The UN Security Council on Tuesday held a meeting on the bombings of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that connect Russia to Germany.
Russia called the meeting after a bombshell report from investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said President Biden ordered the attack on the pipelines, an allegation the White House denies.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said at the meeting that Moscow was calling for an independent investigation. He said Russia wasn’t looking for the Security Council to hold a trial, but suggested an investigation could be led by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“This journalist is telling the truth,” Nebenzia said at the meeting. “This is more than just a smoking gun that detectives love in Hollywood blockbusters. It’s a basic principle of justice; everything is in your hands, and we can resolve this today.”
During the meeting, the Council was addressed by American economist Jeffrey Sachs and Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and contributor to Antiwar.com. Sachs presented evidence that the US had the motive to carry out the attack, including President Biden threatening to “bring an end” to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in comments made on February 7, 2022.
Sachs also mentioned how US officials celebrated the Nord Stream bombings. Just a few days after the blasts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the incident a “tremendous opportunity” to wean Europe off Russian gas.
The US representative at the meeting, John Kelley, repeated Washington’s denial that it was involved in the blasts and dismissed Hersh’s report and evidence of America’s motive as “conspiracy theories from the internet.” Other council members expressed support for an investigation, including China.
“As the most authoritative and representative international organization, the UN can play an active role in conducting an international investigation and ensuring the security of transboundary infrastructure,” the Chinese ambassador told the Security Council.
Sweden, Denmark, and Germany have started investigations into the incident but have shared little detail. The three countries told the UN Security Council that they were still ongoing. “These investigations have not yet been concluded. At this point, it is not possible to say when they will be concluded,” they said in a joint letter.
Hersh’s report said that US Navy divers planted explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines in June 2022 during NATO exercises in the Baltic Sea. It said the operation was done in cooperation with Norway, and a Norwegian spy plane detonated the explosives by dropping a sonar buoy on September 26, 2022.
Hersh published an article on his Substack on Wednesday about the history of the Norwegian Navy’s cooperation with the US. He concluded the piece by asking: “What else do we not know about the secret operation in Norway that led to the destruction of the pipelines? And is there anyone in the Senate and the House, or in the American press, interested in finding out what was going on — and what else we do not know?”
I love that you allow comments on every article. There’s not filitering or pansy assing it I wish ALL US media sites were like that. But nope, because they are all PRIVATELY OWNED AND OPERATED.
Not everything sent in as a comment or reply gets printed. I have been censored over and over again on Anti War and Sheer Post for printing comments about US foreign policy that are not favorable tu the US.
I doubt you’ve been censored just “for printing comments about US foreign policy that are not favorable to the US,” because this site does nothing but print articles that are unfavorable to the US. No, much more likely is that you’ve mixed up your “anti-war” position with some other dumb or off topic position.
Actually, I just searched deleted comments for all three sections of Antiwar.com. So far as I can tell, the commenter in question has never been “censored” here, ever.
Good to know! Ironic how people are begging to be the victim of censorship (or the victim of any number of other “problematic” policies) because of the arbitrary authority some give “victims”.
Thanks for the clarification. I think it was important to set the record straight on this one.
Members of the UN know that if they expose America for blowing up the pipeline there will be retaliation. Wonder how many UN members have the moral courage to seek and speak the truth to power? This could be huge!
Could be, should be, may be…… OR Will it be…????? Money talks, even in the UN…or maybe especially. It will be fun to see how “they” climb down off their double talk nigh horse. T There truly is a great opportunity here, but it is not to force Europe to pay triple or more to keep warm. No, the opportunity is to humble the conspirators who hold you and I and the people of the world in such contempt as if they are like innocent children, unable to see what is really going on. They are not loath to risk a nuclear suicide to maintain their power over all the people of the world so they can stay top dog in all matters. No one has stayed on top forever, and these current aspirants won’t either
My guess would be none.Such is the power of economics and the worlds biggest military budget. No one has ever called out the US for its crimes against humanity and no one will. Its good to be the king of the world.And as a result the beat goes on.
Scheerpost: https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/22/german-lawmaker-calls-for-nord-stream-probe/ Bravo!!
I hope to live long enough for the international community to call bullshit on America.
Our officials are so arrogant, they say the quiet part out loud, “this is a tremendous opportunity” or “for our eventual conflict with China”. It is infuriating, because it means we have to actively participate in the Orwellian exercise of forgetting what they just said, lest it totally undermine what they are actively saying.
So we live in a world where we all know the US is waging a war to destroy business and resource competition so we don’t have to reduce our economic and industrial activity, even as we lie and pretend we are just about to start reducing our emissions to save ourselves from climate change; but we have to pretend we don’t know that, and that the war is about national sovereignty which is so important to the USA, and that forcing Europe onto US gas and motherfucking coal has nothing to do with our sudden rock hard interest in war with Russia (and Syria and Iran and China and…) that we keep accidentally being extremely enthusiastic and honest about.
