A headline in this site yesterday reported: "NYT declares 'It May Be in No One's Interest to Reveal More about Nord Stream Sabotage."
That is a response to a tweet from the far-left The New York Times saying: "Intelligence leaks surrounding who blew up most of the Russian-backed Nord Stream pipelines last September have provided more questions than answers. It may be in no one's interest to reveal more."
Wow. A propaganda site for the Democratic Party and the left trying to bury...news.
As one critic of the Times immediately responded via Twitter: "Bwahahaha, ‘we did it, and it's best that everyone pretend we didn't.’ Thanks for that brave watchdog reporting."
Also, yesterday, former President Donald J. Trump appeared with Tucker Carlson on Fox News. During the interview, Carlson point-blank asked the former president: "Who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline?"
Former President Trump answered: "I don't want to get our country in trouble so I won't answer it. But I can tell you who it wasn't...Russia. But when they blamed Russia, you know, they said Russia blew up their own pipeline. You got a kick out of that one, too. It wasn't Russia."
In regular times, that statement by a former president would have been significant “Five-Alarm-Fire” news. Trump just gave a “read between the lines” answer, indicating it may well have been the United States behind the sabotage of those pipelines.
But these are far from regular times. We now live in the "Age of Trump," where the minds of so many Democrats, liberals, members of the media, and neocons have been so twisted by Trump's victory in 2016 -- a victory they all guaranteed would never happen while literally laughing in Trump's face – and his pronouncements since, that news vital to the interests of every American is regularly ignored, censored, or altered to either fit a far-left narrative or deny Trump the satisfaction of saying: “I told you so.”
For many “journalists,” neutrality, non-partisanship, and professionalism went right out the window with the political accession of Trump. Suddenly, the script was flipped on what constituted professional conduct for journalists. In increasing numbers, these Trump-hating journalists – some proudly proclaiming themselves to be part of the “resistance” -- justified any means and violation of journalistic ethics which might either damage the Trump presidency or, better, prevent the former president from running in 2024.
Soon, many on the left in politics, the media, and academia became quite comfortable with ignoring legitimate questions regarding their various narratives or instantly labeling them “misinformation” in which the questioner should be censored or “de-platformed.”
For instance, legitimate – and much-needed -- questions regarding lockdowns; masks; the masking of children; school closures; and the efficacy of the vaccines were not only deemed “off-limits” by so many on the left but again framed as “misinformation” which should and must be censored by Big-Tech and our very government. As were questions regarding the adverse effects of “defunding the police” or the millions of illegal – non-vaxxed – immigrants streaming across our southern border.
With that as background, we come back to quite possibly the most critical question of our time which many in our government, the media, and academia seem to be working overtime to ignore. That being: Did the United States commit an act of war in an attempt to aid Ukraine?
That question going back to the end of September of 2022 when the Nord Stream pipelines transporting relatively inexpensive Russian natural gas to Europe via Germany were sabotaged.
Now, as to why this subject may be of interest to Americans, journalists, and academics, let’s also go back to a couple of statements on the pipeline. The first by President Joe Biden in February of 2022 who said in part, that if Russia invaded Ukraine: “…there will be no longer a Nord Steam 2. We will bring an end to it.”
And one month before that, Victoria Nuland – Biden’s Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and who has a curious connection to Ukraine going back to the 2014 coup in that nation – stated in answer to a question: “I want to be very clear to you today, if Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”
This past January, Nuland, in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told Senator Ted Cruz, “Like you, I am, and I think the Administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”
From those statements, jump forward to two months ago when former New York Times investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article titled: “How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline”
Hersh paints a very compelling case as to why and how the United States may have been behind the bombing of this pipeline. That said, let’s also be open to the possibility that Hersh got some or even all of his reporting wrong. At the very least, don’t professionals in our government, the media, and academia have an obligation to ask if the United States was -- in any way -- indeed behind this bombing?
Unfortunately, like the lockdowns, masks, school closures, defunding the police, and open borders, simply asking legitimate questions about say, alleged corruption in Ukraine; possible off-shore bank accounts; fake news being disseminated by the Ukrainian leadership; flawed military strategies; billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars disappearing; if regime change in Russia is the ultimate goal with Ukraine being used as a proxy; or if the Biden administration was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, became prohibited.
In the now, upside down, deeply politicized, and polarized world we inhabit, as our “leaders” stumble between exposed trip wires to World War III, the list of questions we are not allowed to ask as free citizens...grows.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the book: The 56 – Liberty Lessons from those who risked all to Sign The Declaration of Independence.
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