In light of the exposé released by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh which accuses the U.S. government of attacking the Nord Stream pipeline, lawmakers from the Left and Right, Die Linke (The Left Party) and Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) respectively, have called for investigative committees to be set up in connection with the attack on critical German infrastructure.
If the extraordinarily serious allegations are found to be true, the AfD—which saw its popular support exceed the ruling Green party and climb to an all-time high weeks ago—has called for the U.S. military to leave the country.
AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla, while delivering a speech on the floor of the Bundestag during a debate over how the German government should respond to attacks on its crucial energy infrastructure, demanded clarification from the ruling traffic light coalition regarding the attack, saying its “eternal silence … is the breeding ground for rumors and conspiracy theories.”
“The suspicions of the Pulitzer Prize winner absolutely must be investigated,” Chrupalla declared. “The Bundestag has a right to know what knowledge the federal government has. Could government officials have been privy to the planning of the attack?”
He continued, telling the chamber that the question at stake is whether “NATO’s leading power has carried out an attack on our country’s vital critical infrastructure in European waters.” Chrupalla went on to say that if this is indeed the case, then “one would have to question whether the alliance guarantees security in Europe or rather endangers it. The consequence would be the withdrawal of all U.S. troops.”
Later on, in a press conference that followed the parliamentary session, Chrupalla, while speaking of a potential international inquiry into the attack, told reporters: “All the findings of national authorities must flow together in the European Parliament. The European states must not put up with such violent interference.”
Die Linke, for their part, echoed the position held by the AfD and called on the federal government to clarify the matter.
Speaking directly to lawmakers from the ruling parties—the SPD, Greens, and FDP—Sevim Dağdelen, an MP for Die Linke, said: “If, however, you as the federal government wish to counter the impression that you have no real interest in investigating the matter of terrorist attacks on the supply of [German] energy, then I call upon you to at least refrain from preventing the establishment of an international commission of inquiry.”
Continuing—before referencing President Joe Biden’s statements on 7 February 2022, when he stated that the U.S. “would bring an end to Nord Stream II” in the event of a Russian invasion—Dağdelen told the chamber:
Those who recall their oath of office must now urgently pursue this matter, regardless of the fact that the revelations so far indicate that our own ally, the USA, is responsible for the attacks.
Another Die Linke MP, Sahra Wagenknecht, who formerly led the party’s parliamentary faction, posted a link to Seymour Hersh’s story with the following caption:
While the German federal government invokes transatlantic friendship and follows the USA uncritically, the U.S. government ensures that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up, as Pulitzer Prize winner Hersh has meticulously researched. Whose interest does the federal government represent?
In a tweet that followed the parliamentary discussion, AfD MP and foreign policy spokesman Petr Bystron wrote: “There was no ‘America hate’ and no ‘Putin love.’ Only applause for the truth. Anyone who needs to defame this has not understood democracy.”
In his report, Seymour Hersh says that the White House-ordered and CIA-orchestrated covert operation—whose planning allegedly began in 2021—eventually saw explosives planted on the Nord Stream gas pipeline by the U.S. Navy with the assistance of the Norwegian government in June of 2022. Three months later, according to Hersh, the C4 explosives were detonated using a sophisticated sonar signal from a buoy dropped by the Norwegian air force.
Seymour Hersh first achieved international notoriety as an investigative journalist in 1969 for revealing U.S. Army war crimes that took place during the Vietnam War’s Mỹ Lai massacre. One year later, he would go on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for this reporting—the highest honor in American journalism.
In 2004, Hersh’s reporting played a pivotal role in exposing torture carried out by U.S. military personnel against inmates in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Previously, those who have sought to discredit Hersh’s work have pointed to the fact that he sometimes uses anonymous sources.
The U.S. government has rejected the accusations made in Hersh’s report, calling his piece “completely false and pure fiction.” Meanwhile, the Russian government, in response to its publishing, has called for an international investigation.
