By Mike Scruggs
Category: Mike Scruggs' Column

Bitter Opposition within Intelligence Agencies W

Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh

On September 26, 2022, six HC explosive packages, each with the power of a one-thousand pound bomb or torpedo, exploded beneath the Baltic Sea near the Danish island of Bornholm. Both of the double-pipe Nordstream 1 lines and one of the double-pipe Nordstream 2 were rendered inoperable. There was also massive environmental damage from gasses released into the water. Nordstream 1 had been supplying 40 percent of Germany’s natural gas before the Ukraine War sanctions. Nordstream 2 had not opened yet. The $25 billion plus pipelines were 51 percent owned by the Russian energy company Gazprom, and the rest by German, Dutch, British, Swiss, and Austrian energy companies.

On February 8, 2023, celebrated Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, published an article entitled “How America Took Out the Nordstream Pipeline.” In this article he named President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan as the core planning group and the CIA as the principal agency for carrying out the plan. The final execution order would go directly from Joe Biden to CIA Director William Burns, but Hersh does not indicate Burns was a major advocate of the plan. The famous 2008 Burns cable title from Moscow as U.S. Ambassador to Russia concerning NATO expansion, “Nyet means Nyet”(No means No) indicates a cautious attitude toward testing Russian national security redlines. The core influencers seemed to be Sullivan and Nuland.  In last week’s article I mentioned that Biden, Nuland, and Sullivan were all heavily involved in the violent, heavily Soros-financed 2014 Maidan Coup that removed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, elected in 2010, and who was soon replaced by billionaire oligarch Petro Poroshenko, who was more favorable to the United States, NATO, and the European Union. 

On February 14, the major daily newspaper, the Berliner Zeitung [Times], published an interview of Hersh by reporter Fabian Scheider. So far, I cannot find a complete translation of it from German to English, but a number of online sources have published key quotes and commentary. Some of the translations were machine translations needing minor changes for better grammatical clarity.

Biden’s core planning group knew that the plan had to be kept within a limited circle of need-to-know upper echelons and selected technical personnel. Yet they used the previous threats in January and February 2022  by Biden and Nuland to end the pipelines to  downgrade the official classification so it would not be officially named a Covert Operation, which would require Congressional oversight. Executing an operation, which was really an Act of War against the Russian Federation and Germany and several other Nordstream supplied nations without oversight and approval of Congress is tantamount to treason and certainly impeachable. Congress was thus blindsided into allowing acts that could ruin the nation’s reputation for integrity, do terrible damage to our allies,  and risk major war with Russia.

Although the Nordstream scandal may turn out to be the biggest and most shameful foreign policy disaster in decades,  even pushing Europe and America toward  the incalculable disaster of world war, mainstream media is giving it little or no coverage and desperately trying to discredit the story and its author. The whole affair is indicative of deep moral corruption in Western media and government. The implications for civilizational decline are alarming.   

Hersh pointed out that the Nordstream sabotage operation was strongly opposed by many who were involved, particularly in the CIA. He avoids mentioning other intelligence agencies to protect them, mentioning that some of his informants might be subject to prison. Several online translations and commentary imply that the Secret Service and National Security Agency might have been involved. Hersh explained that many participants in the operation were against it.

Here is a quotation recorded in the February 15 issue of the Executive Intelligence Review:

“At some point after the Russians invaded and then when the operation was completed, the whole thing became increasingly repugnant to the people who were doing it. These were people who worked in top positions in the intelligence services and were well trained. They turned against the project; they thought it was crazy. A short time after the attack, after they had done what they were ordered to do , there was a lot of anger and feelings of rejection among those involved in the operation. That’s one of the reasons why I learned so much. And I will tell you something else. The people in America and Europe who build pipelines know what happened. I’ll tell you something important. The people who own companies that build pipelines know the story. I didn’t get the story from them, but I quickly learned that they know.” 

Apparently referring to Secretary Blinken’s off-hand remarks a few days after the sabotage that America might profit considerably from LNG sales to Europe, the Berliner Zeitung reporter asked if the U.S. blew up the pipelines to weaken Germany and sell them American LNG. Hersh’s reply was:

“I don’t think they have thought it through thoroughly. I know that sounds strange. I don’t think Secretary of State Blinken and some others in government are deep thinkers. There are certainly people in the American business community who like the idea of us becoming more competitive. We sell liquified natural gas at extremely high profit; we make a lot of money from it.”

