Tucker Carlson Suggests GOP Should Be Like Italy’s Fascist PM, Who He (Incorrectly) Says Isn’t Fascist

 
Ross A. Lincoln
Mon, September 26, 2022

On Monday’s episode of his Fox News Show, Tucker Carlson appeared to be a huge fan of newly-elected Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a neo-fascist who was elected as part of a group called the ‘centre-right coalition’ on Sunday night.

In a twisty commentary on Monday, Carlson asserted that Meloni isn’t actually a fascist because she is religious, and then said that Republican leaders in congress basically suck compared to Meloni and the movement she leads.

Watch that clip here:Tucker Carlson Suggests GOP Should Be Like Italy’s Fascist PM, Who He (Incorrectly) Says Isn’t Fascist (Video) (thewrap.com)

First, in a clip you can see above, Carlson contrasted the public policy pitches Republicans are making ahead of the 2022 election to Meloni’s. Tucker isn’t a fan of the Republican pitch.

“House Republicans just spelled out what they’re running on, it’s a document called the ‘Commitment to America’. It’s fine. Probably not much in it you disagree with it (sic). Have you heard of it? No, you probably haven’t. You probably haven’t read it. Nobody really cares. Why? Because there is nothing real in it.”

Carlson complained that the GOP document doesn’t mention “the attacks on the American family that you see every day,” listing for example concerns like dwindling prosperity and lower upward mobility. “People are upset about that, why wouldn’t they be? But nobody says it.”

Then a couple of minutes later Carlson attempted to refute the highly accurate description of Meloni as a fascist, saying “fascists don’t believe in God. God is a rival to their power. Of course. [Meloni] is a person publicly professing faith in God.”

Watch that clip here: Tucker Carlson Suggests GOP Should Be Like Italy’s Fascist PM, Who He (Incorrectly) Says Isn’t Fascist (Video) (thewrap.com)

OK so the reason we know that Meloni is a fascist is that she is a member of the “Brothers of Italy,” a party formed by breakaways from the country’s center-right The People of Freedom party. Those breakaways, including Meloni herself, were largely drawn from membership of the National Alliance, a neo-fascist party that literally uses the symbol of the defunct neo-fascist party Italian Social Movement, which itself was founded by members of fascist parties that were banned after World War II.

But if that wasn’t enough, Meloni has, quite literally, expressed admiration for Mussolini (the guy who founded fascism) and for Giorgio Almirante, an Italian Nazi collaborator who founded Italian Social Movement. Read more here.

So, to sum up: She’s a member of a neo-fascist party descended from the original fascist parties, and has expressed admiration for Mussolini and one of Italy’s most prominent Nazis.

As for Carlson’s suggestion that belief in God means someone can’t be a Fascist, it is true that in his youth, when he still professed left-wing beliefs, Mussolini was an atheist. After his rise to power, he embraced the Catholic Church, became a huge supporter of it, and was widely supported by an organization of priests. He also had his children baptized Catholic, and even deployed violence to quell opposition to the agreement that created Vatican City as an independent country. Read more about it here

How a party of neo-fascist roots won big in Italy

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Right-wing party Brothers of Italy's leader Giorgia Meloni, center-right on stage, addresses a rally as she starts her political campaign ahead of Sept. 25 general elections, in Ancona, Italy, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. The Brothers of Italy party has won the most votes in Italy’s national election. The party has its roots in the post-World War II neo-fascist Italian Social Movement. Giorgia Meloni has taken Brothers of Italy from a fringe far-right group to Italy’s biggest party. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)


Mon, September 26, 2022

ROME (AP) — The Brothers of Italy party, which won the most votes in Italy’s national election, has its roots in the post-World War II neo-fascist Italian Social Movement.

Keeping the movement's most potent symbol, the tricolor flame, Giorgia Meloni has taken Brothers of Italy from a fringe far-right group to Italy's biggest party.

A century after Benito Mussolini’s 1922 March on Rome, which brought the fascist dictator to power, Meloni is poised to lead Italy's first far-right-led government since World War II and Italy's first woman premier.

HOW DID POST-FASCISM BEGIN IN ITALY?

The Italian Social Movement, or MSI, was founded in 1946 by Giorgio Almirante, a chief of staff in Mussolini’s last government. It drew fascist sympathizers and officials into its ranks following Italy’s role in the war, when it was allied with the Nazis and then liberated by the Allies.

Throughout the 1950-1980s, the MSI remained a small right-wing party, polling in the single digits. But historian Paul Ginsborg has noted that its mere survival in the decades after the war “served as a constant reminder of the potent appeal that authoritarianism and nationalism could still exercise among the southern students, urban poor and lower middle classes.”

The 1990s brought about a change under Gianfranco Fini, Almirante’s protege who nevertheless projected a new moderate face of the Italian right. When Fini ran for Rome mayor in 1993, he won a surprising 46.9% of the vote — not enough to win but enough to establish him as a player. Within a year, Fini had renamed the MSI the National Alliance.

It was in those years that a young Meloni, who was raised by a single mother in a Rome working-class neighborhood, first joined the MSI’s youth branch and then went onto lead the youth branch of Fini’s National Alliance.

DOES THAT MEAN MELONI IS NEO-FASCIST?

Fini was dogged by the movement’s neo-fascist roots and his own assessment that Mussolini was the 20th century’s “greatest statesman.” He disavowed that statement, and in 2003 visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel. There, he described Italy’s racial laws, which restricted Jews’ rights, as part of the “absolute evil” of the war.

Meloni, too, had praised Mussolini in her youth but visited Yad Vashem in 2009 when she was a minister in Silvio Berlusconi's last government. Writing in her 2021 memoir “I Am Giorgia,” she described the experience as evidence of how “a genocide happens step by step, a little at a time.”

During the campaign, Meloni was forced to confront the issue head-on, after the Democrats warned that she represented a danger to democracy.

