Germany coordinated with US to 'cover up' Nord Stream role: US investigative journalist

A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist in the US, Seymour Hersh, in his new report claimed that it was the US and Germany who were behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines that supplied gas via Moscow to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Hersh refuted US intelligence claims that the explosion on the pipeline was conducted by an unidentified pro-Ukrainian group and not the US Navy. The intelligence that pushed the blame of sabotage on the Ukrainians is a coordinated “blackout” at expense of US' role in the explosion, the investigative journalist said in a detailed report on his website. 

He stressed that the "blackout" to conceal the plot of sabotage started just two weeks after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Washington. Both US and German intelligence agencies "attempted to add to the blackout," he said. Berlin and Washington have been trying to "hush" the narrative that Biden and US operatives were behind the pipelines’ destruction. 

“There is no evidence that any reporter assigned there has yet to ask the White House press secretary whether Biden had done what any serious leader would do: formally “task” the American intelligence community to conduct a deep investigation, with all of its assets, and find out just who had done the deed in the Baltic Sea,” Hersh wrote. The latter accuses US of bombing Europe's critical 1,230 km twin gas pipeline infrastructure. US based journalist alleged that the undersea Nord Stream pipepile was damaged by the US in a "covert operation." Accrding to him, the $11-billion infrastructure, in the years ahead, was scheduled to double the volume of natural gas delivered from Russia to Germany. 

“According to a source within the intelligence community, the president has not done so, nor will he,” he said in wide ranging report. “Why not? Because he knows the answer.”

80-minute meeting with no aides

Hersh alleged that the German chancellor met with President Biden in Washington with "no members of the German press on board, no formal dinner scheduled, and the two world leaders were not slated to conduct a press conference, as routinely happens at such high-profile meetings." The visit only covered two public events—a brief pro forma exchange of compliments between Biden and Scholz before the White House press corps, and a press interview. Both Biden and Scholz had an 80-minute meeting. Around this time, there were no aides present, Hersh underscored. 

"I was told by someone with access to diplomatic intelligence that there was a discussion of the pipeline exposé," said Hersh.

"And as a result, certain elements in the Central Intelligence Agency were asked to prepare a cover story in collaboration with German intelligence that would provide the American and German press with an alternative version for the destruction of Nord Stream 2," he added. 

In its earlier probe, Russian Defense Ministry accused UK Royal Navy of sabotaging the pipeline. According to available information, Royal Navy representatives took part in the planning and implementation of a terrorist act in the Baltic Sea on September 26 to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines”, the MoD said. Later, CIA officials reportedly claimed that its officers informed Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Sweden, and other European agencies that at least three 'Ukrainian nationals' had tried to rent the vessels to execute the explosions around the Baltic Sea.