Sun24 Press

Episode 7: September of 2022, Part 1

The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline is one of the most consequential acts of sabotage in modern history, yet it remains unsolved.

The reports we have heard about it are usually either biased, superficial, or deflective.

This is the seventh podcast episode about the Nord Stream affair, the result of in-depth research from many sociopolitical angles. The podcast covers a timeline stretching from several months before the explosions to the events that followed on September 26, 2022.

Contents:
The US military helicopters (→ 0:40)
UK's nuclear submarine in Souda Bay (→ 01:31)
Liz Truss becomes UK's Prime Minister (→ 02:30)
German drills over the future explosion site (→ 03:58)
Interesting developments in Norway (→ 05:15)
The strange US travel of two Norwegian heads of state (→ 06:02)
The US House of Representatives receives an important briefing (→ 09:32)
Russia also sensed that something was not alright (→ 10:37)
Suddenly, the Queen died (→ 12:14)
The USS Kearsarge leaves Poland, leaves USS Ignatius behind (→ 12:54)

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Episode 7

NordStream Refilled - September of 2022, Part 1

00:00

Here details on UK's submarine HMS Audacious undergoing maintenance at Souda Bay early September 2022:
royalnavy.mod.uk/news/ 2022/sept...

Here some information on Norway's Prime & Defense Minister visiting the USS Ford in mid September 2022:
airlant.usff.navy.mil/Press...

Here more info on the various P8 Poseidon plane flights from September 2022 over the NordStream explosion sites:
sun24.press/nordstream...

Previous
Episode 6 - Summer of 2022

Next
Episode 8 - September of 2022, Part 2

Transcript 

NordStream Refilled, The Sun 24 Press Podcast, Episode 7.

(Music) 

Martin: The German ambassador to Norway is pretty interesting because he was previously in a post at the German defense ministry. He was in charge of policy over there and distributed and published a couple of papers just beforehand. That's important to mention as well in terms of what is going to happen right now, in the next coming month of September.

Mortmer: The month September 2022 starts with US military helicopters cycling around the future Nord Stream leaks for several hours. It's particularly interesting because they are hovering very close to the place of the future blast near the Danish island Bornholm. The type of the helicopter is Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawks, which are also often equipped with anti-submarine warfare sensor. They could drop sonobuoys and transmit the information to the ship. So the hovering or loitering above certain areas could be interpreted that either they were practicing this type of warfare or they were actually following something under the surface. About the same time in the Mediterranean, a very odd event happened on the 2nd of September 2022. The UK submarine HMS Audacious returned to Souda Bay, which is in Greece. It's a naval base for Greek and NATO allies and it anchored there. After six months of near-continuous operations, it got a maintenance. UK specialists were flown from the UK and there were cleaning the hull. The about 100 meters long submarine had a lot of junk on its shell. It needed to be cleaned. This kind of operations are done usually before operations in order to enhance the stealth capability of the submarine. Meanwhile, Russia was trying to put the Nord Stream 1 turbines back into the operation. They announced a three-day maintenance. Unfortunately, they discovered the leaks in a turbine during this planned maintenance. They stopped the transportation of the gas through Nord Stream 1 pipeline entirely. 

Martin: Now, early September is also interesting in regard to political developments because finally, Liz Truss has been made the Prime Minister of Great Britain on September the 5th. Exactly on the same day, Boris Johnson, in one of his last actions ever as Prime Minister, gives out a so-called plutonium jubilee to a number of veterans. There's another military exercise that's about to begin in the Baltic Sea involving the USS Kearsarge. On September 3rd, I think they began the next military drill. The fleet was seen from German shores at the Baltic Sea line passing the island of Fehmarn and cruising into the Baltic Sea, harboring, I think, in Gdansk in Poland. 

Mortymer: Truss was focused on boosting domestic production but also to import energy from abroad. As a part of this motion, Liz Truss is creating energy supply task force. She wants to lift ban on fracking and negotiate with domestic and international suppliers long-term contracts. On September the 8th, the Swiss court extended again for next half a year the bankruptcy for the Nord Stream 2 which meant that Russia still hoped the project will be revived. 

Martin: Interesting to mention is that from September 9th to 14th, Navy ships from Germany participated in the military drill exercise in the Baltic Sea and they were cruising, gathering data, gathering intelligence pretty close to the explosion site, the Nord Stream 1 explosion site. The ships that engaged in these exercises were, for example, the Oste. It's an intelligence-gathering ship that is equipped with really advanced sensors. Another one was the Schleswig-Holstein, for example. It's a frigate. It can detect undercover threats. Another one was the Bad Bevensen, which is another minesweeper. And then a German submarine participated in the exercises as well. There were a lot of activities over this site east of Bornholm for a few days. And then they were called to the pipeline from Latvia inspecting that area later on. This German drill was not only enabled by ships, but there was also on the 14th, the last day of this exercise, there were a number of airplanes involved as well. Learjets, Dernier Alphajets, again also highly intelligent gathering aircrafts that had enhanced radar capabilities. They were coordinating with the ships on the sea.

Mortymer: Interesting developments from Norway from the 15th of September 2022. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Oil and Energy Minister Aasland invited representatives from the companies Equinor, Aker, BP and Vår Energi. These three companies are the three largest petroleum producers on the Norwegian continental shelf. Norwegian Prime Minister stated that his colleagues were talking about a war economy. After the meeting with these oil and gas companies to discuss the energy crisis, he comes out with this very serious statement. After the meeting with the heads of the oil companies, there was this regular weekly meeting in Norway of the government's security committee, RSU. 

