"Micro Feature · Current Affairs and Military" Retired US military officer: The real destroyer of the "Nord Stream" pipeline has never been exposed
2024-08-25
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[Xinhua News Agency Micro Feature] Russia's Sputnik News Agency reported on the 24th, citing a retired US military officer, that Western countries were secretly conducting an investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, but the real saboteur had never been exposed.
In an interview with Sputnik News Agency, retired U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Earl Rasmussen said that the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, which transports natural gas from Russia to Germany and other European countries, is an irony to NATO's repeated emphasis on collective defense clauses.
Rasmussen said NATO does not seem to seek to protect its members. "Where was the enforcement of the infamous Article 5 when the Nord Stream pipeline was sabotaged?"
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, the collective defense clause, requires other NATO members to provide support if one NATO member comes under armed attack.
On September 26, 2022, the Nord Stream pipeline exploded, causing a large amount of natural gas to leak out. Four leaks were located in the waters near Sweden and Denmark. Denmark, Sweden and Germany launched investigations after the incident, but refused Russian participation. Sweden and Denmark announced the end of their investigations in February this year, and were very secretive about the results of the investigations. German and American media recently broke the news that the latest investigation showed that a Ukrainian gang was behind the scenes.
In Rasmussen's view, NATO member governments and security forces seem to be "deeply connected" to the Nord Stream incident. He said: "Based on the ever-changing statements, it seems that NATO member states and the help from Ukraine are the behind-the-scenes forces that destroyed Europe's energy infrastructure and caused the worst ecological pollution in history."
Despite the serious consequences, NATO, led by the United States, "seems strangely to have let the investigation peter out," Rasmussen said. "We saw the investigation proceed in secret and the real saboteurs were never exposed."
In Rasmussen's view, NATO is now an anachronistic organization and a threat to world peace. This military alliance has not only failed to promote peace and stability in Europe, but has caused damage. NATO has not protected its European member states, and its continued support for Ukraine has instead consumed the weapons of these countries and weakened their defense capabilities.
He said that "the alliance continues to deplete its own defense posture and supports Ukraine in a war that cannot be won," which will only accelerate its own decline. (End) (Bao Xuelin)
