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| | The Agency working group members had no direct contact with the White House, and were eager to find out if Biden meant what he’d said—that is, if the mission was now a go. The source recalled, “[[Bill Burns]] comes back and says, ‘Do it.’” | | The Agency working group members had no direct contact with the White House, and were eager to find out if Biden meant what he’d said—that is, if the mission was now a go. The source recalled, “[[Bill Burns]] comes back and says, ‘Do it.’” |
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| | + | [[Norway]] was the perfect place to base the mission. |
| | + | <!--In the past few years of East-West crisis, the U.S. military has vastly expanded its presence inside Norway, whose western border runs 1,400 miles along the north [[Atlantic Ocean]] and merges above the [[Arctic Circle]] with Russia. The [[Pentagon]] has created high paying jobs and contracts, amid some local controversy, by investing hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade and expand American Navy and Air Force facilities in Norway. The new works included, most importantly, an advanced synthetic aperture radar far up north that was capable of penetrating deep into Russia and came online just as the American intelligence community lost access to a series of long-range listening sites inside China. |
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| | + | A newly refurbished American submarine base, which had been under construction for years, had become operational and more American submarines were now able to work closely with their Norwegian colleagues to monitor and spy on a major Russian nuclear redoubt 250 miles to the east, on the Kola Peninsula. America also has vastly expanded a Norwegian air base in the north and delivered to the Norwegian air force a fleet of Boeing-built P8 Poseidon patrol planes to bolster its long-range spying on all things Russia. |
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| | + | In return, the Norwegian government angered liberals and some moderates in its parliament last November by passing the Supplementary Defense Cooperation Agreement (SDCA). Under the new deal, the U.S. legal system would have jurisdiction in certain “agreed areas” in the North over American soldiers accused of crimes off base, as well as over those Norwegian citizens accused or suspected of interfering with the work at the base.--> |
| | + | Norway was one of the original signatories of the NATO Treaty in 1949, in the early days of the [[Cold War]]. Today, the supreme commander of NATO is [[Jens Stoltenberg]], a committed anti-communist, who served as Norway’s [[prime minister]] for eight years before moving to his high NATO post, with American backing, in 2014. He was a hardliner on all things Putin and Russia who had cooperated with the American intelligence community since the [[Vietnam War]]. He has been trusted completely since. “He is the glove that fits the American hand,” the source said. |
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| | + | Back in Washington, planners knew they had to go to Norway. “They hated the Russians, and the Norwegian navy was full of superb sailors and divers who had generations of experience in highly profitable deep-sea oil and gas exploration,” the source said. They also could be trusted to keep the mission secret. (The Norwegians may have had other interests as well. The destruction of Nord Stream—if the Americans could pull it off—would allow Norway to sell vastly more of its own natural gas to Europe.) |
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| | + | On September 26, 2022, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane made a seemingly routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then on to Nord Stream 1. A few hours later, the high-powered C4 explosives were triggered and three of the four pipelines were put out of commission. Within a few minutes, pools of methane gas that remained in the shuttered pipelines could be seen spreading on the water’s surface and the world learned that something irreversible had taken place. |
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| | ==Rape of Afghanistan== | | ==Rape of Afghanistan== |