Top Russian lawmaker labels US president a ‘terrorist’

 

US President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address © AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds

Source: RT

Joe Biden has earned the title by ordering the destruction of Europe’s energy infrastructure, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin claims

Speaker of the Russian parliament Vyacheslav Volodin has branded US President Joe Biden a “terrorist” after a report by iconic American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh blamed Washington for sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines last year.

Volodin said on Thursday that Biden’s State of the Union address, in which he claimed that the US was “a nation that stands as a beacon to the world,” reminded him of “statements by the leaders of the Third Reich.”

The ramifications of this “ideology of exceptionalism” were uncovered in the investigation by Hersh, the Russian MP wrote in a post on Telegram.

The State Duma speaker was referring to a report published by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist on Wednesday, in which he claimed that the US was behind the explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines last September. According to an informed source who talked to Hersh, explosives were planted at the key pipelines in the Baltic Sea back in June 2022 by US Navy divers under the guise of a NATO exercise. They were later detonated remotely.

Nord Stream 1 and 2 had been important routes for the delivery of Russian gas to Europe through Germany.

“If [Harry S.] Truman became a criminal, who used nuclear weapons against civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then Biden became a terrorist, who ordered the destruction of the energy infrastructure of his strategic partners: Germany, France, the Netherlands,” Volodin said.

The sabotage of the pipelines by the Americans was “an act of intimidation of its vassals, who decided to develop their economy in the interests of their own citizens,” he wrote.

The revelations by Hersh should be grounds for an international investigation to “bring Biden and his accomplices to justice,” and to make sure that the nations affected by this “terrorist attack” are paid compensation, Volodin added.

The Biden administration has denied the report by Hersh, with the National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson calling it “utterly false and complete fiction.”

The Russian authorities have for months been pointing to the fact that the only side that benefited from Nord Stream being rendered inoperable was the US, which saw its supplies of liquified natural gas to Europe increase massively following the sabotage.
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Related

[01] US Behind Nord Stream Sabotage – Seymour Hersh
[02] The Last Swing of a Dying Empire
[03] The Undeclared Declaration of War on Russia By Western Windbags
[04] Ukraine - Europe, Energy Supplies & Economic Collapse
[05] Energy Crisis – A Ticking Time Bomb

US behind Nord Stream sabotage - Seymour Hersh

 

FILE PHOTO. The release of gas emanating from a leak on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea on September 28, 2022 in At Sea. © Swedish Coast Guard via Getty Images

Source: RT

Washington “took out” the Russian gas pipelines, Seymour Hersh has claimed

The Nord Stream pipelines were destroyed last September by the US in a covert operation, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed. The legendary reporter made the bombshell revelation in an article posted to his newly launched blog on Substack on Wednesday.

The explosives were planted at the pipelines back in June 2022 by US Navy divers under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise, Hersh reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.

The journalist noted that he had reached out to the White House and CIA for comment, with both firmly rejecting the claim that the US “took out” the pipelines as “utterly false.”

The bombs were detonated three months later on September 26 with a remote signal sent by a sonar buoy. The buoy was dropped near the Nord Stream pipelines by a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane, according to the report.

The operation came to fruition following months of back-and-forth between the White House, CIA, and military, with officials focusing on how to leave no trace of US involvement in the attack. The planning process began back in December 2021, when a special task force was created with the direct participation of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

“The Navy proposed using a newly commissioned submarine to assault the pipeline directly. The Air Force discussed dropping bombs with delayed fuses that could be set off remotely. The CIA argued that whatever was done, it would have to be covert. Everyone involved understood the stakes,” the report read.

The source told Hersh that everybody involved understood the operation was not some “kiddie stuff” but was actually an “an act of war.” Throughout “all of this scheming” certain officials urged the White House to drop the idea entirely. “Some working guys in the CIA and the State Department were saying, ‘Don’t do this. It’s stupid and will be a political nightmare if it comes out,’” according to the source.

