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Does CGTN Video Prove US Blew Up Nord Stream?!

Claim : CGTN Video Shows How US Blew Up Nord Stream Pipelines!

People are sharing a CGTN video that claims to show how the US government blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Here is a transcript of the video which I will share in two parts below, but feel free to skip to the next section for the facts.

How they blew up Nord Stream

On February 24, 2022, the Ukrainian crisis erupted. Before and after that, the U.S. politicians have repeatedly threatened an attack on the Nord Stream pipeline.

US President Joe Biden : If Russia invades Ukraine, Nord Stream will cease to exist.

US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland : If Russia invades Ukraine, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.

119 days prior to the Nord Stream explosions, several members of the task force, allegedly led by U.S. President National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, flew to Norway to find a suitable place to plant explosives under the pipeline.

116 days prior to the Nord Stream explosions, a U.S. aircraft carrier has arrived in the Baltic Sea to participate in NATO’s annual naval exercise Baltops-22.

113 days prior to the Nord Stream explosions, the Baltops-22 military exercise has begun. The manoeuvres continued in the Baltic Sea for 13 days.

During the exercise, the U.S. planes regularly circled over the sites of future gas pipeline explosions. The minimum flight altitude was less than 600 meters.

Underwater explosive placement training was performed during the military drills in the water area near the gas pipelines.

103 days prior to the Nord Stream explosions, presumably, a group of Americans in plain clothes arrived at the exercise site by helicopter, and met with the Vice Admiral of the Sixth Fleet of the U.S. Navy, as well as a group of men in plain clothes.

The Americans then went on a deep dive. They placed the C4 explosive on pipes with a protective concrete coating. The operation lasted six hours.

24 days prior to the Nord Stream explosions, U.S. Navy helicopters circled the sites of future pipeline explosions.

On the day of the explosions, a P8 reconnaissance plane allegedly flew over the Baltic Sea and dropped a hydroacoustic buoy that detonated C4 explosives on the gas pipelines.

The explosive destroyed three out of the four gas pipelines. Methane from the pipelines began to spread across the surface of the water. The operator of Nord Streams [sic] estimates that the repair work will cost more than $500 million and take at least a year.

However, due to the U.S. and Western sanctions, the repair of the Nord Streams [sic] is not yet possible. The longer the repairs are delayed, the more difficult they will be.

4 days after the explosions at Nord Streams, Anthony [sic] Blinken said, “This is also a great opportunity to end Europe’s energy dependence on Russia once and for all.

148 days after the explosions at Nord Streams, on February 21, 2023, at Russia’s request, the UN Security Council held a meeting on the North [sic] Streams explosions where a heated debate about the incident and its investigations erupted.

Show less

Here is Part 2 of the CGTN video that claims to show HOW the United States blew up the Nord Stream pipelines!

Read my fact check : https://t.co/d0GHPsm2tM #TechARP #CGTN #China #Russia #Ukraine #UkraineWar #NordStream #SeymourHersh #Conspiracy #Facts #FactsMatter #FactCheck pic.twitter.com/PJ86b2aYvn

— Dr. Adrian Wong (@AdrianTechARP) March 10, 2023

No Evidence CGTN Video Shows How US Blew Up Nord Stream Pipelines!

This is yet another example of Chinese propaganda, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : CGTN Is An Official Chinese State Media Outlet

China Global Television Network (CGTN) is a state-run and -funded news channel owned by Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television, and controlled by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

While it portrays itself as offering an alternative view of world affairs, it is known as a vital Chinese government propaganda outlet, with its accuracy often questioned.

Even here at Tech ARP, I have personally fact checked CGTN on several occasions.

Fact #2 : CGTN Video Is Based On Seymour Hersh’s Claims

The CGTN video appears to be based entirely on claims by American journalist, Seymour Myron Hersh, and does not offer anything new to add to the story.

Fact #3 : CGTN Video + Seymour Hersh Offered No Actual Evidence

Like Seymour Hersh’s Substack article, the CGTN video is loud and dramatic. Quite unlike the Nord Stream explosions that took place underwater.

However, if you actually analyse both the CGTN video and/or Seymour Hersh’s article, you have to ask – where actually is the evidence?

