{"id":229777,"date":"2023-02-20T12:03:48","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T12:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=229777"},"modified":"2023-02-17T05:41:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T05:41:29","slug":"media-ignore-seymour-hersh-bombshell-report-of-us-destroying-nord-stream-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/02\/media-ignore-seymour-hersh-bombshell-report-of-us-destroying-nord-stream-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Ignore Seymour Hersh Bombshell Report of US Destroying Nord Stream II"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">15 Feb 2023 &#8211; <em>It has now been one week since Seymour Hersh <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/02\/how-the-usa-took-out-the-nord-stream-pipeline\/\" >published an in-depth report<\/a> claiming that the Biden administration deliberately blew up the Nord Stream II gas pipeline without Germany\u2019s consent or even knowledge \u2013 an operation that began planning long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_229778\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Seymour-Hersh-nordstream-2-usa-ukraine-germany.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-229778\" class=\"wp-image-229778\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Seymour-Hersh-nordstream-2-usa-ukraine-germany-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Seymour-Hersh-nordstream-2-usa-ukraine-germany-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Seymour-Hersh-nordstream-2-usa-ukraine-germany-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Seymour-Hersh-nordstream-2-usa-ukraine-germany-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Seymour-Hersh-nordstream-2-usa-ukraine-germany.webp 1366w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-229778\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration by MintPress News<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Based on interviews with national security insiders, Hersh \u2013 the journalist who broke the stories of the My Lai Massacre, the CIA spying program and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal \u2013 claims that in June, U.S. Navy divers traveled to the Baltic Sea and attached C4 explosive charges to the pipeline. By September, President Biden himself ordered its destruction. But, according to Hersh, all understood the stakes and the gravity of what they were doing, acknowledging that, if caught, it would be seen as a flagrant \u201cact of war\u201d against their allies.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, corporate media have overwhelmingly ignored the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter\u2019s bombshell. A <i>MintPress News<\/i> study analyzed the 20 most influential publications in the United States, according to analytics company Similar Web, and found only four mentions of the report between them.<\/p>\n<p>The entirety of the corporate media\u2019s attention given to the story consisted of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 166-word mini <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2023-02-09\/russia-blames-us-for-nord-stream-blasts-threatens-consequences\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> in Bloomberg;<\/li>\n<li>One five-minute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DOqcwRTuf1Q\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">segment<\/a> on \u201cTucker Carlson Tonight\u201d (Fox News);<\/li>\n<li>One 600-word round-up in The New York Post;<\/li>\n<li>A shrill Business Insider attack <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/russia-embraces-hersh-claims-biden-blew-up-nord-stream-2-2023-2?r=US&amp;IR=T\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a>, whose headline labels Hersh a \u201cdiscredited journalist\u201d that has given a \u201cgift to Putin.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The 20 outlets studied are, in alphabetical order:<\/p>\n<p>ABC News; Bloomberg News; Business Insider; BuzzFeed; CBS News; CNBC; CNN; Forbes; Fox News; The Huffington Post; MSNBC; NBC News; The New York Post; The New York Times; NPR; People Magazine; Politico; USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>Searches for \u201cSeymour Hersh\u201d and \u201cNord Stream\u201d were carried out on the websites of each outlet and were then checked against precise Google searches and results from the Dow Jones Factiva news database.<\/p>\n<p>This lack of interest cannot be explained due to the report\u2019s irrelevance. If the Biden administration really did work closely with the Norwegian government to blow up Nord Stream II, causing billions of dollars worth of immediate damage and plunging an entire region of the world into a freezing winter without sufficient energy, it ranks as one of the worst terrorist attacks in history; a flagrant act of aggression against a supposed ally.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, if Biden did indeed order this attack, it is barely possible to think of a more consequential piece of news. Indeed, according to Hersh, all those involved \u2013 from Biden, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, Secretary of State Antony Blinken to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan \u2013 understood that what they were doing was \u201can act of war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Nord Stream attack was also one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weforum.org\/agenda\/2022\/10\/nord-stream-pipeline-methane-leaks\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">world\u2019s worst<\/a> ecological disasters, constituting the largest single leak of methane in history \u2013 a gas 80 times worse for the planet than carbon dioxide at accelerating climate change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe media system has, predictably, tried to marginalize the report,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheGreeneBJ\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bryce Greene<\/a>, a writer and media critic who has <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/us-medias-intellectual-no-fly-zone-on-us-culpability-in-nord-stream-attack\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">closely followed<\/a> the press\u2019 lack of interest in scrutinizing the Nord Stream story, told <i>MintPress<\/i>, adding,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>They don\u2019t want to deal with the repercussions. It also reflects poorly on the profession\u2026Even Jeffery Sachs in his <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/10\/04\/jeffrey-sachs-yanked-off-air-after-accusing-us-of-sabotaging-nord-stream\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bloomberg interview<\/a> said that journalists he knew personally understood that evidence, but also understood that the media system they worked in wouldn\u2019t respond kindly to any suggestion of US complicity, so they kept quiet.