Of course, LNG would have to be shipped from the U.S. to Europe, which might be vulnerable to Russian interference when there is war or a threat of war. The Zeitung reporter then asked, “Should Germany see this as an act of war?” Hersh responded:

“I would put it more simply. The people who were involved in the operation saw that the President wanted to freeze Germany for his short-term political goals, and that horrified them. I am talking about Americans who are very loyal to the United States. In the CIA, as I put in my article, you work for power and not for the Constitution.”

The following quotes were taken from the online Algora Blog, online Orinoco Tribune, and SOTT.net, although several others were also consulted:

“It scares me that the president is ready for something like this. And people who carried out this mission believed that the president was aware of what he was doing to the German people, who he was punishing . And in the long run, it will not only damage his reputation as president, but also cause serious political damage. It will be a stigma for the United States…But even within the CIA community, many were extremely unhappy with America’s treatment of an ally. Even this community is appalled that Biden had decided to expose Europe to the cold in order to support a war he will not win. That, to me, is disgusting.”

“Many participants in the covert operation, who held high positions in the ‘secret service’ opposed the plan, considering it insane. People who participated in the operation saw that the president was ready to freeze Germany in the name of his momentary political goals, and they were really horrified by it.”

“I am sure there were some people who thought, ‘wow, this is going to give the U.S. economy a long-term boost.’ But I think the White House, I think they have always been obsessed with re-election and they wanted to win the war. They wanted victory. They wanted Ukraine to magically win somehow…I think we got caught up in something that won’t work. War won’t end up well for this government.”

One thing Hersh pointed out was that there were eight HC packages planted but only six worked. Only two divers were used. Were the failed HC packages too water-soaked?  Are they still beneath the Baltic Sea, potential hazards to the remaining Nordstream 2 pipeline?  The most detail on the actual planting, flight data of the Norwegian Navy P8 patrol aircraft delivering the detonating signal device, and detonation of the HC explosive packages can be found on SOTT.net. One SOTT expert analyst, “Analyst Monkeywerx” believes the HC packages might actually have been planted in early September, because there was too much Baltic traffic generated by NATO exercises in June. He also believes there may have been two delivery aircraft. The U.S. Navy’s huge LHD-3 clandestine-equipped assault ship Kearsarge was still in the Baltic Sea near the German island of Fehmarn in September. 

The September 26 timing of the attack may have come after the Biden Administration had realized that the Kharkiv and Kherson Ukrainian counteroffensives, although regaining considerable territory, had resulted in disastrous disproportionate casualties for the Ukrainian Army at the hand of Russian “artillery trap” strategy. Ukrainian casualties were so high and Russian mobilization and increased deployment in the war zone, and Russian air and rocket superiority so great that the tide of war turned to an unmistakable Russian advantage. There was danger that the Germans especially might back off of sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine.

Alexander Mercouris’s daily online video intelligence report from London recently reviewed British, Russian, and independent estimates of Russian and Ukrainian casualties. The Russian Federation and its allies have had only about 20,000 dead, while the Ukrainians have over 156,000 dead or missing. The Ukrainians as well as many of their NATO suppliers are also running low on many weapons and munitions. Russian weapon and munitions supplies continue to be a decided Russian advantage.   

There still remains a question of how much and when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz knew about Biden’s plan to strike the Nordstream pipelines.  Recent polls show support for Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Ukrainian War wearing away, with only the Greens solidly behind the war, and conservatives overwhelmingly opposed to it. (See last week’s article.)

According to SOTT.net, Hersh told the Berliner Zeitung:

“As I said before, it seems obvious that what happened to Nordstream is an open secret in security and government circles, and that truth simply can’t be acknowledged, because nobody in the German government wants to live with the political consequences.”

Hersh also commented on the involvement of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The Swedes and Danes knew what was going on but may have been tenuous about approval. Some U.S. intelligence personnel believe they may have been misled.

The Russians still believe both the UK and Poland were heavily involved, and that Hersh’s sources were too limited or that Hersh deliberately excluded their mention.

The Republican majority in the U.S. House has so far not indicated much interest in investigating the Nordstream Pipeline scandal, although its implications are huge.  However, Missouri U.S. Senator Josh Hawley has clearly turned against the Ukraine War. Both the Ron Paul Institute and Politico believe Donald Trump will be the main peace candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election.  

Joe Biden is arguably the most dishonest, corrupt, incompetent, and dangerous president in American history. He could prove a nation-destroying president. Congressional investigation of these issues is urgent and imperative.

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