Here is another damning expose by the 85 year old Pulitzer Prize winning American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh (picture below) whose research has led him to conclude that President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, Sweden, Norway and Denmark planned and executed the bombing of the Nordstream pipelines.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream-pipeline/
New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the US executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now
By Seymour Hersh
Feb 8, 2023
The U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center is in rural Panama City in the southwestern panhandle of Florida.
The Panama City center, which boasts the second largest indoor pool in America, was the perfect place to recruit the best, and most taciturn, graduates of the diving school who successfully did last summer what they had been authorized to do 260 feet under the surface of the Baltic Sea.
Last June (2022), the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.
President Joseph Biden's decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community about how to best achieve that goal. For much of that time, the issue was how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible.
From its earliest days, Nord Stream 1 was seen by Washington and its anti-Russian NATO partners as a threat to western dominance.
America’s political fears were real: Putin would now have an additional and much-needed major source of income, and Germany and the rest of Western Europe would become addicted to low-cost natural gas supplied by Russia—while diminishing European reliance on America.
Nord Stream 1 was dangerous enough, but Nord Stream 2 would double the amount of cheap gas that would be available to Germany and Western Europe.
The administration’s attention focused on Nord Stream. As long as Europe remained dependent on the pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with the money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia.
PLANNING
In December of 2021, two months before the first Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Jake Sullivan convened a meeting of a newly formed task force—from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the State and Treasury Departments—and asked for recommendations.
Sullivan intended for the group to come up with a plan for the destruction of the two Nord Stream pipelines—and that he was delivering on the desires of the President.
The CIA argued that whatever was done, it would have to be covert. If the attack were traceable to the United States, “It’s an act of war.”
CIA’s working group began to craft a plan for a covert operation that would use deep-sea divers to trigger an explosion along the pipeline.
Early 2022, the CIA working group reported back to Sullivan’s interagency group: “We have a way to blow up the pipelines.”
February 7, Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was firmly on the American team. At the press briefing that followed, Biden defiantly said, “If Russia invades . . . there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
Twenty days earlier, Undersecretary Nuland delivered the same message “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”
“The Norwegian navy was quick to find the right spot, in the shallow water a few miles off Denmark’s Bornholm Island . . .”
THE OPERATION
Norway was the perfect place to base the mission.
The supreme commander of NATO is Jens Stoltenberg, a committed anti-communist, who served as Norway’s prime minister for eight years before moving to his high NATO post, with American backing, in 2014.
Washington planners had to go to Norway. The destruction of Nord Stream would allow Norway to sell vastly more of its own natural gas to Europe.
Sometime in March 2022, the team flew to Norway to meet with the Norwegian Secret Service and Navy.
The Norwegian navy was quick to find the right spot, in the shallow waters of the Baltic sea a few miles off Denmark’s Bornholm Island.
The Norwegians and Americans had a location and the operatives, but there was another concern: any unusual underwater activity in the waters off Bornholm might draw the attention of the Swedish or Danish navies, which could report it.
Senior officials in Denmark and Sweden had to be briefed.
The Norwegians were key to solving other hurdles. The Norwegians had a fix.
The Norwegians also had a solution to the crucial question of when the operation should take place. NATO's Baltic Operations 22 naval exercise, or BALTOPS 22 would be the ideal cover to plant the mines.
The Panama City boys would do their thing and the C4 explosives would be in place by the end of BALTOPS22, with a 48-hour timer attached. All of the Americans and Norwegians would be long gone by the first explosion.
Then the White House had a new request: “Can the guys in the field come up with some way to blow the pipelines later on command?”
The team in Norway had to come up with a way to issue a successful execution order at a time of President Biden's choosing.
The C4 attached to the pipelines would be triggered by a sonar buoy dropped by a plane on short notice.
On September 26, 2022, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane dropped a sonar buoy. The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then on to Nord Stream 1. A few hours later, the high-powered C4 explosives were triggered and three of the four pipelines were put out of commission.
FALLOUT
In the immediate aftermath of the pipeline bombing, the American media treated it like an unsolved mystery. The New York Times later described the news as “complicating theories about who was behind” the attack.
My Comments :
When the Ukraine War began I stated that the real target here was Germany.
Germany already was the powerhouse of Europe and after the Brits left the EU (Brexit) Germany was also the clear cut political leader for all Europe. Germany was becoming an even larger economic giant and also a resurgent military power. For example most of the NATO armies operate Made In Germany Leopard tanks. The Brits were none too comfortable with that. Plus the Germans were Russia friendly. Both the US and the Brits were none too comfortable with that either.
This Ukraine War, blowing up the Nordstream gas pipelines and the NATO sanctions against Russia are now hurting Germany and Europe more. Russia is quite intact and still prospering.
But very loudly absent from this narrative are the British. There is no way the British were not inside the loop on the bombing of the Nordstream pipelines. According to the Russians the bombing attack on the Kerch Bridge in Crimea was carried out by the British SAS.
Most certainly NATO has carried out acts of war against Russia. When will the Russians retaliate? They will not retaliate now.
The war in Ukraine has to be concluded first. NATO has already been defeated. The war on the ground was lost early last year. The four Russian speaking districts of Ukraine were liberated and already incorporated into Russia. Putin is dragging the fighting to completely annihilate the NATO presence in Ukraine. And also achieve the political objective of splitting up NATO.
Putin, the US and Britain have a common objective : Germany.
Putin wants Germany as a friend and ally. The US and Britain wish to cut Germany down to size.
So when will the Russians retaliate? Against whom? And how? Its not over yet.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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