The US blamed Russia although it now claims it knew all alongside that “rogue” Ukrainians have been the perpetrators
Two years in the past, the Nord Stream fuel pipelines have been destroyed in an financial and environmental terrorist assault. The explosions severed a key financial connection between Western Europe and Russia, contributing to the de-industrialization of the EU and intensifying Russia’s financial reorientation in direction of China and India. The geopolitical ramifications have been immense, but we all know little or no about what actually occurred. How is that this potential?
The US and its NATO allies initially insisted that Russia was definitely the perpetrator, and their stenographers within the media reported confidently that “all the things is pointing to Russia”. No proof was offered, but NATO even advised the assault on its vital infrastructure may set off collective protection underneath Article 5. In addition to not directly threatening the world’s largest nuclear energy with conflict, the US-led army bloc additionally used the assault on Nord Stream to justify escalating the battle in Ukraine and to additional militarize the Baltic Sea and different seas. Strengthening NATO’s means to guard undersea infrastructure was additionally an vital argument for why Finland and Sweden ought to be a part of NATO.
The story of Russia blowing up its personal pipeline may depend on a robust consensus as all dissent to the narrative may very well be dismissed as repeating the Kremlin’s speaking factors. Comparable tales similar to Russia’s alleged continued bombing of a nuclear energy plant underneath its personal management or Russia attacking the Kremlin with drones didn’t make any sense both. But, within the absence of frequent sense, the political and media elites may clarify that this was straight out of the “Russian playbook.”
Nonetheless, actuality ultimately asserted itself across the time of journalist Seymour Hersh’s article that blamed the US for the assault. Thereafter, the US started to shift the blame to Ukraine. In one of many newest developments, the Wall Road Journal reported that the US knew concerning the Ukrainian assault prematurely and “the CIA warned Zelensky’s workplace to cease the operation”.
It appears extremely unlikely that the US was not concerned within the assault on Nord Stream, but the brand new and up to date narrative is nonetheless fascinating as it’s an admission that the US knew about it forward of time. It’s an admission that the US and NATO lied to their very own populaces and all the world once they blamed Russia, after which used that deceive escalate the conflict in Ukraine, militarize the Baltic Sea, and push for additional NATO enlargement.
Our lack of awareness about what actually occurred to the Nord Stream fuel pipelines is the results of the narrative being shielded from actuality. Blissful ignorance has turn into the muse for NATO unity, and details are thus handled as the good enemy. But, because the demand for unity additionally upholds what can solely be described because the Stockholm Syndrome, let’s overview how the Nord Stream narrative has been spared an encounter with actuality.
The US broadcasts its goal to destroy Nord Stream
Stopping the financial integration and cooperation between Russia and Germany as two key facilities of energy has been a centuries-old hegemonic goal of the US and Britain. The RAND Company, a assume tank linked to the intelligence group, wrote a report in 2019 sponsored by the Military Quadrennial Protection Overview Workplace about weaken Russia and make it overextend. In addition to destabilizing Russia’s borders and bleeding Moscow in Ukraine, the report outlined the target of reducing its power ties to Western Europe: “A primary step would contain stopping Nord Stream 2.”
The US opposition to the pipeline included political strain and financial sanctions towards the businesses of European allies who participated within the undertaking, a hegemonic ambition offered to the general public as defending Europe. In July 2020, then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo proclaimed: “We’ll do all the things we are able to to guarantee that that pipeline doesn’t threaten Europe”. US Senator Tom Cotton introduced in Could 2021 that “there’s nonetheless time to cease it.… Kill Nord Stream 2 now, and let it rust beneath the waves of the Balti’”. On January 14, 2022, US Nationwide Safety Adviser Jake Sullivan additionally threatened the pipeline: “We’ve made clear to the Russians that pipeline is in danger in the event that they transfer additional into Ukraine.” Senator Ted Cruz equally used very direct language calling for stopping Nord Stream: “This pipeline have to be stopped and the one method to forestall its completion is to make use of all of the instruments out there to do this.”
On February 7, 2022, President Biden stood subsequent to German Chancellor Scholz at a press briefing, warning that if Russia invaded Ukraine, then ”there might be now not a Nord Stream 2. We’ll convey an finish to it.” When requested by a journalist how he would finish a undertaking underneath German management, Biden responded: ”I promise you, we will try this.” US spokesperson, Ned Value, was specific: “I need to be very clear: if Russia invades Ukraine a method or one other, Nord Stream 2 won’t transfer ahead.” Undersecretary of State for Coverage, Victoria Nuland, used the very same phrases: “If Russia invades Ukraine, a method or one other, Nord Stream 2 won’t transfer ahead.”
The assault on Nord Stream and the next victory lap
On September 26, 2022, the German-Russian Nord Stream pipelines have been destroyed. The previous Overseas Minister of Poland, Radek Sikorski, tweeted: “Thanks, USA” accompanied by an image of the destroyed pipeline. The day after the assault, on September 27, 2022, leaders from Poland, Norway, and Denmark attended a ceremony in Poland to mark the opening of the brand new Norway-Poland Baltic Pipe that was constructed to cut back dependence on Nord Stream.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued that the destruction of Nord Stream offered “an amazing alternative to as soon as and for all take away the dependence on Russian power.” Blinken supplied to “assist” Western Europe to interchange Russian fuel with far more costly American gasoline. Nuland joined in with celebrating the assault: “I’m, and I believe the Administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you prefer to say, a hunk of steel on the backside of the ocean.”