“The Italian right has handed fascism over to history for decades now, unambiguously condemning the suppression of democracy and the ignominious anti-Jewish laws,” she said in a campaign video.

HOW DID BROTHERS OF ITALY EMERGE?

Meloni, who proudly touts her roots as an MSI militant, has said the first spark of creating Brothers of Italy came after Berlusconi resigned as premier in 2011, forced out by a financial crisis over Italy’s soaring debt and his own legal problems.

Meloni refused to support Mario Monti, who was tapped by Italy's president to try to form a technocratic government to reassure international financial markets. Meloni couldn't stand what she believed was external pressure from European capitals to dictate internal Italian politics.

Meloni co-founded the party in 2012, naming it after the first words of the Italian national anthem. “A new party for an old tradition,” Meloni wrote.

Brothers of Italy would only take in single-digit results in its first decade. The European Parliament election in 2019 brought Brothers of Italy 6.4% — a figure that Meloni says “changed everything.”

As the leader of the only party in opposition during Mario Draghi's 2021-2022 national unity government, her popularity soared, with Sunday's election netting it 26%.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PARTY'S LOGO?

The party has at the center of its logo the red, white and green flame of the original MSI that remained when the movement became the National Alliance. While less obvious than the bundle of sticks, or fasces, that was the prominent symbol of Mussolini’s National Fascist Party, the tricolor flame is nevertheless a powerful image that ties the current party to its past.

“Political logos are a form of branding, no different than those aimed at consumers,” said Rutgers University professor T. Corey Brennan, who recently wrote "Fasces: A History of Rome’s Most Dangerous Political Symbol.”

He recalled that when Almirante made his final MSI campaign pitch to voters in the 1948 election at Rome’s Spanish Steps, he put the party’s flame symbol on top of the obelisk and illuminated it with floodlights.

“You can make whatever you want out of a flame, but everybody understood that Almirante was making a deeply emotional appeal to keep the spirit of fascism alive,” he said.

HOW DO ITALIANS FEEL ABOUT IT?

In general, the party's neo-fascist roots appear to be of more concern abroad than at home. Some historians explain that by noting a certain historical amnesia here and Italians’ general comfort living with the relics of fascism as evidence that Italy never really repudiated the Fascist Party and Mussolini in the same way Germany repudiated National Socialism and Hitler.

While Germany went through a long and painful process reckoning with its past, Italians have in many ways simply turned a willful blindness to their own.

Historian David Kertzer of Brown University notes that there are 67 institutes for the study of the Resistance to Fascism in Italy, and virtually no center for the study of Italian Fascism.

In addition, Mussolini-era architecture and monuments are everywhere: from the EUR neighborhood in southern Rome to the Olympic training center on the Tiber River, with its obelisk still bearing Mussolini’s name.

The Italian Constitution bars the reconstitution of the Fascist party, but far-right groups still display the fascist salute and there continues to be an acceptance of fascist symbols, said Brennan.

“You don’t have to look very hard for signs,” Brennan said in a phone interview. “Fully a quarter of all manhole covers in Rome still have the fasces on them.”

DOES THAT MEAN ITALIANS SUPPORT FASCISM?

If history is any guide, one constant in recent political elections is that Italians vote for change, with a desire for something new seemingly overtaking traditional political ideology in big pendulum shifts, said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute of International Affairs.

Tocci said the Brothers of Italy's popularity in 2022 was evidence of this “violent” swing that is more about Italian dissatisfaction than any surge in neo-fascist or far-right sentiment.

“I would say the main reason why a big chunk of that — let’s say 25-30% — will vote for this party is simply because it’s the new kid on the block," she said.

Meloni still speaks reverently about the MSI and Almirante, even if her rhetoric can change to suit her audience.

This summer, speaking in perfect Spanish, she thundered at a rally of Spain's hard-right Vox party: “Yes to the natural family. No to the LGBT lobby. Yes to sexual identity. No to gender ideology."

Back home on the campaign trail, she projected a much more moderate tone and appealed for unity in her victory speech Monday.

“Italy chose us,” she said. “We will not betray it, as we never have.”

___

Sabrina Sergi contributed to this report.

Getting an abortion in Italy can be difficult. Is it about to get much tougher?

 “We can’t go back to the Middle Ages.”

By Andrea Carlo • Updated: 29/09/2022 -

People stage a protest on 'International Safe Abortion Day' in Rome. Wednesday, 28 September 2022. - Copyright 

In the middle of a leafy Roman suburb, a tattered billboard glows under the scorching summer heat.

“I am against abortion,” it reads, accompanied by a black-and-white picture of the late film director, Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The use of Pasolini — an avowedly progressive, gay man — in an anti-abortion advertisement has not been well received by some, who have vandalised the poster by ripping it at the side.


After all, in this Mediterranean country, abortion is still a thorny issue.

The right to terminate a pregnancy in Italy has been in place since 1978 and is recognised by the Constitutional Court as an unalterable, binding law.

But as Catholicism still exerts a powerful sway on social mores — resulting in high rates of medical staff refusing to carry out abortions — what is technically a right can often feel like something one still has to fight for.

Now that the conservative far-right has won Italy's snap elections, bolstered by the revocation of Roe v Wade in the US and the rising tide of anti-abortion populist movements, an already complex situation could become even more precarious.


The vandalised anti-abortion posterCredit: Pro-Vita e Famiglia

‘Objectors of conscience or convenience?’

Together with 22 other EU member states, Italy gives its doctors the right to abstain from performing abortions, which are legally available to all pregnant women up to 90 days from conception following an obligatory one-week waiting period.

The right to conscientious objection is enshrined in Article 9 of Law #194, which states that “health and assistant personnel are not required to take part in […] interventions for the termination of pregnancy when conscientious objections are raised”.

