Seymour Hersh Details Implications of U.S. Sabotage of Nord Stream for Major Berlin Daily

Feb. 15, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh was interviewed yesterday by the major daily in Germany’s capital, Berliner Zeitung (in German). In the interview, Hersh described how only six out of eight explosives planted in June 2022 detonated under the Nord Stream pipelines, on Sept. 26, 2022, because Biden had postponed the special operation and the explosive had been under water for too long. “It was the story I wanted to tell. At the end of September 2022, eight bombs were to be blown up off the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, and six of them exploded,” he said.

The fact that the bombs had been under water too long and therefore did not detonate was a problem that had been identified by Col. Ralph Bosshard in his article “Sabotage of the Nord Stream Pipelines: For Once, the Question ‘Cui Bono?’ Is Not Sufficient,” published in EIR’s Oct. 7, 2022 issue.

Hersh further said that, had he been able in a Bundestag debate to question Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he would ask: “Did Joe Biden tell you about it? Did he tell you, at that time [at their Feb. 7, 2022 White House meeting], why he was so confident that he could blow up the pipeline? We Americans did not have a plan worked out at the time, but we knew we had an opportunity to implement it,” Hersh said, referring to Scholz’s meeting with Biden at the White House on Feb. 7, 2022. “The fear, however, was that the bombs would not work if they stayed under water for too long, which was actually the case with two bombs. So there was concern within the group about finding the right means and we actually had to turn to other intelligence agencies, which I have deliberately not written about.

“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 among those involved about the operation and rejection. 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.”

Did they do it to weaken Germany and sell them U.S. gas?

“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 the government are deep thinkers. There are certainly people in the American business community who like the idea of us becoming more competitive. We sell liquefied natural gas at extremely high profit, we make a lot of money from it.

“I’m sure there were some people who thought: Boy, this is going to give a long-term boost to the American economy. But in the White House, I think they were always obsessed with re-election, and they wanted to win the war, they wanted to win a victory, they wanted Ukraine to somehow magically win. There might be some people who think that maybe it’s better for our economy if the German economy is weak, but that’s crazy. I think that we have got ourselves into something that is not going to work, the war is not going to end well for this government....

“What I do know is that there is no way this war is going to end the way we want it to, and I don’t know what we are going to do as we look further into the future. It scares me that the President was willing to do something like this. And the people who carried out this mission believed that the President was aware of what he was doing to the people of Germany, that he was punishing them for a war that was not going well. And in the long run, this will not only damage his reputation as President, it will be very damaging politically. It will be a stigma for the U.S.

“The White House was worried that it might be on the losing end, that Germany and Western Europe would no longer supply the weapons we wanted, and that the German Chancellor might restart the pipeline—that was a big worry in Washington. I would ask Chancellor Scholz a lot of questions. I would ask him what he learned in February [in Washington] when he was with the President.”

When Berliner Zeitung asked about his source and whether he checked those facts, Hersh replied he could not reveal his source, who would end in prison. He confirmed that he checked the facts as he used to do at the New Yorker.

The daily then asked, “Should Germany see this as an act of war?”

Hersh replied:

“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 here about Americans who are very loyal to the United States. In the CIA, as I put it in my article, you work for power and not for the Constitution.

“The CIA’s political advantage is that a President who can’t get his plans through Congress can walk with the CIA Director in the White House Rose Garden to plan something secret that can hit a lot of people on the other side of the Atlantic—or anywhere else in the world. That has always been the CIA’s unique selling point—which I have my problems with. But 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 nefarious.”