Well-known US journalist claims: US blew up Nord Stream pipelines UNO: Air traffic will reach pre-corona levels again this year

It’s all about this

In September last year, a total of four explosions took place on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The pipelines running through Sweden and Denmark were built to transport Russian gas, particularly to Germany. According to Swedish research, it is clear that it was sabotage – explosive residues were discovered in the leaks.

As a result, it remains unclear who was responsible for the alleged attacks. A series of accusations followed. On the one hand Russia was suspected, on the other hand there were also several voices that saw possible motives on the part of the US. The background to this was pre-war statements by President Joe Biden that “there would be no more Nord Stream 2” if Russia invaded Ukraine. He also said, “We will put an end to this.”

The US spoke out against the Nord Stream project from the start because it feared that Europe would become more dependent on Russia. In addition, Nord Stream would have limited the ability of the Americans to sell their own liquefied gas to the Europeans.

The case at a glance:

This is what Seymour Hersh writes

Now the well-known American journalist Seymour Hersh is fueling speculation that the US was involved in the explosions – in fact, he is certain that the US is responsible for the leaks and has thus buried them. Hersh writes in an article on his own website that US Navy divers planted explosives on the pipelines last June under the guise of a NATO exercise called BALTOPS 22.

In September, these were then detonated remotely. The operation was ordered by the White House itself, and the United States received support from Norway. The US Secret Service CIA was responsible for planning and execution.

Hersh refers to a single source reportedly within the narrow circle of US leaders. In his text he gives an extensive account of what the planning and background of the action should have looked like.

The response of the US government

Official responses from the US state apparatus immediately followed Hersh’s release:

“This claim is completely false,” a CIA spokesman told AFP. The White House also responded, saying the claim that the United States was behind the blasts was “absolutely false and complete fiction,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said. The US State Department has issued a similar statement.

Who is Seymour Hersh?

Seymour Hersh is one of America’s best-known investigative journalists. Already in 1969 he gained international fame. At the time, he was reporting on the My Lai massacre, a war crime committed by US soldiers in Vietnam that killed more than 500 civilians and which the US military first tried to cover up. Hersh received the Pulitzer Prize for this revelation.

In the decades that followed, Hersh continued to publish critical articles that often concerned American authorities. At the beginning of this century, he also published about the prison scandal surrounding the American institution Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

How believable is Hersh’s portrayal?

Hersh’s reputation was great early in his career, especially after his publication of the My Lai massacre. His further revelations in the following decades were awarded several times with prizes.

In the recent past, however, more and more doubts have arisen about the performances of the now 85-year-old. For example, a report on the assassination of Osama Bin Laden under the Obama administration was controversial. Hersh questioned the course of the US operation and presented an alternative version, citing anonymous sources, according to Reuters news agency.

Adding to the controversy was a 2013 publication when Hersh accused Syrian rebels of staging a sarin nerve gas attack on a suburb of Damascus that killed hundreds of civilians. In 2013, several poison gas attacks on rebel-held areas were documented in Syria. It is not definitively clear who was ultimately responsible for the attacks. The US and several other Western countries believe that Assad’s army used sarin. Russia and Iran, as well as the Syrian regime, blamed the rebels – Hersh supported this version at least in one specific case.

The main criticism of Hersh is that in most cases he refers to anonymous sources. This became his trademark throughout his career. More recently, Hersh has been accused of not being critical enough of his sources. The fact that he sometimes referred to only one or a few sources also detracted from Hersh’s credibility. This is reflected, among other things, in the fact that well-known media outlets were offered Hersh’s stories, but repeatedly rejected them.