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Insider source: How the US and Norway carried out the attack on Nord Stream

The new cold war

  • Citing a source with insight into the Nord Stream attack, award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has given a harrowing account of how the attack on the gas pipelines is alleged to have taken place.
  • At the initiative of the United States, Norway was reportedly chosen as a partner for the operation for a number of reasons, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's transparency and contacts following his time as Prime Minister of the country.
  • After months of careful planning, the NATO exercise Baltops in June was allegedly used as a cover for Norwegian and US dive teams to place the bombs just off Bornholm.
  • The final order to detonate the charges on 27 September is said to have come directly from Washington.
Published 13 February 2023
– By Editorial Staff
US President Joe Biden with NATO Secretary General, former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, at a NATO meeting in Madrid in June, a few weeks before the NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea where the bombs were allegedly placed on the gas pipelines by Norwegian and US divers.
8 minute read

Seymour Hersh, previously celebrated for his revelations of US war crimes against civilians in Vietnam and against prisoners of war in Iraq, is in the news with the extraordinary details of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 blasts. His accounts are referred to, in particular, to a source with a good insight into the details of how the US and Norway, working closely together under the NATO umbrella, blew up the gas pipelines with the result that large parts of Europe are now being dragged into an energy crisis and increasingly severe economic depression.


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In December 2021, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is said to have arranged a meeting with a newly formed task force of men and representatives from the CIA, State Department, Treasury Department and US Department of Defense to discuss and ask for recommendations on how best to respond to a supposed invasion by Russia of Ukraine.

According to the source, the secret meeting was followed by further meetings and, on Sullivan’s initiative, a plan was eventually agreed for the destruction of the two Nord Stream gas pipelines – and that it was President Joe Biden who personally asked for this.

After discussing options for the attack, it was suggested, among other things, that the gas pipelines be attacked with submarines or bombs that could be remotely detonated afterwards. The CIA argued that the operation had to be carried out in secret whichever route was chosen – because an attack of this magnitude would be considered an act of war if it could be traced back to the US.

The CIA, headed by former Russian ambassador William Burns, who was also deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration, in turn commissioned a task force to draw up a plan for the covert operation, using deep-sea divers to trigger an explosion along the gas pipelines.

Biden’s security advisor Jake Sullivan and CIA Director William Burns.

Experience in similar operations

It is noteworthy that similar operations have been carried out in the past by American intelligence. In 1971, with the help of divers and submarines, it succeeded in deploying advanced interception equipment at an underwater cable in the Sea of Okhotsk used for communications by the Russian Navy.

The Russians were convinced that their communications were secure and covert and used no other encryption, the US interception was able to continue for a decade before an American civilian NSA employee exposed the whole thing. The interception allegedly provided the Americans with “invaluable intelligence information about the Russian Navy’s intentions and planning“.

One problem seen with this secret deep-sea attack in the Baltic is that the sea is patrolled by the Russian Navy and there are no oil rigs to use as cover for a diving operation.

Biden couldn’t keep quiet

On February 7 – just a few weeks before Russia entered Ukraine, President Joe Biden declared, after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, that the US will “end” Nord Stream 2 if Russia invades.

 

Less than three weeks earlier, the Foreign Ministry’s Victoria Nuland had conveyed the same message at a press briefing.

– I’ll be very clear with you. If Russia invades Ukraine, Nord Stream 2 will one way or another not be able to go ahead,’ she said at the time

 It was like putting a nuclear bomb on the ground in Tokyo and telling the Japanese that we are going to detonate it, the source says, adding that several people involved in the upcoming attack were upset by the politicians’ public references to the same.

– The plan was that the various options would be implemented after the invasion and not announced publicly. Biden simply didn’t get it or he just ignored it.

According to the source, Biden and Nuland’s “thoughtlessness” also created an opportunity at the same time. Several CIA directors argued that after Biden’s statement, blowing up the gas pipelines could no longer be considered a covert operation – and therefore did not need to be reported to Congress. Shortly thereafter, the President, through CIA Director Bill Burns, gave the go-ahead.

– There was no longer a legal requirement to report the operation to Congress. All they had to do now was just carry it out – but it still had to be secret, he says.

Norway “the perfect partner”

It was decided that Norway was the perfect base for the mission – a country where the US military has greatly expanded its presence in recent years and where it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in facilities for its air force and navy – including advanced radar equipment. A US submarine base in Norway had also recently been completed and, according to the source, the US was already working full-time with its Norwegian counterparts to spy on Russia in the East.

Military cooperation between the countries is also said to have been facilitated by Norway’s former prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, who is now secretary-general of the US-led NATO military alliance – and for many years also an outspoken opponent of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

He is the glove that fits the American hand, says the source.

