On Sunday, the spokesman for the National Security Council (NSC), John Kirby, formally denied the viral accusations that the United States covertly sabotaged the Russian-owned Nord Stream pipeline last year.
According to Politico, Kirby said in a “Fox News Sunday” interview that the claim is “a completely false story” with “no truth to it.”
“Not a shred of it. It is not true,” Kirby continued insisting with host Shannon Bream. “The United States, and no proxies of the United States had anything to do with that, nothing.”
The claims were made by longtime journalist Seymour Hersh, who published his allegations on Substack and cited only one anonymous source as his “proof” that the story was true. Hersh has focused on sensational stories that depict the United States military in a negative light, previously reporting on alleged atrocities committed in Vietnam and later writing about so-called “torture” of Islamic terrorists in U.S. military prisons. He has also disputed the official story regarding the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan back in 2011.
In September of 2022, two underwater pipelines named Nord Stream I and Nord Stream II were fatally damaged by sudden explosions, the causes of which have not yet been determined. The pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea, connect Russia to Germany and supplied a steady stream of fuel to Germany and surrounding European countries.
The pipeline’s destruction represented a major blow to Russia’s ability to outsource fuel and other forms of energy, which has been one of its main advantages since it first launched its war with Ukraine in February of last year. Some have accused Russia of sabotaging its own pipeline so that it could subsequently blame Europe or the United States, in order to rally more support behind its cause in Ukraine.
When Bream further asked Kirby about whether or not Congress would have to be informed had the U.S. been responsible for such an operation, Kirby responded with by saying that “we keep Congress informed appropriately of things both classified and unclassified.”
“But I can tell you now,” Kirby continued, “regardless of the notification process, there was no U.S. involvement in this.”