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Greene explained that bothersome facts about the war have consistently been swept under the rug, noting that,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is indicative of the entire Ukraine War coverage. From hiding the history of NATO expansion, to calling Ukrainian Nazis Russian propaganda, to CBS even retracting a story about Ukrainian corruption. The fact that US media figures want to be seen as \u2018on the good team\u2019 or \u2018on the right side of history\u2019 means that they\u2019re unwilling to confront reality as it exists.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Radio silence<\/h2>\n<p>This complete radio silence from most of the country\u2019s most influential news organizations is all the more remarkable, considering Hersh\u2019s revelations have been all over newswire services. Reuters, for example, has published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=site:reuters.com+seymour+hersh&amp;client=firefox-b-d&amp;biw=856&amp;bih=726&amp;tbs=qdr:m&amp;ei=fGfqY9O3AdOY8gLchYz4DQ&amp;start=0&amp;sa=N&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjT5bDM95L9AhVTjFwKHdwCA984FBDy0wN6BAgBEAY\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">14 separate reports<\/a> on the topic since Thursday. Every large media outlet in America (and many medium-sized and even small ones) subscribes to Reuters, republishing content from their newswires.<\/p>\n<p>One of the main tasks of a newsroom editor is to follow the newswire and follow up on Reuters\u2019 content. This means that editors around the country have been bombarded with this story every day since it broke, and virtually every single one of them has passed on it \u2013 14 consecutive times. Thus, even when repeatedly presented with free content to monetize, almost every newsroom in the U.S. decided against it. Independent, reader-supported media, however, have covered the story much more closely.<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that Reuters has been supportive of Hersh\u2019s assertions. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/ukraine-crisis-nordstream-idAFW1N34E01T\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first article<\/a> on the subject, for example, was entitled \u201cWhite House says blog post on Nord Stream explosion \u2018is utterly false,&#8217;\u201d thereby allowing the Biden administration to set the agenda and downplay Hersh\u2019s investigation as a mere blog post \u2013 something those in alternative media were <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/caitoz\/status\/1623426044689801216\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">quick<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealAlexRubi\/status\/1624503347137970177\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">highlight<\/a>. Hersh self-published his report on the online platform Substack \u2013 a fact that either undermines his findings or the credibility of the corporate media apparatus, depending on one\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most incredible thing about the backlash against Hersh\u2019s article on the U.S. blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines is the fact that it\u2019s clear no establishment media outlet has any intention of carrying out the basic journalism needed to confirm or refute what he\u2019s reported,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jonathan_K_Cook\/status\/1623664142534967302\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> journalist and <i>MintPress<\/i> contributor Jonathan Cook.<\/p>\n<p>Other journalists, particularly those <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/bellingcat-intelligence-agencies-launders-talking-points-media\/276603\/\" >connected to the Western intelligence services<\/a>, were scathing of the report. \u201cThe only people Hersh impresses any more [sic] are the sort of people who carry water for Putin and Assad, or the terminally dumb,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OJutel\/status\/1623393932205002752\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">quipped<\/a> Bellingcat\u2019s Eliot Higgins. Christo Grozev, another Bellingcat writer, labeled Hersh \u201csenile,\u201d \u201ccorrupt,\u201d and an \u201cobsessive liar\u201d whose \u201cirresponsible single-anonymous-source reporting by a name with legacy authority is among the worst damage to journalism anyone ever caused.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fact-checking website Snopes also sprung into action, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/news\/2023\/02\/10\/hersh-nord-stream-sabotage\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">calling<\/a> Hersh\u2019s claim a \u201cconspiracy\u201d that rested on a single \u201comnipotent anonymous source.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/radio-war-nerd-78596220\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a> with the Radio War Nerd podcast, Hersh fired back, claiming:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The New York Times and the Washington Post have just ignored me. What they think I should do is use [the source\u2019s] name, get him put in jail, stuff like that, which would end my career. I\u2019ve been doing this for 50 years. My Lai started in 1969, and I will tell you something\u2026I will protect people.