But according to some pro-abortion campaigners, frequent misapplication of the provision has created a challenging situation where many women are essentially barred from accessing the services they need to obtain an abortion.

As of 2020, 64.6% of gynaecologists in Italy are conscientious objectors, a figure which soars to over 90% in parts of the south. While the nationwide percentage has decreased slightly since 2019, it has broadly grown over the years — in 2005, for instance, it stood at 58.7%.

In relatively rural southern Italian regions like Molise, this can result in there being fewer than a handful of doctors willing to carry out the operation.

For Giovanna Scassellati, a gynaecologist at Rome’s San Camillo hospital, the situation is of particular concern. Living in a city dominated by Catholic hospitals that do not provide abortion services, Scassellati works in one of the few secular facilities that perform approximately 2,000 procedures every year.

“The number of conscientious objectors has increased since the 1980s,” Scassellati told Euronews. “It can be hard to find a doctor who wants to carry out the procedure, [especially] in summer months.”

An anti-abortion activist displays a placard reading "Yes to Life, no to abortion" during a "March for Family" in Verona

Credit: AFP

Anti-abortion activists defend the right of all medical staff to object to any kind of abortion care — including pharmacists, who may even refuse to provide women with emergency contraceptives like the morning-after pill.

As Jacopo Coghe, spokesperson of the Pro-Vita e Famiglia or Pro-Life and Family association, told Euronews, “the objection of conscience in Law #194 […] speaks of ‘medical staff and assistants’ and certainly includes pharmacists too”.

But such arguments are contested by pro-abortion campaigners, who point out that Article 9 only exonerates staff who are “directly involved in the termination of a pregnancy” and not those assisting “before and after the event”.

“Here in Rome, I would prescribe women the morning-after pill,” Scassellati recounted, “and they would often come back to me with their hairs standing on end after the local pharmacy rejected their request.”

“One time we even had to get law enforcement involved. Women need to learn to fight for themselves and their rights,” she added.

While the permeation of Catholic doctrine — which explicitly condemns the voluntary termination of pregnancy — among medical staff has been deemed responsible for such a high rate of conscientious objectors in Italy, Scassellati takes a more cynical view shared by a significant proportion of Italian women.

“Many of these ‘objectors of conscience’ should be called ‘objectors of convenience’ instead,” she said. “As a non-objecting doctor, I have felt judged. People are afraid not to be objectors as they worry it could affect their careers.”

Indeed, objections on the grounds of conscience have not stopped gynaecologists from carrying out abortions — just under the rug.

In 2008, an investigation found that the island of Ischia off the coast of Naples was more than just a famed holiday resort. The picturesque isle became a destination for clandestine abortions, despite all doctors there being conscientious objectors on paper.
Allowing adoption of embryos 'would attack Italy’s abortion rights’
Abortion is legal in Italy — so why are women being refused?

Scassellati’s sentiments are echoed by Mirella Parachini, the former medical director of gynaecology at Rome’s Filippo Neri Hospital and previously president of the International Federation of Professional Abortion and Contraception Associates (FIAPAC).

For Parachini, the supposed increase in conscientious objectors is a red herring — or “a narrative peddled by journalists” — and the crux of the matter lies in systemic inadequacies in the country.

“I can state for a fact that I know many so-called ‘conscientious objectors’ who refer pregnant women to me,” she told Euronews.

“There a very few ‘real’ objectors. If you believe abortion is murder, would you send a pregnant woman to a hitman?”

“The fact is that Law 194 doesn’t get uniformly applied,” she said. “The problem at hand is structural.”
‘Finding a non-objecting gynaecologist is kind of a treasure hunt’

Conscientious objections may be protected by Italian law, but so is the obligation of every hospital facility to provide women with options to obtain an abortion. However, this is not unanimously respected by hospitals throughout the country.

A study from the Luca Coscioni Association, which fights for the right to euthanasia and reproductive healthcare, found that 31 medical facilities in Italy do not have a single non-objecting doctor.

This is part of the problem gynaecologists like Scassellati and Mirichella flag, as many women find themselves unable to access the options they need.

The Council of Europe denounced Italian practices in 2016, deeming there to be a systematic violation of women’s rights to reproductive healthcare.

Chiara Lalli, a journalist who has been researching abortion rights in Italy, said that accessing accurate information about abortion, especially when trying to find out if a certain facility provides the procedure, is still a challenge for many women.

“The problem is, we only have aggregated numbers, like averages by region,” Lalli told Euronews. “If you’re a woman who wants to abort, regional averages are of little use. Abortions happen in hospitals, not in regions.”

“Obtaining an abortion often turns into a kind of treasure hunt. It ends up boiling down to whether you know a gynaecologist, or not. And if you don’t, you end up going abroad.”

Members of Militia Christi group hold a banner reading in Italian "abortion is homicide", in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, 7 February 2021

AP Photo/Gregorio Bo

According to Europe Abortion Access, Italians, in particular, are often forced to make difficult decisions.

A 2019 study found that 4,363 Italian women had to leave their region to obtain an abortion, and hundreds have potentially had to travel abroad, with 48 going to the UK alone.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on healthcare services may have made this worse. A statistical lull in the number of abortions from 2020 might mean a greater number of women are now seeking abortions through clandestine or foreign means.

“Many prenatal services are conducted by Catholic hospitals and diagnoses are late, meaning that women have to go abroad to get one,” Scassellati noted.

“And during the pandemic, nurses were focused on battling COVID”, making the already meagre options even more scarce, she pointed out.

But some campaigners are taking action to combat such structural failings. One recently opened platform, Freedom Leaks, allows women to report injustices they have encountered while trying to obtain an abortion, as well as for medical staff to blow the whistle on what they witness at their facilities.

“It just isn’t acceptable that women don’t know which hospitals to access,” Filomena Gallo, a lawyer working on the Freedom Leaks platform, told Euronews. “Women need to know they can report any disservice.”