Seymour Hersh himself based his article on a single anonymous source. Even more concerning, no one else has been able to corroborate his claims more than 5 weeks later.

The viral CGTN video just repeats whatever Seymour Hersh claimed, without offering any evidence. It is important to note that this video was created by what is ostensibly a news organisation that is supposed to verify the facts before publishing.

Fact #4 : Seymour Hersh Claims Are In Dispute

The US government has naturally disputed Seymour Hersh’s claims, calling his article “utterly false and complete fiction”.

What’s concerning to me, as a common person, though is that some of Hersh’s claims are suspect and easily fact checked. Take for example, his claims that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was a committed anti-communist who had been cooperating with US intelligence since the Vietnam War.

It would be quite a feat for Stoltenberg to work with US intelligence during the Vietnam War since he was born in 1959, and would have been only 4-16 years old at that time! Stoltenberg was also pro-Communist as a young teen, and opposed US involvement in the Vietnam War by participating in protest rallies against the US embassy in Oslo.

Seymour Hersh’s claim that an Alta-class minesweeper was used in BALTOPS 2022 is also in dispute. Joe Galvin, OSINT editor of The Outlaw Ocean Project, showed that no Alta-class minesweepers were in the area at that time!

Hersh’s claim that the explosions were triggered by a sonobuoy dropped by a Norwegian P-8 Poseidon aircraft is also in dispute. Norway has five P-8 Poseidon aircraft, but none of them were seen in the area on the day of the explosion – September 26, 2022.

A US Navy P-8 aircraft was spotted in the area, but that aircraft only arrived 90 minutes after the first blast occurred! So it could not have been the P-8 aircraft that triggered the explosions as Hersh claimed.

Fact #5 : Both Nord Stream 1 + 2 Were Not Operational

It is true that both US Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden were against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and President Biden threatened to “end Nord Stream” if Russian invaded Ukraine.

However, Nord Stream 2 never became operational, after Germany suspended its certification on 22 February 2022 – two days before Russia invaded Ukraine.

More importantly, Russia cut or interrupted gas supplies on Nord Stream 1, before shutting it down completely in the months following its invasion of Ukraine:

June 2022 : Russia cut Nord Stream 1 gas supply by 75%.
July 2022 : Russia shut down Nord Stream 1 for 10 days. It reopened at 12.5% of normal capacity.
August 2022 : Russia shut down Nord Stream 1 completely.

Both Nord Stream pipelines had long ceased to supply Europe with gas, long before explosions tore holes in them. There is simply no advantage for the Americans to destroy two pipelines that were no longer supplying Europe with gas.

Fact #6 : Europe Refused To Resume Gas Supply

Only three of the four gas pipelines were destroyed by the explosions, with Pipe B of Nord Stream 2 surviving. Russia offered to resume gas supply to Europe, which was promptly declined.

The refusal shows that Europe itself is eager to wean itself off Russian gas, and not because of earlier US threats to “end Nord Stream”.

The Americans did not have to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines, because Russia’s own actions in disrupting gas supplies and invading Ukraine already did that for them.

Fact #7 : Many Countries Had Plausible Reasons To Destroy Nord Stream

As far as plausible reasons go, many countries had plausible reasons to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines:

US : To prevent allies in Europe from being held hostage by their reliance on cheap Russian gas.
UK : To encourage allies in Europe to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.
Russia : To stop supplying Europe without breaking its gas supply contracts, and/or to divide Europe.
Ukraine : To unite Europe against Russia.

While motive is important, it is not evidence that a country has committed the crime. There has to be actual evidence that the US / UK / Russia / Ukraine did it.

Regardless of what CGTN or Seymour Hersh may claim, there is simply no conclusive evidence YET that any of those countries are responsible for the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Did Damar Hamlin Get Vaccine Before His Collapse?!

Claim : Damar Hamlin Received Vaccine 7 Days Before Collapse!

People are sharing a screenshot of a tweet by Dr. Benjamin Eidelman, who claimed that he gave Damar Hamlin a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose 7 days before his sudden collapse on the field.

Dr. Eidelman also claimed that Damar Hamlin passed “all screenings with flying colors”, and that he was in contact with the medical staff treating Hamlin to help them.