Washington may take a short pause in rejoicing over the destruction of Europe’s vital power infrastructure to reassure the world that it should have been the Russians who attacked their very own pipelines. Russia had first invested billions into its evil plan of creating Western Europe depending on its power after which transitioned into its new evil plan of blowing up the pipelines. Moscow may alternatively have turned off the valves and saved billion {dollars}’ price of infrastructure, however the Russian playbook works in mysterious methods. Western European politicians entrusted with defending their nationwide pursuits and the media – which is meant to report on actuality – insisted that solely Russia would have carried out such a horrendous assault. Anybody suggesting the US may have been the perpetrator was smeared by the political and media elites as spreading “Russian propaganda.”
Blaming Ukraine
Hersh then reported that the US had coordinated the assaults with the usage of a US Navy diving crew. The report was largely ignored by the media. When it was talked about, it was largely ridiculed and the reliability of the creator undermined. The legendary investigative journalist – who uncovered the duvet up of the My Lai bloodbath in Vietnam and detailed the US army’s torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq – was instantly offered to the general public as a senile previous discredited conspiracy theorist carrying water for Putin.
Then, the US started to shift the blame to Ukraine. The Washington Publish reported in June 2023 about leaked CIA paperwork revealing that US intelligence and the Biden administration knew no less than three months earlier than the assault on Nord Stream that the “Ukrainian army had deliberate a covert assault on the undersea community, utilizing a small crew of divers who reported on to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.” How may the media report on the US mendacity about Russia being behind the assault, and how much narrative may very well be constructed when the one two suspects are the US and Ukraine? When the narrative-driven media didn’t have a story, the answer was merely a media blackout. The German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, dedicated to creating excuses for the attackers and as an alternative blaming Russia, advised that it was too quickly accountable Ukraine because the assault on Nord Stream may have been a “false flag” assault accountable Ukraine. Different Western European politicians merely concluded that it was greatest to cease digging as they might not like what they might discover. The identical EU officers who had for years spoken concerning the goal of “European sovereignty” now displayed full subordination to Washington.
The US was nonetheless cautious to not delegitimize the Ukrainian authorities, blaming as an alternative rogue Ukrainian parts who had acquired a sailboat with diving gear. This story was uncritically offered to the general public after it had been defined for months that solely a state actor may very well be behind such a sophisticated operation. But, the media was urged to not interact in hypothesis till EU international locations had accomplished their investigations and shared their findings with the world. Then, Sweden introduced in October 2022 that it might not set up a joint investigation crew with allies similar to Germany attributable to nationwide safety. In February 2024, Stockholm introduced it had closed its probe into the assault on Nord Stream because the case didn’t fall underneath its jurisdiction.
As Russia was blocked from taking part within the investigations, it put ahead a decision to the UN Safety Council calling for the institution of a global impartial investigative fee into the assault. Western international locations rejected this and blocked the UN decision. In spite of everything, an impartial fact-finding mission may threaten the narrative that NATO unity rests upon.
By August 2024, the Nord Stream narrative developed but once more, because the Wall Road Journal reported that Zelensky had been concerned within the assault and that the CIA had allegedly tried to cease it. The German authorities reassured its companions that the alleged Ukrainian assault on Nord Stream and Berlin’s weapon provides to Ukraine have been two separate points, and the Nord Stream investigation wouldn’t have any bearing on help for Ukraine.
Actuality threatens the unifying narrative
With no Russian perpetrator as the muse for solidarity, the Western Europeans have begun to activate one another. Narrative management has subsequently turn into tough. A German official has claimed that Poland sabotaged investigations into the Nord Stream assault by not arresting a suspected Ukrainian diver named “Volodymyr Z,” as an alternative permitting him to flee again to Ukraine. August Hanning, the previous head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, has accused each Poland and Ukraine of being concerned. Hanning has additionally questioned the sailboat narrative as: “operations of such dimensions are inconceivable with out the approval of the political leaders of the international locations concerned.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded to the Germans: “To all of the initiators and patrons of Nord Stream 1 and a couple of. The one factor it’s best to do right now about it’s apologise and maintain quiet”. The president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, argued that if Ukraine was behind the assault on Nord Stream, then it was a legit goal. The narrative is thus shifting from denial to justification of the terrorist assault. Germany continues to be humiliated by its key companions and allies, some that have been behind the operation and others justifying the assault on its vital infrastructure. That is all taking place whereas Germany’s energy-intensive industries collapse and its financial system subsequently falters.
Nonetheless, the Stockholm Syndrome phenomenon shouldn’t be underestimated. Western Europeans will memory-hole these uncomfortable details and proceed to disregard their very own pursuits. There’ll quickly be a brand new script to be adopted diligently and a swift return to the easy and cozy worldview of fine versus evil, wherein liberal democracies stand united underneath the management of the benign management of the US towards the evil Russians.
This piece was first printed on Glenn Diesen’s Substack and edited by the RT crew.
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