On September 26, 2022, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane made a seemingly routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then on to Nord Stream 1. A few hours later, the high-powered C4 explosives were triggered and three of the four pipelines were put out of commission. Within a few minutes, pools of methane gas that remained in the shuttered pipelines could be seen spreading on the water’s surface…
— Seymour Hersh, “How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline” (Substack, February 9, 2023)
I
President Joe Biden, February 7, 2022:
if russia invades
that means tanks
or troops
crossing the
uh
the
the border of ukraine
again
then
uh
there will be
uh we
there will be no longer
a nordstream two
it
we
we will bring
an end to it
II
British Prime Minister Liz Truss texting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, September 26, 2022, moments after the destruction of the pipeline:
It’s done
III
President Joe Biden, September 30, 2022:
about the pipeline,
and let me say this
it was a deliberate act of sabotage
and now the Russians
are pumping out
disinformation and lies
We will work with our allies
to get to the bottom of
exactly
precisely
what happened
IV
Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, December 16, 2022, to Senator Ted Cruz at a Senate Hearing:
like you
i am
and i think the administration is
very gratified
that nord stream two
is now
as you like to say
a hunk of metal
at the bottom of the sea
V
Ned Price, spokesperson for the US State Department, February 9, 2023, answering reporter Sam Husseini’s question whether the Whitehouse had communicated with Germany or Norway about Seymour Hersh’s report on the destruction of Nord Stream:
it is
it is
it would not be
it would
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
uh
through an objective lens