Looks Like Sy is Getting Some Traction

In what is an obvious response to Seymour Hersh's story reporting that the US was behind the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines, anonymous elements of the US State Security Apparatus are alleging that an unnamed pro-Ukraininian group appears to be behind the bombing.

So, no definitely no US government involvement, and definitely no Ukrainian government involvement, just some random group who:

• Had the ability to construct multiple 100 kg (220 lb) explosive charges that could be reliably detonated under 60-80 m (195-265) of water.
• Had the ability to operate at those depths, which requires either mixed gas diving, Trimix (Ni-O-He) or Heliox (O-He), or a sophisticated remotely operated vehicle, which means some sort of mothership.  Either of which would require large quantities of Helium when the world supply is dwindling.
  
• Had the ability to accumulate this equipment and training without raising an alarm.
• Had to execute this operation in the Baltic, one of the busiest and most heavily surveilled waterways in the world, completely undetected.

That this could be accomplished without out the tacit support of the US and at least one of the countries in that region (Hersh reports Norway) simply buggers the mind.

New intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, a step toward determining responsibility for an act of sabotage that has confounded investigators on both sides of the Atlantic for months.

U.S. officials said that they had no evidence President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine or his top lieutenants were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials.

The brazen attack on the natural gas pipelines, which link Russia to Western Europe, fueled public speculation about who was to blame, from Moscow to Kyiv and London to Washington, and it has remained one of the most consequential unsolved mysteries of Russia’s year-old war in Ukraine.

Yeah, a complete mystery.

………

U.S. officials declined to disclose the nature of the intelligence, how it was obtained or any details of the strength of the evidence it contains. They have said that there are no firm conclusions about it, leaving open the possibility that the operation might have been conducted off the books by a proxy force with connections to the Ukrainian government or its security services.

Only they would have to have operated from some sort of base in the Baltic, and the Ukraine has no access to the Baltic sea.

………

Officials who have reviewed the intelligence said they believed the saboteurs were most likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals, or some combination of the two. U.S. officials said no American or British nationals were involved.

Maybe Russians or Ukrainians, but definitely not American or British nationals, because ………?

Maybe I'm a cynic, but I do not think that this conveniently timed anonymously sourced data dump sounds just a little bit self serving.