Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 10th (International Observation) In the face of “Beixi” revelations, why is the West secretive?
Xinhua News Agency reporter
In response to Seymour Hersh, a well-known American journalist, recently broke the news that the U.S. and Norwegian troops jointly sabotaged the “Nord Stream” natural gas pipeline. The White House and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs both denied it. “. Russia, which has been denied participation in the investigation into the bombings, was surprised that the revelations were not widely disseminated in Western countries, slamming them for trying to quietly close the investigation. Many experts believe that the reason why the West is secretive about this issue is that once it is admitted, it will greatly impact the relationship between the United States and Europe.
American journalist broke the news
The “Beixi-1” pipeline starts from Vyborg, Russia in the east, passes through the Baltic Sea to Lubmin, Germany, and then transmits it to various parts of Germany and other European countries’ natural gas pipeline networks through two connecting pipelines in Germany. It is Russia’s main gas transmission to Europe pipeline. After the completion of the “Beixi-2” pipeline, it is basically parallel to the “Beixi-1” and has not yet been put into use.
At the end of September 2022, there will be four leaks in the parts of the “Beixi-1” and “Beixi-2” pipelines located in the sea near Sweden and Denmark. Swedish measuring stations have detected a powerful underwater explosion in the sea area where the pipeline leaked, and all parties generally believe that the incident was “sabotage”. Russia has repeatedly called for a joint investigation, but Western countries have rejected it.
In his blog post on the 8th, Hersh quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that in June 2022, during NATO’s “Operation Baltic” annual military exercise, U.S. Navy divers placed remote-controlled bombs on the “North Stream” pipeline. On September 26 of the same year, Norwegian military planes dropped sonar buoys to detonate bombs, destroying three of the four pipelines of “Beixi-1” and “Beixi-2”.
According to Hersh, US President Biden decided to sabotage the “Beixi” pipeline after more than nine months of “highly confidential repeated debates” with his national security team. The main focus of the debate is not whether to sabotage, but how not to leave evidence pointing to the United States.
On February 7, 2022, Biden claimed at a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Scholz at the White House: “If Russia invades Ukraine… the ‘Beixi-2’ pipeline will cease to exist. We will make the It’s over.” In this regard, Hersh quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Biden’s remarks shocked several people involved in planning the “North Stream” incident. Because according to the plan, the action of blowing up the “Beixi” pipeline will not be made public in advance. Biden simply didn’t get it, or ignored it.
Hersh is a veteran investigative journalist who worked for The New York Times and The New Yorker and won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Journalism for his coverage of the My Lai Massacre by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
O’Berry, founder of the Swedish Transnational Peace and Future Research Foundation, agreed with Hersh’s conclusion. He said in a written interview with Xinhua News Agency that Hersh’s detailed analysis shows how the destruction was planned and completed, and the conclusion is not surprising. The state committed a crime.” The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, along with economic sanctions, has caused enormous and cumulative damage to the European economy. This is “the economic warfare waged by the United States against its compliant allies.”
The West is secretive
Hersh disclosed that when asked for comment, National Security Council spokesman Watson and CIA spokesman Thorpe both said by email that the claim was “fiction” and “false.” According to Norwegian media reports, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denied Hersh’s statement, saying it was pure speculation. A reporter from Xinhua News Agency contacted the Danish Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Justice, but the reply they received was “no comment”.
It is worth mentioning that the mainstream media in the United States basically turned a blind eye to Hersh’s revelations. In Denmark, only the TV2 news channel reported on the matter, and in the report called Hersh a controversial reporter.
In response to this reaction from the West, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Peskov said on the 9th that Western countries are trying to silently conclude the investigation into the explosion of the “Beixi” pipeline. Hersh’s article on “Beixi” was not widely disseminated in Western countries, which surprised the Russian side. If the behavior of destroying “Beixi” is not investigated, similar incidents may happen again. “There are not many countries in the world that can commit such acts of destruction,” he noted.
Many Russian experts believe that Hersh’s revelations will neither arouse widespread attention in the West, nor force Western countries to disclose their findings on the “Beixi” incident. Yushkov, the chief analyst of the Russian National Energy Security Foundation, said: “Even if the Germans, Swedes or Danes find some evidence of the US involvement in the explosion, they may not dare to say it, because they cannot bear the consequences.”
Belov, deputy director of the European Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that Denmark, Sweden and Germany have so far concealed information because the publication of existing facts may have a profound impact on their relations with third countries and the “directly behind the scenes” of the explosion.
Li Xing, a professor of international relations at the Department of Politics and Society at Aalborg University in Denmark, said in an interview with Xinhua that the rapid denial by the White House and the Norwegian government is not surprising, because if the report is true, it will have a severe impact on US-Europe relations. First of all, in the consistent propaganda of the Western media, the European infrastructure is shrouded in the so-called “Russian threat”. Russia should be the “mastermind” of blowing up the “Beixi” pipeline. Once it is confirmed that the United States did this, it will overturn Europe. The public agrees with this set of Western narratives. Second, Europe will see once again that the U.S. is the reason why the Ukrainian crisis is protracted, and U.S. interest groups do not want to see the conflict in Europe end. In the end, the sense of urgency for European strategic autonomy will be further enhanced, and the Europeans will usher in a moment when they have to make decisions. (Participating reporters: Deng Xianlai, Hua Di, Lin Jing, He Miao, Fu Yiming, Liu Kai)
