Investigators have misunderstood the indicators of harm on the pipelines, Max Blumenthal and Wyatt Reed declare
Western investigators, consultants, and the media overestimated the quantity of explosives used to explode the Nord Stream fuel pipelines and misplaced the precise location of the blasts, US journalists Max Blumenthal and Wyatt Reed argued in an article revealed by The Grayzone web site on Tuesday.
The pipelines constructed to ship Russian pure fuel to Germany have been attacked in September 2022. The undersea footage offered by Erik Andersson, a Swedish engineer who led an investigation on the blast websites, exhibits that a lot of the destruction noticed on the pipelines was “not a results of the explosions themselves, however from the fast launch of extraordinarily excessive strain,” the journalists mentioned, citing a number of specialists.
The primary publicly out there photos of the Nord Stream strains following the September 2022 assault have been captured by Blueye Robotics, a Norwegian agency which produces underwater drones. Whereas the footage did seem to indicate a stretch of destroyed pipeline, the journalists argued that the Blueye crew had doubtless “did not doc the scene of the blast,” mistaking the harm attributable to depressurization for the positioning of the explosion itself.
Michael Kobs, an unbiased investigator with an engineering background, mentioned the Blueye footage as an alternative exhibits “the results of mechanical pressure and the fast decompression of the immensely pressurized pipes.”
Each Kobs and Andersson say they consider the harm in query has led investigators astray, arguing the bombings occurred at completely different areas from what has been beforehand reported.
The footage reviewed by The Grayzone additionally seems to contradict prior claims from Western officers that “a number of hundred kilograms” of explosives have been used within the assault. Whereas Danish and Swedish investigators informed the UN that seismic information supported that conclusion, Kobs defined that “the seismic occasion gave the impression to be brought on totally by the sudden growth of the fuel,” and that “the precise explosions doubtless left no hint within the seismic information.”
The journalists estimated that as much as 50 kilograms (110 kilos) of TNT, or 40 kilograms (88 kilos) of HMX, have been used for every of the explosions.
The kind of firing mechanism employed to detonate the bombs stays unclear, nonetheless. Although sources cited by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh beforehand claimed a timed fuse was used, Blumenthal and Reed urged that principle was unlikely, as the one option to cease a timer “is to return to the scene of the crime.” The situation of the blast websites in well-guarded waters would make such an operation troublesome to drag off with out detection, it added.
Media retailers have superior a number of completely different accounts of the assault, with the New York Instances and a number of German retailers suggesting a “pro-Ukrainian group” carried out the sabotage with little to no assist from any state actor. Nevertheless, earlier this month the Washington Put up and two European businesses reported that US intelligence had discovered the Ukrainian army was plotting to destroy the pipelines and tried to stop the assault. Although the stories mentioned the unique plan was referred to as off, an almost similar operation was nonetheless carried out quickly after.
Hersh, in the meantime, claimed that the US orchestrated the assault on the pipelines with the assistance of Norway. Each Washington and Kiev denied any involvement within the sabotage.
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