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“Does anyone believe American propaganda anymore?”
This is the question of investigative journalist Matthew Taibbi.
We can offer no answer of course. Yet we hazard the number of those who do dwindle daily.
You recall the dynamiting of the Nord Stream 2 energy pipeline. Through this underwater tube Russia funneled natural gas to Germany.
Last September it took the blasts. Who was to blame?
Official fingers pointed directly toward the Russian hellcat, Putin.
Why this fiend would wreck the thing… thus denying him vast quantities of lucrative energy sales… and impairing his nation’s economy… we have always found mysterious.
Yet we were told he was the one.
Earlier this year investigative reporter Seymour Hersh released whistleblown claims that the United States did the dynamiting.
The story received little notice in the press.
It Was a “Pro-Ukrainian Group” — No — It Was Ukraine Itself
Shortly thereafter information came trickling out that the United States was not responsible after all.
It was instead the deed of a vague “pro-Ukrainian group” who executed the feat from a rented sailing vessel.
Who precisely were these saboteurs? We were not informed. Yet the mystery has undergone an additional deepening…
We are presently informed that this bunch was not merely a “pro-Ukrainian group” — but the security forces of Ukraine itself.
We are further informed that Mr. Zelenskyy lacked all awareness of the caper. It was all dark to him.
Yet it evidently was not dark to the United States government.
We are now informed — by The Washington Post — that the American intelligence services were told about Ukraine’s impending rascality.
A Real-Life Conspiracy!
Reports Mr. Bezos’ organ of “information”:
Three months before saboteurs bombed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the undersea network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Details about the plan, which have not been previously reported, were collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022. They provide some of the most specific evidence to date linking the government of Ukraine to the eventual attack in the Baltic Sea, which U.S. and Western officials have called a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage on Europe’s energy infrastructure…
The highly specific details, which include numbers of operatives and methods of attack, show that for nearly a year, Western allies have had a basis to suspect Kyiv in the sabotage. That assessment has only strengthened in recent months as German law enforcement investigators uncovered evidence about the bombing that bears striking similarities to what the European service said Ukraine was planning…
More:
The European intelligence made clear that the would-be attackers were not rogue operatives. All those involved reported directly to Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s highest-ranking military officer, who was put in charge so that the nation’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wouldn’t know about the operation, the intelligence report said.
Keeping Zelenskyy out of the loop would have given the Ukrainian leader a plausible way to deny involvement in an audacious attack on civilian infrastructure that could ignite public outrage and jeopardize Western support for Ukraine — particularly in Germany, which before the war got half its natural gas from Russia and had long championed the Nord Stream project in the face of opposition from other European allies.
Do you follow along?
It’s Hard to Keep up With the Changing Stories
The United States government has transitioned from “It was Russia!”… to “It was a pro-Ukrainian group”… to “It was the Ukrainian security forces — but not Zelenskyy himself.”
What will the next tale be?
We do not know. Yet we hazard we will be dealt one.
Is the business a clever ruse to discredit the theory of American responsibility?
Is the United States “throwing Ukraine under the bus,” as the phrase runs… thus beginning to distance itself from the Kyiv regime?
We do not know the answer. Yet our spooks are on the case.
We have yet to receive definitive word from them — though fascinating whispers begin to circulate.
What is a fellow to believe? Who is he to believe?
May we forgive him for clinging to “conspiracy theories”?
After all, he is knocked over the head with official tales that shift from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, from year to year.
Who Can You Trust?
Argues Mr. Taibbi:
Specialists in “anti-disinformation” insist a goal of foreign fake news artists is to assault the reasoning process itself, making populations distrust once-reliable sources, leaving them susceptible to conspiracy theories. If that’s true, how is it not provably the case that domestic officials are playing the same game, moving goalposts on everything from the origin of the coronavirus to vaccine efficacy to Nord Stream?
The Nord Stream narrative has now gone from “No one thinks anyone but Russia did it” to “It’s a mystery!” to “There’s no evidence Russia did it” to “Pro-Ukraine saboteurs may have done it” to “The U.S. and its allies have known for nearly a year Kyiv did it, but said otherwise the whole time.”
He concludes with the central question, the essential question:
What are we supposed to think next time officials make statements after a disaster? Are we supposed to forget all this background?
Indeed… what are we supposed to think?
Regardless of the answer, we invite you to reflect upon this cardinal fact:
The government of the United States either A: executed the pipeline blasting itself, or…
B: The government of the United States was complicit in the most enormous act of eco-terrorism ever perpetrated — that doubled as a war act against a principal NATO ally.
That is, either the government of the United States executed the dynamiting… or was informed of the plot… and chose to keep it dark… thus blessing a war act against a primary ally… perpetrated by the government it is supporting materially in war against Russia.
How do you like it?
Putin Did It, Putin Did It!!!
Meantime, the United States and its allies continue to blame Russia for every misfortune — even misfortune against Russia itself.
An armed drone recently impacted the Kremlin itself, working some slight damage. Who was responsible?
Naturally it was Russia, came the chorus cries. They yelled that it was a “false flag” operation ordered by the dictator Putin to rally his people to his side.
It would write the warrant for some form of retaliatory atrocity — a retaliatory atrocity that, weeks later, the Russian dictator has yet to execute.
Now, this week, the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine burst.
The resulting torrents have flooded vast tracts of land and wrought fantastic environmental damage.
Who was responsible for the cataclysm?
Once again old Vladimir is the culprit. Those who initially fingered him for the pipeline and who subsequently fingered him for the drone Kremlin attack… are now fingering him for the dam burst.
Yet a question surfaces: Why would the man wreck the dam?
A Head-Scratcher
The Russian armed forces have spent months and months erecting minefields, trenchworks and other defensive positions in the area.
The flooding undid all of these herculean efforts — and threatened to drown the men occupying the trenches.
Moreover, the dam burst threatens to derail water supplies that nourish vital Crimea.
Finally, the burst potentially imperils the safe operation of the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant presently under Russian control.
Wonders commentator Thomas Luongo:
Why would Russia attack a dam in territory they control that provides local power to Kherson, cooling water to the ZNPP and fresh water to Crimea?
Is There Anything Putin Won’t Do to Hurt Himself?
We must conclude that this Putin is a very, very self-detesting and sadomasochistic fellow.
First he blasts his own energy pipeline in a determined effort to wreck his nation’s economy.
Next he orders a strike against his very seat of power that humiliates himself by exposing Moscow’s vulnerability to air attack.
Finally he bursts a dam and works incalculable damage upon his own strategic interests — and potentially risks a nuclear meltdown.
Is there no atrocity this man will not inflict upon himself?
Next, we hazard, he will sit upon a nuclear bomb — and pull the pin — merely to spite himself
Would you put it past him?
In fairness — in fairness — we do not know who blasted open the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
We even admit the possibility that Vladimir himself executed the atrocity. Some have advanced theories chronicling his possible motivations.
Some such theories — by our lights — are even plausible.
Yet after the false pipeline accusations… and after (likely) false drone assault accusations…
Why should we trust the dam burst accusations?
“Does anyone believe American propaganda anymore?”
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Brian Maher is the Daily Reckoning’s Managing Editor. Before signing on to Agora Financial, he was an independent researcher and writer who covered economics, politics and international affairs. His work has appeared in the Asia Times and other news outlets around the world. He holds a Master’s degree in Defense & Strategic Studies.
Featured image is from Daily Reckoning