I recently administered Damar Hamlin’s Covid booster on 12/26, and as a medical professional, I can assure the public he passed all screenings with flying colors. I am in contact with the UCMC staff and will provide any assistance to them.

Truth : Damar Hamlin Did Not Get Booster Dose 7 Days Before Collapse!

It’s now a tradition for anti-vaccination activists to immediately blame all athlete deaths or illnesses on the COVID-19 vaccine.

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created and propagated by anti-vaccination activists, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Damar Hamlin Collapsed After Getting Hit

On Monday, January 2, 2023, the Buffalo Bills were playing against the Cincinnati Bengals, when Damar Hamlin was hit in the chest while trying to tackle Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. He stood up briefly before suddenly collapsing.

Medical personnel rushed to his aid, gave him CPR and successfully resuscitated him with an automated external defibrillator (AED). After working on him for about 16 minutes, they transported him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

There, Hamlin apparently suffered another cardiac arrest, and had to be resuscitated again. He later gained consciousness but could not breathe on his own. So he was sedated and put on a ventilator.

Because Damar Hamlin collapsed roughly six seconds after getting hit in his chest, he possibly suffered a rare cardiac event called Commotio cordis, where the blunt force trauma triggers a ventricular fibrillation, leading to a cardiac arrest.

In short – his sudden collapse on the field was likely a result of getting hit in the chest, and had nothing to do with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Fact #2 : Doctors Are Not Allowed To Reveal Health Information

Medical privacy laws like HIPAA prevent doctors and other healthcare providers from sharing their patient’s health information without their expressed consent.

Since Damar Hamlin has largely been sedated and intubated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center since his collapse, it is impossible for him to consent to something like that.

And it would be rather ludicrous for any doctor of his to bring up the topic of his booster dose vaccination, instead of his immediate physical condition.

Fact #3 : Dr. Benjamin Eidelman Was Not Damar Hamlin’s Doctor

While the tweet makes it sound like Dr. Benjamin Eidelman was Damar Hamlin’s doctor, that does not appear to be the case.

For one thing – in his Twitter account (now deleted), Dr. Benjamin Eidelman did not call himself a medical doctor. Instead, he labelled himself as an “Artist, Data scientist, Disinformation/deception/fraud detector, Democracy Enjoyer, Politics and news commentator“.

The only Dr. Benjamin Eidelman who is a medical doctor with online presence is a completely different man (as this photo comparison shows).

The (fake) Dr. Benjamin Eidelman appears to be a man in his early thirties, while Dr. Benjamin H. Eidelman is a neurologist based in Jacksonville, Florida. Incidentally, the Buffalo Bills are based in New York, so it wouldn’t make sense for their players to get vaccinated by a doctor in Florida, especially when he’s a neurologist!

Fact #4 : Booster Dose Does Not Require Screening Tests

Anyone who has gotten the COVID-19 vaccine would know that it’s a simple jab. There is no need for any medical screening.

Only people who have never been vaccinated will claim / believe that Dr. Benjamin Eidelman conducted screening tests of Damar Hamlin before giving him the booster dose.

Fact #5 : Dr. Benjamin Eidelman Wiped His New Accounts

Dr. Benjamin Eidelman claimed to have vaccinated Damar Hamlin on December 26, which is Boxing Day – the day after Christmas.

Although Boxing Day isn’t a public holiday in the United States, Christmas 2022 fell on a Sunday, so Boxing Day became a holiday in lieu of the usual Christmas Day holiday. Therefore, it is very unlikely that any clinic / hospital would be offering COVID-19 booster doses on December 26, 2022.

Getting a booster dose isn’t so urgent that it must be done on a holiday. Damar Hamlin would likely be enjoying Christmas and Boxing Day with his family (in Pittsburgh), and so would the real Dr. Benjamin Eidelman.

Fact #6 : Dr. Benjamin Eidelman Wiped His New Accounts

The Twitter account called Dr. Benjamin Eidelman (@drbeneidelman) is really new. It was created in December 2022, with the first tweet posted on December 17. It was also the same day, he created his Substack account.

Both accounts were deleted on January 3 – a day after he posted the tweet on giving Damar Hamlin the booster dose.