Anonymous Pentagon Official Says U.S. Not Involved Nord Stream Pipeline Rupture

The official was unwilling to go on the record.

QUICK FACTS:
  • The United States has not yet officially ruled on the cause of the Nord Stream pipeline, but some of the country’s allies believe it could have been deliberate.
  • While U.S. officials have not made a statement on the record about how the nation will move forward, a senior U.S. military official said on Wednesday the prospect doesn’t look good.
  • “The jury is still out,” the official said, briefing Pentagon reporters on the condition of anonymity. “Many of our partners, I think, have determined or believe it is sabotage. I’m just — I’m not at the point where I can tell you one way or the other.”
  • When the official was asked whether the U.S. involvement in the ruptures could be ruled out, the official stated, “we were absolutely not involved.”
  • When asked about potential retaliation about the attack, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded saying, “I don’t want to get ahead of the investigation.”
ASSISTANCE FROM THE U.S.:
  • When asked if the Pentagon was cooperating with the probe by using submarines or other underwater military assets, the U.S. military official responded that Washington had not been requested to do so.
  • “We’re like a number of other countries out there with capability that could certainly assist, but we haven’t been asked to do so,” the official said. “And again, there are a lot of countries out there that have underwater capability.”
  • However, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lent the United States support by calling his Danish counterparts on Wednesday, according to a U.S. defense official said, who also spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
BACKGROUND:
  • The Nord Stream pipelines have been focal points in an intensifying energy conflict between European cities and Moscow that has hurt significant Western economies and driven up gas prices.
  • It was still unclear who might be responsible for any sabotage of the pipelines that Russia and its European partners spent billions of dollars constructing, as gas continued to seep out from beneath the Baltic Sea for the third day.

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