The Times of London reported Thursday that Germany is “open” to theories that a Western country attacked the Nord Stream pipelines in an attempt to blame the incident on Russia.
The Times report reads: “The German investigation is thought to have made little progress so far, with officials having yet to uncover any compelling evidence. However, The Times understands that they remain open to theories that a western state carried out the bombing with the aim of blaming it on Russia.”
Since the attacks on the natural gas pipelines that connect Russia and Germany were discovered in September, none of the three countries investigating the incident — Germany, Sweden, and Denmark — have said publicly who they believe was responsible.
At the time of the attack, Western officials and media outlets pinned the blame on Russia even though both Nord Stream pipelines are mainly owned by Gazprom, the Russian state natural gas company. But recently, Western media has acknowledged there’s no evidence Moscow was responsible.
For their part, Russia has accused the UK of being involved in the Nord Stream sabotage. The Kremlin claimed it had intelligence that showed “British military specialists were directing and coordinating the attack.” But Moscow hasn’t offered any evidence, and the UK denies the claim.
The US has a motive for attacking the pipelines as it tried to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline’s construction for years. After the incident, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the explosions provided a “tremendous opportunity” to wean Europe off Russian gas.
Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, said at a Senate hearing last week that the Biden administration was happy the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was a “hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.” She was addressing Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and both used the term before the war to describe the pipeline as it was not delivering gas to Germany.
It’s all falling apart. The whole tale told by idiots and warmongers clinging to fever dreams of hegemony is crumbling.
It hasn’t been easy to exceed the devastating stupidity displayed by the
Shrub BushCheney administration in 2003, but Biden and his coven of demonic neocons have done it.Yes, Red, you are hitting the nail on the head. The Bushleeg years showed us all that accelerating intellectual collapse is directly linked to moral collapse. Now the obvious plot is overweight and dumbed-down labor servants controlled by Hollywood news producers, lawyers and bankers also lack imagination. The fat and lazy can only consume so much and its not enough to keep compound quantitative growth going. Even this sputtering kick start of WW3 following defeats in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam and Korea etc is a ho hum failure for US cowardice.
Cheney might have pulled the strings, but Bush was more than a willing accomplice.
Yup.
While it is true that Bush could have said “no” it is also true that Cheney is a very serious person, in the sense of complicated evil, while Bush is not a serious person, in the sense of a cheerleader drifting in front of events.
LOL, nice! It’s hard because comparing Bush to cheerleaders is an insult to cheerleaders. They seem much more harmless. On the other hand, a clown may also be an evil clown. A Boris Johnson? Perhaps Bush is somewhere on an evil spectrum between a Boris Johnson and a Kamala Harris “drifting in front of events?”
Bush is his fathers son, Cheney did the work Bush wanted done.
I hope you are right, Red! But when I look at the Democratic pols in DC, and the websites, right Dem, center Dem, and left Dem, they are all, still, 1 million per cent pro Ukraine, and perhaps more importantly, they all still believe 1 million per cent that Russia is losing. They have not only lost touch with any kind of moral compass, but their sense of reality is gone too. At least on this one issue, they are as deep in the weeds, as in denial of facts, as the worst of right wing conspiracy theorists.
And it is not as if the Republican party is all that much better.
And polls show that only a quarter of all Americans in general, and only a minority of Republicans, think the USA is doing “too much” for the Ukraine. At the same time, a fifth of Americans and even 17% of Repubs think that the USA is “not doing enough!” With majorities favoring the current and/or higher levels of support across the political spectrum.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/01/31/as-russian-invasion-nears-one-year-mark-partisans-grow-further-apart-on-u-s-support-for-ukraine/
Three fifths of Democrats, a majority of all Americans, half of Independents, and over 40 per cent of Republicans, still believed that the Ukraine was winning the war as of last week.
https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-bipartisan-support-for-sending-funding-weapons-ukraine
All true, but the very worst prospect, for those in charge now and those who might soon be, is doubling down on (yet another) war and being seen to lose. Rather than let that happen, I think they’ll find a way to disengage and move on to the next misadventure. There’s no appetite for a direct fight with Russia among the other NATO members and The uniformed guys at the Pentagon are surely telling the suits what a disaster it would be.No doubt that one will focus on China and they may well be dumb enough to dig themselves, and the rest of us.
