The media reported on an “investigation” by an American blogger into US involvement in the Nord Stream explosions. He has already been caught with fake news.
The 85-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh’s “investigation,” which asserts that the US Navy, CIA, and Norwegian Navy blew out the Nord Stream pipelines on Joe Biden’s direct orders, has been circulated by pro-Kremlin media and Russian officials. According to Hersh, US Navy divers planted C-4 explosive devices on the pipelines in June 2022 at key places selected by the Norwegians. The devices were positioned during a multi-nation military exercise, and three months later, a hydroacoustic buoy dropped by a Norwegian Navy P-8 observation plane remotely detonated them.
This article caused a real sensation, though only in Russia, The Insider reports. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov complains that such a “serious publication” has not been widely publicized in the Western media, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatens the United States with “consequences,” and State Duma spokesman Vyacheslav Volodin plans to prepare an appeal to the United Nations to “try Biden.”
Meanwhile, severe concerns are raised by the “investigation’s” evidentiary base. Hersh’s page, which had just been created a few hours prior, was used to post the essay on the Substack platform. His controversial allegations are all supported by a single, unnamed source.
Hersh is a former journalist who covered the Vietnam War for prestigious magazines including The New York Times and The New Yorker and received a Pulitzer Prize for his work. However, he has been without a stable work for the past ten years, most likely because he has recently been spreading conspiracy theories based only on “anonymous sources.” For instance, he relied on an unnamed “retired senior US intelligence official” to write a complete alternate version of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Additionally, he asserted without providing any supporting information that the US and Saudi governments supported the terrorist group Fatah al-Islam.
Hersh questioned the Bashar al-Assad regime’s involvement in chemical attacks against civilians. His essays on this subject were not accepted for publication by The New Yorker or The Washington Post. One story, for instance, asserted that instead of employing sarin gas, government forces accidentally hit a fertilizer warehouse while striking a jihadist gathering location, leading to numerous casualties. This article, which also relied heavily on an unnamed source, was carefully examined and proven to be false by Bellingcat: Hersh’s information regarding the attack’s location and circumstances ran counter to information provided by the OPCW, Western intelligence, the Syrian and Russian governments, as well as satellite images.
However, as a result of these publications, Hersh received regular invitations to RT and has since been promoting a pro-Kremlin agenda. For instance, following the poisoning of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal, the journalist claimed that “organized crime” rather than the Russian government was responsible.
Photo: REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad
