Journalist Hersh Says Scholz Discussed Nord Stream Sabotage During Visit To US

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2023) Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Seymour Hersh said on Wednesday, citing a diplomatic source, that the sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipelines was discussed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden during a closed meeting in early March.

"The chancellor had flown to Washington with no members of the German press on board, no formal dinner scheduled, and the two world leaders were not slated to conduct a press conference, as routinely happens at such high-profile meetings. Instead, it was later reported that Biden and Scholz had an 80-minute meeting, with no aides present for much of the time. There have been no statements or written understandings made public since then by either government, but I was told by someone with access to diplomatic intelligence that there was a discussion of the pipeline exposé," Hersh wrote on Substack.

The journalist believes that the CIA and the German intelligence were asked to prepare an alternative story about Nord Stream explosions for the media.

"As a result, certain elements in the Central Intelligence Agency were asked to prepare a cover story in collaboration with German intelligence that would provide the American and German press with an alternative version for the destruction of Nord Stream 2. In the words of the intelligence community, the agency was 'to pulse the system' in an effort to discount the claim that Biden had ordered the pipelines' destruction," Hersh said.