‘A long and embarrassing process’

Mariella is a chef living in Rome with her partner. Enjoying a successful career and what she described as a happy life, she ended up seeking an abortion six years ago at the city’s San Camillo hospital after facing an unwanted pregnancy.

While she did not regret her choice, Mariella — who asked to be introduced with a pseudonym out of concerns for her safety — recounted her experience with a mixture of frustration and indignation.

“You have a one-and-a-half hour queue at 5 am,” she told Euronews, “and the 30 to 45 women there were left in the cold without being welcomed in any shape or form. You’re basically made to feel like you’re worthless.”

“After that, you are subjected to embarrassing questionnaires on your personal and family life,” she added.

“The interview with the psychologist veers into the absurd, especially in moments when you’re asked about your personal relationship with your own mother.”

Mariella is one of the roughly 60-70,000 women who choose to get an abortion in Italy every year.

And while her experience was unpleasant, she said, she is far from being the only Italian woman to encounter various social or even legal obstacles in trying to obtain the procedure.

“The one-week waiting period is nonsensical,” she added. “Many women end up falling out of the maximum timeframe for an abortion and then have to find other solutions to obtain one.”

Mariella herself concurred with the arguments put forward by pro-abortion campaigners in Italy, who see such struggles as rooted within wider, structural complexities.

“I know of stories of women who can’t access abortions [in smaller regions in Italy] who then end up having to pay €5,000 to get one privately,” she said.
‘We don’t want to go back to the Middle Ages’

In a country marked by a long-standing and deeply complex relationship toward abortion, matters could be muddied even further after recent political developments.

Snap elections were held on 25 September, following Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s resignation and the collapse of his big-tent coalition government, leading to a surprising shift in power.

Giorgia Meloni's right-wing bloc — a broad church encompassing her nationalist Brothers of Italy or Fratelli d'Italia, Matteo Salvini’s populist Lega Nord, and former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s more moderate Forza Italia — emerged triumphant with 43.8% of the vote, and is prepping itself to form a new government.

The right-wing Brothers of Italy party leader Giorgia Meloni attends the Italian state tv show "Porta a Porta" in Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020

Credit: AP

Meloni may have confirmed her respect for Law #194, but the political tradition to which she belongs is fiercely opposed to abortion.

“Yes to the culture of life! No to the promotion of death,” Meloni yelled from the podium of a pan-European far-right rally in Marbella in neighbouring Spain in July.

The Brothers of Italy manifesto for this year's elections did not explicitly decry abortion, but it did state that it wanted to advocate its "prevention".

“It’s difficult to imagine a frontal attack against abortion,” Lalli noted. “But you don’t need a frontal attack to make it inaccessible, to make it more complicated.”

In regions where right-wing politicians are in power, women’s access to different kinds of reproductive healthcare and abortion services is already limited.

In Umbria and Le Marche, which are respectively governed by Lega and Brothers of Italy, women are restricted in their ability to obtain medically-induced abortions.

To make matters even more alarming for Italian pro-abortion supporters, the revocation of Roe v Wade in the US has seemed to empower conservatives’ fight against abortion rights.

“The ripping-up of Roe shows us that no sentence or law, however long-lasting and ‘politically correct’ is untouchable, as many would have us believe,” noted anti-abortion spokesperson Coghe. “Now, other Western states, primarily Italy, can take a cue.”

Crosses bearing tags with names are seen a graveyard of the Flaminio Cemetery in Rome in October 2020

AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

While the effects of Roe’s overturning may not necessarily impact Italian legislation, it could make the overall social climate — where women are often shamed and denigrated for choosing to terminate a pregnancy — even more fraught.

In the Italian capital itself, the discovery of a makeshift “foetal graveyard” back in 2020 prompted major outrage.

“The right to abortion is constitutionally protected, but there are other ways of denying this right,” Lalli added. “The current scenario is very complex and fragile. And it’s not just a question of the [political] right. No one in this country has had this issue to heart.”

For certain gynaecologists like Scassellati, maintaining the status quo is not enough, which is why an upcoming Meloni-led government is so concerning.

“We need to insist on a medical curriculum that teaches reproductive healthcare, and we need to reform Law #194,” she stated. “We need to bring the limit up to 14 weeks.”

“We just don’t want the right in this country,” Scassellati concluded. “We can’t go back to the Middle Ages.”

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'Fears' for Italy's LGBT community after far-right win

Tue, September 27, 2022

STORY: Italy's LGBT community has "very real fears," after a conservative bloc dominated by the far-right won the country's general election.

That's according to leading gay rights campaigner and political candidate for the Gay Party, Fabrizio Marrazzo.

He's worried about a possible erosion of civil rights under the new administration.

"We have big concerns for new generations, because they are creating an ideological battle due also to the deep economic crisis, because of energy and other reasons. So hate was used as a tool against a given community also in many other instances in the past which we hope won’t happen again."

The nationalist Brothers of Italy group, led by Giorgia Meloni, emerged as the largest party in the September 25 ballot.

She will lead the most right-wing government in Rome since World War Two.

As part of a conservative coalition, Meloni is allied with the League - another far-right force led by Matteo Salvini...

As well as the mainstream conservative Forza Italia of former premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Marrazzo fears that the bloc's conservative views may lead to discrimination for the LGBT community.

"If there’s no action in conjunction with schools, social services, help centres risk failing to create synergy, because you can offer support to young people but if in the school or the place of work where the act of discrimination happens there’s no law to intervene, we can only give moral and psychological support to the people affected. Therefore, there can’t be a social change. This means not only to go backwards, but also that the situation would get worse and we are very scared about that."

There is already some evidence behind Marrazzo's concerns.

Conservative Catholic lobby, Pro Vita & Famiglia, has called on the new government to pick an education minister opposed to "any gender and LGBT ideological colonization in schools."

