“The revelations of Seymour Hersh are pure fiction,” is the reaction of the Norwegian publication Journalisten.no. “Allegations that Norway and the United States were behind the Nord Stream explosions are completely untrue,” wrote another publication on the Nettavisen.no resource.
“This is, of course, just a frivolous fiction,” wrote a spokesman for the Norwegian Armed Forces, Lt. Col. Per Espen Strande in an email to the publication on Wednesday evening.
The Prime Minister’s Office sent Nettavisen their questions to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“These accusations are, of course, just rubbish,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman wrote in a response to Nettavisen on Wednesday evening.
So, the governments of the United States and Norway reject an article by journalist Seymour Hersh that accuses these countries of being involved in the “sabotage” of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
“This is pure fiction,” she said. Adrienne Watson from the U.S. National Security Council, while the CIA called the claim “completely false.”
The reaction of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry is also adjusted to the Americans. “These allegations are false,” the Norwegian diplomatic office said in response to inquiries from Norwegian publications.
However, we note that such a resolute “no” followed after a well-known pause. Norway’s TV2, which was the first to inform Norwegian audiences of the “Hersh revelations,” reported on Wednesday that they had been unable to get a comment from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. Obviously, they were waiting for instructions from the government.
Now criticism of Hersh’s message in the Norwegian media is built on the basis of its dubiousness. At the same time, they refer to the authorities: “Reuters was unable to verify the report published by Hersh.” Let’s say that the presented authorities are very doubtful for us.
On Wednesday, Hersh faced a lot of opposition from fellow journalists. One of those who criticize the publication is wanted by Russia Hristo GrozevLeading Investigative Journalist for Russia at Bellingcat* (foreign media, recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent).
“I hope I don’t live to be as senile, corrupt, or deceitful as Seymour Hersh, whose irresponsible reporting from an anonymous source, signed by an authoritative name, is one of the worst forms of harm to journalism that anyone has ever inflicted. Complete fiction,” Hristo Grozev wrote on Wednesday evening. So, Grozev’s Seymour Hersh is both “senile” and “authoritative name” at the same time.
New York Times journalist and former Vox content director Max Fisher argues that Hersh’s “report” is full of contradictions and inconsistent. “This simply doesn’t hold water – and sadly is consistent with the fact that Hersh has recently moved away from the investigative journalism that made him famous to unsubstantiated conspiracy theories,” Fisher wrote.
So, the professional competencies of the Pulitzer laureate, allegedly degraded by old age, are called into question. Seymour Hersh is described as a “scandalous investigative journalist”. His publications, of course, not all, questioned: “in recent years, Hersh has come under fire for several controversial stories.” By “contradictory” is meant Hersh’s allegations of false accusations regarding the use in Syria by the President Bashar al-Assad chemical weapons.
The Nord Stream ‘sabotage’ incident is being defiantly returned to the field of secrecy in the Norwegian media: “In February, German investigators found no evidence that Russia was behind the alleged sabotage at the Nord Stream pipelines.” The explosions took place in international waters, but in the Danish and Swedish economic zones. Both countries are conducting their own investigations, as is Germany.
In the meantime, already on Wednesday, the Norwegian publication steigan.no published a translation into Norwegian of Hersh’s investigation under the heading “How the US and Norway blew up the Nord Stream pipeline“.
Hersh’s score against Norway and the Norwegians looks like this:
“The United States had the desire, the motive and, as we have seen, the ability to commit the crime – along with Norway.” According to Hersh, Norway is a US accomplice in an act of state terrorism.
Most importantly, “Last June, Norwegian Navy divers, operating under the cover of a highly publicized NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted a remote-triggered explosive that destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines three months later.”
“The United States chose Norway because of its hatred of Russia and competence.”
“They [в Норвегии] hated the Russians, and the Norwegian navy was full of excellent sailors and divers who had many years of experience in very profitable oil and gas exploration in deep water.
“They could also be trusted to keep the mission secret. Perhaps the Norwegians had other interests. Destruction of the Nord Stream – if the Americans could handle it – would allow Norway to sell much more of its own natural gas to Europe“.
