White House obliged to disprove claim

This is an editorial from China Daily.

The mainstream US media outlets have maintained a studied silence on the claim by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that the United States sabotaged the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September with the assistance of Norway.

Were it not for the Russian State Duma proposing on Tuesday that Russia appeal to the United Nations to organize a joint probe into the intentional destruction of a key international civilian energy infrastructure, Hersh's report would perhaps have been destined to be like a pebble disappearing into the depths of the ocean.

Although Sweden, Germany and Denmark have all conducted their own investigations into the explosions that damaged the pipelines — which precipitated an acute energy shortage in some European countries, prompting them to turn to natural gas supplies from the US and Norway — the findings of these investigations have, for no given reason, not been revealed. Even though experts from different countries say that it is not particularly difficult to obtain first-hand evidence, as the Baltic Sea is relatively shallow, with an average depth of only about 55 meters.

Had these investigations found Russia responsible, as the US and many European countries were quick to claim at the time, the findings would have been swiftly forthcoming with great fanfare.

It takes scrupulous planning, advanced equipment, professional personnel and a careful cover-up to get away with blasting three pipelines almost at the same time, while leaving the other one intact, and the US has an extensive track record of covert operations against the infrastructure of other countries.

Hersh, meanwhile, has an extensive track record of breaking big stories about the dirty deeds of various US administrations, dating back to his disclosure of the My Lai massacre of South Vietnamese villagers by US troops in 1969. His latest report gave a convincing account of how a mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22 provided a golden opportunity for the laying of remotely triggered explosives that destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines three months later.

Hersh's credible account has not been refuted in any substantive way. The White House has simply tried to brush aside Hersh's claim by dismissing it as "utterly false and complete fiction", as has Oslo. But Hersh's report stands up to scrutiny and his claim is not so easily brushed aside.

But even if an international investigation is carried out and determines the US was responsible, the sabotage will still have achieved all its intended objectives, strategically and financially. After all, the purpose was to teach Russia a lesson about the vulnerability of its energy trade and make it a pain point enabling the US to strengthen its control over Europe.