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He also noted that he actually cultivated multiple corroborative sources for the story.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thank God we got Snopes on the case.<\/p>\n<p>Notice that they had absolutely nothing to say when random people were saying Russia blew their own pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>Now when there&#39;s a credible accusation of US complicity, they have to intervene to protect the discourse from &quot;conspiracy&quot; <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3urDxdspnj\" >pic.twitter.com\/3urDxdspnj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bryce Greene (@TheGreeneBJ) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheGreeneBJ\/status\/1624876731088658432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >February 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>A story like no other<\/h2>\n<p>According to Hersh\u2019s source, last June, under the cover of an international NATO exercise happening in the area, U.S. Navy divers based in Panama City, Florida, planted remotely-triggered C4 explosives on a section of the pipeline. Then, three months later, the order was given to blow it up. Navy divers were assisted by the Norwegian military, who found the perfect location; calm and shallow water just off the coast of Bornholm Island, Denmark.<\/p>\n<p>An earlier Nord Stream pipeline was already supplying Germany and Western Europe with Russian gas, providing a cheap and readily available source of fuel to heat and power the continent. With the introduction of the second pipeline, Europe would have become effectively energy-independent of the United States, raising the possibility that the continent might move in a neutral or independent political direction too, creating a powerful regional bloc of its own rather than the current Atlanticist (i.e., U.S.-dominated) model that prevails. The 760-mile pipeline travels along the Baltic Sea floor, from western Russia to northeastern Germany, transporting liquified natural gas into homes and businesses throughout Europe. As such, it represents a vastly more cost-efficient form of energy than purchasing American liquified national gas or fracked oil \u2013 something Washington had been leaning hard on Europe to switch to.<\/p>\n<p>Successive White House administrations had long made their opposition to the new, multi-billion dollar project publicly known. But Hersh alleges that the Biden administration began planning the sabotage in 2021, many months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_269804\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-269804\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-269804\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/AP_19039317326387_edited.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/AP_19039317326387_edited.jpg 1366w, https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/AP_19039317326387_edited-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/AP_19039317326387_edited-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/AP_19039317326387_edited-768x432.jpg 768w\" alt=\"Nord Stream 2 Sanctions Feature photo\" width=\"1366\" height=\"768\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-269804\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Tubes are stored in Sassnitz, Germany, during construction of the natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, Dec. 6, 2016. Jens Buettner | DPA via AP<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The choice to use Navy divers rather than members of America\u2019s Special Operations Command was reportedly down to secrecy. Unlike Special Ops, by law, Congress, the Senate and House leadership do not need to be briefed about Navy operations. \u201cThe Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks,\u201d Hersh wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, many in the know had cold feet. \u201cSome working guys in the CIA and the State Department were saying, \u2018Don\u2019t do this. It\u2019s stupid and will be a political nightmare if it comes out,&#8217;\u201d Hersh\u2019s source said.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Biden himself gave the mission the green light, and three months after it was completed, Washington pressed the button, destroying the pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>In the immediate aftermath of the destruction, Western corporate media were coy about the culprit, even <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/0rf\/status\/1583634943363940355\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suggesting<\/a> that Vladimir Putin himself was by far the number one suspect in the case. They also actively suppressed any other opinions on the matter, sometimes to a near-comical degree. Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs, for example, was abruptly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ESG14_DsUIA\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">taken off<\/a> the air by Bloomberg as he ran through circumstantial evidence suggesting Western forces could be behind the attack.<\/p>\n<h2>Can we believe this?<\/h2>\n<p>Hersh\u2019s account adds weight to Sachs\u2019 assertions. But is it credible? On the one hand, Hersh is a veteran investigative journalist who has built a stellar reputation over decades, working closely with government sources to break important news stories. On the other, his bombshell relies almost entirely on unnamed sources. It is standard journalistic practice to name and check sources. The Society of Professional Journalists\u2019 code of ethics states that \u201creporters should use every possible avenue to confirm and attribute information before relying on unnamed sources\u201d and that they must \u201calways question sources\u2019 motives before promising anonymity\u201d because too many \u201cprovide information only when it benefits them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without a name to go with a claim, there are no consequences for sources (or journalists, for that matter) simply lying to further their agenda. Hersh, therefore, is implicitly asking readers to trust his credibility and his judgment. Moreover, Hersh\u2019s sources are government and intelligence insiders. Part of their role is placing false or inaccurate information into the public domain to further the state\u2019s agenda. Journalistically speaking, then, anonymous government or intelligence officials are about the least credible sources imaginable.