The real story about the Nord Stream pipeline explosion | Hacker News Reader

The real story about the Nord Stream pipeline explosion

wsj.com

Somewhat sad Seymour Hersh's bogus story gets 1000 comments and when mostly the real situation surfaces, no one on HN cares.

Well, still, at least it does not defy common sense or logic.

When the Media and governments were confidently pointing fingers at Russia, it made absolutely no sense unless you thought Putin had lost his mind completely. It made absolutely no sense, but in the same way they peddled that Biden "runs rings" around his younger staffers, they said it often enough and assertively enough that people took it at face value.

> When the Media and governments were confidently pointing fingers at Russia

I followed the reports. There was a myriad of low-confidence speculation around US, Ukraine, or Russia. Nothing confident from almost any media or government. There have been many European and American media reports and government statements since just a few weeks after the incident that indicated they didn't have evidence it was Russia. The Ukrainian Andromeda ship was flagged as suspicious within some months and the counterbalance was, let's not be too hasty, it might be false flag. The western infosphere is a lot better than RT and I've gotten no inclination from it that it was definitely Russia. Russia is the one pointing at UK and US.

The reporting was generally correct, as opposed to Seymour Hersh's wild fairytale which bears no semblance to reality (single source, elite Norwegian team, BALTOPS 2022...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nord_Stream_pipeline_sabo...

Here is but one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWdKK06-7EE or: https://apnews.com/article/germany-ukraine-russia-gas-pipeli...

But if you want to look around, you will see plenty, vast amounts of pundits and officials pointing fingers at Russia, if not directly accusing it.

I'm sure, if we put a collage together of all the CNN, ABC, MSNBC, Fox, etc., et., we'd see lots of guests putting forth the idea it was Russia, with very few objections, despite the obvious outrageousness of the idea. It's in the same class of stupidity that the US brought down the twin towers type conspiracy theory nonsense.

Now, was it a couple of drunk guys; no, that's not likely but it's at least pointing in the actual direction, while adding a less than believable disclaimer.

Are you even reading the same article?

Title: "Germany cautious"

"The New York Times also reported Tuesday that U.S. officials reviewed intelligence that suggested a pro-Ukrainian group was behind the blasts."

'German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he read the news reports “with great interest” but warned against drawing hasty conclusions.'

'“It would not be the first time in the history of such events,” the German minister said. “As such, I’m refraining from drawing premature conclusions.”'

'“The identity of the perpetrators and their motives are the subject of ongoing investigations,” it added. “At present, it is not possible to make any reliable statements on this, in particular on the question of state control.”'

OP insinuated that western media was confidently blaming Russia. Almost nothing in the media or government officials was damning, it was speculation, no one really knew and that's what they reported. The article is AP and citing NYT.

It's wildly tiresome to hear people rail against "mainstream media" because they reported on one government official saying "I think it might be Russia," but when they read Seymour Hersh's substack that puts 10,000 words of just completely made up bs, they're like "wow so good, mainstream news only lies"

There were a lot of insinuations that Russia did it [1].

But fine, might have been six guys on a boat who dove 260 ft deep with enough explosive to cause craters "with a depth of 3 to 5 metres" [2] - in bad weather.

What's not credible is that the US would try to stop them. It was absolutely US interest to stop Nord Stream 1 and 2. Now the economic ties between western Europe and Russia are irreparably severed, and Europe is importing liquified natural gas mostly from the US. Why the US would be against a sabotage is beyond me.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSZyKYitC3M [2] https://www.nord-stream.com/press-info/press-releases/incide...

The article is surprisingly flimsy on details and heavy on fact-obfuscation and reliance on anonymous sources. I’m left with the same level of uncertainty as I began with.

The KISS principle applies.

Could 6 sole actors + 1 support staff, run a clandestine operation that was so wildly successful ?

Seems like the answer is yes. A stupidly simple plan provided you have depth in professional, loyal staff, and some legacy resources for covert travel as a state actor.

It follows that such a hodgepodge ops would not have needed much in terms of TPS reporting, documented approvals, and just overall bureaucracy. Therefore, not much detail other than what they say is expected. Unless you have access to the 7 or so individuals identified.

Could they be patsies? Sure. But the story seems to fit the mold.

What's crazy is that if they had dropped their phones, they would have likely never been found out.

Why was Russia flaring off natural gas in the period before the explosion, if Russia was not involved? Wikipedia: gas deliveries were suspended from August 31, 2021 and Germany "suspended" certification of Nord Stream 2. Ukraine had nothing to gain by this sabotage. Instead, there was a spitting fight between Russia and Germany. One of the Nord Stream 2 pipelines was left untouched, if Germany would only swallow its collective pride and accept gas through Nord Stream 2 - and allow the Russian entities get paid for their investments.

The argument and conclusion that Ukraine would divert its resources and act against its allies while it was desperately defending against Russia and Belarus are preposterous. Ukraine was not acting outside its own borders at the time, while Russia is well-known to having no respect for other sovereigns.

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