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Posts Tagged ‘Seymour Hersh’

Just when the media seemed to be settling on rogue Ukrainians in a rented yacht being responsible for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, comments by a Danish harbor master have muddied the waters.

On the second anniversary of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, the Danish publication Politiken posted comments from John Anker Nielsen, harbor master on Christiansø, the small Danish Island near the explosion sites.

Swedish engineer, Erik Andersson tweeted an excerpt from the Politiken article:

“For the first few days, the harbor master said he was “not allowed to say a thing”. But today, John Anker Nielsen can reveal that four or five days before the Nord Stream blasts, he was out with the rescue service on Christiansø because there were some ships with switched-off radios. They turned out to be American naval vessels, and when the rescue service approached, they were told by Naval Command to turn back. Therefore, the harbor master has some faith in the theory that American star journalist Seymour Hersh, among others, has put forward without any documentation: that the US was behind the sabotage. The Americans have these small unmanned submarines that can solve any task, John Anker Nielsen has been told.”

Erik commented further:

The harbor master isn’t making this up. He wasn’t alone on the rescue vessel ordered to stay clear of the American warships.

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Skepticism about these charges is running high given the apparent political convenience of the “private Ukrainian citizens” sabotage scenario. The German govt has been under pressure to identify the responsible party following the decisions by Denmark and Sweden to drop their investigations.

Many of us are waiting for responses from the insurers, Seymour Hersh, Erik Andersson, and other private parties who have been actively investigating the Nord Stream sabotage.

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No, because it provides no evidence in support of either of the two prominent Nord Stream sabotage theories: (1) the Seymour Hersh account and (2) the rental yacht narrative.

When the findings from important investigations are delayed, information leaks serve to control the narrative and satisfy political or economic objectives. Why are these intelligence organizations so eager to assign blame within the Ukrainian government? Why are the actual findings of the investigations not being released? Perhaps the WP and Spiegel reporters can answer those questions.

Former secret service agent Roman Chervinskyi in court in Kyiv in April; photo: Nikita Galka

According to the joint research by DER SPIEGEL and The Washington Post, Chervinskyi’s name is circulating both in Ukrainian and international security circles in connection with the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. The former agent allegedly coordinated the attack and also provided support for the specialist unit behind the sabotage operation.

Cautionary note:

People in Western security circles say that the Ukrainian security apparatus is plagued with rivalries and infighting, and that information obtained from sources there must be handled with caution.

both quotes from Der Spiegel

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Trying to keep track:

So at this time, some theories on the culprits appear to have dropped out. Those that are still in play include various versions of the Ukrainian rental yacht narrative and the Hersh account. Hopefully, the responsible parties will be identified, but given the political stakes, this is becoming increasingly unlikely.

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From Hersh’s substack:

The agency did its job and, with the help of German intelligence, concocted and planted stories about an ad hoc “off the books” operation that had led to the destruction of the pipelines. The scam had two elements: a March 7 report in the New York Times citing an anonymous American official claiming that “[n]ew intelligence…suggests” that “a pro-Ukrainian group” may have been involved in the pipeline’s destruction; and a report the same day in Der Zeit, Germany’s most widely read weekly newspaper, stating that German investigative officials had tracked down a chartered luxury sailing yacht that was known to have set off on September 6 from the German port at Rostock past Bornholm island off the coast of Denmark. 

“It was a total fabrication by American intelligence that was passed along to the Germans, and aimed at discrediting your story,” I (Hersh) was told by a source within the American intelligence community.

The comments following the “SHEERPOST” re-posting of the Hersh update piece are also interesting.

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This intelligence leak seems rather convenient in that it absolves both the US and Ukrainian governments, but who knows?

U.S. officials said that they had no evidence President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine or his top lieutenants were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials.

New York Times

Meanwhile, Seymour Hersh is promising a followup Nord Stream report next week.

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The corporate media is disinterested (which is a story by itself), but independent journalists like Briahna Joy Gray are coming to the fore.

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From a Hersh interview with Fabian Scheidler of the Berliner Zeitung:

  • 8 “bombs” were placed near the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, six of which exploded in a rather flat area. The explosives destroyed three of the four Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines. (This explains why one of the four pipelines wasn’t damaged. Presumably, concerns about the unexploded ordinance have been addressed by Sweden.)
  • Norway identified a relatively shallow area (80m water depth) near Bornholm.
  • It only took a few hours to place the explosives
  • No one in Congress was informed of the plan
  • In response to criticism about his reliance on unidentified sources, Hersh said that many of his articles were dependent on such sources. If his sources were named, they would be fired or worse.

Below is a very good Jeffrey Sachs interview (new) with appropriate pushback from the host Freddie Sayers. Nothing really new, but both Sachs and Sayers are informed and articulate. Worth viewing.

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link to the podcast

Much of the discussion was about his career and the state of journalism. Some of Hersh’s comments on his Nord Stream story:

  • He will protect his sources as he always has
  • The Nord Stream Pipeline sabotage was “stupid beyond belief”
  • “Pipeline industry knows what happened”
  • Only one major news show (Tucker Carlson) has contacted him and Hersh chose not to be interviewed
  • He was shocked that no other news organization pursued the story
  • He has received 1600 emails in 2.5 days since the article was published

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