Sy Hersh: Biden ordered German pipeline sabotage

[Jon Banks]

A German newspaper is also implying a Ukraine connection to the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage:

The German investigative authorities have apparently achieved a breakthrough in the investigation of the attack on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. After a joint research by ARD-Hauptstadtstudio, the ARD political magazine Kontraste, the SWR and the ZEIT, it was possible to largely reconstruct how and when the explosive attack was prepared in the course of the investigation. According to this, traces lead towards Ukraine. However, the investigators have so far found no evidence of who commissioned the destruction. On the night of the 26th In September 2022, three of the total of four strands of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea had been destroyed by explosions.

https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2023-03/nordstream-2-ukraine-anschlag

Interesting how these stories are breaking on the same day. Almost seems like a coordinated leak of raw intelligence.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

A German newspaper is also implying a Ukraine connection to the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage:
https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2023-03/nordstream-2-ukraine-anschlag

Interesting how these stories are breaking on the same day. Almost seems like a coordinated leak of raw intelligence.

This German report seems to be the work of four newspapers/news organization based, as far as I can tell, on their own investigation. I don't see any sources from any intelligence agency in the story, any leaks.

Key graft (google translation): "Specifically, according to information from the ARD capital studio, the investigators are contrasts [??], SWR and ZEIT managed to identify the boat that was allegedly used for the secret operation. It is said to be a yacht rented from a company based in Poland, apparently owned by two Ukrainians. According to the investigation, the secret operation at sea was carried out by a team of six people. It is said to have been five men and one woman. Accordingly, the group consisted of a captain, two divers, two diving assistants and a doctor, who are said to have transported the explosives to the crime scenes and placed them there. The nationality of the perpetrators is apparently unclear. The assassins used professionally forged passports, which are said to have been used, among other things, to rent the boat."

Hell, it could have been Polish intelligence?

[Jon Banks]

This German report seems to be the work of four newspapers/news organization based, as far as I can tell, on their own investigation. I don't see any sources from any intelligence agency in the story, any leaks.

That doesn’t mean that they didn’t get some tips from intelligence officials.

The fact that both the NY Times and this German publication published similar articles on the same day a few days after Biden met with Germany’s head of state is either a huge coincidence, or coordinated.

Perhaps both Biden and Germany’s leader, Scholz agreed to leak some of the intelligence that they have on the Nord Stream issue? I wouldn’t rule it out. Alternatively, US intelligence officials might’ve leaked the same info to both the NY Times and the German news outlet although the German article provides more details than the NY Times so maybe it’s not the same sources.

Lastly, I’ve long considered the possibility that it may have been the Poles or Ukrainians or both. However, blowing up multiple pipelines that are 200ft underwater in an area patrolled by NATO countries seems too sophisticated for Ukraine or Poland to accomplish without the help or support of the major players in NATO.

[Martin Weidmann]

That doesn’t mean that they didn’t get some tips from intelligence officials.

The fact that both the NY Times and this German publication published similar articles on the same day a few days after Biden met with Germany’s head of state is either a huge coincidence, or coordinated.

Perhaps both Biden and Germany’s leader, Scholz agreed to leak some of the intelligence that they have on the Nord Stream issue? I wouldn’t rule it out. Alternatively, US intelligence officials might’ve leaked the same info to both the NY Times and the German news outlet although the German article provides more details than the NY Times so maybe it’s not the same sources.

Lastly, I’ve long considered the possibility that it may have been the Poles or Ukrainians or both. However, blowing up multiple pipelines that are 200ft underwater in an area patrolled by NATO countries seems too sophisticated for Ukraine or Poland to accomplish without the help or support of the major players in NATO.

However, blowing up multiple pipelines that are 200ft underwater in an area patrolled by NATO countries seems too sophisticated for Ukraine or Poland to accomplish without the help or support of the major players in NATO.

It's all speculation. We may never know what really happened, but you seem a bit too desperate to find a culprit in the West. Why is that?

[Jon Banks]

However, blowing up multiple pipelines that are 200ft underwater in an area patrolled by NATO countries seems too sophisticated for Ukraine or Poland to accomplish without the help or support of the major players in NATO.

It's all speculation. We may never know what really happened, but you seem a bit too desperate to find a culprit in the West. Why is that?

The new details further confirm that investigators and even US intelligence officials don’t think the Russians did it.

I’m not desperate. I wish it wasn’t true but the most plausible explanation is that the US or a NATO country was involved.

I’m open to the possibility that Ukrainians, Poles, or some other group did it without the help of a state actor but it seems unlikely.

[Tom Scully]

That doesn’t mean that they didn’t get some tips from intelligence officials.

The fact that both the NY Times and this German publication published similar articles on the same day a few days after Biden met with Germany’s head of state is either a huge coincidence, or coordinated.

Perhaps both Biden and Germany’s leader, Scholz agreed to leak some of the intelligence that they have on the Nord Stream issue? I wouldn’t rule it out. Alternatively, US intelligence officials might’ve leaked the same info to both the NY Times and the German news outlet although the German article provides more details than the NY Times so maybe it’s not the same sources.

Lastly, I’ve long considered the possibility that it may have been the Poles or Ukrainians or both. However, blowing up multiple pipelines that are 200ft underwater in an area patrolled by NATO countries seems too sophisticated for Ukraine or Poland to accomplish without the help or support of the major players in NATO.

Archive link,  https://archive.is/HntrW
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/us/politics/nord-stream-pipeline-sabotage-ukraine.html
March 7. 2023
"Intelligence Suggests Pro-Ukrainian Group Sabotaged Pipelines, U.S. Officials Say
New intelligence reporting amounts to the first significant known lead about who was responsible for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines that carried natural gas from Russia to Europe..."

[Jon Banks]

Great clip about this topic