Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh self-published a bombshell article last week: “How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline.” It claims to show in great detail how the United States blew up the Nord Stream pipelines designed to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany.

It has sparked a worldwide debate on the attack. These accusations could have a massive impact on Germany—to the point that a mainstream newspaper asked Hersh if America just committed an act of war against its nato ally.

Personally, I’m not convinced. Hersh’s report is based off a single anonymous intelligence source—exactly the same type of source that fed the Steele dossier and other lies to the media.

Some of the details in the report that should be easy to verify don’t add up. Hersh claimed, for example, that nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has “cooperated with the American intelligence community since the Vietnam War.” Stoltenberg was 16 when the Vietnam War ended, which seems a little young. Hersh described the explosions taking place at a single “right spot.” Instead, they were 50 miles apart. He said the attack was launched from an Alta-class minesweeper that was engaged in nato’s baltops22 exercises. Yet no Alta-class minesweepers took part in the exercise. And no one seems to be able to make any sense of Hersh’s claim that the mine needed to be camouflaged against the salinity of the water.

That just scratches the surface. At best, these could be errors made by a journalist reporting the truth but not fully understanding his subject. But even then, it suggests the reporter didn’t do his homework.

Lee Smith pointed out that Hersh has a history of pushing false news stories when they make America look bad. I find Smith’s conclusion easy to agree with: “Maybe the U.S. really did sabotage Russian pipelines, but it sure didn’t happen the way Hersh describes it.”

And there’s the rub. There are aspects of this story that are harder to dismiss. The mainstream media have pushed less credible stories than Hersh’s. Why the sudden silence? A sudden development of a conscience or journalistic standards seems unlikely. And what about boasts from Joe Biden and others that they could destroy the pipeline? Smith dismissed this as bluster from an administration that messed up badly: Biden rolled back Donald Trump’s sanctions on Nord Stream 2. This pipeline was finished thanks to Biden. To Smith, Biden’s aggressive statements are his wild attempts to avoid the blame. Could there be more to it?

Within Germany, the fact that the government has done studies and published none of them has raised eyebrows. The government says “further information cannot be given for reasons of public welfare—not even in a classified form.” Could they have been bullied into silence by the Biden administration?

There’s another critical fact too few are talking about. The explosion destroyed both of the pipelines that made up Nord Stream 1—but only one of the pipelines of Nord Stream 2. Blowing up all the pipelines is in the U.S. interest. But leaving part of Nord Stream 2 intact favors Russia. They get to punish Germany for giving some tepid support to Ukraine, while leaving it an easy way back to the table. Russian gas is still available—if Germany will openly break with America, lift sanctions, and bend the rule of law in Russia’s favor. Nord Stream 1 was destroyed, but if Germany would only certify Nord Stream 2—a line it has previously refused to cross—it can have cheap gas once more.

The U.S. also had a lot more to lose if it was caught: potentially the entire alliance system it has built up since World War ii.

But with this administration, attacking an ally, and then botching it, is not something I can rule out. Former U.S. President Barack Obama has a long track record of alienating allies—including Germany. So I’m forced to admit that, at this point, I don’t really know who carried out the attack.

But for the most important part of this story, my views on who carried it out are irrelevant.

What do the Germans think?

A Vassal State

If Germans believe America is behind the Nord Stream 2 attack, it could shake them to the core. Since World War ii, their security has rested on the shoulders of their American ally.

Victor Davis Hanson wrote: “But even a slight chance that the story rings true is terrifying in its implications—preemptively attacking a nuclear power, destroying the multibillion-dollar investment of an ally and its ability to bring fuel to its strapped citizenry, and deliberately breaking federal laws to avoid congressional compliance.”

Nowhere are the implications more terrifying than in Berlin.

For eighty years, Germany’s security and prosperity have been built on the foundation of America. America defends Germany so the Germans don’t have to. Therefore Germany has maintained only a small army and is allowed to plug its resources into generous social spending and develop a strong manufacturing engine. It has allowed Germany to compete with China as an exporting powerhouse.

Now, Germany’s most important ally is accused of stabbing the nation in the back—of attacking part of its critical infrastructure.

If this is widely believed, it would shake Germany to its core. A large military would no longer be merely an ambition—it would be an urgent need. It would also need other allies to help protect it against America. It could lead Germany to leave nato for much more open support of Russia.

Germany’s Berliner Zeitung interviewed Hersh about his report—something America’s mainstream press has not done. He told the newspaper that Biden was “punishing” the “people of Germany” for “a war that was not going well.” He said the U.S. was afraid Germany would switch sides and turn back to Russia in exchange for cheap gas, so it decided to remove this option permanently (though the fact that one of Nord Stream 2’s pipelines survived means Germany still has this option).

“Biden has decided to freeze the Germans this winter,” said Hersh. “The president of the United States would rather Germany freeze than Germany no longer support Ukraine. … This is a devastating thing for this White House for me.”

The Berliner Zeitung said “that this can be perceived as an act of war not only against Russia but also against Western allies, especially Germany.”

