CIA Director William Burns testifies during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, March 9, 2023.
The CIA has known since at least October that Russia did not blow up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. While the report initially claimed that the CIA had attempted to foil a Ukrainian-led plot to bomb the pipelines, a competing report alleges that the agency itself carried out the demolition job.
The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were destroyed in a series of near-simultaneous explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm in late September. The blasts severed a key conduit for Russian natural gas to Europe, causing significant disruptions in the energy supply and impacting geopolitical dynamics.
US President Joe Biden, while refraining from directly blaming Russia for the attacks, expressed concerns over the incident. However, in a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Biden made a surprising statement: “If Russia invades… again, then there will be no Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” This statement raised eyebrows and fueled speculation about the US government’s involvement in the pipeline’s destruction.
In the midst of the confusion, CIA Director William Burns held a meeting with a European counterpart in October. According to an official present at the meeting, Burns stated that the available evidence did not point to Russia as the perpetrator. When questioned about Ukraine’s involvement, Burns responded cryptically, saying, “I hope not.”
The Wall Street Journal’s report sheds light on the CIA’s knowledge of a Ukrainian plot to bomb the pipelines earlier in 2022. The agency reportedly warned Kiev against carrying out the attack, and in August, they informed European counterparts that the threat had subsided. However, the subsequent destruction of both sets of Nord Stream lines raised suspicions about the CIA’s actual role in the incident.
Adding to the complexity of the situation, other media outlets such as Dutch outlet NOS and Germany’s Die Zeit published articles suggesting that American spies were tipped off by their Dutch colleagues about the alleged Ukrainian plot. These reports claimed that the CIA intervened to prevent the attack.
In contrast, the award-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh proposed a different narrative. After extensive investigation, Hersh exposed that the Biden administration ordered the CIA to bomb Nord Stream with the help of the Norwegian Navy. His investigation went to the extent that the explosives were planted during NATO military drills and triggered remotely months later.
Added to the controversy, only after Seymour Hersh’s extensive investigation was released to the public, did the US release this story claiming that Ukrainians had been involved in its destruction.
These conflicting accounts and the CIA’s controversial history, including its past secret operation of hidden detention centres, raise doubts about the agency’s credibility and motivations.
The full truth behind the Nord Stream attack remains elusive, and a thorough investigation that allows all parties involved to have full access to all the available information is necessary to uncover the real culprits and their motives.