Joe Biden and Jens Stoltenberg meet in Madrid in June. Photo: NATO/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Americans were also convinced that the Norwegians would keep the attack secret – not only because of loyalty to the US, but also because they had a vested interest in the disappearance of Nord Stream because it would allow them to sell more of their own natural gas.

Sometime in March, some members of the team flew to Norway to meet with Norwegian intelligence and the navy,” writes Seymour Hersh, referring to the source who says that one of the key issues to be discussed was exactly where in the Baltic Sea was the best place to plant the explosive devices.

Soon enough, the Norwegian navy found the best place in shallow waters, a few kilometres off Danish Bornholm, where divers operating from a Norwegian minesweeper would most likely be able to dive down and rig bombs on four gas pipelines.

NATO exercise used as cover

Before US military divers, from a base in Panama City, could be flown in and get to work with their Norwegian colleagues, there was another problem to be solved. The underwater activities could possibly be detected by the Swedish and Danish navies, which risked reporting the matter further.

It was concluded that it was necessary that “certain” high-ranking Danish and Swedish officials were informed before the operation “in general terms”.

What they were told and what they knew was deliberately different, the source explains.

To carry out the attack, it was also necessary to camouflage the bombs so that they would not be detected by Russian surveillance technology – and make them look like part of the natural background in the water.

As for the timing of the operation, the suggestion is said to have come from the Norwegian side. Every June for the past 21 years, the US Navy had sponsored a major NATO exercise in the Baltic involving a large number of allied ships.

The Norwegians suggested that this would be the perfect cover for deploying the mines,” the source further explains.

Ship during NATO exercise Baltops 22. Photo: US Navy/CC BY 2.0

The Americans, in turn, persuaded those in charge of the exercise to add a “research and development exercise” to the programme – which was also made public. This was to be conducted off the coast of Bornholm and was said to involve various NATO groups planting mines – as well as competing groups finding and destroying them.

It was both a useful exercise and an ingenious cover-up. The Panama City boys would do their thing and the C4 explosives would be in place by the end of Baltops 22, with a 48-hour timer attached. All the Americans and Norwegians would be long gone by the first explosion.

Biden demanded changes to the plan

Shortly before everything was ready to go, the political leadership in Washington had second thoughts. The bombs would still be planted during the NATO exercise, but the White House worried that only two days between the exercise and the detonations was far too short a time – and that it would be all too obvious that the US was directly involved. Instead, it demanded that the operators find a way to remotely detonate the gas lines at a later stage.

Once again, President Biden’s “indecision” and last-minute changes are said to have caused outrage and frustration within his own ranks – but they had no choice but to go ahead with the specific requests. The C4 bombs attached to the gas pipelines were to be triggered by a sonar buoy dropped by an aircraft at very short notice in a procedure which, according to the source, involved “the most advanced signal processing technology”.

There was also concern that the bombs would be accidentally and pre-emptively triggered by the sound of various ships on the heavily trafficked Baltic Sea – or by underwater drilling, waves or by disturbances from animals in the sea.

To avoid this, the sonar buoy, once in place, would emit a sequence of unique low-frequency sounds – much like those produced by a flute or piano – that would be recognized by the timing device and, after a preset one-hour delay, trigger the explosives.

On 26 September 2022, the Norwegian Navy’s surveillance plan carried out what appeared to be a routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. A few hours later, the bombs exploded and three of the four gas lines were immediately rendered inoperable, and the signal was transmitted underwater – first to Nord Stream 1 and later to Nord Stream 2.

Gas leak after the blast. Photo: Coast Guard

The media were uninterested in the truth

In the immediate aftermath of the pipeline bombing, American media treated the whole thing as an unsolved mystery. Russia was repeatedly singled out as the likely culprit, spurred by leaks from the White House but without ever establishing a clear motive for such an act of self-sabotage, other than simple retaliation.

He points out that no US news media seemed interested in delving into the issue or the earlier threats by Joe Biden and Victoria Nuland that Nord Stream would be “stopped”.

No clarification on why Russia would bomb its own lucrative gas pipelines, rather than just temporarily turning off the tap, ever came. However, Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken was clear that it was the US that benefited from the whole thing.

– It is a huge opportunity to remove once and for all dependence on Russian energy and thus take away from Vladimir Putin the use of energy as a weapon, Blinken declared, arguing that the blasts offered “enormous strategic opportunities for years to come”.

Victoria Nuland has also openly expressed delight at the attack, saying she is “very pleased” that Nord Stream 2 is now “a pile of metal at the bottom of the sea“.