“One day in March some members [американской] the teams flew to Norway to meet with the Norwegian secret service and navy. One of the key questions was where exactly in the Baltic was the best place to plant explosives … The Norwegian navy quickly found the right place in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea, a few miles from the Danish island of Bornholm. The pipelines ran more than a mile apart on the sea floor at a depth of only 260 feet. It was within reach of the divers, who, operating from a Norwegian Alta-class minesweeper, dived … and installed C4 shaped charges on four concrete-protected pipelines.
“The Norwegians and Americans had space and operatives, but there was another problem: any unusual underwater activity in the waters off Bornholm could attract the attention of the Swedish or Danish navy, who could report it. The Norwegians joined the Americans in insisting that some senior officials in Denmark and Sweden be generally briefed on possible diving activity in the area. Thus, someone higher up could intervene and not pass the report along the chain of command, thereby hiding the actions of the pipeline.
“The Norwegians were the key to solving other obstacles. The Russian navy was known to have surveillance technology capable of detecting and detonating underwater mines. The American explosive devices had to be camouflaged so that the Russian system perceived them as part of the natural background, which required adaptation to the specific salinity of the water. The Norwegians also had a solution for this.”
“On September 26, 2022, a P8 surveillance aircraft of the Norwegian Navy made what appears to be a routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. The signal spread underwater first to Nord Stream 2 and then to Nord Stream 1. A few hours later, a powerful C4 explosive went off, and three of the four pipelines were put out of action.”
“To support such strange notions [об авторстве России над взрывами газопроводов]used as an “expert” by a college teacher at the Norwegian Naval Academy Steel Ulriksena man who is paid by our NATO military apparatus and therefore maintains zero neutrality.”
And here are the final conclusions on what happened at Hersh:
“The explosion destroyed the energy supply of Germany and part of the EU and must be regarded as one of the greatest acts of terrorism of all time, as well as an act of war against our ‘ally’ Germany.”
“Terrorist attacks on gas pipelines on the Danish and Swedish continental shelves are a declaration of war on Germany and the EU. By destroying the possibility of importing Russian gas, the state terrorists behind this criminal act, which was also a serious environmental crime, dealt a devastating blow to German and European industry and the economy.”
“Only the extremely naive and easily fooled can fail to see that there is more than a 95 percent chance that the United States carried out this act of war against its ‘allies’ in Europe.”
In this regard, opinions in the Norwegian media were obviously divided already on the first day of discussion of the “Hersh version”.
For example, the Norwegian edition document.no published a message under the heading “The United States blew up Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 with the help of Norway.” It refers to the “Hersh version” with confidence: “It was the Americans who blew up Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, and Norway was directly involved in this.” It was “Norway had its finger on the trigger.” “The date was September 26, 2022. It may have changed American history.”
The basis for this kind of activity is “The New Defense Agreement between the US and Norway – the Defense Cooperation Supplemental Agreement (SDCA) – allows the US to operate independently on Norwegian soil. They have extraterritorial rights.”
And here are the conclusions on the main personal responsible for what happened:
“Looking back, it was not hard to see that Biden and Nuland almost announced the sabotage of the Nord Stream”.
“Olaf Scholz gave the green light to the Americans to blow up the pipeline, which cost tens of billions and in which Merkel invested so much political capital.”
And here are the conclusions on the author of the exposure and its goals:
Seymour Hersh is an investigative journalist. He has good sources. Some in the administration wanted the story to come out: The United States blew up Russian pipelines to cut ties with Germany. Germany must resist the temptation to buy Russian gas.”
Summarize. Contrary to the biased claims of Hristo Grozev from Bellingcat* (foreign media, recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent) or Max Fischer from the New York Times, the “Hersh version” is internally quite logically built and it is reliably put into circulation. And here you should pay attention to this statement on Document.no: “Some in the administration [разумеется, Байдена] wanted the story to come out.” So the Americans confess to the Nord Stream explosions, to the obvious red lines being crossed, and then they ask, “Well, what can you do to us in return?”
*An organization that performs the functions of a foreign agent.
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