US media reported this week that a mysterious “pro-Ukrainian group” without established links to any state was responsible for last fall’s sabotage attacks against the Nord Stream gas pipeline network. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev dismissed the reporting as a “cheap” but “epic Hollywood drama.”
Former Hawaii congresswoman and presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard has offered an explanation for the Biden administration’s attempt to use the media to shift the blame for the Nord Stream attacks on a third party, saying the international implications of suspected US responsibility for the crime are just too serious to admit.
“It is so obvious at this point that the United States and NATO are responsible for this act of sabotage and act of war, attacking and destroying this Nord Stream pipeline. They’ve been lying to us all along about it, now they’ve been busted and so they’re trying to sell us this absurd cover-up story,” Gabbard said in a segment on Tucker Carlson’s show, referencing Tuesday’s New York Times reporting citing US intelligence officials fingering a “pro-Ukrainian group” for the sabotage.
Tulsi Gabbard and Tucker Carlson discuss Biden sending F-16s to Zelensky and the “pro-Ukrainian group” that sabotaged the Nord Stream pipeline:
“It is so obvious at this point that the United States and NATO are responsible for this act of sabotage and act of war attacking and… https://t.co/Zo9eAVGf6R pic.twitter.com/XTXO2JMqLi
— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 10, 2023
“The reality is that [Washington is] responsible for this and there are short term and long term, serious implications for this action. It sets this precedent for countries like Russia, North Korea, Iran and China to go ahead and launch attacks and sabotage against critical infrastructure against other countries, like gas pipelines, undersea cables, financial systems, satellites, the list goes on and on. Just imagine the kind of problems to say the least that that would cause for us, the American people, and for the world,” Gabbard said.
The former congresswoman and Iraq War veteran dismissed US and German media reporting on the “Ukrainian trace,” saying it “implies that the United States and NATO’s military intelligence agencies are so inept and incapable that nobody knows what was going on,” and that “nobody saw this coming.”
“This pipeline fed Germany, which is the economic engine of Europe,” Carlson interjected. “Germany is the key player of NATO…We just wrecked the economy of our key NATO ally. If Germany blew up the Hoover Dam would they still be our tight NATO ally? Doesn’t NATO have to disintegrate after we get caught doing this?” he asked.
Gabbard agreed, saying that the White House and NATO want people to believe the cover-up story to nullify the implications of what actually took place – “an act of war not just against Russia but also against our ally, Germany,” and illegal under US laws to boot, since war can only be declared by an act of Congress.
Part of a Pattern
Tuesday’s reporting blaming Ukraine was not the first time during the Ukrainian crisis that the White House has used its access to the legacy press to push its narrative and throw Kiev under the bus.
In October, before any Ukrainian officials claimed responsibility for the attack on the Crimean Bridge, the New York Times reported that Kiev was responsible, citing a pair of anonymous Ukrainian intelligence officials. Separately last fall, anonymous officials told the newspaper that US intelligence assessed that Ukraine was responsible for last summer’s car bombing murder of Russian journalist Darya Dugina.
Senior Russian officials have mostly avoided addressing the new reporting about the “pro-Ukrainian group’s” and the Nord Stream attacks, instead repeating calls for a comprehensive and transparent probe into the act of terrorism.
However, former Russian president and Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev could not help but react to the story, characterizing it as “ignorant US propaganda” that sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster about a group of “inglorious bastards”-style “lone rangers fighting against the damned Muscovites.”
Unfortunately, he said, the end result was just “so-so,” featuring “mediocre actors, a director that’s no Quentin Tarantino, very poor casting and camera work, and a script that’s boring as s***.”
Last month, bombshell reporting by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that the pipelines were rigged to blow by a team of US Navy divers operating under the cover of a NATO exercise last summer, and remotely triggered by a Norwegian aircraft flying overhead months later. The Biden administration dismissed Hersh’s story, while most legacy media has either refused to report on it, or tried to smear Hersh, who has an unimpeachable reputation for accuracy and more than 60 years of journalistic experience, as a “discredited journalist.”
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