German lawmaker slams Scholz's silence on US Role in Nord Stream blast
4 Min Read
Maximilian Krah of the German AfD party says the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's lack of reaction to the report implied that he must have been warned about the covert sea operation.
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In this photo provided by the Armed Forces of Denmark, a view the disturbance in the water above the gas leak, in the Baltic Sea, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 (AP)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's silence on the recent revelation by famed US investigative journalist and Pulitzer award winner Seymour Hersh that US navy divers planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines last year speaks volumes, Maximilian Krah of the German AfD party told Sputnik.
"Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning," Hersh wrote in his Substack newsletter.
Read: US military aircraft circled Nord Stream incident site in September
While separate investigations were launched by Denmark, Sweden, and Germany into the suspected sabotage, with German media reporting trust issues among the three EU countries, the Russian prosecutor's office announced an investigation into possible international terrorism. As for NATO allies, they said that the scale of the explosions in the Swedish and Danish waters suggested that a state was involved.
The main beneficiary of Russian gas, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, launched separate investigations into the explosions after Denmark and Sweden barred Russia from investigating the attack.
Member of the European Parliament Maximilian Krah said Scholz's lack of reaction to the report implied that he must have been warned about the covert sea operation, which was carried out last summer under the cover of a NATO Baltic Sea exercise.
"It is certain that the German government was informed of the sabotage beforehand by the Americans. This is the only explanation for Scholz's awkward silence. With the addition of a woke and irresponsible warmonger like [Foreign Minister Annalena] Baerbock, who declares that Germany is at war with Russia, nothing surprises me," he said.
Krah argued that the sabotage ended a long-term headache for the Scholz government.
"The problem is that this is tearing the German economy to pieces and significantly impoverishes Germany. Moreover, the billions spent by Germany on this gas project, which ensured us cheap energy, are lost, but the coalition which governs Germany does not care. Officially, Scholz knows nothing. Apparently, we live in a democracy," he added.
Cheap Russian gas benefited the German economy, Hersh wrote, as it fueled the country's post-war rise to prosperity and decreased Europe's dependence on the United States. A source with direct knowledge of the US operational planning was also cited by him as saying that Norway played a leading role in assisting the US to organize the attack and keep the Swedish and Danish navies in the dark.
Both the United States and Norway denied their involvement in the Nord Stream sabotage. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov criticized the sloppy handling of the news by Western media by saying that the article by investigative writer Seymour Hersh about Washington's complicity in the Nord Streams explosions did not make the rounds in Western media, which is surprising.
Seymour Hersh, one of the most decorated and impactful journalists of all time, is now on Substack.
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 8, 2023
And he's out with a scoop: the inside story of how the US government blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. https://t.co/Cw8yLcjeMY
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the statements made by Victoria Nuland, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, concerning the Nord Stream pipeline explosions show that Washington was complicit in the incident.
Nuland said that "the [US] administration is very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2" would no longer be operational.
Krah said it had been clear to the German opposition that the sabotage was NATO's doing. All attempts to accuse Russia were ridiculous and did not sound reasonable. The White House tried to accuse Moscow of self-sabotage in a string of calculated leaks but never provided a clear motive, beyond retribution, Hersh wrote.
"The State Department and the White House categorically deny it, but I was in Washington two months ago and all my American political interlocutors, Democrats and Republicans alike, had no doubts: it was the United States that organized or sponsored the action by the British, and it was Biden who personally gave the green light," Krah said.
"Democrats and Republicans in Congress disagree on everything, except on their willingness to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, especially toward China and Russia," the lawmaker added.
It is worth noting that Seymour Hersh exposed the US atrocities in Vietnam War and the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.
