(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Major media outlets have sought to downplay last week’s blockbuster report that the U.S. blew up Russia’s Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, while most U.S. politicians have remained silent on the matter—with the lone exception being Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
“I’m troubled that I can’t immediately rule out the suggestion that the U.S. blew up Nord Stream. I checked with a bunch of Senate colleagues. Among those I’ve asked, none were ever briefed on this. If it turns out to be true, we’ve got a huge problem,” Lee said on Twitter last Wednesday, reacting to the report from Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh.
I’m troubled that I can’t immediately rule out the suggestion that the U.S. blew up Nord Stream. I checked with a bunch of Senate colleagues. Among those I’ve asked, none were ever briefed on this. If it turns out to be true, we’ve got a huge problem. https://t.co/DG0dYTByPI
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) February 8, 2023
The possible reason for the lack of congressional knowledge about the attack is detailed in Hersh’s report: Congress didn’t need to be notified of the plan because it was downgraded from being a covert operation, Hersh wrote.
The reason it was downgraded was that President Joe Biden publicly threatened Nord Stream 2 after the CIA came up with a plan of attack. “If Russia invades … there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it,” Biden said on Feb. 7, 2022.
According to the report, the operation was then downgraded to a “highly classified intelligence operation with US military support.” Hersh’s source said that because of the change, there was “no longer a legal requirement to report the operation to Congress.”
When asked by a Twitter user whether the Biden administration blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines would constitute an impeachable offense, Lee responded with one word: “Yes.”
Outside of denials from the White House, CIA and State Department, Hersh’s report has not been discussed by officials in the federal government.
Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets have sought to downplay the report.
For instance, Business Insider’s Mia Jankowicz wrote that Hersh is a “discredited journalist” whose story served as a “gift to Putin.”
Attacks such as Jankowicz’s received pushback from journalists such as Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Glenn Greenwald.
Someone who works for “Business Insider,” [Jankowicz], has never broken a story of note in her life. This is how she and that site describes Hersh’s report on the US blowing up Nord Stream,” Greenwald said with a note of incredulity.
“Who gives a shit if a news report is a ‘gift to Putin’? What a dumb and childish mindset. The only question an actual journalist asks: is this story true? Propagandists are concerned with ‘who does this story help or hurt?’” he said.
Sy Hersh is one of the most accomplished and important journalists of his generation.
Someone who works for "Business Insider," @miajankowicz, has never broken a story of note in her life.
This is how she and that site describes Hersh's report on the US blowing up Nord Stream: pic.twitter.com/txYlGiZrAy
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 10, 2023
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
