Sen. Mike Lee ‘Can’t Rule Out’ That US Blew Up Nord Stream Undersea Gas Pipelines
Says Senaators Were Never Briefed on the Attack
Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com
(February 9, 2023) — Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) on Wednesday wrote on Twitter that he “can’t immediately rule out” the idea that the US blew up the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that connect Russia and Germany.
Lee’s comments came after veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an explosive report that detailed how the US sabotaged the pipelines with the cooperation of Norway, allegations the White House denies.
“I’m troubled that I can’t immediately rule out the suggestion that the US blew up Nord Stream. I checked with a bunch of Senate colleagues. Among those I’ve asked, none were ever briefed on this. If it turns out to be true, we’ve got a huge problem,” Lee wrote on Twitter.
According to Hersh’s report, which cites a source “with direct knowledge of the operational planning,” Congress didn’t need to be notified of the plan to blow up the pipelines because it was downgraded from being a covert operation.
The reason it was downgraded was that President Biden publicly threatened Nord Stream 2 after the CIA came up with a plan of attack. “If Russia invades … there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it,” Biden said on February 7, 2022.
Hersh’s source said that after Biden’s threat, senior CIA officials determined that the plan was no longer a covert operation because “the President just announced that we knew how to do it.”
According to the report, the operation was then downgraded from a covert operation to a “highly classified intelligence operation with US military support.” The source said that because of the change, there was “no longer a legal requirement to report the operation to Congress.”
The report said that US Navy divers planted C4 explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in June during NATO drills in the region. The explosives were later detonated on September 26, 2022, by a sonar buoy dropped by a Norwegian spy plane.
State Dept. Denies Latest Allegations That
US Government Blew Up Nord Stream
(February 9, 2023) — Ned Price dismisses claims despite US government statements. Says administration abides by the War Powers Resolution.
Sam Husseini: I’m sure you’re aware of the new report from Seymour Hersh, “How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline” and the White House’s denial of any involvement. Given the longstanding US opposition to the pipeline, Secretary Blinken’s calling its demise a “tremendous opportunity” – and under Secretary of State Nuland’s saying that US officials were pleased with the destruction of the pipeline, especially Sweden’s secretive investigation, do you think that the US government’s denial of involvement is credible?
Ned Price: I absolutely do, and I repeat it here. Anything else?
Sam Husseini: Let me follow up on that if I might. Have you or anybody else at the State Department been in communication with German or Norwegian ambassadors, or other allies or officials on this matter?
Ned Price: On the matter of Nord Stream II?
Sam Husseini: On the matter of the latest allegations – [crosstalk]
Ned Price: It would not be typical for us to engage allies and partners on something that is utter and complete nonsense and that should be rejected out of hand by anyone who is looking at it through an objective lens.
Sam Husseini: One more aspect on this. One of the allegations that Hersh makes is that it was taken off the CIA in order to prevent involvement, oversight, as a covert operation. Did you read the piece?
[Hersh in the piece seems to explain brazen statements by Biden and Undersecretary of State for Policy Victoria Nuland made that Nord Stream 2 “will not move forward” prior to the Sept. 26, 2022 explosion – effectively making it a non-covert operation.]
Ned Price: I am familiar with it.
Sam Husseini: One of his allegations is that it was taken off –
Ned Price: Look, rather than let this propaganda be aired in the briefing room. Let me just say it is a fundamental misunderstanding of oversight in our US Congress. Beyond getting his facts entirely wrong, as he has before in very high-profile ways, it is a fundamental misunderstanding to suggest that our intelligence community is not subject to oversight. Anyone who writes that, anyone who writes anything like that, should not be believed –
Sam Husseini: No, no, that’s not what he wrote. No, no. He wrote that it was taken off of the CIA and put under military order –
Ned Price: Our military is also subject to rigorous oversight.
Sam Husseini: That’s my question. Do you recognize and abide by the War Powers Clause in such a situation and the War Powers Resolution in such a situation?
Ned Price: Your question is if we abide by the War Powers Resolution in a situation that never occurred?
Sam Husseini: In any situation. In any situation involving US military. Do you abide by the War Powers Resolution?
Ned Price: We follow the law in every instance.
Sam Husseini: Including the War Powers Resolution?
Ned Price: We follow the War Powers Resolution, and the broader law, in every instance.
Sam Husseini is an independent journalist who writes at husseini.substack.com. He’s also the founder of VotePact.org – which helps break out of the two party bind. Reprinted with the author’s permission from https://husseini.substack.com/
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
