US denies involvement in Nord Stream explosion following accusations

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Feb 2023 12:38

Hersh's report has instigated a number of responses by top US institutes and officials, including the White House and Pentagon.

Picture from the air of the Nord Stream explosion that took place on September 2022

The United States denies again its involvement in the Nord Stream sabotage that took place last October, this time by a Pentagon Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Garron.

"The United States was not involved in the Nord Stream explosion," Garron told Russian news outlet TASS on Wednesday.

The spokesperson referred to a statement made by Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, during a briefing last October, claiming that the US "was in no way involved" in the sabotage.

On the same day, the White House also dismissed the claims as "complete fiction".

Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said, "This is utterly false and complete fiction," while the CIA and US State Department shared the same position, according to Reuters.

Some background

Famed US investigative journalist and Pulitzer award winner Seymour Hersh said on Wednesday that US Navy divers planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines last year.

"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.

"Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community," he said.

Frank revealed that two research ships took water and soil samples, as well as samples from the remains of the pipelines, noting that the whole incident was "comprehensively documented". "We are currently evaluating all of this forensically," Hersh added.

Flightradar24 data showed in late September that US military helicopters habitually and on numerous occasions circled for hours over the site of the Nord Stream pipeline incident near Bornholm Island.

Nord Stream AG reported on Tuesday that on September 26, three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines sustained unprecedented damage. Two explosions were later recorded along the Nord Stream pipelines, according to Swedish seismologists.

The multi-billion dollar project was constructed to supply Russian gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea.

Separate investigations were launched by Germany, Denmark, and Sweden into the suspected sabotage, with German media reporting trust issues among the three EU nations. The Russian prosecutor's office announced an investigation into possible international terrorism.

However, Denmark and Sweden have barred Russia from investigating the attack. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this exclusion highlighted the West's double standards.

Russia comments on Hersh's report

On her part, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, "We have repeatedly stated Russia's position on the involvement of the United States and NATO, noting that they did not hide it, bragging to the whole world about their intention to destroy the civilian infrastructure through which Europe received Russian energy resources."

"We have also regularly underscored the reluctance of Denmark, Germany, and Sweden to conduct an open investigation and the opposition to Russia's participation in it. And this is despite the fact that our country has suffered huge costs. Now, the White House should comment on all these facts," she added.