Famous investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has published an explosive story saying it was the USA Navy who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea in 2022. The critical pipelines, which bypassed Ukraine and supplied gas from Russia to Europe, were destroyed in ‘mysterious’ blasts near the island of Bornholm in September 2022.
Hersh, now 85 years old, had won the Pulitzer Prize, considered the highest award in investigative journalism, for exposing the US military’s brutal Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam. Over the years, he has also done a number of explosive stories about the Watergate Scandal, the torture of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison at the hands of US military personnel.
In a story published on Substack, Hersh stated that a team of expert divers from the US Navy’s Diving and Salvage Centre, an elite diving training facility located in Panama City, Florida, had planted explosives to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
He says that the C4 explosives were attached to the pipelines by the elite divers team during BALTOPS 22, a NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea in June 22.
Hersh has openly stated what was speculated by many since the critical energy infrastructure was blown up right when Europe was looking at an energy crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
His article states that the Norwegian authorities had cooperated with the USA Navy for the operation and a surveillance aircraft of the Norway Navy had dropped a sonar buoy that used a signal to trigger the C4 explosives attached to the pipelines months ago by the US Navy divers team.
Nordstream pipeline explosion
2 pipelines, collectively called Nord Steam 1, have been carrying gas from Russia to Germany for over a decade. The Nord Stream 2, though complete, was not supplying gas yet due to diplomatic conflicts over it. The majority stakes in the pipelines are held by Russia’s government-owned energy giant Gazprom. A minority stake is held by 4 European energy companies, 2 German and one each from France and Netherlands.
At the time of the explosion, though the supply of natural gas was halted due to conflict between NATO and Russia, the pipelines were filled with gas.
USA has been vehemently opposed to Norstream 1 and 2
It is notable here that the USA has been vehemently opposed to the Nord Stream pipelines, stating that these pipelines increase Europe’s dependability on Russia for energy needs. After the mysterious explosions in the pipelines, USA and Ukraine had even gone ahead to blame Russia for it.
US President Biden had even famously declared that they would bring an end to Nord Stream 2 if Russia crossed the border of Ukraine.
Biden: "I promise you, we will end Nordstream 2"
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) February 8, 2023
Feb 9, 2022 pic.twitter.com/fVADdRWqcm
It is notable here that the government officials in Denmark and Sweden had refused to share the findings of their investigation into the explosions in the pipeline with Russia and even to include Russia in the investigation. Recently, Germany stated that they have found no proof of Russia’s complicity in blowing up the pipelines. A number of experts opined that Russia has nothing to gain from blowing up the pipelines since they are a major source of revenue for the Russian government.
It is notable here that after the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines, the USA stands to gain significantly as it rises up to be the main energy supplier for many European nations. After Seymour Hersch’s story broke, a number of videos, featuring undersecretary of state Victoria Nuland, have been doing rounds on social media where they are seen declaring that non-functional Nord Stream pipelines are in USA’s interest, and rejoicing that the Nordstream 2 is now ‘a hunk of metal’ at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The White House, in the meanwhile, has stated that the allegations are “utterly false”.
