DISINFO: US blew up Nord Stream 2
SUMMARY
Nord Stream 2 has been thrown out by the US. But the fact that it was Pulitzer Prize winner Samuel Hersh who wrote about it is a serious matter. It drives a wedge between the US and Germany, and perhaps with the whole of Europe, and exposes all the lies that have been told so far about the affair, casting a shadow over the whole of war propaganda, which has never been as fallacious as it is today.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that the US sabotaged the NS 1 and NS 2 gas pipelines.
Investigative journalist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Seymour Hersh claims that the US was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year. In a self-published report, Hersh wrote that US Navy divers helped by Norway had planted explosives on the pipelines running under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany last June and detonated them three months later.
Claim that US blew up Nord Stream pipelines relies on anonymous source. Snopes portal asked Hersh to respond to factcheckers' criticism of flaws in his story and that his article's claims are based on a single source and also asked if any undisclosed parties verified or vetted any of that source's assertions as part of his reporting. In response, he told Snopes, that he protects his sources.
Recent Hersh work has been controversial and widely called out by journalists for promoting conspiratorial claims that hinge on dubious anonymous sources or speculation.
Examples of controversial claims made later in Hersch's career include allegations that Turkey, not Russia, was behind a chemical weapons attack in Syria, and that Trump authorized an airstrike in Syria in response to Russia's alleged use of chemical weapons, even while knowing Russia did not use such weapons.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson described Hersh's report as "complete fiction." A Central Intelligence Agency spokesperson echoed the White House denial, calling the report "completely and utterly false."
Asked about Hersh's claim that Oslo supported the operation, the Norwegian foreign ministry said: "These claims are false."
Sweden, Germany, and Denmark investigated the incident. The preliminary Danish investigation only found that the leaks in the pipelines were caused by powerful explosions. Sweden’s authorities found evidence of detonations, thus strengthening suspicions of “gross sabotage”. But so far investigations by Swedish, Danish, and German authorities have not pinned the blame on any one country or actor.
For a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the issue, please read Nord Stream 1 & 2 sabotage - disinformation a la MH-17. See other cases claiming that The US is instigating the war in Ukraine to boycott the Nord Stream 2 project, that The US planned the destruction of the NS and Poland did it; US benefits from Nord Stream sabotage and that the UK took part in the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines.