Topic: WorldNetDaily
Conspiracy theories are the lifeblood of WorldNetDaily -- no rational person considers it a "news" operation, after all -- so when the Nord Stream pipeline out of Russia was damaged, WND snapped into conspiracy mode. A Sept. 28 article by Bob Unruh set the stage:
This week the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea, which had been shut down by Russia amid its war on Ukraine after they were built to supply energy to Germany and other points, were found to have massive leaks, leaving gas bubbling to the surface.
And sabotage is suspected.
Now multiple reports confirm that the CIA had warned Germany weeks ago that there could be war-like attacks on the supply lines.
[...]
The apparent destruction brought immediately to mind a promise from Joe Biden, just about a year ago, that if Russia invaded Ukraine, there soon would no longer be a Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Later in the day, Unruh cranked out another "news" article embracing Tucker Carlson's conspiracy theory under the headline "Did Joe Biden blow up Nord Stream pipeline?"
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in a commentary about the apparent vandalism of the Nord Stream undersea natural gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, says it's hard to comprehend, but the facts are that the "people who very may well be responsible for letting methane into the Baltic Sea and into the atmosphere at a scale that most people can't imagine" could be officials in the U.S. government.
"The people lecturing you about your SUV may have blown up a natural gas pipeline and created one of the great catastrophes of our time in its effect on the environment," he explained.
[...]
He pointed out Vladimir Putin may be "evil," "but is he stupid? Probably isn't stupid and yet and, here's the strange part, if you were Vladimir Putin, you would have to be a suicidal moron to blow up your own energy pipeline. That's the one thing you would never do. "
He said those pipelines are Putin's "main source" of power and wealth and most critically, leverage over other countries.
The funny thing is, WND used to bash Biden for allegedly allowing the Nord Stream 2 pipleline to be finished in the first place. In a June 2021 article, for instance, Unruh uncritically touted Trump lackey Richard Grenell huffing that after a White House meeting between Biden and Putin, "the Russian leader has plenty to boast about, since the Biden administration essentially made him a gift of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline." When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Unruh's boss, Joseph Farah, blamed the war on Biden because "he gave Germany the green light to sign a deal with Russia for the Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline. Vladimir Putin saw all this and decided it was just the right moment to fulfill his dream of putting the Soviet Union back together." WND columnist David Harsanyi asserted that "Biden also strengthened Putin's hand by waiving Trump-era sanctions on a company building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany."
But being WND, there was a pipeline conspiracy breing even back then; a column by pro-Putin homophobe Scott Lively claimed that "Some even suggest that stopping this pipeline is the real goal of the Biden administration because U.S. influence in Europe would diminish as Russia's grew."
But not an official WND conspiracy theory unless Joseph Farah buys in, and he did exactly that in his Sept. 29 column:
The EU has said leaks in two major gas pipelines from Russia to Europe were caused by sabotage.
But who ordered it? Was it Russia? Or someone else?
Joe Biden said some pretty amazing things in an open press conference on Feb 7 of this year: If Russia invades Ukraine, he said, "then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2 [pipeline]. We will bring an end to it. I promise you, we will be able to do that."
After regurgitating much of Unruh's article quoting Carlson, Farah ranted:
Despite the "coincidence" of Biden making the startling statement in February, no one in the press takes him at his word.
So I wonder who called this potentially disastrous and dangerous shot?
If not Biden, was it his keeper?
Maybe the Republicans can figure it out in January.
Farah didn't mention that he criticized Biden some months earlier for giving Germany the OK to complete the pipeline.
Meanwhile, neither Unruh nor Farah mentioned that Carlson's case of blaming Biden for the Nord Stream attack is weak at best and that it got heavy airplay on Putin-controlled Russian TV, meaning that the conspiracy theory plays into Putin's hands. Instead, Unruh parroted more Carlson conspiracy-mongering in an Oct. 4 article:
Now Carlson is charging that the Biden administration has confessed to doing the damage.
In a new video commentary he noted who did it is "not really much of a question any more."
That's because Tony Blinken, Biden's secretary of state, "admitted we did it."
There's "no mistaking what he meant," Carlson said.
Blinken, in fact, said, "It's a tremendous opportunity once and for all to remove the dependence on Russian energy, and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs."
Blinken said, "That's very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunities for the years to come."
Carlson said, "That's the clearest admission we're ever going to get. … No one could miss it, least of all the Russians. … The Biden administration is responsible either directly or through proxies for the destruction of the … pipeline."
In fact, Blinken made no such admission. Unruh also failed to mention how Carlson's conspiracy theory is getting lots of play on Russian TV.
Meanwhile, James Zumwalt bought into the conspiracy in his Oct. 5 column:
Clearly, the explosions were the work of saboteurs – but the question is who would have done it and why? While the blame game – Russia accusing the European Union and the U.S. with both the latter accusing Russia – has started, there is an effective way to determine who is responsible.
However, let us first examine the arguments concerning who had the most to gain from such an act of sabotage.
Why would Russia sabotage its own pipelines that provide an economic lifeline for the country's biggest exports – oil and gas?
[...]
But we have a tremendous asset to provide us with a quick answer to "whodunit." We need only to seek out its wise counsel.
That asset is a group of 51 intelligence experts who proved their bona fides to us when the issue of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop computer first came to light. The laptop held damning evidence about Hunter's criminal actions as well as the involvement of his father in receiving compensation for his son's business deals with China. The FBI had this "laptop from hell" in its possession for many months beforehand but failed to act on its contents. We now know that was due to the political actions of a pro-Biden FBI cabal, free-wheeling within the agency. And, as the timing of the laptop's revelation was just before the 2020 presidential election, this group of 51 intelligence experts assured us it did not belong to Hunter but, rather, was the product of a Russian counter-intelligence effort to undermine Joe Biden's election.
We need to solicit the opinion of these 51 experts again as to whose fingerprints they believe to be on the Nord Stream leak. Based on what they say, we will then know the answer is the opposite of what they tell us.
Unruh was still at it in an Oct. 10 article, ostensibly highlighting how satellites are capturing the greenhouse gas emissions from the leak but then rehashing Carlson's unproven, conspiratorial claims.