The source notes that Joe Biden “said he would do it – and he did it” and he describes the extensive planning and cover-up as “beautiful“.

The only flaw was the decision to actually go through with it.

Seymour Hersh, born in 1937, is an American-Jewish investigative journalist who was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize after revealing how American soldiers during the Vietnam War executed hundreds of South Vietnamese civilians - the majority of them women and children.

Considered one of the world's most prominent investigative journalists, Hersh has also revealed how the US tortured Iraqi prisoners at the now infamous Abu Ghraib prison and covered the Watergate scandal for the New York Times.

In recent years, he has attracted attention and criticism for questioning the US history of Osama Bin Laden's death, reporting on US plans to assassinate political opponents in Iran and rejecting US claims that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians.

Among the many awards Hersh has received for his journalistic work, in addition to the Pulitzer Prize, is the George Polk Award - an American journalism prize he has received no less than five times, which is also more than any other person.

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Welfare may be sacrificed as Denmark ramps up military spending

The new cold war

Published yesterday 13:47
– By Editorial Staff
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has pledged to invest billions of euros in upgrading the country's military forces.
3 minute read

Denmark is preparing to significantly increase its defense spending to meet NATO’s new targets – but the bill will be steep.

According to estimates from Aarhus University, the upgrade will require an additional 90 billion DDK (€12 billion) on top of current levels. The question now is where the money will come from – and what will have to be sacrificed in return.

This will be something that individual Danes will actually notice, Bo Sandemann Rasmussen, professor of economics at Aarhus University, told TV 2.

After a summit in Vilnius, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that Denmark is ready to increase its defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP and allocate an additional 1.5 percent to other security-related activities such as cybersecurity, border protection, and coastal defense.

In total, five percent of the country’s gross domestic product would go to security – more than double the current target of two percent.

But according to the professor, this would require an additional DDK 90 billion (€12 billion) in the budget – money that can hardly be found in the so-called economic reform space.

It seems increasingly unlikely that we can count on covering 90 billion, he estimates.

Cuts in welfare?

Denmark has already significantly increased its defense spending since the war in Ukraine began, reaching around 2.4 percent of GDP in 2023 – equivalent to €9 billion. But to reach five percent, significantly more is needed – and that will have consequences.

The population is aging, which requires more resources for public services. If we want to maintain today’s level of service, we will probably need to find new sources of funding, says the economist.

He believes that the political choice now is between cutting public spending or raising taxes, for example by introducing a special war tax.

– It’s hard to see how we wouldn’t need a tax increase to reach 90 billion. After all, it’s a very large sum.

“Other things we can’t afford”

To put the figure into perspective, Denmark spent an equivalent of €21 billion on education and €2 billion on the police in 2023. A €12 billion upgrade is therefore equivalent to six times the entire police budget.

If the amount is lower than that, it may be more realistic to finance it, but then there are other things we cannot afford, explains Rasmussen.

A formal decision on the new defense targets is expected at the NATO summit in The Hague at the end of June. Until then, the question remains as to which areas of welfare will be cut back – and how much Danish households themselves will have to pay.

Demands from the US

It should be noted that Denmark is not the only NATO country currently spending billions on military buildup – investments that in many places are being financed by cuts in welfare.

The Trump administration is demanding that Europe and Canada take greater “responsibility” for the continent’s defense, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has declared that he wants member countries’ military budgets to amount to approximately five percent of GDP.

Two percent is a start, as President Trump has Trump has said, but it’s not enough, nor is three percent, nor is four percent. More like five percent, he emphasized earlier this year, calling on NATO countries to make “real investments”.

UK invests billions in new arms factories

The new cold war

Published 2 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
BAE Systems, based in the UK, is Europe's largest arms manufacturer, employing more than 83 000 people and producing, among other things, the Challenger tank.
2 minute read

The UK will invest $2 billion in new arms factories as part of a major military buildup, Defense Secretary John Healey announces ahead of the government’s Strategic Defense Review tomorrow.

The investment includes at least six new ammunition and explosives factories, as well as the purchase of over 7,000 domestically produced long-range weapons, including drones and missiles.

– The hard-fought lessons from Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind it, said Healey.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer also underlines the need to respond to alleged threats from states with advanced military capabilities singling out Russia, Iran and North Korea in particular.

– We are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, so we must be ready to fight and win, he declares.

The investment is also said to be aimed at stimulating the economy, and will see the UK spend a total of around £6 billion on munitions during the current parliamentary term.

AI to improve decision-making in combat

– We welcome investment in new munitions factories, but we don’t know when they will be ready – only that these orders should have been placed months ago, said James Cartlidge, defense spokesman for the Liberal Conservative opposition.

