New Source Corroborates Hersh Account of Nord Stream Sabotage

Feb. 17, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Sputnik International reported yesterday that it has received information corroborating Seymour Hersh’s account of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines. The information came in an email forwarded to Sputnik by an American journalist in Russia by the name of John Dougan. According to the original email, from an American service member who took part in last summer’s BALTOPS22 exercise, on June 15, a helicopter delivered a group of conspicuous-looking American divers in civilian clothes to the exercise area. “My first thought was that they looked like a group of terrorists,” the source wrote, pointing to the individuals’ odd haircuts, mustaches and beards, and the absence of any military ID markers. The divers were said to have been greeted by a vice admiral of the U.S. Sixth Fleet and a group of individuals in plain clothes. The source did not identify the admiral, but Sputnik reports that the commander of the 6th Fleet at the time was Vice Adm. Eugene Black.

The email source took note of the men’s MK29 military-issue rebreather systems, which use an oxygen-helium mixture for deep-sea diving. He also noticed that the men had other high-grade expensive equipment, not in use by ordinary Navy units, and that they brought small boxes with them, contents unknown. The men identified themselves as participants in “de-mining exercises,” which were to involve sailing a small rubber dinghy to a specified destination, and find and defuse anti-ship mines. However, the divers didn’t seem equipped for this, the source indicated.

After their conversation with the U.S. commander, the men did not go to the exercise area, but instead “left their dinghy in their rebreathers and disappeared under the water for over six hours. There is no equipment that allows divers to stay underwater for six hours. The latest military equipment [allows] three or four hours maximum,” the email source noted.

Dougan told Sputnik that the author of the email had sent him details, verifying that his identity, including a photo of himself from the BALTOPS22 drill, a military ID, and passport photo. Dougan couldn’t share this information in the interest of protecting the source’s identity.