How will Germany respond if it believes America has carried out a “warlike act”?

Hersh said that even the Central Intelligence Agency was “horrified” that Biden would “put Europe out in the cold to support a war that he will not win.”

It’s unlikely that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will embrace Hersh’s report anytime soon. But don’t underestimate the longer-term effects. Even Scholz’s Social Democrats have a strong anti-American tradition that this could revive.

Oskar Lafontaine, a former Social Democrat candidate for chancellor, was scathing in his accusations against the U.S. In his blog post “Vassals Do Not Fight Back,” he wrote:

Our most important ally has carried out a terrorist attack on our infrastructure. But: The cowards in politics and the media duck away and remain silent. We are a vassal republic, whose leading representatives are unable and too afraid to represent the interests of our own people. Germany needs inexpensive energy, but the U.S.A. wants to sell its environmentally harmful fracking gas at high prices in Germany and Europe. The German vassal obeys and remains silent and lets himself be drawn deeper into the war of the U.S.A. with Russia. And the so-called elites in politics and the media have no morals: Germany should never supply weapons that kill people in countries where millions have already been killed by [Adolf] Hitler’s war of annihilation. And … after the U.S. sabotage act on German infrastructure, the federal government should show Washington the red card.

This anger spans the political spectrum. The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) used to be Germany’s United Kingdom Independence Party. They were founded by economics professors who wanted to get Germany out of the euro. The European Union was too socialist—they wanted to be more like America and move Germany closer to America.

Now the AfD’s cochairman, Tino Chrupalla, wants an investigation on the attack. If the U.S. is found to be responsible, he wants all 35,000 American soldiers in the country kicked out. “Has nato’s leading power carried out an attack on our country’s vital critical infrastructure in European waters?” he asked. “Then one would have to question whether the alliance guarantees security in Europe or rather endangers it. The consequence would be the withdrawal of all U.S. troops.”

Maximilian Krah, an AfD member of the European Parliament, accused Chancellor Scholz of conspiring with America in launching this attack.

The AfD is Germany’s fourth-largest party and is often considered far right. Even more extreme is Germany’s sixth-largest party, Die Linke, a far-left group. It has long wanted Germany out of nato and is joining the AfD in calling for an investigation.

The Green Party is a member of Germany’s governing coalition, and vying to be the main left-wing party. It is split. Older members grew up protesting America’s military presence in Germany. The younger view Russia and China as the bigger threats to both the environment and world peace. The younger are in control, but these accusations could shake things up. The mainstream parties have generally condemned Hersh. The AfD and Die Linke have supported him. The Greens are still thinking.

Betrayal Breeding Betrayal?

Barack Obama helped push Germany away from the U.S. in 2014 when he was caught spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone. It later turned out that Germany was also spying on the White House—but that news came out a little too late to undo all the damage.

At the time, former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodore zu Guttenberg wrote that Obama could “enter the history books as the gravedigger of the trans-Atlantic friendship.” The relationship survived 2014—but if Hersh is right, that statement could still prove true.

Herbert W. Armstrong long forecast that the German-American friendship would come to an abrupt end.

As his free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy shows, the Bible reveals that Britain and America are modern-day descendants of ancient Israel. And biblical prophecy warns that Israel will trust in lovers—foreign allies—that will destroy it.

“All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not,” God warns in Jeremiah 30:14.

“They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom,” God says in Ezekiel 16:33. Could this apply better to any nation other than the modern-day United States? It has given away some of the most powerful weapons ever created.

Ezekiel 23 gives more details of this prophesied betrayal. Verse 4 personifies Samaria—the capital of the northern tribes of Israel—as a young woman called Aholah. Samaria had been captured and Israel enslaved before Ezekiel wrote these words, which means this is prophecy for the modern descendants of those northern tribes, primarily Britain and America.

God chose Israel for the purpose of following Him and serving the world. But instead, “Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses” (verses 5-6).

The result? These lovers betray her. Verses 9 and 10 say these former allies “slew her with the sword” and “executed judgment upon her.” Here, God identifies who does the betraying: Assyria. Other passages in the Bible, like Isaiah 10, also describe Assyria attacking modern Israel. In Bible prophecy, Assyria refers to Germany.

After the 2014 spying scandal, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote:

This relationship ends with a massive double cross that brings these nations down!

That is where this is leading! This is just one of dozens of prophecies showing how Germany is going to turn once again into the worst enemy of these nations in the end time.

Germany was prophesied to break away from America, and it is happening before our eyes. But the animosity we see today is only the smallest beginning!

You see this animosity in a former top leader of Germany fuming that his country is a “vassal” to the United States, as he sees it. You see it in the way Germany does as little as possible to support Ukraine.

But soon it will become a lot more obvious.

In verse 36, God says, “… Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations.” God is allowing this to happen because our countries have committed “abominations.” America is hurting itself, and the world, through its wholehearted embrace of sinful lifestyles.

God will soon use this German betrayal to correct the nation. But it will end with both America and Germany turning to God. To understand more about His plan, read our book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.