Seymour Hersh, whose deceit-filled journalistic career is replete with “bombshell narratives” based on unidentified sources (in D.C. circles, it is generally believed that only the anonymous tell the truth), has a new narrative to bedazzle the gullible: “that Navy divers, operating under the cover of NATO’s annual BALTOPS exercise last June, planted remotely-operated explosives that were detonated months later, last September” and thereby put the Nord Stream pipelines out of operation for an indefinite period.
Right-of-center commentators who ought to blanch at the name “Hersh” have picked this story up with minimal skepticism (e. g., “BOMBSHELL: Yep, It Looks Like Team Biden Blew up Europe’s Nord Stream Pipeline”), presumably because the story makes the Biden Administration look bad (albeit cunning and competent, the first indicator that it’s all make-believe). The post under the headline just cited concludes:
In the reader comments a while ago, I responded to one reader with something like, “This is exactly the kind of stupid move the kids in the White House might think is really clever.”
Hersh is not always the most reliable source, but between Nord Stream and Keystone XL, it’s fair to ask: What does this administration have against energy pipelines, anyway?
Many comments on that post and on an Instapundit item linking to it took it for granted that of course the sabotage must be “Team Biden’s” doing. Some even applauded it.
Now, I yield to no one in my confidence in the ability of the incumbent Administration to act foolishly, but Hersh’s tale stretches credulity beyond the snapping point.
According to Hersh, “the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022”, that is, after President Biden had waived sanctions on companies that were constructing Nord Stream 2, thereby making it possible for that pipeline to be completed, and before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Hersh has an elaborate and unbelievable explanation of why, having forgone the easy route to blocking Nord Stream 2, the Biden Administration decided to destroy it secretly. To add to the implausibility, an inter-agency task force – evidently of considerable size, “men and women from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the State and Treasury Departments” – discussed and approved the operation. Some of those in the know were, according again to Hersh, strongly opposed to it. Nonetheless, it remained a deep, dark secret in leak-rampant Washington, D.C. until an unknown person told his story to Seymour Hersh months after the fact.
That putative source is, by the way, well-informed about every aspect of the project’s planning and implementation. There was seemingly no concept of limiting information to those with a need to know. The source knows the details of debates among the planners, of discussions with the Norwegian navy, of the way in which the bombs were planted and detonated, and so on. The Houston Astros had better operational security.
Mr. Hersh has, in short, written the scenario for a thriller rather than a credible account of events that happened in real life. This isn’t his first time. He has not with age become less of a monger of hate-America fiction.
Further Reading: Jim Geraghty, “Joe Biden, the Unilateralist Cowboy Warmonger? Really?”, rounds up more reasons to relegate Hersh’s story to the shelf reserved for fairy tales.
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