• Seymour Hersh kicks off his Substack with an incredible story of USG machinations behind the Nordstream bombing.
• It reads like Ian Fleming, with a heaping dose of incompetence thrown in.
• And for once, the CIA was the hesitant party. There’s a first time for everything, aye?

Good morning from brisk Northern Italy!

Yesterday was one of those great regular days. You know, when everything seems to go right.

I knocked out yesterday’s piece with ease. Later in the day, I attended our weekly editorial meetings with some of the brightest minds I know.

But my friend, colleague, and Daily Reckoning editor Brian Maher was missing.

Brian doesn’t usually say much in meetings. But he’s always there.

Not this time.

We often chat via the Slack direct messaging system.

So, I was happy later in the evening when his handle popped up on my phone.

But it wasn’t a DM. It was a post in our editorial chatroom from the great independent journalist Seymour Hersh:

Credit: Substack

To paraphrase Beavis and Butthead, I had morning wood in the late afternoon.

In this Rude, we’ll talk about why this is such a huge story - and see if we were right the first time we wrote about it.

Who’s Seymour Hersh?

At a robust 85 years old, Seymour Hersh is an American investigative journalist and political writer.

He’s best known for reporting the Vietnam War and the My Lai Massacre. He also broke the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture story.

Hersh has won numerous awards for his journalism, including a Pulitzer Prize. He’s widely regarded as one of the foremost investigative reporters of the 20th century… and maybe now the 21st century.

Hersh has been known for his aggressive reporting style and willingness to challenge government officials and powerful institutions throughout his career.

I also encourage you to read Hersh’s “Why Substack?” post, where he describes himself.

What Happened Again?

On 26 September 2022, covert bombings and subsequent underwater gas leaks occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines.

Why?

According to Hersh:

America’s political fears were real: Putin would now have an additional and much-needed major source of income, and Germany and the rest of Western Europe would become addicted to low-cost natural gas supplied by Russia—while diminishing European reliance on America. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. Many Germans saw Nord Stream 1 as part of the deliverance of former Chancellor Willy Brandt’s famed Ostpolitik theory, which would enable postwar Germany to rehabilitate itself and other European nations destroyed in World War II by, among other initiatives, utilizing cheap Russian gas to fuel a prosperous Western European market and trading economy.

And what did we write earlier in the Rude?

Let’s face it: America benefits massively from this.

If you look at the Heartland Theory of Halford Mackinder, America is on the periphery right now.

Credit: Wikipedia

Eurasianism is on the rise.

If German manufacturing married cheap Russian energy and sold those finished products to the Chinese middle class, well, you kind of don't need America anymore.

And that is the main point of this argument.

America is on the verge of obsolescence.

It’s ironic because the very thing that allowed America to breathe and to grow in its infancy, its geographic isolation, is now its Achilles' foot.

And you wouldn't think that geography matters that much in our highly interconnected world.

But this version of our interconnected world is not terribly globalized and raw materials matter.

So, he who has the raw materials runs the world.

America, bountiful and rich with its amber waves of grain, is not the only player in town, especially when it comes to rare earths, potash, and oil.

Conclusion: Europe now requires American LNG, and it keeps the US in the game.

Ok, Who Did I Originally Accuse?

Here’s what I wrote in the Rude about the US (probably) blowing up the pipeline the day after it happened (bolds mine):

US/UK/Poland(?)

Here is President Biden talking about how Nordstream 2 is never going to happen if Russia invades Ukraine.

Credit: @ABC

Here is a video of America's Sweetheart™ Victoria Nuland, telling the world that Nordstream 2 was “one way or another” not coming online.

Credit: @StateDept

Here is Gonzalo Lira in this fantastic Rumble video explaining why it's actually in America's interest to blow up Nordstream 2.

Credit and click here to watch: Rumble

Of course, I don't know if they actually did it.

But thanks to the high-level threats issued by the President and his Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, it looks like America had plans to do this.

And if you want a full explanation of America’s motives, watch this video of Condi Rice from back in the day.

What really didn't help was Poland's former foreign minister thanking America on Twitter. He's been married for 30 years to Anne Applebaum, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The Atlantic. And a fierce Putin critic, of course.

Credit: @radeksikorski

It's a really bad look.

Of course, the American “elite” would be high-fiving because now American LNG will have to go to Europe somehow, some way to keep the place warm.

And, Norway will have to pump more gas through the pipelines into Europe.

Denmark will have to do the same.

Russia pretty much now is cut off from Europe.

But here's the thing, Russia doesn't really care because Russia is selling oil to China and India which desperately need that oil and gas.

Japan is already buying Russian crude and gas.

Did We Really Blow Up Our Ally’s Infrastructure with Their Blessing?

I’ll admit I didn’t see this coming.

According to Hersh:

What came next was stunning. On February 7, less than three weeks before the seemingly inevitable Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden met in his White House office with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who, after some wobbling, was now firmly on the American team. At the press briefing that followed, Biden defiantly said, “If Russia invades . . . there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.

If I’ve read that correctly, the Germans were not only aware of it but supported the bombing.

It’s sheer lunacy and self-sabotage.

Who else?

Back in Washington, planners knew they had to go to Norway. “They hated the Russians, and the Norwegian navy was full of superb sailors and divers who had generations of experience in highly profitable deep-sea oil and gas exploration,” the source said. They also could be trusted to keep the mission secret. (The Norwegians may have had other interests as well. The destruction of Nord Stream—if the Americans could pull it off—would allow Norway to sell vastly more of its own natural gas to Europe.)

Ok, the Norwegians. Anyone else?

The Norwegians joined the Americans in insisting that some senior officials in Denmark and Sweden had to be briefed in general terms about possible diving activity in the area. In that way, someone higher up could intervene and keep a report out of the chain of command, thus insulating the pipeline operation. “What they were told and what they knew were purposely different,” the source told me.

Credit: Seymour Hersh

Ok, the Swedes and Danes weren’t really involved, though I’m sure they were happy with the outcome.

And I must apologize to the Poles and Brits. Apparently, they had nothing to do with this.

Wrap Up.

Never believe anything until it’s officially denied.

And boy, has it!

It appears the Americans and Norwegians teamed up with the German Chancellor to blow up Germany’s infrastructure. The Danes and Swedes were briefed but didn’t really know. And the Poles and Brits were excluded from the operation.

Amazing.

Thank heavens for men like Hersh… and Greenwald and Taibbi.

Without them, we’d never get to the bottom of the story. Read Hersh’s entire piece when you’ve got 20 minutes free. It’s impressive.

Now, Biden must face the consequences of his inability to keep the operation covert.

P.S. Watch out for the Morning Reckoning, coming to your inbox shortly. In it, I cover bailouts and bail-ins and how to avoid both. See you soon!