The UK, one of Ukraine’s most generous funders, has decided to raise its defense budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, with a long-term goal of 3% by 2034.

Meanwhile, Moscow warns of rising tensions and accuses former prime minister Boris Johnson of sabotaging the 2022 peace talks and pressuring Ukraine to leave a claim he denies.

Meanwhile, the UK government has announced it will invest billions in artificial intelligence to improve decision-making on the battlefield and has committed to spending an additional £1.5 billion to improve the country’s military housing.

German chancellor aims to build Europe’s largest army – may reinstate conscription

The new cold war

Published 15 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz (CDU).
2 minute read

The Christian Democrats’ new chancellor in Germany, former BlackRock executive Friedrich Merz, has set the tone for his government by declaring the goal of making the Bundeswehr Europe’s strongest army.

In his first speech to the Bundestag, he emphasized the need for increased military spending – and at the same time opened the door to reintroducing conscription in Germany.

When Merz recently took over as Germany’s chancellor, he quickly made it clear that the military is high on his political agenda, according to reports by Euroactiv, among others. In his first speech to the German Bundestag, Merz emphasized that Germany must “take greater responsibility” for Europe’s security and that the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, should become the continent’s most powerful force.

Merz explained that the government is prepared to allocate more resources where he believes Germany can no longer rely on other countries’ military protection.

The federal government will provide all financial resources that the German Armed Forces need to become the strongest military in Europe in conventional terms, the new chancellor said in his speech.

Borrowed money to finance

To enable the increased defense spending, Merz’s government has decided to reform the so-called debt brake, a rule that previously limited the state’s ability to borrow money.

Easing these restrictions opens the door to significant investments in both equipment and personnel for the Bundeswehr.

Social Democrat Defense Minister Boris Pistorius welcomed the new investments but warned that the biggest bottleneck now is the shortage of soldiers. The Bundeswehr has struggled for several years to fill its ranks, and recruitment has not kept pace with ambitions.

If it is not possible to attract enough volunteers to the armed forces, the reintroduction of conscription may become a possibility – something that the Merz government is now investigating in more detail.

However, the defense spending plans have met with some resistance from critics who argue that increased military spending risks crowding out other important areas of society, such as healthcare, education, and social security. Others warn that rearmament could lead to increased tensions in Europe and that Germany should prioritize diplomacy and cooperation over military spending.

Merz and his government, however, argue that a strong defense force is essential to safeguarding both the country’s security and its independence.

Macron opens the door to deploying French nuclear weapons in other EU countries

The new cold war

Published 14 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
After the UK's "Brexit", Emmanuel Macron's France is now the only nuclear power in the EU.
2 minute read

France is prepared to begin discussions with other European countries about deploying French fighter jets armed with nuclear weapons on their territory – similar to what the US already does in certain countries. This was confirmed by President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday.

– The Americans have the bombs on planes in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Macron said in an interview with TF1. The US is believed to have around 50 nuclear weapons stored at the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey.

– We are ready to open this discussion. I will define the framework in a very specific way in the weeks and months to come.

Macron also mentioned three conditions for such a step: that France will not pay for the security of other countries, that it will not be at the expense of the country’s own needs, and that the final decision will always rest with the President of the French Republic in his capacity as commander-in-chief.

France is the EU’s only nuclear power, and since the war in Ukraine broke out, there has been growing debate about extending the French nuclear umbrella to include the Union’s partners.

Poland, which like France is a key ally of Ukraine and a growing force within the EU, has already expressed a desire to be covered by the French deterrent.

– There has always been a European dimension in the consideration of what we call vital interests. We do not elaborate on this because ambiguity goes hand in hand with the deterrent, said Macron.

Concerns about nuclear war

Plans to deploy French nuclear weapons in other European countries have raised concerns among experts and security analysts. Critics argue that such a move risks further inflaming tensions between NATO and Russia and could be perceived as a strategic escalation rather than defensive protection.

In the long run, there are fears that it could contribute to increased militarization and raise the risk of misunderstandings or misjudgments that could, in the worst case, lead to a large-scale nuclear conflict in Europe with devastating consequences something that several analysts have warned about since the war in Ukraine broke out.

Others are more positive and argue that European countries must face the harsh reality that the major powers already have extensive nuclear arsenals that they have no plans to give up, and that deterrence with their own nuclear weapons is not only necessary but also the most effective way to prevent future attacks.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, France currently has just under 300 nuclear weapons, compared to Russia’s approximately 5,900 and the US’s 5,300. However, it is emphasized that these are qualified estimates and that there is rarely any public data on countries’ nuclear arsenals.

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