A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist is doubling down on his claim that U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the destruction of Russia’s $11 billion Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Europe.
Seymour “Sy” Hersh’s report was published on Feb. 8 and cited a confidential “source with direct knowledge of the operational planning” who says that U.S. Navy divers attached to the pipeline bombs with fuses that could be detonated remotely at a time of Biden’s choosing.
The report was dismissed by both the White House and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
A month later, the New York Times ran a piece claiming U.S. officials uncovered new intelligence showing a pro-Ukrainian group was behind the sabotage. Many, including Hersh, dismiss the Times account as a fake story planted by the intelligence community to obscure Biden’s role in ordering the pipeline’s demolition.
In an article published on March 22, Hersh confirmed the legitimacy of his reporting while addressing the fact that mainstream news outlets in the U.S. largely ignored the report.
“The story gained traction in Germany and Western Europe, but was subject to a near media blackout in the US,” Hersh wrote. “Two weeks ago, after a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Washington, US and German intelligence agencies attempted to add to the blackout by feeding the New York Times and the German weekly Die Zeit false cover stories to counter the report that Biden and US operatives were responsible for the pipelines’ destruction.”
Hersh lamented that reporters with the White House press corps have not pressed the administration about the possible role U.S. officials played, simply accepting the official denials without further questioning.
He also cited a recent 80-minute meeting that Biden held with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington where no aides were present and the topic of Hersh’s report came up. A separate confidential source told Hersh that the heads of state discussed Hersh’s story and stated that intelligence operatives did plant false stories with media to deflect blame for the attack.
“There have been no statements or written understandings made public since then by either government, but I was told by someone with access to diplomatic intelligence that there was a discussion of the pipeline exposé and, as a result, certain elements in the Central Intelligence Agency were asked to prepare a cover story in collaboration with German intelligence that would provide the American and German press with an alternative version for the destruction of Nord Stream 2,” Hersh stated.
He added, “In the words of the intelligence community, the agency was ‘to pulse the system’ in an effort to discount the claim that Biden had ordered the pipelines’ destruction.”
