Seymour Hersh Is A Serial Fabricator
Seymour Hersh Is A Serial Fabricator
Liar, liar, credibility on fire
An unidentified Ukrainian billionaire may have been responsible for destroying the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea, according to multiple recent German press reports. Top cabinet officials from both Ukraine and Russia denied the story, as one would expect.
Prosecution “investigators succeeded in identifying the boat that was allegedly used for the secret operation,” a television news outlet reported. “It is said to be a yacht rented from a company based in Poland, apparently owned by two Ukrainians.”
“According to the investigation, the secret operation at sea was carried out by a team of six people. It is said to have been five men and one woman.”
According to information from the ARD capital studio , "Kontraste" , SWR and "ZEIT", a Western secret service is said to have sent a tip to European partner services in the autumn, i.e. shortly after the destruction, according to which a Ukrainian commando was responsible for the destruction. After that, there are said to have been further intelligence indications that a pro-Ukrainian group could be responsible.
However, “the investigators have not yet been able to find out who commissioned the suspected group of perpetrators,” and they have not ruled out a ‘false flag’ operation to frame Ukraine for responsibility, which would indeed be a very classic Russian move.
A few more specific details from Politico:
According to the investigation by German public prosecutors that is cited by the German outlets, the team which placed the explosive charges on the pipelines was comprised of five men — a captain, two divers and two diving assistants — as well as one woman doctor, all of them of unknown nationality and operating with false passports. They left the German port of Rostock on September 6 on the rented boat, the report said.
The German reports said that the yacht had been rented from a company based in Poland that is "apparently owned by two Ukrainians."
A specific date, a boat that went missing, that was recovered filthy, and had “traces” of explosive material on it. So far, so good. But who ordered this spygame is still a mystery to the investigators.
The Times says that attention has quietly focused on an “influential figure suspected to have bankrolled such a sophisticated operation from his own pocket — involving a yacht, elite divers, forged passports and the procurement of shaped explosive charges only available to the gas and oil industry with a specific licence and at great cost.” (Emphasis mine)
“The name of the suspected private sponsor, a Ukrainian not affiliated with President Zelensky’s government, has been circulating in intelligence circles for months but not revealed.”
His name will surely appear eventually, particularly given that he appears to have left a peculiar calling card. Ukraine’s relationship with its allies will fare better if the individual comes clean.
The New York Times contrarily says that American intelligence sources point to a pro-Ukrainian group, which may be only a semantic difference.
To summarize: six months after the Nord Stream pipelines were destroyed, or about the same time it takes for a prosecutor’s office to investigate a complex crime, German prosecutors apparently think that a patriotic Ukrainian oligarch hired a specialized team, obtained specialized equipment, and left his “calling card” at the scene like a comic book villain. Or it was a Ukrainian group that did the same thing.
Or it might all just be a Russian attempt to frame Ukrainians, complicating their relations with Germany as negotiations over military aid dragged out. Which, again, would be a very Russian thing to do.
Either story could prove out. Independent actors happen. False flags happen. And then you have the fantasy science fiction of Seymour Hersh, which did not happen, and will not prove out, because it is fake.
Being neither an underwater demolitions expert, nor equipped to inspect the craters and pipeline shards myself, I must rely on video, photos, and descriptions of craters where 50-foot pipe sections have been blown apart to form an admittedly amateur opinion. What those sources show me seems consistent with a pig bomb.
“A form of flow assurance for oil and gas pipelines and flowlines, pipeline pigging ensures the line is running smoothly,” says RigZone, an oil industry news site. Pigs “are introduced into the line via a pig trap, which includes a launcher and receiver.” All pipelines have this equipment built into them. As the reader can observe in a video of pigging, that process is simple, requiring only one or two people to execute, quite limiting the risk of operational exposure.
Destroying any pipeline is therefore a simple matter of putting a time bomb in a pig and launching it from a trap. Swish, zoom. Kaboom! No muss, no fuss, no need for divers or a boat or specialized explosive charges. Though again, if you are the former KGB spook in charge of Russia, it makes perfect sense to leave “traces” and a “calling card” that point to your enemy, and might complicate their relations with allies.
