US planted explosives along Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022 under Biden supervision, claims Seymour Hersh

New York: US Navy’s specialised diving team has carried out the explosions at the underwater Nord Stream pipelines which supply Russian gas to western European during a secret mission overseen by President Joe Biden. This is claimed by American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on his blog.

Biden oversaw Nord Stream pipelines explosions?

As per Hersh, divers trained at the US Navy’s Diving and Salvage Centre in Florida, planted C4 explosives on three Nord Stream pipelines in June 2022. They were detonated after three months using a sonar buoy which broadcast a signal that triggered the bombs.

The Nord Stream attack was carried out in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, claimed Hersh.

He further said that the motive behind the attack was to force Germany and other European nations to end their reliance on Russian gas and thereby, disrupting Moscow’s income from sale of the energy.

How did US plan Nord Stream pipelines explosion?

Explosions were reported in Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on 26 September, 2022, an attack that, ostensibly, continues to puzzle investigators.

In over 5,000 words report, Hersh claimed that the “top secret and highly-dangerous operation” was carried out by the divers during BALTOPS22, a series of military exercises in the Baltic Sea carried out by 16 NATO countries.

Don’t Miss: Russian foreign ministry asks for answers from the US over ‘blowing up’ Nord Stream

Citing a source ‘with direct knowledge of the operational planning’ behind the alleged plot of explosion, Hersh said that the US divers reportedly used the 13-day event in June last year as cover for their top-secret mission.

The divers alleged fitted the C4 explosives to the Nord Stream pipelines with sensors that enabled them to be detonated remotely at a later date.

The explosions were triggered by a sonar buoy dropped by an aircraft that emitted a sequence of “unique low frequency tonal sounds” which triggered the C4.

As per the report, the US allegedly began planning for the attack amid Russia’s mobilisation of troops and fears inside the White House that Nord Stream 2, which was completed in 2021, would enable the Kremlin to further weaponise its energy supplies to Europe.

In December 2021, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan convened a meeting of a new task force formed of officials from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the State and Treasure Departments. During this, discussion was held towards orchestrating a response to Russia’s impending invasion of Ukraine.

Must Read: If Russia did not sabotage Nord Stream, who did?

“What became clear to participants, according to the source with direct knowledge of the process, is that Sullivan intended for the group to come up with a plan for the destruction of the two Nord Stream pipelines—and that he was delivering on the desires of the President,” Hersh said in the report.

Multiple ideas were discussed before the dive mission was selected. Hersh in his report said other plans which were talked about were a submarine to attack the pipeline or aircraft to drop bombs with delayed fuses.

The report further stated that CIA director William Burns authorised a ‘working group’ to formulate the plan for deep-sea divers to carry out the mission. Hersh equated the plot to an undersea spying operation launched by the US in the 1970s, when operatives tapped into underwater communication cables used by the Russian Navy.

In early 2022, the CIA group told Sullivan’s task force: ‘We have a way to blow up the pipelines,’ the report stated.

Hersh mentioned his source saying that the planning team chose Norway as the ideal base for the operation because the Scandinavian nation “hated the Russians and the Norwegian navy was full of superb sailors and divers who had generations of experience in highly profitable deep-sea oil and gas exploration”.

Also Read: Accident or sabotage? Why are the Russia-Europe Nord Stream pipelines leaking?

Initially, the plan was to plant explosives with a 48-hour timer, but later the White House asked for a method that would allow more control over the timing of the blasts after which the buoy technique was developed, the report stated.

On 26 September, 2022, the buoy was dropped by a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane ‘during a seemingly routine flight’ and the explosives detonated a few hours later.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the US of direct involvement in the explosions.

‘Complete fiction’

The White House dismissed Hersh’s report, with Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, calling it “utterly false and complete fiction”.

A US Department of State spokesperson echoed the same as what Watson said.

A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spokesperson also called the report “completely and utterly false”.

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