45-year-old Meloni herself presents as a defender of Christian values and an enemy of what she calls "gender ideology" and the "LGBT lobby."

Explaining her opposition to gay parenting rights, she has said that "unlucky children" who are up for adoption "deserve the best" - meaning a father and a mother.

She has, however, denied suggestions that her outlook would stretch to abolishing existing legislation on abortion rights or same-sex partnerships.

Meloni is not expected to take office before late October, so it is too early to say what her premiership will look like.

But her party's culture spokesman remarked just last week that gay couples "are not legal," later claiming he was referring only to gay couples who adopt.

In terms of public opinion, an Ipsos poll in June showed that 63% of Italians backed marriage rights for gay people, and 59% were in favor of gay adoptions - numbers that have increased in recent years.

COLD WAR 2.0

Nord Stream sabotage mapped: How Putin could have carried out the attack

THIS COULD APPLY TO ANY NATO NATION

Dominic Nicholls
Tue, September 27, 2022

APARENT PROOF OF PUTIN GOING TO BLOW UP 

NORD STREAM

Putin submarine - TASS / Barcroft Media

Three offshore lines of the Nord Stream pipeline system supplying Germany with Russian gas suffered “unprecedented” damage on Monday.

Gas pipe leaks at sea are rare. Three at the same time strongly suggests sabotage. How might that be achieved?

With a depth of only around 70m, covert entry into the Baltic Sea by nuclear submarine is very difficult if not impossible.

Divers can operate at such depths, although the currents may be tricky, and any supporting vessel, be it a submarine or surface vessel, would likely have been spotted, given the density of traffic in the area.

The water column - the mix of fresh and salt water - would also make it difficult for a submarine to maintain the right buoyancy for such a mission. Messing around with divers and explosives in such conditions would be an extremely risky venture.

Russian submarines are very well practiced at this sort of thing, though, having honed their skills over decades "investigating" the undersea internet cables running across the north Atlantic.

The old Soviet Union’s submarine force was highly regarded by Western naval chiefs for its ability to operate specially designed seabed engineering assets during the Cold War.

For all Moscow’s military humiliation in Ukraine, today’s Russian submarine fleet has been modernised and is considered a potent force once more.

That is one of the reasons Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has ordered naval chiefs to conduct a review to see whether Britain has the right balance of surface and sub-surface capabilities.

The Russian spy submarine Belgorod, a modified OSCAR III-class boat operated by GUGI (the Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research), is thought capable of interfering with undersea communications. If cables, why not also pipelines?

It is questionable though, whether Putin would risk using his submarine force on a job like this, with all the diplomatic ramifications if it went wrong.

So, autonomous underwater vehicles? Submarine drones carrying explosives?

Possible, but they would have had to come from a host ship somewhere and, as stated above, the area is quite shallow and well traversed; somebody would have seen something. Plus, of course, the possibility of an underwater drone dropping an explosive charge in the wrong place would have been ever attendant.

A mystery unravelled

So, a (not so) deep-sea mystery, never to be solved? Perhaps not.

If we assume a bomb of some sort was used, the explosive charge would not have had to be very large - pipes are not armoured, after all, and are just a few centimetres thick. Similarly, the explosion would not have had to be directly on top of the pipe; blasts are magnified underwater and for the same amount of charge, a much bigger effect can be achieved below the waves than on the beach.

Modern sea mines come in many forms. Some can be deployed to an area and pre-programmed with the acoustic signature of potential targets.

Picture a torpedo-shaped mine "floating" nose up, listening to the propellers of ships passing overhead.

One shaft and seven blades? That’s a Destroyer; not interested, thinks the mine. Two shafts each with seven blades? That’s an aircraft carrier, time to go bang.

The benefit of pre-placing such mines is that the operation can be carried out when the world’s attention is elsewhere and possibly months before any detonation might be called for.

Similarly, if the waters were too choppy, literally or diplomatically, when the mission to place the explosives was planned, the team could just come back a week later.

A device small enough to punch a hole in a thin metal pipe need not be that big. It could have been dropped months ago by a Russian Kilo-class hunter-killer submarine (risky), a St Petersburg-registered fishing vessel (suspicious) or a passing oligarch's yacht.

Nord Stream 2 - Stefan Sauer

Three small devices, 70m under the water, close to the pipelines could have been left months ago, perhaps when the world was looking at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant or the atrocities uncovered in Bucha. Perhaps the mission crept under our attention as we watched the Winter Olympics in China?

They may have been sitting there for months, listening for the pre-programmed acoustic signature of a "friendly" vessel transiting close by (but far enough from any blast).

Perhaps they were listening for a signal transmitted by an electronic device dropped from an aircraft passing overhead?

The Russian navy is known to take great interest in undersea infrastructure, usually for the purposes of tapping internet cables. It is highly likely Western navies visit the same areas afterwards, to see if any "surprises" have been left behind.

Was this location chosen as the "fault line" between two nations? Who should have been responsible for checking the Nord Stream pipes for any unwanted barnacles?

Has the Russian undersea fleet shown, once again, what a capable and potent force it is?

YA THINK

Nord Stream: Russian gas pipe leaks could have an 'unprecedented' environmental impact

Euronews - Yesterday 

Gas leak at Nord Stream 2 as seen from the Danish F-16 interceptor on Bornholm, Denmark, 27 September 2022.© Danish Defence Command/Forsvaret Ritzau Scanpix via REUTERS

Unexplained leaks in two Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea are spewing out greenhouse gas emissions.

It is feared that the disruption could cause a climate calamity - although to what extent is still unclear.

Neither pipeline was in operation, but both contained natural gas. This is largely composed of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is the second biggest cause of climate change after CO2.

"There are a number of uncertainties, but if these pipelines fail, the impact to the climate will be disastrous and could even be unprecedented," says atmospheric chemist David McCabe, senior scientist at the non-profit Clean Air Task Force.

