An email forwarded to Sputnik by a US journalist from an individual identifying themselves as a servicemember that took part in last summer’s NATO BALTOPS 22 exercises in waters near the site of the Nord Stream pipeline explosions provides new information corroborating last week's bombshell Substack report on the incident by Seymour Hersh.
According to the email, on June 15, a helicopter delivered a group of conspicuous-looking American divers in civilian clothes to the exercise area. “My first thought was that they looked like a group of terrorists,” the source wrote, pointing to the individuals’ odd haircuts, mustaches and beards, and the absence of any military ID markers.
The divers were said to have been greeted by a vice admiral of the US Sixth Fleet and a group of individuals in plain clothes. The source couldn’t hear the details of their conversation due to the noise generated by the helicopter’s propeller blades. The commander of the Sixth Fleet during the BALTOPS 22 drills was Vice Admiral Eugene Black. Black was succeeded by Vice Admiral Thomas Ishee in September. The source did not clarify whether Black was the vice admiral the men spoke to.
The source in the email took note of the men’s MK29 military-issue rebreather systems, which use an oxygen-helium mixture for deep-sea diving. He also noticed that the men had other high-grade, expensive equipment not in use by ordinary Navy units, and that they brought small boxes with them, contents unknown.
The men identified themselves as participants in "de-mining exercises," which were to involve the sailing of a small rubber dinghy to a specified destination, find, and defuse anti-ship mines. However, the divers didn’t seem equipped for this, the source indicated.
After their conversation with the US commander, the men did not go to the exercise area, but instead “left their dinghy in their rebreathers and disappeared under the water for over six hours. There is no equipment that allows divers to stay underwater for six hours. The latest military equipment [allows] three or four hours maximum,” the source noted in the email.
Upon their return, the divers were no longer carrying their mystery boxes. They were picked up by a helicopter and flown out of the area, according to the source.
16 February 2023, 07:54 GMT
The email was received and verified by John Dougan, a US citizen journalist in Russia. Dougan told Sputnik that the author of the email had sent him details verifying he was who he said he was, including a photo of himself from the BALTOPS 22 drill, a military ID, and passport photo. Dougan couldn’t share this information in the interest of protecting the source's identity. The email was sent from an apparent burner account, Dougan said.
Speaking to Russian media on Thursday, Dougan said he believed many people in the US were beginning to “wake up” and understand what is happening in Ukraine, and the US’ role in “essentially starting World War III.” He noted that the legacy media in the West has done its best to block the dissemination of truthful information about the Ukraine crisis, but added that people have been able to find alternative, independent sources of information to figure out what’s really going on.
Dougan said that the only ones benefiting from the Ukraine conflict are US defense and energy companies, who are making billions of dollars on weapons contracts and the sale of US gas to Europe.
New Info Corroborates Hersh Reporting
The information shared with Sputnik verifies last week’s Substack story by veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, which detailed how US Navy divers operating under the cover of the BALTOPS 22 drills managed to plant remotely triggered C4 explosives in waters off the Danish island of Bornholm that detonated and destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines in September.
According to Hersh’s information, the divers operated from aboard a Norwegian Alta-class minesweeper, with C4 later triggered by a sonar buoy dropped by a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane. The explosives-to-buoy communications system was said to have used highly advanced signal processing technology.
US media met Hersh’s reporting with a mix of feigned obliviousness and attempts to smear him as a “discredited journalist.” US officials categorically denied the information in his report, and any US involvement in the Nord Stream terror attack.
Moscow has vowed not to let the bombshell revelations be swept under the rug, while China has called for an impartial investigation into the incident. Russia has scheduled a United Nations Security Council meeting on the issue for February 22.
On Thursday, US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith reiterated that the US rejects all allegations of involvement in the Nord Stream attack, said she does not know who was behind the blasts, and that Washington would like to see the investigations continue.