Of course, they could easily manage to start WWIII by implementing an exit plan even dumber and more reckless than usual. Or I could be totally wrong and they could be preparing to start it deliberately.
I am hoping against hope that Putin bails out Biden by giving him a place to fall, just as he did Obama.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/08/31/when-putin-bailed-out-obama/
In general, the Russians have always been the more reasonable ones, going back to the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crises, the Geneva Conference on Vietnam in 1954, the SALT talks, and so on. And Putin has done the same. He held his hand while the USA and NATO crossed one red line after another. And he was still willing to talk right up until Zelensky threatened to start a ground offensive and stepped up the shelling, and threatened to get nuclear weapons, not to mention the creeping, de facto NAOTization of the Ukraine, its nazification, and so on. Even after the war started, Putin was ready to cut a deal. Perhaps he is now, as well. Again, I can only hope, because I don’t trust DC to admit publically to defeat, even if WWIII is the only alternative.
The Russians have, indeed, historically been more reasonable and that especially applies to Putin, who was remarkably patient and forbearing in the face of long, relentless disrespect and aggression. I think they would indeed be willing to do a deal, if it met their requirements for security, which are clearly more stringent now than they were a year ago. But trust in the US and its European deputies is shattered. And it’s just not sensible to rely on untrusted counterparties to keep and honor existentially-critical agreements. I think Russia is most likely to insist on creating facts on the ground sufficient to provide the necessary security. The West can’t be trusted not to violate its treaties or to act, generally, in good faith.
Biden’s gang may have to design a CYA exit without much help from Moscow, although the Russians definitely don’t want a hot war with NATO and that, in and of itself, is helpful..
Biden had decades to grow, he never did, could he now? He is senile and that is not getting better. Who is in charge?
The Owners are always in charge. US presidents are almost always primarily agents of the Owners.
Just to give you a flavor of what Democratic party bloggers and blog commenters are thinking, here are the latest threads on the Ukraine at Daily Kos (left to mainstream Dem), BalloonJuice (centrist Dem), and Lawyers, Guns, and Money (left-liberal Dem):
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/5/2151204/-Ukraine-Update-Let-s-look-at-the-state-of-the-front-lines-as-Russia-launches-its-winter-offensive
https://balloon-juice.com/2023/02/05/war-for-ukraine-day-346-a-brief-sunday-night-post/
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/02/russia-and-the-polycrisis
Russia is losing! Is inept! The Ukraine could defeat Russia without Western aid! As you could any number of European countries on their own, even Poland by itself! Russia, if it had any sense, would simply retreat to the pre 2014 borders, pronto! Also, Russia is completely in the wrong, and is committing war crime after war crime, up to and including genocide. In addition, here are some heart-warming stories about Ukrainian and western heroes, right on down to two of the sites even mentioning military dogs, complete with pictures!
Very, very occasionally, someone tries to introduce some reasonable opinion, or even merely inconvenient facts, but those either fall on deaf ears or provoke even more extreme, even more certain, opinions.
How could that even be possible? It is not just in the USA, it inflicts all NATO nations, THE WHOLE US/NATO alliance. How can that happen in Democracies?
ByeDone’s popularity rating is dismal, yet a majority of Murkins favor ByeDone’s War.
It’s a funny old world, innit?
Biden’s polls are not that bad.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/
His numbers are in line with past presidents at the two year mark of their first term.
I do think Biden’s war is propping him up, to some degree. The war remains popular. The PR barrage continues non stop, with only now a few cracks in the wall appearing. Ukraine is right. Ukraine is winning. The US is losing no lives, is doing the right thing, and even the economic fallout of the war is more of a problem for Europeans than it is for Americans. That’s how most Americans see it.