Over a 20-year timeframe, methane has more than 80 times the planet-warming potency of carbon dioxide, and roughly 30 times its potency over 100 years. Scientists say sharp cuts in methane emissions over the next few years will be a vital lever in curbing climate change.
Why is it hard to quantify the climate impact of the Nord Stream leaks?

McCabe and other emissions experts say it is not yet possible to assess the size of the leak. This is due to uncertainties around factors such as the temperature of the gas in the pipeline, how fast it is leaking, and how much gas would be absorbed by microbes in the water before reaching the surface.

But since both Nord Stream pipelines contained mostly methane, "the potential for a massive and highly damaging emission event is very worrisome", says McCabe.

Jasmin Cooper, a research associate at Imperial College London's Sustainable Gas Institute, agrees it will be difficult to quantify exactly how much gas is reaching the atmosphere - especially given scarce existing data on leaks from subsea pipelines.

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"Gazprom will probably have an estimate based on gas throughputs, but in terms of how much gas/methane is emitted into the atmosphere... they need to send out a team now to measure and monitor," she says, referring to the state-owned Russian gas firm.
How much methane could be leaking from the Nord Stream gas pipelines?

A "conservative estimate" based on available data suggests the leaks together were releasing more than 500 metric tons of methane per hour when first breached, with the pressure and flow rate decreasing over time, says Jean-Francois Gauthier, vice president of measurements at the commercial methane-measuring satellite firm GHGSat.

By comparison, the huge Aliso Canyon gas leak in the United States in 2016 spewed around 50 tons of methane per hour at its peak. "So this would be an order of magnitude more," Gauthier adds.

Related video: Nord Stream gas leaks raise climate fears

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A spokesperson for Nord Stream 2 - one of the leaking pipelines, which never started operating and was shelved by Germany just before Russia invaded Ukraine - said this week the system held 300 million cubic metres of gas.

Releasing that amount in entirety to the atmosphere would result in around 200,000 tonnes of methane emissions, says chemical engineer Paul Balcombe at London's Queen Mary University.

German non-profit Deutsche Umwelthilfe gave a similar estimate of the pipeline's potential emissions.
What impact do methane leaks have on global warming?

That amount of methane would have about the same global warming potential over a 100-year timeframe as about 6 million tons of carbon dioxide, according to calculations based on IPCC conversion factors.

That's roughly on par with the amount of CO2 emitted in an entire year by mid-sized cities such as Havana or Helsinki.

The amount of gas leaking from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline system is less clear, with a pipeline spokesperson declining to say how much was left in the system when it was taken offline for maintenance a few weeks ago.

Stefano Grassi, head of the European Union energy commissioner's cabinet, said on Tuesday that the leaks risked becoming "a climate and ecological disaster".

"We are in contact with [EU member states] to look into what happened and find the fastest way to stop leaks and avoid worse damage," Grassi said in a tweet.

EU nations were among more than 100 countries, including the United States, Brazil, Pakistan and Mexico, that pledged last year to slash their combined methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, in a bid to help stave off disastrous levels of climate change.
How will the Nord Stream gas pipe leaks impact marine life?

While oil spills can immediately affect and ultimately kill wildlife, authorities say the gas pipeline leaks pose a limited threat to the surrounding plant and animal life.

The German environment ministry said the leaks would not pose a significant threat to marine life, but Greenpeace raised concerns on Tuesday that fish may get caught in plumes of gas, which could interfere with their breathing.

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Denmark's Energy Agency said it is too early to say who will investigate the Nord Stream 2 leak, and no-one has been to look at the pipeline yet.

It added the leaks will likely continue for several days and perhaps even a week.
What caused the Nord Stream gas leaks?

Although the cause of the Nord Stream gas leaks is still unclear, recent reports from Brussels suggest signs of "sabotage" and "deliberate" action.

The first leak was discovered on Nord Stream 2 on Monday evening around the Danish island of Bornholm. Hours later, two leaks were detected on separate sections of Nord Stream 1, reaching both the Danish and Swedish economic zones of the Baltic Sea.

The infrastructure is at the centre of geopolitical tensions between the EU and Russia, which has been accused of manipulating gas supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions.

Seismologists recorded what they think were explosions before gas began pouring out of two Russia-to-Germany pipelines under the Baltic Sea.

UPDATES

Nord Stream possibly lost forever, says German government

Wed, September 28, 2022 

The Nord Stream could become completely unusable after an incident in the Baltic Sea

According to the publication's sources, if the damaged lines are not repaired swiftly, the pipeline can be destroyed by a large amount of salt water, which will cause corrosion.

Read also: Nearly simultaneous leaks in Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines ‘could be sabotage’

Only one line of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline remains intact.

In response to the accident, the German Federal Police is strengthening control over German sovereign waters. Also, German states will step up the protection of the coastal areas of the North and Baltic Seas.

The European Commission, German law enforcement agencies, and the German Federal Intelligence Service have assumed that the pipeline damages are a deliberate act of sabotage.

Due to the complexity of the attack, experts believe that it could only be carried out by a state actor, the newspaper writes.

Read also: Europe can win Putin’s gas war but must learn Nord Stream lessons

According to one version, divers could have planted explosives in both lines of Nord Stream 1 and one of the two lines of Nord Stream-2, which is not yet operational.

Tagesspiegel notes that the isolated explosions indicate that the leak is huge and the rate of pressure drop in the pipeline is correspondingly high.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck warned of the possibility of further attacks on critical energy infrastructure.

Following the decompression of the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream-2, which was reported on Sept. 26, gas pressure plummeted along both lines of Nord Stream-1.

Read also: EU calls Nord Stream gas leaks sabotage

Nord Stream AG said that the simultaneous destruction of three gas lines in the Baltic Sea is unprecedented and it is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure.

Two underwater explosions that occurred on the Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 pipelines were confirmed on Sept. 27.

