The mystery of who planted bombs that destroyed Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline last year has been unraveled by an investigative journalist who says the U.S. Navy — at the direction of President Joe Biden — carried out the attack, which would normally be considered an act of war.
Amid denials from both the White House and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh exposed the explosive story after speaking with a source connected to the operational planning of the mission.
Fearing Russian President Vladimir Putin would have a major source of income from the pipeline, as well as Germany and Western Europe becoming “addicted to low-cost natural gas supplied by Russia,” Biden met secretly with officials within the national security community for more than nine months to hatch a plan to destroy Nord Stream 2 in a way that would leave “no overt clue as to who was responsible,” Hersh explained.
Top divers were recruited from the U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center and used the annual NATO exercises in the Baltic Sea — Baltic Operations 22, or BALTOPS 22 — as cover to plant mines that would be able to be triggered remotely at a time of Biden’s choosing.
Originally, the divers were to place explosives with a two-day window for detonation, but Washington worried that the explosions occurring just after the drills would make it obvious that the U.S. was involved, according to Hersh’s account.
The plan to destroy the two Nord Stream pipelines were “delivering on the desires of the President,” Hersh wrote. Officials also sought to conduct the operation in a way that would avoid congressional scrutiny.
“There was a vital bureaucratic reason for relying on the graduates of the center’s hardcore diving school in Panama City,” Hersh wrote. “The divers were Navy only, and not members of America’s Special Operations Command, whose covert operations must be reported to Congress and briefed in advance to the Senate and House leadership—the so-called Gang of Eight. The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022.”
Additionally, “The plan to blow up Nord Stream 1 and 2 was suddenly downgraded from a covert operation requiring that Congress be informed to one that was deemed as a highly classified intelligence operation with U.S. military support,” Hersh wrote. “Under the law, the source explained, ‘There was no longer a legal requirement to report the operation to Congress. All they had to do now is just do it—but it still had to be secret. The Russians have superlative surveillance of the Baltic Sea.’”
Adrienne Watson, a White House spokesperson, provided Hersh with an e-mailed statement saying, “This is false and complete fiction.” Tammy Thorp, a CIA spokesperson, wrote, “This claim is completely and utterly false.”
Shortly after the attacks, Danish prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the pipeline was destroyed through deliberate action. A Swedish investigation determined that the explosions were the result of “gross sabotage.”
Many have suggested that Russia was behind the attacks, but according to Hersh’s account, responsibility for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline destruction traces back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
As of the time of publication, Russia has not yet addressed the story or offered any hint as to what action it might take in response