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, it seems clear that, given Washington\u2019s war on whistleblowers, no source would ever publicly disclose this sort of information unless they were ready to risk decades in prison. Therefore, they could reasonably qualify for anonymity.<\/p>\n<p>Greene took a nuanced position on the story\u2019s credibility, stating,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Is everything Hersh alleged correct? While it would surprise me if there were evidence of any other power being behind the pipeline explosion \u2013 which would mean Hersh\u2019s report is a complete fabrication \u2013 it would not be surprising if a few of Hersh\u2019s details don\u2019t line up, but that is common in journalism, and not always the result of bad faith or incompetence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe thing to remember is Hersh\u2019s sources are in the world of military and intelligence. They will lie, exaggerate, obfuscate \u2013 and of course get things wrong by mistake,\u201d Greene added, \u201cBut The compartmentalized nature of any bureaucracy \u2013 and the intelligence world especially \u2013 means that the full picture is sometimes murky, even to those considered to be \u2018in the know.\u2019 The fact that Hersh\u2019s source knows so much detail is remarkable but certainly not implausible given the history of high-level leakers.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Establishment journalists in US and UK hate and traduce Seymour Hersh for same reason they hated and traduced Robert Fisk: their work exposes our \u201cfree press\u201d as glorified state propagandists who follow the party line 99% of time. Truth hurts.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kennardmatt\/status\/1623603948945907714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >February 9, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Who benefits?<\/h2>\n<p>If the United States did indeed sabotage Nord Stream II, it was one of the least well-hidden and most signposted attacks in history. The U.S. and NATO had, for years, publicly made clear that they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlanticcouncil.org\/event\/stop-nord-stream-2\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">exploring options<\/a> to stop the project.<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks before the Russian invasion last February, Biden summoned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House, where the president made him participate in a bizarre press conference in which Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/biden-meet-german-chancellor-russia-ukraine-tesnions-rcna15190\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stated<\/a>, \u201cIf Russia invades \u2014 that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine \u2014 then there will be no longer a Nord Stream II. We will bring an end to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The event had the air of an adult chastising a misbehaving child, yet Biden was, in effect, telling Scholz to his face that his country\u2019s infrastructure might face a U.S. attack.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair to the president, he was merely repeating what many in his administration had been publicly saying for months. Both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/global-europe\/news\/russia-us-keep-door-open-to-ukraine-diplomacy-but-big-gaps-remain\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Victoria Nuland<\/a> and State Department Spokesperson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/energy\/nord-stream-2-will-not-move-forward-if-russia-invades-ukraine-state-dept-2022-01-27\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ned Price<\/a> had independently stated that \u201cone way or another, Nord Stream II will not move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, after the attack, the U.S. barely tried to hide its satisfaction. \u201cThis is a tremendous opportunity,\u201d Antony Blinken <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-canadian-foreign-minister-melanie-joly-at-a-joint-press-availability\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beamed<\/a>. The Secretary of State continued,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It\u2019s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy, and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs. That\u2019s very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_282150\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-282150\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-282150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/AP22249234775973_edited.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/AP22249234775973_edited.jpg 1366w, https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/AP22249234775973_edited-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/AP22249234775973_edited-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/AP22249234775973_edited-768x432.jpg 768w\" alt=\"NordStream Pipeline feature photo\" width=\"1366\" height=\"769\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-282150\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Police accompany a protest against sanctions on Russia while a banner with the inscription \u201cOpen Nordstream 2 immediately\u201d is held, Sept 05, 2022. Sebastian Willnow | DPA via AP<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Other prominent officials thought U.S. culpability for the blast was so obvious that they assumed that they would take credit for it rather than claim Russia carried out a false flag attack. Member of the European Parliament and former Foreign Minister of Poland, Radek Sikorski, for example, <a href=\"https:\/\/english.almayadeen.net\/news\/politics\/polish-eu-lawmaker-deletes-thank-you-usa-over-nord-stream-tw\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tweeted<\/a> out a picture of the blast with the words \u201cThank you, USA.