NEW YORK, April 5. /TASS/. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is pulling out all the stops to shift the blame for the Nord Stream sabotage from US President Joe Biden to anyone else, American journalist Seymour Hersh said, commenting on the appearance of new information in the investigation into the sabotage in the Western media.
"America’s Central Intelligence Agency is constantly running covert operations around the world, and all must have a cover story in case things go badly, as they often do. It is just as important to have an explanation when things go well, as they did in the Baltic Sea last fall. Within weeks of my report that Joe Biden ordered the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, the agency produced a cover story and found willing takers in the New York Times and two major German publications," Hersh said on the Substack platform.
The journalist criticized the information that the small sailing yacht Andromeda was used for the sabotage.
"By creating a story of deep sea divers and a crew (of the ship - TASS) who did not exist, the agency was following protocol, and the story would have been part of the first days of secret planning to destroy the pipelines," Hersh revealed.
According to the journalist, "the cover story was shared with and supported by the BND, Germany’s federal intelligence service." Hersh points to the fact that media representatives never had a chance to inspect the vessel. According to him, if the ship was indeed used for the sabotage, then the question of why the saboteurs left behind their fake IDs remains unanswered. He also believes it is illogical to use such a small vessel for such a difficult task.
The New York Times, citing US officials, reported that the sabotage of the gas pipelines could have been carried out by some ‘pro-Ukrainian group’ that acted without the knowledge of US authorities. According to the Die Zeit newspaper, German investigators identified the vessel used by the saboteurs. The company that rented it allegedly belonged to Ukrainian citizens and was registered in Poland. A day later, the German Prosecutor General’s Office told TASS that searches were conducted on the ship, which may have been involved in the explosions, on January 18 and 20. The Der Spiegel magazine, in turn, said that it was the yacht Andromeda. There is still no reliable information about the motives and the perpetrators.
On February 8, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article, which said, citing sources, that US Navy divers had planted explosive devices under the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines under the cover of the BALTOPS exercise in June 2022, and Norwegians activated the bombs three months later. According to the journalist, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden personally, following nine months of discussions with White House security specialists. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a comment to TASS that Hersh’s account was "utterly false and complete fiction."