Twenty days into
Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh's bombshell report on U.S.
involvement in the Nord Stream blasts, Washington is still dismissing
the disclosure, the majority of Europe remains secretive, and Western
mainstream media outlets stay as yet blind to the revelations.
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The chilling details brought to light in the report, however, have
caused misgivings and grave concerns among the international community.
Calling Hersh's report something that should not be glossed over, more
people around the world now demand an objective, fair and professional
probe into the incident, and a speedup in truth-telling.
NEEDLE OF SUSPICION
On Sept. 26, 2022, a series of clandestine bombings and subsequent
underwater gas leaks occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2
pipelines, which carry gas from Russia to Europe. Soon afterwards,
Washington and some European countries pointed an accusing finger at
Russia.
But independent
thinkers have reckoned the other way around. Days after the blasts,
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at
Columbia University, told Bloomberg in a TV show that the United States,
rather than Russia, could be behind the attack, leading TV hosts to
abruptly taking him off the air.
Hersh's account on
Feb. 8 adds weight to Sachs' assertions. In a 5,200-word article
published on the U.S. portal Substack, Hersh revealed how the United
States partnered with Norway in a top-secret operation in June 2022 to
plant remotely triggered explosives that took out three of the four Nord
Stream pipelines three months later.
In response, Washington has denied the accusation on various
occasions. Speaking to Fox News on Feb. 19, U.S. National Security
Council spokesperson John Kirby called Hersh's report "a completely
false story."
However, not everyone
bought Washington's version. In an emailed interview with Xinhua, Sachs
perceived Hersh's report as "credible" and consistent with several
existing facts.
Former U.S. National
Security Agency employee Edward Snowden tweeted earlier this month that
the United States is wasting time and money to shoot down "unidentified
flying objects" above U.S. and Canadian soil to ensure that national
security reporters get assigned to investigate balloon nonsense "rather
than (U.S.) budgets or bombings (of Nord Stream)."
"The U.S. had the
motive, means, and opportunity and spent many months confessing to the
plot and then to the crime after it took place," noted the Black Agenda
Report website, citing U.S. President Joe Biden's pledge in February
2022 to stop the Nord Stream 2 project and U.S. Under Secretary of State
Victoria Nuland's remarks in January this year that Washington is
"gratified" to know the Nord Stream 2 is now "a hunk of metal at the
bottom of the sea."
There are "ample
reasons" why the United States would be involved in the Nord Stream
blasts, Sevim Dagdelen, a parliamentarian of Germany's Left Party, was
quoted as saying by Canadian website Western Standard in a report
published on Feb. 13.
"Many European
capitals put the finger against Russia and said, 'it was Russia that
blew up its own pipeline,' which was nonsense," former Austrian Foreign
Minister Karin Kneissl told Sputnik in an interview. "For me, one thing
was clear ever since 2018 that the U.S. was very much determined to make
sure that this pipeline system would never ever become operative."
The now-deleted
"Thank you, USA" tweet posted by former Polish Foreign Minister Radek
Sikorski offered fresh insight into how much some European officials are
convinced of U.S. culpability.
COLLECTIVE SILENCE
When the needle of suspicion points towards the United States,
European governments have fallen into collective silence. Denmark,
Germany and Sweden are investigating the destruction, but all remain
tight-lipped over who blew holes in the pipelines.
Last week, the three
countries told the United Nations Security Council that investigations
are "ongoing." Nothing was said about who is responsible. They only
stated that "investigations have not yet been concluded" and "it is not
possible to say when they will be concluded."
Not even allowing
access to members of the German Bundestag, all information on the matter
has been classified as "highly confidential" because of the so-called
third-party rule that prevents conflicts with the interests of allied
states or their intelligence services.
"Even if the Germans,
Swedes or Danes themselves found some evidence of U.S. involvement in
the explosions, they would hardly talk about them because they would not
be able to take such responsibility," said Igor Yushkov, a leading
analyst of Russia's National Energy Security Fund.
Besides, U.S.
corporate media have overwhelmingly brushed aside Hersh's report. A
study by independent watchdog journalism MintPress News analyzed the 20
most influential publications in the United States, and found only four
mentions of the report.
"What's most strange
in this case is that U.S. mainstream media with political and social
influence, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, have
deliberately remained indifferent and silent when Hersh, a veteran
journalist who has proved his credibility in his investigations in the
past, published his latest investigation of the Nord Stream blasts,"
wrote Singapore's Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao on Feb. 11.
"When we see this
kind of thing (the Nord Stream blasts) going on, we go to somebody who
might be able to protect us and might be able to get the word out. Now,
this was two weeks ago. Has The New York Times mentioned Seymour Hersh's
article? Or has it even reported the denials? No, not yet. This is
quite (as what) the Germans would say, merkwurdig (strange)," former CIA
analyst Ray McGovern addressed the UN Security Council recently.
WHO BENEFITS MOST?
A recent report by Indian news website Firstpost quoted Hersh as
saying that the United States saw energy alternatives for Europe as a
"threat," and the Biden administration feared that Europe would "walk
away" from the Ukraine crisis if it felt the need for Russian fuel
carried by the pipeline, which was under sanctions.
"The fear of losing
European support in the Ukraine conflict made the U.S. to take out the
only option Europe had should it want to restart buying fuel from
Russia," Hersh argued.
Just like Hersh, many others believing in U.S. sabotage also noted its strategic and economic motives behind the scenes.
"The U.S. did not
like the close economic relations between Germany and Russia. They are
doing something or they could try to do something that could break these
relations," Gunnar Beck, a member of the European Parliament, said,
adding that Washington was guided by strategic reasons to close Russia's
energy and economic ties with Germany and most countries in Western and
Eastern Europe.
✓ From the political
and economic perspective, the United States is the major beneficiary of
the incident, former Advisor to the French Defense Ministry Alain Corvez
told the China Global Television Network on Feb. 14.
✓ Italian journalist
Gilberto Trombetta also said that Hersh's report is credible because the
only one who would certainly benefit from the blasts is the United
States.
✓ Hersh's disclosure is
"not impossible" because the United States has benefited the most from
the incident as it can sell gas to Europe at a much higher price, in
addition to exerting pressure on Russia, Croatian security expert Mirko
Vukobratovic said on Feb. 21.
Meanwhile, calls for a
thorough probe into the incident to restore truth have mounted across
the world. For example, Sachs told the UN Security Council in a briefing
on Feb. 21 that an investigation by the Security Council into the
explosions is a high global priority.
Noting the Nord
Stream pipelines are major transboundary infrastructure and energy
transportation arteries, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang
Wenbin said that China supports speeding up the investigation into the
blasts to swiftly find out the truth.
Applauding China's
call, Vukobratovic said: "The Chinese position that the investigation
must be objective and impartial is the only correct one. Only when it is
carried out professionally can we talk about the intentions of those
who caused the explosion."
UN
Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary
A. DiCarlo also stressed the importance of "search for the truth"
regarding the matter."
READ MORE
‘I think this might be again a sign that Russia is intent on doing whatever it believes it needs to do’
EXCERPT:
KEILAR: “Do you think Russia's behind the sabotage of the pipelines?”
BRENNAN: “Well, I think all the signs point to some type of sabotage.
These pipelines are only in about 200 feet or so of water and Russia
does have an undersea capability to -- that would easily lay explosive
devices by those pipelines. And I do think it's a signal to Europe that
Russia could reach beyond Ukraine's borders. So, who knows what he might
be planning next, but I think this is clearly an act of sabotage of
some sort and Russia is certainly the most likely suspect.”
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