According to German newspaper Spiegel, citing its sources in the German government, a few weeks ago the U.S. intelligence services had warned Germany about possible attacks on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline was completed in 2021 and filled with technical gas, but it did not receive certification before the full-scale invasion, and thus was never operational.

The Nord Stream-1 gas pipeline was stopped for maintenance at the end of August and did not resume operation, due to Russian interference.

Nord Stream operator says three offshore gas pipelines damaged in one day

Tue, September 27, 2022 

(This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine) (Adds detail)

MOSCOW, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Three offshore lines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline system on the bed of the Baltic Sea sustained "unprecedented" damage in one day, Nord Stream AG, the operator of the network, said on Tuesday.

The bulletin was published after Sweden's Maritime Authority issued a warning about two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, shortly after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 pipeline was discovered that prompted Denmark to restrict shipping in a five nautical mile radius.

Nord Stream AG said it was impossible to estimate when the gas network system's working capability would be restored.

"The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented. It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure," it said in comments to reporters.

Nord Stream 1, which consists of two parallel lines with nameplate capacity of 27.5 billion cubic metres per year each, started supplying gas directly from Russia to Germany in 2011.

Flows via the pipeline, which had been working at only 20% of its capacity since July, were halted at the end of August and were not relaunched following maintenance.

Russia blames faulty equipment at a key compressor station and Western sanctions over Ukraine for its idling.

Nord Stream 2, which runs almost in parallel to Nord Stream 1, was built in September 2021 but was never launched as Germany refused to certify it. The project was halted altogether just days before Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Louise Heavens and Jan Harvey)

Denmark, Germany and Poland caution of ‘sabotage’ after Nord Stream leakages

Suspicious leakages in 2 Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea are most likely the outcome of sabotage, authorities in Denmark, Germany and Poland have actually cautioned, increasing issues over the vulnerability of Europe’s energy facilities.

Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen stated sabotage might not be dismissed as the reason for leakages in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which have actually been at the centre of the energy dispute in between Russia and Europe.

“It is too early to conclude yet, but it is an extraordinary situation,” she stated. “There are three leaks and therefore it is difficult to imagine that it could be accidental.”

She later on stated there was no increased military risk to her nation. “These are deliberate actions, not an accident,” she included.

German authorities revealed issue that the unexpected loss of pressure in both pipelines might be the outcome of a “targeted attack”. They included that Russia’s participation might “not be excluded”, however stated Germany was not associated with the examination being run by Denmark and Sweden.

United States nationwide security consultant Jake Sullivan and secretary of state Antony Blinken talked to their Danish equivalents on Tuesday about the suspicious leakages of the pipelines, which Sullivan referred to as “apparent sabotage”.

“The US is supporting efforts to investigate and we will continue our work to safeguard Europe’s energy security,” Sullivan later on composed on Twitter.

Ned Price, United States state department representative, likewise explained the attacks as “apparent sabotage” in a declaration late on Tuesday.

Price stated Blinken talked to Denmark’s foreign minister Jeppe Kofod, including: “The United States remains united with our allies and partners in our commitment to promoting European energy security.”

The leaks come as Russian gas supplies to Europe have dwindled as part of President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to hinder assistance for Ukraine. The leakages, which will not straight impact Russian gas streams due to the fact that the pipelines were not running, accompanied the inauguration of a pipeline that will provide Norwegian gas through Denmark to Poland for the very first time.

“We don’t know all the details of what happened, but we see clearly that it’s an act of sabotage related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine,” stated Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Reuters reported.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a consultant to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, composed on Twitter: “‘Gas leak’ from NS-1 is nothing more than a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression towards [the] EU. Russia wants to destabilise [the] economic situation in Europe . . . The best response and security investment — tanks for Ukraine. Especially German ones.”

Asked if sabotage was the reason for the leakage, Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov informed press reporters that “no version can be excluded now”, Russian company Interfax reported. “Obviously, the pipe has been damaged somehow. What the cause was — before the results of the investigation appear — no version can be excluded,” he included.

Sweden’s maritime administration on Tuesday reported 2 leakages in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. That report came hours after Denmark’s energy company stated there was a different leakage, likewise near Bornholm, in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which Germany efficiently cancelled soon prior to Russia’s major intrusion of Ukraine.

Nord Stream 2 had actually been filled with Russian gas at the end of in 2015 in preparation for its scheduled start-up, while Nord Stream 1 was carrying gas to Germany as just recently as the start of this month.

Danish authorities stated the gas bubbles in the Baltic Sea determined about 1km in size. Sweden and Denmark cautioned ships to prevent the location.

Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline leakage reach the surface area of the Baltic Sea near Bornholm © Danish Defence Command/Handout/Reuters

Sweden’s National Seismology Centre stated it had actually identified 2 effective blasts the day previously in the location of the gas leakages. “There is no doubt that these were explosions,” Björn Lund, a member of the seismic network, informed Swedish state broadcaster SVT.

Terje Aasland, Norway’s oil and energy minister, stated that as the leakages looked like sabotage, the nation was paying very close attention to security, on the day that it opened a gas pipeline to Poland.

Norway’s petroleum security authority had actually cautioned on Monday that numerous oil and gas business had actually just recently suffered unknown drones near their overseas centers. In June, a Russian warship two times broke Danish territorial waters near Bornholm.

Energy experts stated it was unclear who would stand to take advantage of the leakages at a time when neither line was functional. But some presumed a connection to the brand-new gas pipeline link. Frederiksen remained in Poland on Tuesday for the opening event.

“The leak on Nord Stream 2 is very close to the new Baltic pipe that will bring Norwegian gas to Poland for the first time . . . so there’s some heavy symbolism,” stated Tom Marzec-Manser at energy consultancy ICIS. “For EU gas imports, it’s a new dawn for Norway and twilight for Russia.”