So we live in a clown show, where repeating what our leaders say out loud or declared just a few years ago means you’re guilty of treason and working for Russia, but repeating self-contradictory propaganda that threatens to kill all Americans means you’re a patriot.
A scary point. We are to forget everything and remember only what told to remember.
Motive, means and opportunity, Add to this a full fledged, throathy promises to harm pipelines months ahead of time. And after the terririst act was commited US was receiving thanks and congratulations —- not exactly rejected. And in months to come, US continued to emohasize the benefits of this terrorist act.
Considering that the five inch steel pipe was encased in conrete, only a technoligically advanced statec actor could have done it.
What was not said — is shocking. But at this point, finger pointing can wait, The act of terrorism occured close to Danish island Bornhold. There is something very specific about the island. It is a fortress of sensors monitoring Russian submarines.
There was no way that the operation of this magnitude, laying explosives would have gone unnoticed.
As Sweeden is not NATO member, its role in this plan is murky. But according to Hersh sources, it was Norway that dropped buoy with the electronic command capability to transmit the command to set off explosives. It seems that some of it failed as one line of NS IiI is not damaged.
This farce of investigation shrowded in secrecy is dragging slreadydragging sux minths. Still no informatio.n — basic information about explosives. What seems to be happening is a cover.up — plain and simple. Otherwise, by now traces of terrorist act would have bern found. Especially unexploded ordinance on NS II, line 2.
There are heavyweights like China that are supporting Russia’s request for independent investigation. Brazil was not specific but dupportive. UAE was supportive, so was Ghana. But US allied France, Albania, Japan and Malta were on message — Russia was just trying to deflect from Ukraine, this story is just internet conspiracy theory, and they support the current neverending investion.
China has tabled a proposal to deal with conict resolution to Ukraine, A process that should exclude countries involved in supporting one side in conflict by arming or financing.
Brazil is interested. Lula da Silva told Biden when they met that “you are asking us to join the war — but we want to stop it.”.
“We are to forget everything and remember only what told to remember.” Which is why Gore Vidal referred the U.S. as being the United States of Amnesia.
The foreign policy of the Us is becoming a real shit show not that it has not been since forever.
Excellent post.
Excellent, a ‘George Santos world’. But sadly even Seymour Hersh and Jeffrey Sachs buy into the “Russia started it” narrative.
Even with the pipeline bombing planned before the invasion?
The most idiotic take on this whole war is that there are “good guys”.
Conspiracy theories from the Internet? You’d think he’d have a better comeback than that. That reeks of “we have no defense.”
“UN Security Council Holds Meeting on Nord Stream Sabotage Russia called the meeting after Seymour Hersh reported that President Biden ordered the bombing of the pipelines”
A resolution condemning Joey Balloon Boy Biden as a war criminal would be delicious.
Surrre. That’ll happen. Right after Rothschild hangs from Statue of Liberty and Soros wears concrete shoes on the bottom of East River.
I know, just wishful thinking!
p.s. Speaking of bankers, Anthony beta boy Blinken was inducted into the Trilateral Commission. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, an internationalist (Globalist).
Blinken’s family came from Hungary in an area that is now Ukraine.
They can deceive the western public only because the corporate media is still the main source of the information for the ordinary people in The West, but they can’t deceive the people of the world. Opinion of such countries as China and India does matter and they know already what really happened and adapt their policy accordingly. In the long-term the damage to US will be much greater than the profit from selling their gas to EU. It was really an outrageous terrorist act.
“They can deceive the western public only because the corporate media is still the main source of the information for the ordinary people in The West, but they can’t deceive the people of the world.”
Not so sure. This is 22 yrs after 9/11, 19 yrs after WMD, 8 yrs since Maidan coup, … and das volk are still buying it. As a previous piece had it, they consider they’ve mastered the art of information warfare; and, so far, while I hope you’re eventually proved right, it doesn’t look promising. Rather I fear we are a small and ever diminishing band of resistance against post-truth.
They’ve mastered the art of information warfare indeed but it doesn’t work now in Russia and China so successful as it worked 30 years ago. Maybe in Arab world and in black Africa people don’t know much about the details of the war in Ukraine, still the hypocrisy of NATO propaganda was obvious for them from the beginning. No one in NATO ever demonstrated such a concern for the hundreds of thousands killed in Iraq, Yemen, Somali as they demonstrated it for few thousands killed in Ukraine. For African people it was a clear evidence of racism and they talked openly about that even at the beginning of Ukrainian war.
Nord Stream terror act is more worrying for the world than other terror acts because it is a very dangerous precedent. There are a lot of pipelines and other important infrastructure in the neutral territories. No one can feel safe now.
