The New York Times’ incredulous version of the Nordstream 2 pipeline bombing was released on Tuesday, and I’m still shaking my head. No spit-takes since, but - holy shit - it’s still funny stuff, in an pathetic, unintended, poorly crafted way. Most NYT subscribers would be insulted if they had been paying attention.
With Deep State nefarious intent a given, this clumsy gambit to protect the Biden Administration and CIA perps from investigative journalism, steering skeptics of White House and State Department dismissals into false senses of security, is an abject failure.
As much as I’ve dismissed most New York Times reporting since its relentless promotion of the Iraq War - most notably its infamous aluminum tubes report by Pentagon stenographers Michael Gordon and Judith Miller - this week’s insulting read was in a class by itself. How could skeptics be anything but insulted, like me, and yet entertained, even looking for more? Just don’t forget the “nefarious intent” part. A totally transparent excerpt from Times National Security gaslighting scribes Adam Entous, Julian E. Barnes and Adam Goldman (below) is useful.
“U.S. officials declined to disclose the nature of the intelligence, how it was obtained or any details of the strength of the evidence it contains. They have said that there are no firm conclusions about it, leaving open the possibility that the operation might have been conducted off the books by a proxy force with connections to the Ukrainian government or its security services.” [emphasis added]
NYT, March 3, 2023
So many disclaimers to choose from. Others from the article, Intelligence Suggests Pro-Ukrainian Group Sabotaged Pipelines, U.S. Officials Say, include “US officials said”…”US officials speculate”…”A spokeswoman for the C.I.A. declined to comment,” all red flags for bullsh*t, and my BS meter was redlining.
Is there any reason to believe NYT official government sources needed safe places protected with anonymity? Come on. Not when the newsroom copy comes embossed with CIA letterhead.
At nearly the same time, coincidentally or not, the German weekly Die Zeit concocted and published an even more outlandish rendition of the pipeline sabotage, involving a Marvel Studios-lite commando team of six untrained, pro-Ukrainian saboteurs, in a rented Polish yacht, pulling off this international hit job, causing arguably the largest climactic emission release in history. You just can’t write this stuff, but they most certainly did.
The open forum political blog Moon of Alabama provided the translation of Zeit’s comic book storyline. Enjoy:
“Following joint research by [German main public TV news unit] (ARD's capital city studio), the ARD political magazine Kontraste, [German public TV] SWR and DIE ZEIT, it was possible to reconstruct to a large extent in the course of the investigation how and when the explosive attack was prepared. According to this, traces lead in the direction of Ukraine. However, investigators have so far found no evidence of who ordered the destruction.
Specifically, according to information from [these news sources], investigators have managed to identify the boat that was presumably used for the secret operation. It is said to be a yacht rented from a company based in Poland, apparently owned by two Ukrainians. The clandestine operation at sea is said to have been carried out by a team of six people, according to the investigation. It is said to have involved five men and one woman. According to the report, the group consisted of a captain, two divers, two diving assistants and a female doctor, who are said to have transported the explosives to the crime scenes and placed them there. The nationality of the perpetrators is apparently unclear. The assassins used professionally forged passports, which are said to have been used, among other things, to rent the boat.
According to the investigation, the commando set off from Rostock on September 6, 2022. The equipment for the clandestine operation was previously transported to the port in a van, it is said. In the further course, the investigators succeeded in locating the boat the following day again in Wieck (Darß) and later at the Danish island Christiansø, northeast of Bornholm, according to the research. The yacht was subsequently returned to the owner in uncleaned condition. On the table in the cabin, the investigators were able to detect traces of explosives, according to the research. According to information from [the mentioned news sources], a Western intelligence service is said to have sent a tip to European partner services as early as in the fall, i.e. shortly after the destruction, according to which a Ukrainian commando was responsible for the destruction. Thereafter, there have allegedly been further intelligence indications suggesting that a pro-Ukrainian group could be responsible.”
All the makings of a low budget Italian Job-style action flick, with a Ukrainian gang, minus Charlize Theron, where details don’t matter, details like two untrained saboteurs diving to a depth of 80+ meters - 260 feet! - lugging 1000 pounds of C4. Just sailing in a rented Polish yacht through a maze of 6th Fleet vessels in a heavily trafficked sector of the Baltic Sea was impressive enough.
Both versions read like scripts cobbled together by State Department minions over late night rounds of Yuenglings in a back corner of DC’s Old Ebbitt Grill, one more Netflix-streamable than the other, if only for its comic relief. Similar geopolitical deflections from Biden apparatchiks and the Hersh investigation are ubiquitous, spreading exponentially on both alternative media and global mainstream news. Why the Biden ensemble of untalented, misfit neocons, picked this week to join the investigative free for all, we can only guess. After avoiding Seymour Hersh inquiries like Covid-19, are they throwing beleaguered press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre under the bus? Who else – Victoria Nuland, Zelensky, Olaf Scholz? Who knows, but aren't you jonesing for the sequels, especially Sy Hersh’s updates next week.
Accountability may still be a pipe dream, but it doesn’t look like there is a single rewrite of at least this history that is letting the US off the hook.