\u201d Sikorski, married to U.S. national security state insider Anne Applebaum, later deleted his post.<\/p>\n<p>For Greene, the United States is near the top of the list of potential culprits. As he explained,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The charge of U.S. complicity is supported by a good deal of circumstantial evidence: The clearest answer to the \u2018cui bono\u2019 [who benefits?] question is obviously the U.S. Even before Hersh\u2019s reporting, German officials reportedly said they were open to the idea of Western complicity. So in that sense, Hersh\u2019s reporting is in line with what we already know (and what the mainstream media refuses to seriously discuss).\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Certainly, Washington has significantly benefited from the explosion. Its major competitor (Russia) has been seriously economically weakened, and European purchases of expensive American liquified natural gas have more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/energy\/us-lng-exports-both-lifeline-drain-europe-2023-maguire-2022-12-20\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">doubled<\/a> since last year. Norway, too, has gained from the blast and is now Germany\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/oilprice.com\/Latest-Energy-News\/World-News\/Norway-Replaces-Russia-As-Germanys-Top-Gas-Supplier.html\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">principal<\/a> supplier of gas, allowing it to make billions in profits.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In light of the Seymour Hersh bombshell on the U.S. and Norway blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, let&#39;s recall how U.S. officials openly incited against it for months, then blamed&#8230;  Russia.<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qp1d7Jx9ry\" >https:\/\/t.co\/qp1d7Jx9ry<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/V0Cy2JPSXI\" >pic.twitter.com\/V0Cy2JPSXI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dancohen3000\/status\/1623359947261071360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >February 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>A reporter like no other<\/h2>\n<p>Born in 1937 into a working-class Jewish immigrant family, Hersh cut his teeth as a crime reporter in early 1960s Chicago. He first came to national attention in 1969, however, when he exposed the massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. troops at My Lai \u2013 a scoop that won him the Pulitzer Prize. His revelations were far from welcome in establishment media, though, and he had to fight to get even a small startup newswire to take a chance on his story.<\/p>\n<p>In 1974, Hersh again caused a national scandal after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1974\/12\/22\/archives\/huge-cia-operation-reported-in-u-s-against-antiwar-forces-other.html\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">exposing<\/a> a massive Nixon-era CIA spying operation targeting hundreds of thousands of left-wing activists, anti-war dissidents and other anti-establishment figures. Again, far from being heralded, the majority of the corporate press <a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/lapdogs-redux-how-the-press-tried-to-discredit-seymour-hershs-bombshell-reporting-on-cia-domestic-spying\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">attempted<\/a> to defend the national security state and discredit him and his reporting.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty years later, he dropped yet another bombshell on the American public, exposing the U.S.\u2019 widespread torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it was reporting on the U.S.\u2019 role in the 1973 coup in Chile or undermining the Obama administration\u2019s claims on chemical weapons attacks in Syria, Hersh has courted controversy and attracted flak throughout his career. Yet his fearlessness has won him respect the world over. As journalist Glenn Greenwald <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7AIFmAyVv_g\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stated<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Seymour Hersh is beyond any reasonable dispute one of the two or three most accomplished, important and courageous journalists of his generation. Very few journalists on the planet \u2013 and virtually none who still work inside the nation\u2019s largest media corporations \u2013 can even get close to him when it comes to having broken more major, history-changing stories.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_229782\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Seymour-Hersh.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-229782\" class=\"wp-image-229782\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Seymour-Hersh.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-229782\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh<br \/>(Photo: Ap\/Eckehard Schulz)<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Severe consequences<\/h2>\n<p>It is for this reason that Hersh\u2019s reporting is so important \u2013 and why corporate media\u2019s steadfast refusal to cover it is so noteworthy. If Hersh is correct, the United States and Norway essentially attacked their supposed NATO allies, something that could have gigantic geopolitical implications. Article 5 of NATO\u2019s treaty states that if a NATO member is attacked, then all other NATO members must defend said country. Several NATO members, including the United Kingdom and France, possess nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, NATO will not declare war on the United States, precisely because it is, since its very inception, an unequal alliance. As Lord Ismay, the organization\u2019s first secretary general, explained, \u201cNATO\u2019s role is to keep the Russians out, the Germans down and the Americans in\u201d. In other words, it is a U.S.