The final part of your comment is spot on , if the US is allowed to get away with this who knows what pipe line will be next or even drill platforms , every country that trans ports oil by pipe line should be worried and should take the necessary steps to protect said pipe lines .
Standard Oil set the precedent decades ago. Attacks on pipelines are often motivated by a desire to preserve private and public monopolies.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that the war in Ukraine was escalated just at the time that Nord Stream 2 was ready to go online. (It would have effectively allowed Russia to bypass the pipelines in running through Ukraine and Poland. Norway also stood to lose some customers.)
If it’s not a coincidence, then motive would need to be explained. Why would Russia escalate the war in Ukraine at the least opportune time for itself?
If we are going to pick a time frame for the escalation, I think March 2021 is a good one. That’s when Zelensky issued his Presidential Decrees to take back Crimea and the Donbass. It’s also, of course, two months after Biden took office and about 6 months before Nord Stream 2 was completed.
I thought I had already explained the motive.
Ukrainian, Polish, and foreign investors knew that Nord Stream 2 could bypass their own pipelines. These investors stood to lose profits and may also have had sunk investments that would have to be written off.
“I thought I had already explained the motive.”
Well, if we’re going to mark the “escalation” at some random point in time when someone said something, instead of people actually doing things, why not mark it at Christmas of 1954 and little Joey Biden’s expression of bitter disappointment over not getting an Erector Set?
I take it that you don’t think Zelensky’s Presidential Decrees to take back Crimea and the independent republics were an escalation.
Do you also think it a coincidence that Russia sent the first show of troops to the border less than a month after that decree was issued?
Had it ever NOT been the policy of the Ukrainian regime to “take back Crimea and the independent republics?”
No, it hadn’t. The regime had continuously claimed that those secessions were illegitimate and that Crimea and LPR/DPR were theirs since 2014.
Pouring some more political verbiage on top of the exact same political verbiage of the previous eight years isn’t “escalation,” it’s gum-flapping.
Well then. I guess we don’t need to take this seriously: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that Ukraine is preparing to launch attacks to recapture Crimea by forming new military units and sending troops to train in other countries.
And if they affect the US economy they will be dealt with or destroyed as will anyone who threatens the rule of the US over the rest of the world including dissidents here at home and whistle blowers. The dark ages are coming.
Das volk, perhaps, but what about लोग or Rénmín or as pessoas?
I don’t think as pessoas are quite as convinced as Das volk are.
What are the overt signs lead you to believe this is so? We are all quietly desperate to learn all the lights aren’t extinguished.
Israel’s neutrality toward Russia and Ukraine (lest russia engage against israel in syria)
Brazil’s neutrality toward Russia and Ukraine, for no reason other than because it’s none of their business.
India’s neutrality toward Russia and Ukraine, perhaps because they like oil, perhaps for no reason other than it’s none of their business.
Turkey’s neutrality toward Russia and Ukraine, for who on earth knows why.
Outside of america and europe (“the west”), people really don’t care that much about this war, and they certainly aren’t “indoctrinated by america”. And this is among countries that are allies, friendly, or neutral to america. Once you include america’s opposition, china, Vietnam, north Korea, etc, they are even more indifferent, or even on russia’s side.
Considering the populations of Brazil, India and china, there are certainly more people neutral or on Russia’s side than people who have drunk america’s cool aid.
Perhaps, but definition-ally “neutrality” means nothing; and as comment on Washington aggression, it is viewed as supportive. I was thinking more in terms of action by the “street”, or the intelligentsia, the universities, newspapers and journals, artists, … governments condemning US aggression in the UN, expelling military bases, withdrawing from NATO, ….
Expand just a bit and see very few in Latin America believe anything said north of the Mexican border.
Add the entire continent of Africa plus Indonesia and the isolation of capitalist war mongers is quite evident.
Point one of the Chinese peace plan
1. Respecting the sovereignty of all countries. Universally recognized international law, including the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, must be strictly observed. The sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of all countries must be effectively upheld.
All countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community. All parties should jointly uphold the basic norms governing international relations and defend international fairness and justice. Equal and uniform application of international law should be promoted, while double standards must be rejected.
Most people do get their news that way still, mainly because of conglomerates that own much of the major news outlets and newspapers. The TV network ratings are pathetic, topping out at 3 million unique viewers and often under 1 million. For cultural comparison, Taylor Swift sold just under just over a million albums last year on vinyl alone. I couldn’t name you a single Taylor Swift song. The problem is they drive other corporate news outlets that take their lead from them thus their influence is still extensive.
Agree that it was a terrorist act. But it was also an act of war against Germany and every country that drew gas from Nord Stream 1.