Until real evidence emerges that can be presented in a courtroom — the name of the supposed Ukrainian group and/or sponsor, an arrest of or testimony from members of the diving team, etc — I will continue to maintain that Russian action remains the most likely explanation for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines.
Independent action by a Ukrainian group remains less likely, in my opinion, than Russian action. As noted, the new story may be true. German prosecutors might name suspects, or else the responsible party might take credit, for this must have been an epic mission, the Mona Lisa of underwater demolitions.
Using very unusual equipment, making clandestine dives at four different points separated by a large amount of water, you might think that such people would be eager to tell their story, some day. If it is true, I fully expect the perpetrators to make a movie about themselves, one day.
Both scenarios — Russian or Ukrainian action — are infinitely more plausible to me than the absurd Rube Goldberg machinery described by Seymour Hersh.
Russophiles and Putin apologists in the west were furious about these recent headlines. Bending logic until it broke, conspiracy Twitter dismissed the news coverage as a mere cover-up of America’s CONFIRMED!!! BY SEYMOUR HERSH!!! role in the demonic destruction of Nord Stream.
Pacifism is the original social justice narrative, with deep roots in the history of American political thought on left and right because of its connection to Christian providentialism. For a variety of political reasons, many people were quite invested in the Hersh narrative. They believed Hersh instantly, never questioned the lack of evidence, and remain steadfastly affixed to a fairy tale, despite evidence it is false. They needed it to be true, and still do.
Unfortunately, Hersh concocted a story that is too complex to withstand the forces of reality forever. Compared to the pipeline pig bomb hypothesis, or the independent Ukrainian patriots conducting the most outstanding underwater demolition attack of all time hypothesis, Occam’s razor cuts this silly thing to shreds:
1 - The United States and Norway supposedly undertook an incredible, massive, complex, multilateral operation with the connivance of two other nations, in complete secrecy, because reasons
2 - The bombs were supposedly planted in advance by a ship that turns out to have never been anywhere near the target zone, according to open source tracking databases
3 - The planners supposedly used a novel, untested triggering device that was keyed to a specific sonar signal that was not recorded by any of the hydrophones in the Baltic Sea
4 - The president is required to inform the Senate “Gang of 8” about clandestine operations in a timely manner. Hersh claims that President Biden did not do this, and thus broke the law, yet Chuck Grassley has not called for a hearing on Hersh’s allegations, and Hersh is confused about this requirement in the first place
5 - To date, no supporting evidence for Hersh’s conspiracy theory has emerged in the press. Whereas a pig bomb plot could have just two or three people involved, and a diving mission must have at least a dozen people involved, what Hersh describes must have involved hundreds of people. Yet not one of these supposed conspirators has confirmed his allegations to any reporter.
(This is hardly even an exhaustive list of the problems with Hersh’s story. For more of the factual issues in his piece, see here and here.)
Evidence confirming a Ukrainian operation will likely emerge in time, if that is the case. Should a Ukrainain group, or billionaire, be named or step forward, it will then be time for the journalism profession to reassess the recent work of Seymour Hersh as a series of fabrications. Indeed, he is doing prophecy now, not journalism.
Enemy of American policy since Vietnam, Hersh has debased himself with Kremlin-friendly lies about Osama bin Laden, Syrian chemical weapons, and now the Nord Stream pipelines in a one-man disinformation war against his own country.
If I had to guess, I would say that Hersh was a target of Kremlin information influence as early as 2007 and a victim of Obama whiplash in the pacifist set after 2009. Disappointment set in: the new president had not erased the mistakes of the Bush presidency-past; troops were still in Iraq and Afghanistan; Guantanamo’s Camp X-Ray was still open. The Arab Spring in Libya and Syria was, I suspect, the final straw for Seymour.
Long out of contact with anyone of consequence in the ever-changing world of Washington, DC who might give him real information about the world of secrets, he let his imagination go to work, and started making things up, or worse, letting other people make things up for him.
As for my own credibility: the longer no Ukrainian group or person is named or comes forward, the more certain I will be that Vladimir Putin made the call, and someone destroyed the pipeline at his bidding. I could be wrong. Unlike Hersh, I do not claim to be wholly certain, and I lost childish faith in the impossible project of peace on earth — at least, peace without grim men to defend it — a long time ago.