Below begins an article, dated Feb. 10-12, about the explosions last Sept. 26 that stopped the flow of natural gas through the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The author, a longtime investigative journalist, finds fault with another investigative journalist’s report self-published on Feb. 8.
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Hersh falls for Russian agitprop
By Wayne Madsen | The Wayne Madsen Report
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed in an article that President Biden ordered Panama City, Fla.-based U.S. Navy divers to plant C-4 explosive charges on the Nordstream pipeline in the Baltic Sea sometime last summer.
Hersh claims the divers were launched from a Norwegian Alta class minesweeper in an operation coordinated by the Central Intelligence Agency during the earlier-held NATO BALTOPS 22 exercise. Moreover, He claimed that on Sept. 26, 2022, a sonobuoy dropped from a Norwegian P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft sent a detonation signal to the C-4 explosive devices placed on the pipeline in four different locations by the Navy divers.
Russia is eager to demonize Norway, particularly after Russian spies were recently arrested by Norway for conducting drone surveillance of Norwegian infrastructure targets on the Norwegian mainland and in the territory of Svalbard.
Hersh made no attempt to conduct the cursory research that would have informed him that ASW sonobuoys used by the U.S. and Norwegian navies are passive acoustic devices that have no weapons fire control capability.
His fanciful account of such a Mission Impossible-like scenario should have set off a skepticism alert, especially for a seasoned investigative journalist. Russian agitprop exaggerations are specifically intended to generate headlines and this was Hersh’s only successful accomplishment as witnessed by Rupert Murdoch’s media outlets, as well as others, quick to echo Hersh’s dubious account.
Hersh based his blog’s report on a single anonymous source. However, it appears he fell for one of the oldest propaganda tricks used by Russia and its predecessor, the Soviet Union. Russian agitprop (political propaganda) has long been a strategy of Moscow’s. The planting of false news reports in friendly media is designed to accomplish what Hersh’s story has done: create a false impression that Biden committed an aggressive act against Russia and its natural gas customers in Western Europe.
Vladimir Putin’s mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov wasted no time in citing Hersh’s report to call for an international investigation of the Nordstream sabotage. He called for the Western media to “fully” cover Hersh’s report. The White House dismissed Hersh’s report as “utterly false and complete fiction.” We agree with that characterization. The rapid use of Hersh’s report by senior Russian officials suggest that they knew in advance about Hersh’s report and had maximized their efforts to give the story a major propaganda boost.
WMR closely examined the Gazprom explosion in our October 5-6, 2022 report. We cited pro-Russian propagandists like Tucker Carlson, Jeffrey Sachs, and Charlie Kirk as carrying the Kremlin’s water. In Hersh, they now have a new member in their ranks. Our Nordstream sabotage report is re-published below: In response to Peskov, we call on . . . Click HERE to read the rest of the above article, the author’s related Oct. 5-6, 2022, article, and his recent update. There are instructions on how to subscribe to get behind the paywall.
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