-dominated confederation meant to stifle the pan-European project that sought to reorient the continent away from serving the U.S. and towards becoming an independent regional bloc.<\/p>\n<p>While the culprit of the attacks still remains in doubt, many of the consequences are not.<\/p>\n<p>Germans \u2013 like much of Europe \u2013 have had to endure freezing winters amid enormous fuel price spikes. The dearth of energy has helped spark <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/world-nation\/story\/2022-10-03\/dread-germany-deepens-russia-war-ukraine\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">double-digit inflation<\/a> in Germany that has eroded the savings of tens of millions of people. Energy costs are causing vast numbers of businesses to permanently close and presents a crisis of competitiveness for European industry, which is struggling to compete with American and Asian manufacturers enjoying cheap fuel.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, huge numbers of European businesses are closing or reducing their domestic workforce in favor of moving production to the U.S., where, alongside cheaper energy costs, the Biden administration is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/59a8d135-3477-4d0a-8d12-20c7ef94be07\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">offering<\/a> them financial incentives to do so. The European Union has accused Washington of breaching World Trade Organization rules.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, it could be said that the invasion of Ukraine has marked a turning point in geopolitical history, whereby the United States is not only carrying out a proxy war against Russia, but engaged in an economic war against the entirety of Europe. If Hersh\u2019s Nord Stream story is true, it could send a shockwave throughout Europe and should cause long held beliefs about the nature of Europe\u2019s relationship with the United States to be challenged. Therefore, given the massive negative consequences of all this for Washington, perhaps it is no surprise that the revelation will not be televised.<\/p>\n<p>______________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Alan-Macleod-Bio-120x120-1.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-220239\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Alan-Macleod-Bio-120x120-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" \/><\/a>Alan MacLeod\u00a0 Alan MacLeod is an academic, journalist, and senior staff writer for\u00a0<\/em>MintPress News<em>. He is a contributor to <\/em>Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting-<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/author\/alan-macleod\/\" >FAIR<\/a>. <em>After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books:\u00a0<\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/Bad-News-from-Venezuela-Twenty-years-of-fake-news-and-misreporting\/Macleod\/p\/book\/9781138489233\" >Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting<\/a> \u00a0<em>and \u00a0<\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/Propaganda-in-the-Information-Age-Still-Manufacturing-Consent-1st-Edition\/MacLeod\/p\/book\/9781138366404?fbclid=IwAR2xQQWJd98C25wapG4ynmlEnGvL5wxG_mp5RwpBwtwPDxInjNZ1Oo7KD-E\" >Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent<\/a>,<em>\u00a0as well as<\/em>\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org\/index.php\/mt\/article\/view\/65\/56\" ><em>a<\/em><\/a><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/0306396818823639#articleShareContainer\" > number <\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1111\/blar.12940\" >of <\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fcomm.2018.00064\/full\" >academic <\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/0896920518820934\" >articles<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0<em>He has also contributed to<\/em>\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/alan-macleod\" >The Guardian<\/a>,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/writer\/alan-macleod\" >Salon<\/a>,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thegrayzone.com\/author\/alan-macleod\/\" >The Grayzone<\/a>,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/author\/alan-macleod\" >Jacobin Magazine<\/a>,\u00a0<em>and <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/alan-macleod\" >Common Dreams<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/media-ignore-seymour-hersh-bombshell-report-of-us-destroying-nord-stream-ii\/283677\/\" >Go to Original \u2013 mintpressnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>15 Feb 2023 &#8211; Hersh, the journalist who broke the stories of the My Lai Massacre, the CIA spying program and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, reports that U.S. Navy divers attached C4 explosive charges to the pipeline and President Biden himself ordered its destruction, an operation that began planning long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, corporate media have overwhelmingly ignored the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter\u2019s bombshell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":229778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[1035,1014,1268,755,1126,1050,2462,2937,112,818,961,2200,95,70,1594,481],"class_list":["post-229777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-eastern-europe","tag-energy","tag-european-union","tag-gas","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-military-industrial-media-complex","tag-nordstream-2","tag-pentagon","tag-proxy-war","tag-ukraine","tag-us-empire","tag-us-military","tag-usa","tag-war-economy","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}