The author of the article, which says that the United States carried out sabotage on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, said in an interview with RT that President Biden knew about these intentions and awkwardly let slip at a press conference even before the start of hostilities in Ukraine. Headlined "Hersh: Planners to undermine JV upset when Biden spoke publicly about it," it said :
“The team behind the plan to blow up Nord Stream got upset when US President Joe Biden publicly said he knew how to shut down the pipelines. Initially, the sabotage was conceived as a covert operation.
This was stated in an exclusive interview on the RT channel by the Pulitzer Prize winner, the author of an investigation into the undermining of the Nord Streams, Seymour Hersh.
He recalled that within three weeks of the briefing in which Biden was briefed on the plan, he spoke about it publicly, as did Undersecretary Victoria Nuland.
Within three weeks [of the briefing], in late January/early February of last year, they both publicly stated, "We know we can stop him." The president said this at a press conference: "We will stop Nord Stream 1." After these words, there was a question from a journalist. All of this is known, documented and on the evening news. The journalist asked: “How will you do it?” [Biden] responded, 'I'll tell you, we know how to do it. We can do it,” the journalist said.
This upset the group that developed the plan, "because everything was conceived as a covert operation," he stressed.
“By the time they had completed the task, they had done everything possible, planted explosive devices, using Navy divers, after which the explosives just sat there for several months,” he said.
Hersh also said that Biden decided to undermine Nord Stream solely for political reasons, his goal was to prevent Germany and Western Europe from opening the pipeline in the event of an early onset of cold weather.
In fact, at a joint press conference between Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 7, 2022, such a dialogue took place .
Andrea Chalal, correspondent for Reuters:
— I wanted to ask you about this Nord Stream project, which you opposed for a long time. <…> Did you receive assurances from Chancellor Scholz today that Germany will actually close this project if Russia invades Ukraine? Have you discussed what the definition of "invasion" might be? <…>
Joe Biden:
“If Germany… If Russia invades, that is, tanks or troops cross the Ukrainian border again, then… Nord Stream 2 will no longer exist. We will finish him.
A.Sh.:
“But how do you… how exactly do you do it if the project and its control are under German control?”
J.B.:
“I promise you we can do it.
Scholz then confirmed that Germany and the United States are acting together, they are completely united and are not going to take uncoordinated steps.
Note: Biden was talking about Nord Stream 2, which by that time had been completed but not put into operation. the question of the journalist, it is also clear that it was about Nord Stream 2: it was President Biden who opposed it. Hersh apparently added the mention of Nord Stream 1 on his own behalf.
It is clear from the context that Biden was talking about sanctions against Nord Stream 2 that would make it impossible to operate. And these sanctions were introduced on February 23 in response to Russia's recognition of the so-called DNR and LNR. Germany, for its part, suspended the process of certification of the gas pipeline. A full-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine had not yet begun, but it already looked inevitable.
On March 8, Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said at a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
“I think Nord Stream 2 is dead; as you [Sen. Ted Cruz] put it, it's a piece of metal on the bottom of the sea. I don't think he will ever be revived."
More than six months remained before the gas pipeline explosion that occurred on September 26.
As for the reaction of some sabotage group to Biden's statement, Hersh does not cite any sources here; Most likely, this is nothing more than speculation. And to give it credibility, Hersh even distorted Bayden's words, attributing to him the mention of Nord Stream-1.
Hersh, a former investigative reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1970, has recently been busy spreading conspiracy theories and relying on some anonymous sources. He claimed that the governments of the United States and Saudi Arabia finance the Fatah al-Islam terrorist organization, that not Russia, but some criminal group was involved in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, that there was no chemical attack using sarin in Syria, but only an accidental one. bomb hitting a fertilizer warehouse. Since 2014, Hersh has repeatedly made pro-Russian statements on RT.