Biden drifts below fifty per cent because of other issues…the economy (specifically inflation), culture war stuff, the normal disenchantment, even from one’s own party, after governing for two years, the document brouhaha, now the “China balloon,” notions that he is feeble or demented, and so on. There is plenty not to like, even for the fans of the war.
It’s obvious what the truth is to us objective observers. It’s sad that it taken so much political wrangling for Germany to even be “open” to the truth – that their pipeline got bombed by their NATO “ally”…
Remember Germany is still occupied by the US .
Add the NATO Europe and de facto Sweden. Sweden and Denmark most likely were involved, making sure the investigations would be clean with evidence Russia did it, something must have gone wrong they could not get fake credible evidence. Not even a Russian ship was nearby to prove the Russians did it. Maybe someone fouled up not thinking to have at least a Russian ship in the vicinity when the sabotage occurred.
My, are Germans this slow?
My guess is that what we’re seeing is a combination of factors, Bianca. German leaders aren’t so stupid that they didn’t realize from the beginning that the US and/or its minions were probably -behind the Nord Stream bombings.
Germany has been subservient to the US for a long time and the current government in Berlin is unusually cowardly. I think they have simply been so worried about the consequences of confronting the US that they have silenced themselves.
Also, the German elite classes and their political lackeys appear to be very slooow to figure out that the subservience has led them into behaviors that are trashing their economy and further undermining their sovereignty. Maybe some of them are beginning to get a clue.
Pathetic.
The USA is still occupying Germany and Europe. The USA is in control of all international institutions including Finance and the UN.
The US IS WAGING ECONOMIC WAR against its NATO ALLIES, the USA forces the allies to fight each other enforcing sanction they do not want to implement with sanctions against them. The Poles and Baltic nations think they can get even with Russia with American help. They don’t get it at the end they will be just more prey for the US. The USA is a most ruthless hegemon, it must go. Nations in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europeans know it. Russia must win the war to save the planet.
In all of history there has never been a monster like the USA.
So far with control over the MSM the elite can still manipulate the public. How can a senile warmonger and a clown destroy the world? Or better, who are the people who control them?
No, but when the 🇺🇸 Ministry of Truth controls your every move, what you say and do is extremely limited. 😉
The Germans are scared to death of the US .
The USA has some 30 000 soldiers stationed in Germany and they would be used to control any uprising of the German people.
Sorry, but recent history made me open my eyes to the kind of government we have, it is not the American people it is the elite in charge.
The elite picks our governments and the elite meeting in Davos picked all the European governments too, they control the media and the guns and the money. They fund the neocon RW Think Tanks. Who else would have the funds to accomplish the corruption of our governments. They are ruthless, and evil people. Is there another explanation for the governments we have?
Sweden and Finland without any real explanation to the people want to end their neutrality and become members of NATO. Why, what do they expect to gain for their people, WHY?
The US is destroying NATO, it is cannonfodder like Ukraine. Why do the Scandinavians want to board the Titanic?
We have gangsters in government, people with no character.
“…western state carried out the bombing with the aim of blaming it on Russia.” No. They carried out the bombing precisely to carry out the bombing. Blaming Russia is the cherry on top. But no worries.
The “investigators” may still allege that Russia used an under water balloon supplied by China. (Sarcasm alert)
The U.S. government blew up the pipeline to intimidate the Germans. Their attempt to blame Russia was pro forma — just to see if anybody’d buy it. It’s so implausible they must have known nobody’d take it seriously, except cable news presenters and many of them struggled to keep a straight face as they reported it
😂
The NS pipelines were destroyed to eliminate any chances that Germany might have of reaching a deal with Russia for cheap gas and simultaneously to make the US the controller of gas supplies to Germany to keep it under the boot so to speak.
In fact, in my opinion the whole Ukraine fiasco was for the purpose of controlling natural gas flows to Europe, starting with Biden’s son multi-million dollar engagement with Burisma right after thecoup.
