A month has passed since I wrote this article, intended for publication in P&I. In the light of recent developments these initial observations are only made more relevant; not only has the NYT's remark that the explosion was a "mystery" been shown to a deception, but the situation for people in Syria affected by the earthquake has been used as a pretext for both propaganda and actions against the Syrian government. Several months before last week’s dreadful earthquake took the lives of tens of thousands of people and shattered the lives of millions more in Southern Turkey and NW Syria, another catastrophic event took place whose consequences may also be called ‘seismic’, possibly leading ultimately to the deaths of millions – the rupturing of three gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea. While understandable anger has been directed at authorities for not enforcing building standards and for lack of assistance in the vital days following the disaster, no-one could have predicted either the timing or severity of the worst earthquake of recent years, nor should they take the blame for such an ‘act of God’. By contrast, those who were responsible for laying the explosives that ruptured three of the four Nordstream pipelines on September 26th last year knew exactly when they would detonate, and had set the necessary charges to ensure the breakage would be complete and irreparable, turning the pipeline into what Victoria Nuland described as “gratifyingly – a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea”. In fact – as has now been revealed by veteran and world-renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh – those who carried out this sabotage on Germany’s vital gas pipelines knew they would be blown apart at least a year in advance, even if the exact timing had not been decided. But when a fountain of methane and water started erupting from the sea near the island of Bornholm in Denmark, exactly above where the Nordstream pipelines passed carrying Russian gas to the German distribution hub, the reaction from Western media and leaders was one of puzzlement, feigning ignorance and innocence. Despite the blindingly obvious fact that Russia would not have blown up the pipelines it had spent so much on building and from whose gas transport it so benefited - as no-one else sprang forward to acknowledge responsibility, and things like this didn’t just happen by chance, word passed around that the enemie de l’annee – Russia – must have been responsible. Independent observers and ‘non-Western’ media however quickly drew their own and contrary conclusions, noting amongst other things the smug celebration of some of the likely culprits, as well as the rapid appearances of beneficiaries. These included those inaugurating a new pipeline bringing gas from Norway to Poland the following day, and countries with a special interest and reserves of LNG, who found their profits and shares rocketing up in value. The gas shortage in Europe following sanctions against Russia was already benefiting them no end, while energy price rises crippled industry users and caused general mayhem amongst powerless consumers. Most bizarrely also, the “green lobby” in Europe welcomed this development, which as Anthony Blinken noted, would provide ‘new opportunities’ and greater pressure to develop renewable energy resources. Such magical thinking avoided noticing a small problem – the Gas tap had been turned off overnight, and when the storages ran out there would be several long and hungry winters and steaming hot summers before renewables came near to replacing Russia’s river of cheap and clean gas. Also despite the imminent COP 29 meeting in Paris, where discussion on tackling methane emissions was planned, few seemed to notice or comment on the release of 1000 kms worth of compressed methane from the broken pipes, as if it were, like an earthquake, an act of God. This is the background context to the explosive revelations from Seymour Hersh, published on his new blog spot on February 8th under the title “How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline.” and with the subheading: ‘The New York Times called it a mystery, but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret - until now.’ Hersh’s long and methodical analysis, based on a single but highly credible intelligence source, follows a similar pattern to his previous revelatory articles, which the Pulitzer Prize-winning and once NYT journalist was obliged to publish outside the mainstream, first in the London Review of Books, and when they too shunned him, in the German weekly “Welt am Sonntag”. In that paper he revealed what the US military knew following the alleged Sarin gas attack on Khan Shaikoun, Syria on April 4th 2017. Despite their knowledge that the Syrian air force did not drop Sarin on the town, Trump went ahead with a cruise missile attack on the Syrian airbase supposedly involved. Jonathan Cook has written well on Hersh’s difficulty in getting his account published in UK and US media, and on their effective media manipulation to distract attention from it. That the ‘official narrative’ on the Khan Shaikoun ‘Sarin attack’ remains the same in Western media six years later is a stunning confirmation of Cook’s analysis. The same can be said for Seymour Hersh’s most famous, but also most unacknowledged article on the August 2013 Ghouta Sarin attack, published four months later in the LRB as “Whose Sarin?” Evidence from Hersh’s sources showed that the “rebel” groups controlling Damascus’ suburbs had access to Sarin from Turkey, supporting Syria’s claim it was not responsible. As it was, a ‘punitive strike’ on Damascus had been averted by strenuous Russian diplomacy and the scheme to remove Syria’s chemical weapons stocks, but almost ten years later the original lie persists, along with the crippling sanctions. Having personally tried to draw attention to the truth on this and the many more lies and covert operations conducted agains Syria and Russia that have followed in its wake, I find the current media prejudice over humanitarian aid to earthquake victims in Syria beyond toleration. While constantly bad-mouthing the Syrian government and obstructing aid for Aleppo and Latakia, our media are exploiting the tragedy to promote NATO’s favourite ‘rebel’ groups in NW Syria. But back to the pipelines. As noted by Caitlin Johnstone and Jonathan Cook, Hersh’s story will be debunked and deflected and ignored by the Western mainstream, to avoid its true significance being understood by those who will feel the direct consequences of energy shortages and increased costs across Europe and the UK. The rest of the world – the ‘Global South’ – not under the spell of the Empire’s media, already knows who is to blame, as beautifully expressed by Pepe Escobar today: “When it comes to the Global South, what the Hersh report imprints is Rogue Superpower, in giant blood red letters, as state sponsor of terrorism: the ritual burial – at the bottom of the Baltic Sea – of international law, and even the Empire’s tawdry ersatz, the “rules-based international order”.” At the time the explosives finally went off, Moscow was uncertain exactly who had conducted the operation, while never being in doubt the US was the prime mover – as Hersh has now verified. However, following the sea-borne drone attack on the Russian fleet in Sevastopol and the attack on the Kerch Straits bridge, the key involvement of MI6 in these sub-sea operations was established, along with evidence of the UK’s role in the pipeline sabotage. Although there is no suggestion that Australia was involved, other than in helping to spread disinformation about the joint Russian-German Nordstream 2 project for years, it’s worth observing that ties to our old colonial master are increasingly close. While the US has currently shifted its focus onto shooting at UFO’s and weather balloons, the UK is threatening to throw its fighter jets into the war on Russia. If that happens, and Russia responds proportionately, then we will all get the blowback. It will be too late to say “we didn’t know” that NATO was responsible for fracturing Europe’s gas supplies and everything that now follows. Although few imagined that the US would go as far as ‘taking the law into their own hands’, immediate public condemnation and demands for compensation would surely have shifted the balance towards some resolution of the Ukraine conflict, and a step back from this insane war. But perhaps it is still not too late to change the narrative, before the real shooting starts. David Macilwain 13th February 2023
DM March 12th 2023