Just presenting the US gloating over the demolition of the pipelines is a black eye for the US.
Russia waited patiently for this day. And this patience is paying big dividends.
If one assumes that the plan was to destroy all four pipelines, then the explosive package that failed to detonate no doubt remained attached to the one undamaged pipeline when the Swedes came in to clean up the crime scene. The presumption that the explosive package remained there inevitably leads to the presumption that the Swedes found it, took it, and either have it or disposed of it.
The Swedes have no way of rebutting this conclusion, and thus their complicity in the crime.
The best they can do is deflect, by citing their largely insignificant role in the affair and by throwing themselves on the mercy of the court and the Americans under the bus: “The Americans made us do it!”
(However, since the UN is an American stooge, and likewise the Swedes, it’s unlikely this will go anywhere.)
“Swedes came in to clean up the crime scene” – of course they would. Swedes are queueing to NATO. The other countries involved both in the sabotage and in the “investigation” are also members of NATO. They will never allow an independent investigation. Still it was interesting to watch this council. The pathetic mumbling of the majority of speakers demonstrated how strong are USA.
You are right the UN is a US stooge , every international organisation is funded by the US so they have no choice but to toe the US line .
When you pay the piper, you call the tunes.
Or the much simpler and plausible explanation, that there were only two explosives intended for all 4 pipelines, and the second explosive didn’t blow up the two it was intended for. Geez, sometimes you people really stretch to find “evidence”.
From chatGPT:
The two pipes that make up Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 are not located in close proximity to each other.
Nord Stream 1 consists of two parallel pipelines that run from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany via the Baltic Sea. The distance between the two pipelines is about 120 meters (393 feet).
Similarly, Nord Stream 2 also consists of two parallel pipelines that run from Ust-Luga in Russia to Lubmin in Germany via the Baltic Sea. The distance between the two pipelines is also about 120 meters (393 feet).
And this from Wikipedia:
On 26 September at 02:03 local time (CEST), an explosion was detected originating from Nord Stream 2; a pressure drop in the pipeline was reported and natural gas began escaping to the surface southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm. Seventeen hours later, the same occurred to Nord Stream 1, resulting in three separate leaks northeast of Bornholm.
This additional information may perhaps help, Though in our current fake news era it’s difficult to know what is credible and what is not.
I feel compelled to make one more comment, because there may be another plausible explanation. This explanation occurred to me back in October, and I had mentioned it in another comment stream, but since then forgotten.
It may be that in the murky depths of the Baltic, in the process of planting the explosives, the divers planting them, one pipeline at a time, somehow — the murky depths? — accidentally planted two of the explosive packages on the same pipeline, and as a result, inadvertently failed to plant explosives on one of the pipelines. If that was the case, then when the explosives were detonated only three of the pipelines would have been affected, but — and here’s the crucial alternative element — all of the explosive packages would have detonated. There would not then have been an undetonated package of explosives strapped to the undamaged pipeline for the Swedes to find and collect when they came in to clean up the crime scene.
That said, this alternate explanation would have left its own “signature”, not to mention evidence of the perpetrator’s bungled performance. There would be two separate breaches in one of the pipelines, a situation which would remain and be impossible to conceal.
Time will tell.
Although you may accurately describe the UN a US tool today, China and Russia are patiently working to make the UN a real forum for BRICS+..
The UN is a corrupt Western Organisation, as is OSCE, OPCW etc etc etc
There will not be an independant investigation. MH17 come to mind?
The Americans are the only ones with a motive to end NS2 and that motive is MONEY plus the added benefit of driving a wedge between Russia Germany Europe something they have dreamed of for decades , i wonder how the German industry feels about being dependent on the US for it`s energy needs now or being at the mercy of prices on the worlds markets ? , they had a stable and cheap supply of gas ect from Russia and they pissed it all away because they are a LACKEY of the US .
I’m really astonished. How long can this charade go on? Hersh, Sachs and McGovern at the UNSC: “the US blew up the Nord Stream pipelines.” German Government: “Conspiracy theorists! We are at war with Russia!” The German people: “Yeah, it sounds exactly like a conspiracy theory. NATO, NATO!” My fault, I thought this level of stupidity was never going to happen again! (Sarcasm alert)
Bridges, pipelines and international trade between Russia and Europe are
the true existential threat to US style hegemony.
The bombing of the pipeline was not a response to the Ukraine war–but
rather, the West’s engendering a Ukraine war was a response
to the pipeline.
Yet, I was surprised that not a blip on the mainstream media about this meeting. I wonder why?
I would have guessed the UK did the dirty deed on behalf of the US.
Norway makes sense though. The day after Nordstream there was a ceremony for a new Norway-Poland gas pipeline.
If the Russian were going to blow up a pipeline they would have blown up that one.
“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.”
-George Orwell