German Lawmaker Denounces Scholz’s Silence on US Role in Nord Stream Sabotage

By Staff, Agencies

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's silence on the recent revelation by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that US Navy divers blew up Russia's Nord Stream gas pipeline speaks volumes, a senior German lawmaker said.

Maximilian Krah, who serves as an Alternative for Germany [AFD] member in the European Parliament, told Sputnik news agency that Scholz's silence on the report suggested that he must have been warned in advance about the covert sea operation.

"It is certain that the German government was informed of the sabotage beforehand by the Americans," the German lawmaker was quoted as saying.

"This is the only explanation for Scholz's awkward silence. With the addition of a woke and irresponsible warmonger like [Foreign Minister Annalena] Baerbock, who declares that Germany is at war with Russia, nothing surprises me."

Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist who exposed US atrocities in the Vietnam War and more recently the torture of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, dropped the bombshell in his blog post published on Wednesday.

He said the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines in September last year, which came amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the West, was ordered by the US and carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] in a covert operation.

The 85-year-old journalist said US Navy divers, operating under cover of a mid-summer NATO military exercise, planted remotely triggered bombs to destroy three of the four Nord Stream pipelines.

Krah said the US-engineered sabotage put an end to what had long been a headache for the German government — "the need to justify to Germans why the second leg of the natural gas pipeline had not been pumping cheap gas to his country," as reported by Sputnik.

"The problem is that this is tearing the German economy to pieces and significantly impoverishes Germany. Moreover, the billions spent by Germany on this gas project, which ensured us cheap energy, are lost, but the coalition which governs Germany does not care," he noted.

"Officially, Scholz knows nothing. Apparently, we live in a democracy."

In his breakthrough investigation, Hersh said cheap Russian gas had been a boon for the German economy, decreasing Europe's dependence on the US.

Citing a source with direct knowledge of the US operational planning, the seasoned journalist wrote that Norway played a key role in helping the US organize the attack while keeping the Swedish and Danish navies in the dark.