I'm saying this as former US military here. the Idea that in the middle of a OPORD, of any kind, POTUS would come in last minute and change a detail, like an explosive on a timer (fairly simple,) to what is effectively some new technology no one has ever heard of, that allows for remote sonar detonations is Tom Clancy stuff.
In the United States Military, there's this thing called the Chain of Command.
This exercise was under the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, which is under the United States European Command & United States Africa Command.
The "work" that being described here would have been under SOCOM (United States Special Operations Command), which is the only command that could do this kind of work, they are the only ones that even have the assets to do this kind of work and theres absolutely no mention of that in this piece.
It's complete conjecture and should absolutely be treated as such until theres hard evidence.
The US is too competent to do such a bad job (17 hours apart and only 3 of 4 pipes destroyed)?
Does this imply we have a rogue actor or insufficiently equipped one to blame? Who?
Let's say I am a Ukranian patriot, with few million in the bank. I bet given few month I could put together a team of divers to plant some C4 with a simple timer and blow this thing to hell. Or Polish patriot, or Polish government or any of the Baltic states. It is an existential struggle for all of them, and russkie understand one thing and one thing only, this was a very clear communication straight to Putin.
I think their implication is that none of us really know what happened, much less the author of this article.
Polish friends say there’s no shortage of young men who want the glory of blowing up something owned by the people who gang raped Grandma.
The rest of us in the world live in reality and just assume the US did this.
Biden threatened it and then it happened. Shocked Pikachu face.
Sure, it could have been someone else, but does it even matter at this point?
PS some of us still remember the rainbow warrior, this move, like that move, has your yank cia stench all over it.
Pipelines of all types are fragile things and break all the time for numerous reasons.
Do not attribute to malice which can be explained by negligence/incompetence with out evidence.
The Nordstream pipelines were not in operation, which indicated the need for maintenance. The pipelines, which carry methane under saltwater, require frequent preventive maintenance checks and services, however, it is believed that these checks may have been neglected since the Russians took over. The pipelines were officially shut down for maintenance in July 2020 and July 2021, but were met with various issues and disruptions in gas flow.
Given the pressurized and highly flammable nature of the pipelines, it is imperative to determine the causes of these issues.
Sabotage cannot be ruled out, especially given the current geopolitical climate.
However, the most likely cause could be related to the formation of methane hydrates, which can cause blockages in the pipeline known as hydrate plugs. These plugs can be difficult to remove and require a slow and simultaneous depressurization from both ends of the pipeline.
Remember, both sides, this is important!
If the depressurization is not carried out correctly, it can result in the rapid launch of the hydrate plug towards the depressurized side, causing significant damage to the pipeline. The Diesel Effect, which occurs when the valves are closed ahead of the fast-moving plug, can also cause significant damage. It is crucial that the removal of hydrate plugs be carried out by experienced professionals, given the potential consequences of a failure to do so.
https://www.stssensors.com/blog/2020/07/01/the-diesel-effect...
EDIT: Formatting
Setting aside how legally questionable that premise sounds, especially because the entire rest of the article is full of references to the involvement of clandestine organizations beyond "Navy only", Hersh then goes on to describe an operation apparently involving an absolute clown car full of a bunch of other people including 3 foreign countries, at least some people running a major NATO exercise, and what sounds like half the Norwegian Navy. Operations so secret you can't tell 8 Congressional leaders (as required by law) but you can tell Norway, Denmark, and Sweden about do not sound like a thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joint_Special_Ope....
> Operations so secret you can't tell 8 Congressional leaders (as required by law) but you can tell Norway, Denmark, and Sweden about do not sound like a thing.
Exactly!
Yes, I'm former military.
The United States does shady things and has a long history of doing so. The United States is a capitalist imperialist hell-scape for a lot of people. Counties/states do not have friends, they have interests.
That being said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
What was written in that piece does not mesh at all with what my mental model of how the US military work, How pipelines work, etc.
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/06/22/spotlight-on-p...
and also the pipelines area already denied being approved by germany at the time.
The risk of blowing it up to make it irreversible seems to lack any real gains vs the risk it entails.
Would have been interesting to hear the alleged source give a reason for only blowing up 3 of 4 pipes in a plan they call "perfect".
I think it's moderately unlikely. This is obviously something that many Polish people would cheer for, but would their actual government really be that stupid?
I find it hard to imagine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream_2 ^ a lot of different parties, including the US didn't want this to happen.
How many times has Russias the past 30 years weaponized its gas pipelines? Speak to Moldova, or Estonia, or Ukraine. https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/russia-using-energy-weapon-agai...
I'm not saying the Russians did it, I personally think it was a maintenance accident.
My main objection is, who would be the source? It sounds like there are maybe 20 people in the world who would have this level of information. Each of those individuals would presumably have been selected largely on the basis of commitment to national security. That's why people sign up for these roles in the first place. None of these individuals have anything in particular to gain by leaking this information. All of them have _a lot_ to lose by the same.
I can't imagine any of these individuals as the source, which throws the rest of the story out the window. Even if it ends up being true in the end.