US journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh published a new article last Wednesday (22) alleging that the German government was responsible for covering up President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion in September. from 2022.
The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were part of an $11 billion project planned to double the volume of natural gas delivered from Russia to Germany. A leak identified on September 26 caused four gas pipeline sites to explode.
According to an anonymous source with access to US diplomatic intelligence, cited by Hersh, during the German Chancellor’s visit to the US in early March, the CIA was involved in preparing a cover story in collaboration with German intelligence that would provide the American and German press an alternative version for the destruction of Nord Stream 2. The publication says that, in the words of the source, the agency should “pulse the system” in an effort to discard the allegation that Biden had ordered the destruction of the pipelines.
In his first investigation, Hersh claimed that US Navy divers planted explosives on the pipeline in June 2022 under the guise of conducting regular NATO exercises. Citing an anonymous source, Hersh claims that after three months, the Norwegians detonated the charges, destroying three of the four branches of the pipeline. According to the journalist, Biden made the decision to blow up the Russian gas pipeline after nine months of secret discussions with the national security team.
This Friday (24), in an interview with the China Daily newspaper, the journalist said the “Nord Stream sabotage has led to a crisis in Europe and US President Joe Biden will face serious criticism for his involvement in this”.
“The result is that the main source of energy passing through Western Europe has been cut off. So now Europe is facing a crisis. And in the future, this summer and autumn will be very difficult for Biden. He will face great criticism for what he has done. . It’s undeniable,” Hersh told the China Daily newspaper.
Understand the Nord Stream case
The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipeline incident occurred on September 26, when a gas leak was discovered at four Russian export pipeline sites located at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Sweden, Denmark and Germany are conducting investigations. In November 2022, the Swedish prosecution concluded that the pipeline leak was the result of serious sabotage. This confirmed suspicions that the explosions were deliberately caused by explosive charges, but the suspects have yet to be identified. German investigators are also looking into the circumstances of the incident, with no results yet.
Nord Stream leak / Danish Ministry of Defense / AFP
The Kremlin has classified the incident as an act of international terrorism. Commenting on the publication of the article, Russia noted that journalist Seymour Hersh’s investigation of the Nord Stream was not widely publicized in the West: “This cannot but surprise us,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Serguei Ryabkov said the publication of Hersh’s article “cannot fail to lead to consequences for Washington.” According to the vice-chancellor, the report confirmed the conclusion that Moscow had previously reached.
The US administration, for its part, rejected the accusations and classified the Hersh investigation as “pure fiction”.
Editing: Thales Schmidt
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
