New York Times and Anonymous U.S. Intel Officials Present Nord Stream ‘Nothingburger’

March 7, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Anonymous U.S. intelligence officials, in a “leak” to the New York Times today, pretend to place themselves at the front of the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines last September. Their laughably transparent performance, “Intelligence Suggests Pro-Ukrainian Group Sabotaged Pipelines, U.S. Officials Say,” begins with a reference to “new intelligence,” which, of course, can’t be mentioned or described. And, fortuitously, just as the Feb. 8 Seymour Hersh investigation gains traction internationally, the “officials who have reviewed the intelligence” just happened to get to work.

The meatiest part of the New York Times “nothingburger” reads:

“Officials who have reviewed the intelligence said they believed the saboteurs were most likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals, or some combination of the two. U.S. officials said no American or British nationals were involved. The explosives were most likely planted with the help of experienced divers who did not appear to be working for military or intelligence services, U.S. officials who have reviewed the new intelligence said. But it is possible that the perpetrators received specialized government training in the past.”

That’s it. Nothing is backed. The officials believe several things are “most likely.” However, the New York Times states that the anonymous “officials said it might constitute the first significant lead to emerge from several closely guarded investigations.” One might wonder how that “first significant lead” was missed in the first reading, but that’s what happens when one bites into a nothingburger.

A version of this New York Times intel game was played months ago, with the non-story that Western intelligence agencies had nothing to do with the Moscow car-bombing of Russian journalist Darya Dugina in August 2022, but they were able to point to unspecified evidence of suspicious, irregular operations around Kiev that perhaps had gone rogue. That Times article appeared roughly a week after a Schiller Institute conference exposed “Global NATO’s Thought Police,” the Ukrainian presidency’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) and Myrotvorets hit lists that had named Dugina.

Later, this new article adds that the officials “said that there are no firm conclusions about it, leaving open the possibility that the operation might have been conducted off the books by a proxy force with connections to the Ukrainian government or its security services....”

Otherwise, the Times is conspicuous for its inability to do more than mention the existence of Seymour Hersh’s investigation, dismissing it with: “U.S. officials say Mr. Biden and his top aides did not authorize a mission to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines, and they say there was no U.S. involvement.”