The whole”blame Russia for blowing up” its own pipelines is so outlandish that it can only be described as a distraction to obfuscate the situation.
This war is meant to destroy the German economy and the EU along the way, after that they will destroy the Chinese economy with the help of Taiwan and Japan, because there will be no NATO left anyway.
The public mind has been so manipulated to believe every fairytale they MSM tells in service of government and war. They get away with everything no matter how irrational.
There are ~195 countries in the World. I think that they slowly will tell which ones didn’t bomb the pipeline. They already ruled out Russia.
That means they have only about 192 or 193 left to absolve.
Ha. Laughing to keep from crying. I suppose they’ll work through the exoneration process from smallest bully to largest, rather than the other way around.
I see your point. Why not blame Syria? Neocons/neolibs may think it’s a good time to bomb Syria. Especially now while Syria is distracted pulling their dead children from houses freshly destroyed by the earthquake. On the bright side, those children aren’t starving any more. (Sarcasm alert)
I’m waiting to see what Uncle Sanctions’ reaction will be to that earthquake. Maybe we’ll put a hold on the Ceasars sanctions until Syra can get back on their feet and claim that to be our humanitarian aid. Of course, after they get back on their feet, we’ll have to start starving them to death again. You know, you have to starve a village to save a village.
It takes (starving) a village to raise a (profit margin).
It was obvious from day one who was behind the terrorist attack the US with it`s British LACKEY in tow.
Blaiming Russia for destroying their own pipelines made as much sense as an interragator cutting off his own fingers to intimidate his prisoner.
Good one. Imagine that! I noticed you also said finger(s) in the pleural. LOL
The Germans have said they KNOW who did it but they can’t tell, they even said it to the parliamentarians. And the MEDIA NEVER EVEN QUESTIONED THAT RESPONSE.
It is easy to believe that the US did it with help from western states, that includes Sweden, a de facto NATO member. They investigated and refused to tell the Germans the results, the public was never told what they found out.
Frankly it would not surprise me if we find out that Biden told Scholz what they would do before he told the journalist they know how to stop the use of the pipeline.
As insane as the NATO leadership is, everything is possible.
BTW, the Israeli Iron Dome sounds like a fairytale too. 97% effective without any concrete evidence to prove it, like the WMD in Iraq.
The Brits did it based on an order from US…!
It is near Sweden and Denmark, it stands to reason that both were well informed in advance, they knew what to investigate.
The entire investigation is a farce and everyone knows it.
Ever since Hitler got Germany into the second World War, their alphas are no longer around.
Permit me to make 2 slight corrections to discussion.
Again and again we hear from various information sources that the Nordstream pipelines were destroyed. That’s just not accurate.
The “Nordstream pipelines” consists of four actual pipelines, 2 for the original Nordstream and two for Nordstream 2. The sabotage succeeded in breaching three of these pipes. One of the original Nordstream pipes remains intact.
As each of these pipelines has a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters of LNG per year, Germany could, on the instant, resume receipt of a substantial quantity of Russian gas, a quantity which could immediately rescue Germany from its current economic difficulties. (Following Germany coming to its senses and engaging in a bit of diplomacy to achieve a rapprochement with Russia.)
Finally, the notion that the three busted pipes are “destroyed” is inaccurate. In each of the broken pipes, only a 50 meter section of the total ***1,234 kilometer*** length is damaged. Repair of those three sections would be a straightforward matter.
The Germans said they know who did it but they can’t tell. Why not? We all know that if the Russians were insane enough and had done it, we would have been told and they would have put the evidence on the table.
They did it together, and I believe that the Germans were even told in advance, and they did not dare open their mouth.
The fairytales: WMD, Israeli Iron Dome, Pipeline Sabotage, the Incubator Babies, the Gulf of Tonkin, and, and, and more.
Only fools believe anything they say.
I believe that everyone of us reading the bye line is tapping our foreheads Judge Judy-style, saying “ Do I have STUPID written here?”