Nordstream

We have another account of the destruction of the Nordstream 2 pipeline, this one with quite a bit of sourcing from within German police and security services:

Now, for the first time, the outlines of the real story can be told. The Ukrainian operation cost around $300,000, according to people who participated in it. It involved a small rented yacht with a six-member crew, including trained civilian divers. One was a woman, whose presence helped create the illusion they were a group of friends on a pleasure cruise. 

“I always laugh when I read media speculation about some huge operation involving secret services, submarines, drones and satellites,” one officer who was involved in the plot said. “The whole thing was born out of a night of heavy boozing and the iron determination of a handful of people who had the guts to risk their lives for their country.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the plan, according to one officer who participated and three people familiar with it. But later, when the CIA learned of it and asked the Ukrainian president to pull the plug, he ordered a halt, those people said.

Zelensky’s commander in chief, Valeriy Zaluzhniy, who was leading the effort, nonetheless forged ahead. 

As always there are questions about sourcing and reporting, but on the upside there are plenty of details to the story that can be verified. Of course, anytime anyone writes anything that contradicts the Teaching of the Great Sy Hersh there will be folks of Great Reputation who feel the need to incinerate those reputations on the altar of Hersh’s confabulations.