“There’s no obvious better solution than Russia. I think Putin ought to go, but there’s nobody that I’m aware of standing on the wings,” the general began in the short clip.

BREAKING: Footage obtained by Valuetainment captures General Stan McChrystal (Ret.) confirming neither Russia or Ukraine blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.

"United States made more money off that deal than anybody else." pic.twitter.com/FF9x16B4Rz

— Valuetainment Media (@ValuetainmentTV) July 20, 2023

When asked who he thought was behind the Nord Stream bombing, McChrystal explained that he and his son, who works in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), didn’t believe Russia or Ukraine was behind the bombing.

“My son is the leader of the in energy team at DIA,” said McChrystal. “He didn’t think that the Russians did it… He didn’t think that the Ukrainians did it either.”

McChrystal went on to explain how the U.S. was the only nation positioned to benefit from the Nord Stream bombing.

“There are people who benefited from it, and that was people who produced natural gas around the world,” said McChrystal. “So if you really want to get conspiracies, the United States made more money off that deal than anybody else.”

“But yeah, but that’s because we were huge beneficiaries, and we changed our policy. We started providing liquid natural gas overseas and, you know,” he said.

McChrystal’s remarks corroborate a bombshell report released in February by journalist Seymour Hersh detailing how U.S. forces at the direction of the Biden regime “took out” the Nord Stream pipeline in a bid to bolster his reelection in 2024.

The report was censored on social media and as Joe Biden called the report “false and complete fiction.”

Cloudcity · 27 September 2023 21:29

Seismic data indicates that four separate explosions struck the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, Norwegian researchers told The Guardian on Tuesday. The explosions destroyed three of the four Nord Stream lines.

Seismologists at Norsar, a foundation set up to monitor for earthquakes and nuclear tests under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, initially identified two explosions along the Nord Stream pipelines last September. One blast hit Nord Stream 2 at 2:03am local time on September 26, 2022, while the second hit Nord Stream 1 at 7:03pm on the same day.

The Norsar team found that data from the day suggests two additional blasts took place seven and 16 seconds respectively after the second explosion.

Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 each comprise two separate pipelines. Given three out of the four lines were destroyed, the use of more than two explosive devices was already considered likely. However, Norsar is the first investigatory body to publicly confirm this suspicion.

[ CIA-run Nord Stream attack was aimed at Germany – Seymour Hersh

Both sets of Nord Stream pipelines were severed near the Danish island of Bornholm. According to Norsar, the second and third explosions took place within 220 meters of each other, while the fourth took place several kilometers away.

The governments of Denmark, Germany, and Sweden are all investigating the blasts, though none has released any findings, and all have prohibited Russia from participating in the probes.

In the meantime, two competing theories have emerged as to who was responsible for sabotaging the pipelines. According to reports in the Western mainstream media, a team of Ukrainian commandos used a rented yacht to transport explosives to the blast sites, with the CIA and European intelligence agencies being made aware of the plot several months beforehand. Reports by the Washington Post and the Netherlands’ NOS news network claim that the CIA in fact told the Ukrainians to abort the plan.

However, American journalist Seymour Hersh has said that US President Joe Biden ordered the CIA to blow up the pipelines. Citing sources in the intelligence community, Hersh has claimed that CIA divers working with the Norwegian Navy planted remotely-triggered bombs on the lines last summer, using a NATO exercise in the region as cover.

By destroying the pipelines, Biden intended to sever Germany’s energy ties to Russia, thus preventing Berlin from lifting sanctions on Moscow in order to save its gas-dependent economy, Hersh argued.

Biden warned in early February that in the event of military action by Russia, “there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that he “fully agrees” with Hersh’s conclusions. Putin argued that the US in particular benefited from the attack due to its position as a competing gas supplier to Europe.

...

@jimmy_dore

made the most of his 10 minutes at the UN Security Council A jagoff nightclub comedian once again puts the entire Western media to shame on the Nord Stream attacks and Ukraine proxy war

.

B1 · 12 March 2024 20:56

Nord Stream sues insurers in London over 2022 pipeline blasts

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Nord Stream is seeking more than 400 million euros ($436 million) from its insurers over explosions in 2022 which ruptured pipelines designed to transport Russian gas to Germany, court filings show.

Nord Stream AG names Lloyd's Insurance Company and Arch Insurance (EU) DAC (ACGL.O), opens new tab as defendants in its lawsuit, which was filed at London's High Court last month.

Switzerland-based Nord Stream confirmed in an email there is a contractual dispute in London commercial courts between itself and insurers of the pipeline system.

"However, we ask for understanding that we are not in a position to provide any detailed comments to the legal proceedings," Nord Stream's communications team said.

Court filings state that Nord Stream's current preliminary estimate of "the costs to dewater and stabilise the pipeline, to undertake a full repair and to replace the lost gas inventory" is between 1.2 billion and 1.35 billion euros.

Nord Stream's lawsuit also says one of the pipelines looked "mangled and deformed" in one area where it had been damaged, but "appeared smooth and to have been cut" in another.

Lloyd's declined to comment. Arch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit focuses on the explosions in September 2022 that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. Sweden – which last month dropped its investigation – and Germany have both found traces of explosives relating to the incident, suggesting it was a deliberate act.

Russia and the West, at loggerheads over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, have pointed fingers at one another. Each has denied any involvement, and no one has taken responsibility.

Nord Stream in its lawsuit is suing all insurers subscribing to its offshore operating all-risks policy as well as its excess all-risks policy.

According to court documents, Nord Stream is suing Lloyd's on its own behalf and as the representative of others subscribing to policies issued by insurers including Munich Re, which declined to comment.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nord-stream-sues-insurers-london-over-2022-pipeline-blasts-2024-03-12/

B1 · 2 April 2024 18:19

Exclusive Alert: Forensic analysis shows Russia did NOT blow up its own pipeline.

As tensions escalate between the West and Russia, another provocation may be met with Nuclear escalation.

As investigations into the Moscow terrorist attack continue and the finger of blame points to the United Kingdom and the West along with Ukraine, according to President Putin, we explore who was behind the Nord Stream attack.

The Nord stream attack was the biggest act of Industrial Sabotage in the world.

A major ecological disaster, as massive amounts of methane were released.

Biden threatened to destroy the pipeline before it happened.

https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1775099135009382693?t=s0e777JL6C68c7MEvq_hhQ&s=19

NancyDrewberry · 27 April 2024 14:15

NORD STREAM EXPLOSIONS. NO ONE IS GOING TO IDENTIFY THE CULPRITS AND BRING THEM TO JUSTICE

RussianNews

Russia's official representative to the United Nations (UN) Security Council, Vasily Nebenzya, spoke about the progress of the investigation into the terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Cheeky-Monkey · 20 August 2024 03:40

West makes Zelensky scapegoat on Nord Streams sabotage issue — expert

The West has made Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky a scapegoat on the issue of the Nord Stream pipelines sabotage in order to remove all responsibility from the United States, a Thai expert on international relations told a TASS correspondent.