Ukraine has actually long opposed the Nord Stream pipelines, arguing that they were developed to damage its position as one of the primary avenues for Russian gas into Europe. Russian gas has actually continued to stream through Ukraine even after the intrusion, however Moscow stopped products through Nord Stream 1 last month, magnifying Europe’s energy crisis.

James Huckstepp at S&P Global Platts stated the leakages increased unpredictability in the energy market. “The probability of Nord Stream 1 coming back before the end of the year has essentially dropped from 1 per cent to zero per cent,” he stated. “But there remain concerns about the remaining gas flows through Ukraine and whether they could see reductions later this year.”

Henning Gloystein at Eurasia Group stated the pipelines “are designed to avert accidental damage”. But he included: “Given both lines were still pressured and each has the capacity to pipe around 165mn cubic metres of methane-heavy gas a day, leaks of this size are a severe safety and environmental hazard.”

Nord Stream, the pipelines’ Swiss-based operator whose bulk investor is Russian state-owned energy business Gazprom, stated the events were “unprecedented”, however recommended the majority of the dripping methane would liquify in the water.

What is known so far about the 

Nord Stream gas pipeline leak

Tue, September 27, 2022 

By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) - Three unexplained gas leaks detected in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines from Russia to Germany have prompted the European Union and Russia to point at sabotage.

Here is a breakdown of what is known so far:

WHAT HAPPENED?

The operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline reported a sudden drop in pressure overnight on Monday, with a spokesperson suggesting there could have been a leak.

This was followed by a Danish Energy Authority statement that a leak had likely occurred in one of the two Nord Stream 2 pipelines lying in Danish waters.

A few hours later, Nord Stream AG, operator of another undersea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, said it was looking into a drop in pressure in Nord Stream 1.

Sweden's Maritime Authority said on Tuesday it had warned of two leaks on Nord Stream 1 in Swedish and Danish waters.

Each line of the pipeline consists of about 100,000 24-tonne concrete-weight coated steel pipes laid on the seabed. The pipelines have a constant internal diameter of 1.153 metres, according to Nord Stream.

Sections lie at a depth of around 80-110 metres.

WHERE ARE THE LEAKS?

Two leaks were detected on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which stopped delivering gas to Europe last month, both in an area northeast of the Danish island of Bornholm.

A leak was also detected on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which has yet to enter commercial operations, in the same area.

Danish authorities have asked ships to stay clear by a five nautical mile radius off Bornholm. The plan to use Nord Stream 2 to supply gas was scrapped by Germany days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February.

Both pipelines still contain gas under pressure.

WHAT CAUSED THE LEAKS?

It is not yet clear. Analysts and experts say such leaks are very rare and Nord Stream AG has called leaks on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines "unprecedented".

However, the European Union believes sabotage probably caused the leaks, Josep Borrell was reported as saying by German broadcaster ntv, echoing views aired by Germany, Denmark and Sweden. The EU has not named a potential perpetrator or suggested a reason behind it.

On Wednesday Moscow said claims that Russia was somehow behind a possible attack on the pipelines were stupid, adding that Moscow saw a sharp increase the profits of U.S. companies supplying gas to Europe.

A day earlier the Kremlin had said it did not rule out sabotage as a reason behind the damage and it was an issue affecting the energy security of the "entire continent".

Seismologists in Denmark and Sweden said they had registered two powerful blasts on Monday in the vicinity of the leaks and the explosions were in the water, not under the seabed.

WHO IS INVESTIGATING?

Armed forces, coast guards, maritime authories, energy agencies and police from counties such as Sweden, Germany and Denmark are all carrying out investigations.

Sweden's Prosecution Authority said it will review material from a police investigation into the damage to the pipelines and decide on further action.

Denmark's defence minister has had a meeting with NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, adding it might take a week or perhaps two before the areas around the damaged pipelines were calm enough to be investigated.

POTENTIAL IMPACT?

Denmark's armed forces said the largest gas leak had caused a surface disturbance of well over 1 kilometre (0.6 mile) in diameter, while agencies issued warnings to shipping to avoid the area.

Although neither pipeline was in operation, they both contained natural gas - which is largely composed of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is the second biggest cause of climate change after CO2.

This has raised fears that the disruption could cause a climate calamity - although to what extent is still unclear.

Norway has said it will strengthen security at its oil and gas installations in the wake of the leaks and reports of drone activities in the North Sea and Danish authorities asked that the level of preparedness in its power and gas sector be raised.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney and Reuters bureaux; Editing by Alexander Smith, Alexandra Hudson)

Snowden responds to Putin approval of Russian citizenship




Julia Mueller
Tue, September 27, 2022

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who fled the U.S. in 2013 after leaking classified information about U.S. government surveillance programs, responded on Monday to his newly granted Russian citizenship, which he received as the result of a decree from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Snowden, charged with espionage in the U.S., has been living in exile in Moscow for nearly a decade to avoid prosecution, now joined by his wife, Lindsay Mills, and their two children.

“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our SONS. After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little stability will make a difference for my family. I pray for privacy for them—and for us all,” Snowden wrote on Twitter.

Snowden’s emphasis on “sons” is a reference to a 2020 tweet in which he announced he and his wife would apply for dual U.S.-Russian citizenship.

“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our son,” Snowden wrote in 2020 after the birth of their first child. “That’s why, in this era of pandemics and closed borders, we’re applying for dual US-Russian citizenship.”

Snowden had said in 2019 that he ultimately wanted to return to the U.S. if the government guaranteed him a fair trial, but he requested an extended residency permit in early 2020 and applied for Russian citizenship later that year.

Putin granted citizenship to 75 foreigners in a new decree Monday.

The Russian president’s move comes in the wake of a controversial partial mobilization order that would call up thousands of Russians from military reserves to fight in the ongoing war in Ukraine — and a week after Putin threatened the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict.