As expected, the Seymour Hersh exposé on the role of the U.S. government and intelligence services in blowing up Nord Stream 2, got furious denials from all those quarters. The White House denied any truth to the report. National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the report was “false and complete fiction.” CIA spokeswoman Tammy Thorp told Hersh that “this claim is completely and utterly false.” Pentagon spokesman Marine Corps Lt. Col. Garron J. Garn, told the New York Post that “the United States was not involved in the Nord Stream explosion.”
Former NSA analyst Edward Snowden tweeted Hersh’s entire article, commenting, “the whole system revolves around the idea that the majority can be made to believe anything, so long as it is repeated loudly and often. And it works.” As reported by RT, he commented, “Can you think of any examples from history of a secret operation that the White House was responsible for, but strongly denied? Besides, you know that little `mass surveillance kerfuffle,’” referring to his own case of releasing classified documents showing massive US government warrantless spying on Americans.
The Norwegians, whom Hersh claimed had assisted the U.S. Navy in planting explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines, were quite put out by his charges. The Foreign Ministry huffed to Business Insider that “these allegations are nonsense.”
There is extensive commentary from the Russians, beginning with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who wrote on her Telegram channel that “the White House must now comment on all these facts,” adding that Moscow has “repeatedly expressed” its belief that the US and NATO were involved in the explosions.