Martin: Two days later, the Defense Minister and Prime Minister of Norway engaged in a travel that seems to be key to the entire Nord Stream Saga. My understanding is that these two Norwegian heads of states were flying more or less directly to Norfolk, then boarding the USS Ford carrier, partly with the Norwegian heads of state out to sea, which I think is unheard of and highly unusual behavior of heads of states. I rarely have seen any behavior like that. So, and there on this carrier, they already have high level military talks with NATO folks from the US American side. And a little later, after having been engaged, having been on this carrier, partly out to sea, they would then meet Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives, Speaker of the House at the time, and also Lloyd Austin in the Pentagon. 

Mortymer: Just before the flight to the United States, Defense Minister Gram states that, "the security situation we find ourselves is now serious and has changed rapidly. It is more important than ever to engage in close dialogues with close allies". The issue here is that he is not going through the local NATO headquarters in London, and he is also not discussing the issues in the Navy NATO headquarters in Norfolk, but on the carrier, which is on the sea. And the meetings are actually not multilateral, but only bilateral between Norway and the United States. 

Martin: So the question really is, and I think that's an open question, and we probably also cannot answer it precisely 100%. The question is, what was really discussed over there on this carrier?

Mortymer: Representatives from the United States included Secretary of Navy, Mr Del Toro. Then they add that we are NATO eyes and ears in the north. Eyes and ears is a term used for the Poseidon aircraft, which are engaged in the submarine detection and monitoring. Norway has several of them. Germany was getting several of them. They say that we are NATO's eyes and ears in the north, which means that information goes from us to NATO, but also directly between Norway and the USA. 

Martin: There's more to the P8-Poseidons because not only US, Norway and Germany has these, but also Iceland and Italy, or at least a US military base where some of these were deployed. Now, coincidentally, these countries would substitute just a month ago or something, their ambassadors in Oslo to Norway. 

Mortymer: So the prime minister flies to deliver some kind of intelligence, some kind of assessment about the deteriorating situation, which they cannot handle themselves anymore. 

Martin: And that would be the only explanation, in my view, why these two Norwegian heads of state would first of all fly and meet at this US carrier fort, which is partly out at sea. Again, really unheard of. There may have been some suspicions about the intensity of the messages that the Norwegians were having in their suitcase, but that's speculation, of course. 

Mortymer: On the same day, on the September 19th, there comes news from Washington DC that on the morning the following day, 20th, at 8 o'clock a.m., the House will receive a classified briefing on developments about Ukraine and Europe. The briefers were General Christopher Cavoli, Victoria Nuland, Dr Colin Kahl and Lieutenant General Douglas Sims. 

Martin: They would be briefing the House, meaning the entire US Congress. Everyone in the House of Representatives would be briefed about a serious situation related to Ukraine, so they say, mostly. 

Mortymer: On the same day, on evening, Mr Colin Kahl virtually met with German Federal Ministry of Defense political director Dr Jesper Wieck, and he wanted to reaffirm the US-German defense relationship. So, something was going on already on the 20th of September, something serious. The security situation changed and it was not likely only about Ukraine. But Norway has not been the only country concerned about worsening security situation. On the other side, Russia was also sensing that not everything was all right. They were training small anti-submarine ships, offshore minesweepers, they exercised mine countermeasures for deployment of forces, anti-underwater and sabotage defense of ships and boats. They were testing how to repel air attacks and of mock enemy while shooting at air targets and conducting other training and naval battles. So, this first exercise included like 15 surface ships, boats and support vessels. On the next day, 20th, Russian anti-submarine corvette Soobrazitelny was conducting submarine warfare exercise in the Baltics. It was accompanied with helicopters, for example, K-27PL, which is definitely anti-submarine helicopter. Swimmers from the special forces performing underwater shooting on the 21st of September. On the 21st of September, high-profile Russian nationalist Duma member Alexander Khinshtein called for the partial mobilization of Russia's military. 

Martin: Interesting to state that now, from now on, so September 21st, for the next coming days or so, the political scenery is more or less quiet. There were not really mentionable incidents, anything that really happened on the political stage that drew the intention, no major press releases. The Ukraine situation, yes, but regarding the Baltic Sea, it was all about military exercises, about operations. Important to mention is also that within these weeks, September weeks, early September, first or second week, the Queen, UK's Queen Elizabeth II, died and her funeral was on September 19th. 

Mortymer: Hours after the end of the period for national mourning, Liz Truss said that the high energy bills are the price worth paying to boost the UK's energy security. She told reporters during her trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the point I'm making is that it's a price worth paying for Britain because our long-term security is paramount. On 19th of September, the capital ship, USS Kearsarge, is leaving Poland. On the 21st to 22nd, it's seen passing the Danish Strait, leaving the Baltic Sea. 

Martin: Important to add is that the USS Kearsarge is not alone, not a standalone ship, but as we mentioned before, part of a larger fleet with up to 40 planes, helicopters, lots of marine, thousands of soldiers. They left Gdansk, but one ship was left behind. 

Mortymer: They left one ship, Paul Ignatius, with the task of monitoring Kaliningrad. From this USS Paul Ignatius, on the 20th of September, daily flights of the anti-submarine helicopters started. They were checking if Russian submarines or mini-submarines leaving Russian port Kaliningrad. Since nothing has been reported, we can assume that they have not seen any suspicious activity. This was also confirmed by the German navy later on. When we speak about this ship, we could also mention what it was doing on the day of the blast, meaning 26th of September. It shortly returned to Gdynia for a few hours, then it left again. We can assume that they were getting some very high confidential information. 

Martin: While the USS Kearsarge fleet was leaving the Baltic Sea, the US Navy issued a statement that, I'm quoting here right now: The USS Kearsarge has fulfilled its mission in the Baltic Sea during the days before.

(Music)

Speaker:
Mortymer - NordStream expert investigator
Martin - Investigative lead at Sun24 Press

Organization and realization:
Sun24 Press

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