Nord Stream, US propaganda at work to confuse the truth about the sabotage of the gas pipelines

WASHINGTON - The US propaganda machine aims to discredit the thesis proposed by Seymour Hersh's revelation in early February, which attributed responsibility of the Biden administration in the sabotage of the Nord Stream (1 and 2) gas pipelines on the bottom of the Baltic Sea in late September 2022. The New York Times opened its disinformation campaign Tuesday with the publication of an "exclusive" in which it quotes the usual anonymous government officials to explain that the operation was allegedly carried out by an unrelated "pro-Ukrainian group" to the Zelensky regime.

Hersh's article was greeted by an almost absolute silence in the "mainstream" press, but it quickly circulated on the net and in the independent media, fueling a rather heated debate and generating pressure on the US government and the alleged accomplices of the operation. Similarly, Russian calls for an independent investigation are also gaining support in Western public opinion, particularly in Germany, the main victim of the Nord Stream attack. What was urgently needed therefore was an alternative version that exonerated the United States and its allies from responsibility for the terrorist act. As usual, the New York Times has shown itself willing to play the decisive role of the Washington government's propaganda operation.

The article speaks of "new intelligence information", analyzed by exponents of the US power apparatus, which indicate that a "group" probably made up of individuals of Ukrainian or Russian nationality placed the explosive on the underwater pipes. Among the saboteurs there were evidently "expert divers" who, however, did not act on behalf of any country's secret services or armed forces. However, it is possible, explains the Times, that these specialists have received specific training from a government agency in the past. The fact that the team is defined as "pro-Ukrainian" however suggests the existence of a possible link with bodies attributable to the Kiev regime. Another point that the American newspaper is keen to underline is that no American or British citizens were involved in the operation.

This reconstruction appears unsustainable. In fact, it is practically impossible that a handful of people without connections to government organizations managed to reach an ultra-guarded area and then dive deep undisturbed and carry out an extremely sophisticated operation against an infrastructure composed of steel pipes 4 cm thick and covered with 11 cm of reinforced concrete. Equally absurd is another consideration proposed by the Times. The information collected by US intelligence would therefore have been shared with European partners, with the hope of contributing to the investigation and reaching a certain conclusion as to who was responsible for the attack. Propaganda aside, it is probable that the European governments, starting with the German one, know perfectly well where to look for the perpetrators of the attack on Nord Stream and, if there were any doubts, Seymour Hersh's investigation had provided an indication of the way to go to clarify the case.

Even more probable is that the intelligence information cited by the New York Times does not exist at all. The article is simple disinformation to confuse public opinion and drive suspicion away from the White House. The impression that the fake exclusive published by the Times is part of a coordinated initiative is corroborated by another story released a little later in some German media. The weekly Die Zeit, the ARD network and the SWR radio have also launched their improbable investigation into the Nord Stream events. In this case, a "yacht" would have been identified, registered in the name of a Polish-based company owned by two Ukrainian citizens, which on 6 September 2022 had left the port of the northern German city of Rostock with the explosives on board and all the equipment necessary for the operation. The boat would later stop on the Danish island of Christiansø, just northeast of the island of Bornholm, near which the underwater explosion would have occurred on 26 September.