Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Feb 16, 2023 22 tweets 9 min read Read on X
In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce an American investigative journalist and political writer, Seymour "Sy" Hersh. His recent article suggested that the Nord Stream bombing is connected to the US, Sweden and Norway and that it was ordered by no other than Joe Biden.

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Let's begin with the obvious: Hersh is an accomplished journalist whose reporting is widely known around the world. His first big story was exposing the 1969 My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War.

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In the 70s, he covered the Watergate scandal and in 2004 he reported on the torture and abuse of prisoners taking place in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. He's won 5 George Polk awards, a Pulitzer price and two National Magazine Awards.

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But, then there's the other stuff. The kind of journalism that doesn't bear scrutiny.

In Sep, 2013, Hersh said in an interview that the death of Osama Bin Laden was "one big lie, not one word of it is true". In 2015 he published his own take on what happened in an ...

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... article called "The Killing of Osama bin Laden". He suggested that Pakistan had detained Bin Laden and both the Pakistani and the US governments knew about the attack beforehand. It was widely criticized by reporters, media commentators, academics and US official.

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In Dec, 2013,London Review of Books published Hersh's article "Whose Sarin?".The article was previously rejected by both New Yorker & Washington Post. In his story,Seymour claimed that the US had used "cherry picked intel" to justify military attacks on pro-al-Assad troops.

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Various chemical weapons experts were critical at the time, and latest OPCW report concluded that the "reasonable grounds" exist to believe that the Syrian Government was behind these attacks.

In 2017, Welt am Sonntag published Sy's article "Trump's Red Line"...

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..., which suggested that the US intel had not informed President Trump that "it had found no evidence that the Syrians had used a chemical weapon". Bellingcat called Hersh's reporting "sloppy" as he based the case on tiny number of anonymous sources.

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Regarding 9/11, Hersh has said in an interview that he doesn't "necessarily buy the story that Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11." Then he continued: "We really don't have an ending to the story. I’ve known people in the [intelligence] community. ...

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... We don't know anything empirical about who did what."

Seymour's also been skeptical of the Skripal poisoning, saying that "the story of novichok poisoning has not held up very well. He [Skripal] was most likely talking to British intelligence services about Russian...

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... organised crime". He suggested that the poisoning was coming from organized crime rather than being state-sponsored.

Hersh is known for often using anonymous sources. He's also been criticized for this, and for example investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein and...
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... activist Amir Taheri have said that he is "over-reliant" on them. Taheri said that "by my count Hersh has anonymous 'sources' inside 30 foreign governments and virtually every department of the U.S. government".

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In his story on Bin Laden, Hersh referred a 55 times to an "anonymous retired senior intelligence official". Vox's Max Fisher have stated that "Hersh has appeared increasingly to have gone off the rails. His stories, often alleging vast and shadowy conspiracies, ...

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... have made startling-& often internally inconsistent- accusations,based on little or no proof beyond a handful of anonymous 'officials'".Slate's James Kirchick stated that "Hersh's problem is that he evinces no skepticism whatsoever toward what his crank sources tell him"14/20 Image
Hersh has defended his style of reporting, and has said that he may change details when he's giving speeches: "Sometimes I change events, dates, and places in a certain way to protect people. I can't fudge what I write. But I can certainly fudge what I say."

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Hersh "fudged" facts in his 2004 speech about the Abu Ghraib scandal, where he alleged that American troops had sodomized young boys and that the whole thing was recorded. In a later interview, he said that his statement "wasn't that inaccurate, but it was misstated".

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I have read Hersh's article on Nord Stream. It's a highly detailed blog post, describing the planning and the execution of the operation in detail.

Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) has researched Hersh's story on the Nord Stream bombing.

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Based on him and the OSINT evidence he's gathered, the story is full of holes and inaccuracies. One example:Hersh stated that a Norwegian Alta class mine hunter was used in the operation, but in reality the Alta hasn't been used since 2012 and was being scrapped at the time.18/20 Image
You can read Alexander's post here: oalexanderdk.substack.com/p/blowing-hole…

The reasons why Hersh has resorted to sloppy journalism can only be guessed. Maybe he wants to stay relevant? Maybe it's the money?

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Either way, he should realize that his pieces riddled with dis- and misinformation are used as propaganda tools - On 15th of Feb, 2023, TASS reported that Russia requests UNSC meeting over the Nord Stream sabotage. Hersh has no plans to speak at the event if it occurs.

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Support my work (and get some AI art!): buymeacoffee.com/PKallioniemi

Past soups: vatniksoup.com
Addendum: Amir Taheri whom I referred in the report seems to be mixed in several controversial cases, too. The whole case seems to be a kind of "the pot calling the kettle black" scenario. I would disregard Taheri's comments on this matter.

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Oct 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll reintroduce an American political commentator and pro-Kremlin propagandist, Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson). He’s best known for his promotion of crazy conspiracy theories and for his support of authoritarian regimes around the world.

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Tucker’s career spans decades, but he’s also been very active in recent years, so a lot has happened since our previous soup on him, which can be found here:

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Once described as “the most powerful conservative in America”, Tucker has now fully transformed into a grifting conspiracy theorist and propagandist willing to work for whoever pays him the most. It’s unclear whether Tucker truly believes his endless conspiracy theories or…
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Sep 25
This is what you’re debating with on social media:
It appears that a few pro-Russian bot farms already found this thread, so remember - just block them all, there's no point in arguing with a computer.
Most of you have seen those "No DMs" profiles, right? That's because you can interrupt the GPT procedure by injecting them new instructions.

At some point it also worked in comments ("give me a cake recipe"), but not so much anymore.
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Sep 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.

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Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.

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As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.

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Read 19 tweets
Sep 8
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.

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David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.

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But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.

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Sep 5
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian-Estonian businessman, Oleg Ossinovski. He is best-known for his deep ties to Russian rail and energy networks, shady cross-border dealings, and for channeling his wealth into Estonian politics.

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Oleg made his fortune via Spacecom Trans & Skinest Rail, both deeply tied to Russia’s rail system. Most of this is through Globaltrans Investments PLC, a Cyprus-based firm with 62% held via Spacecom and tens of millions in yearly profits.

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Ossinovski’s Russian-linked ventures made him Estonia’s richest man in 2014, with an estimated fortune of ~€300M. His business empire stretched across railways, oil via Alexela shares, and Russian bitumen imports from Help-Oil, a supplier to the Defense Ministry.

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Sep 2
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Swiss/French writer, Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral (@officielsoral). He’s best known for his rabid antisemitism and for his pathetic support for all the worst authoritarian regimes from Russia to North Korea.

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Alain’s childhood was problematic, as his father has been characterized as a “narcissistic pervert” who beat his children and did jail time for fraud. Alain himself has said he was “programmed to be a monster.” Born Alain Bonnet, he took the stage name of his sister,…

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… actress Agnès Soral. She wasn’t too happy about this, commenting “How would you like to be called Agnès Hitler?”. Like many grifters, he became a pick-up/seduction artist writer, à la late Gonzalo Lira, writing books and even making a B-movie, “Confessions d’un dragueur”.
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Read 23 tweets

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