About a month after Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh dropped a bombshell report alleging the Biden administration was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, The New York Times came out with its own scoop suggesting a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack, according to U.S. officials.
The timing of the release was not lost on foreign policy wonks, coming just days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Washington.
Now, Hersh claims U.S. and German intelligence agencies ‘fed’ the Times and Germany’s Die Zeit that “false cover story to counter the report.”
In early March, President Biden hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington. The trip included only two public events—a brief pro forma exchange of compliments between Biden and Scholz before the White House press corps, with no questions allowed; and a CNN interview with Scholz by Fareed Zakaria, who did not touch on the pipeline allegations. The chancellor had flown to Washington with no members of the German press on board, no formal dinner scheduled, and the two world leaders were not slated to conduct a press conference, as routinely happens at such high-profile meetings. Instead, it was later reported that Biden and Scholz had an 80-minute meeting, with no aides present for much of the time. There have been no statements or written understandings made public since then by either government, but I was told by someone with access to diplomatic intelligence that there was a discussion of the pipeline exposé and, as a result, certain elements in the Central Intelligence Agency were asked to prepare a cover story in collaboration with German intelligence that would provide the American and German press with an alternative version for the destruction of Nord Stream 2. In the words of the intelligence community, the agency was “to pulse the system” in an effort to discount the claim that Biden had ordered the pipelines’ destruction. (Seymour Hersh)
Despite the Biden administration denouncing Hersh's initial reporting as "completely and utterly false," the journalist continues to stand by his work.
"I’m Telling You, He Did It": Seymour Hersh Blames Biden For Nord Stream Attack https://t.co/eDiRkPXZMR
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 17, 2023
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