The Nord Stream Files
Read the full Nord Stream Files investigation here.
On 7th March, more than four months after underwater explosions destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, The New York Times and Die Zeit, a high-brow German broadsheet, published articles within 12 hours of each other claiming that their respective intelligence communities had identified the culprits. Both wrote that a small group of pro-Ukrainian saboteurs had carried out the attacks on the gas pipelines, but that there was no evidence this group was connected to the Ukrainian – or any other – government.
After months of media silence on the matter, the fact The New York Times suddenly obtained a lead from a previously mute US intelligence community to publish on the same day that Die Zeit released information from Germany’s hitherto highly secretive investigation into the pipeline bombings suggested coordination – especially timed as they were just days after Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany, had travelled to Washington, DC to meet with Joe Biden, and four weeks after Seymour Hersh, the legendary investigative reporter, had published a highly detailed article alleging that the US was guilty of the Nord Stream sabotage.
The inconsistencies between the official American and German reports, the significant gaps in their stories, the nakedly self-serving nature of some of their claims, and the sometimes fantastical description of events, leave a reasonably-minded person to wonder whether their publication had motivations beyond, or perhaps even antithetical to, the dissemination of the truth about the most costly attack on Western civilian infrastructure since the Second World War.
More disquieting than the hundreds of billions of euros of damage to the European economy, however, is the way this story has, once again, exposed our journalistic and media communities as having abrogated their investigative responsibilities – crucial to the functioning of free, liberal democracies.
If the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines was important, therefore, the story of the way it has been reported by the Western media is perhaps an even more important one. This series of reports, exclusive to Bournbrook, seeks to tell this story: from the history and geoeconomic significance of the Nord Stream pipelines, through to their destruction and the press reporting of that destruction. It does not, however, seek to point the finger at a specific culprit: there is no evidence that could possibly be considered ‘proof’ and Bournbrook has no access to materials that could form the basis of any reasonable assumption.
Nevertheless, the conclusions to be drawn from this dismal affair bode badly for the future of the West: if the press won’t do its job, it is difficult to understand how Western nations can possibly maintain their current levels of liberty.
Read the full Nord Stream Files investigation here.