Originally, the explosives were to have a 48-hour timer and were set to be planted by the end of BALTOPS22, Hersh reported, citing the same source. The two-day window, however, was ultimately deemed to be too close to the end of the exercise by the White House, which ordered the task force to come up with an on-demand method of detonating them. This ultimately turned out to be the sonar buoy.

The administration of President Joe Biden has been “focused” on jeopardizing the Nord Stream pipelines – initially through sanctions, and, ultimately, by direct sabotage – seeing it as key to swaying Europe to its cause amid the then-looming conflict in Ukraine, Hersh noted.

“As long as Europe remained dependent on the pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with the money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia,” he wrote.

Moscow provided a similar take on the incident shortly after the blasts, branding them a “terrorist attack” and stating that the US was the nation that benefited most from it, by accelerating Europe’s attempts to wean itself off of Russian gas.

Throughout his career, Hersh has reported on numerous explosive stories, including war crimes by the US military and high-profile political scandals. Exposing the My Lai massacre by US troops in Vietnam scored the journalist the Pulitzer Prize in 1970. Other notable stories Hersh reported on include the Watergate scandal, the CIA illegal domestic spying, as well as the American military's torture and abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
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LINK:

How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline

Related

[01] The Last Swing of a Dying Empire
[02] The Undeclared Declaration of War on Russia By Western Windbags
[03] Ukraine - Europe, Energy Supplies & Economic Collapse
[04] Energy Crisis – A Ticking Time Bomb

Siemens placed explosives in equipment to sabotage nuclear facility - Iran

 

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/iran-siemens-nuclear-accusations-755/

Iran has accused German industrial giant Siemens of placing small explosives in equipment that forms the backbone of the country’s nuclear program.

"The equipment was supposed to explode after being put to work, in order to dismantle all our systems," declared Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the security committee in Iran’s parliament. "But the wisdom of our experts thwarted the enemy conspiracy."

He said the measures were intended to slow down the country’s burgeoning nuclear program.

Siemens issued a flat denial.

"We have no business dealings related to the Iranian nuclear program," said company spokesman Alexander Machowetz, noting that the company has not worked with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Sales of nuclear equipment to Iran are currently banned under an international embargo, as the country is widely suspected of using it to advance a nuclear weapons development program. But while Siemens does not supply Iran directly, its equipment is assumed to be imported through third parties in other countries.

Most uranium enrichment centrifuges at Iran’s nuclear sites are presumed to be made by the company. Obtaining high-grade uranium is a prerequisite for producing nuclear weapons.

If the information on explosives is correct, this would not be the first time Siemens equipment has been used as a target.

Vulnerabilities in Siemens operating software were exploited by Stuxnet, a virus that helped to disable up to 1,000 centrifuges two years ago, though the company was not implicated in developing it.

Iran frequently accuses Western governments and companies of sabotage. Only last month, it claimed that foreign spies cut power lines to its underground nuclear facility at Fordo.

Huge blast shakes Egypt gas terminal

Six gunmen targeted the gas terminal in Egypt's North Sinai on March 27 and blew up the pipeline that carries natural gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/176915.html

A massive explosion has rocked a natural gas terminal in North Sinai near Egypt's border with Israel and leapt huge flames into the air.

The blast ripped through al-Sabil terminal near the town of El-Arish, located 344 kilometers (213 miles) northeast of the Egyptian capital of Cairo, at about 3:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

The huge blast forced the pipeline to be shut down and gas supplies to Israel and Jordan were halted as a result. There were no reports of casualties and the extent of the damage was not immediately known.

An unnamed Egyptian security official said that "an unknown armed gang" attacked the pipeline.

“Authorities closed the main source of gas supplying the pipeline and are working to extinguish the fire,” he further explained.

The attack was the second on the pipeline over the past few weeks. On March 27, unknown armed men placed explosives at al-Sabil gas terminal to blow it up, but had failed to carry out their act of terror.

The terminal was previously sabotaged on February 5 during a revolution that finally drove 82-year-old Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power. Supplies of gas to Israel to Jordan were disrupted as a result of the attack.

On April 13, Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf ordered a review of the pricing deals with Israel because of the low price at which Egypt's gas was sold.

Israel depends on Egyptian gas to generate 40 percent of its electricity.