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Ukraine Update: More holes emerge in Seymour Hersh's fanfic story; No Russia in 2024 Olympics [1]

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Date: 2023-02-19  

Time isn’t helping Hersh’s story look any better.

x Going back to his claim that it was specifically the "M350 Alta" that was used.



This image is from July 24th 2022, when the M350 Alta was at the scrapyard in Hanøytangen just North of Bergen. pic.twitter.com/tfyt08Phk4 — Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) February 16, 2023

Indeed, this summary thread of a Hersh interview is gold. We get such gems as:

"I wouldn't even think to take a story like this to the New York Times, they have decided that the Ukraine war is going to be won by Ukraine and that's what its readers get, so be it"

And:

"The stories I have been getting about the war, particularly beginning in fall and that's what gets interesting, have been pretty dire. I think the end is just a question of time, right now it is a question of people Zelenskyy wants to kill of his own people. It's gonna be over"

Also:

“I think [the story is] going to undercut NATO, which I always found to be supremely useless”

The M350 Alta angle is actually quite interesting, as the ship last sailed in 2012. This isn’t conjecture or theory. Ships can be tracked. Oliver Alexander asked Hersh to comment on the claim that a decommissioned scrap-heap ship was part of the secret operation. His response … was he drunk?

x Seymour Hersh has finally responded to my emails asking for his comments on the inconsistencies in his story. His replies have not done anything to increase his credibility in my opinion. https://t.co/7HgDqL8bMA pic.twitter.com/4BC6bGo7Td — Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) February 18, 2023

Alexander painstakingly examines every claim Hersh makes in his Substack.

When first reading through Hersh’s account of the events, the level of detail he provides could add credence to his story. Unfortunately for Hersh’s story, the high level of detail is also where the entire story begins to unravel and fall apart. It is often stated that people who lie have a tendency to add too much superfluous detail to their accounts. This attempt to “cover all bases” is in many cases what trips these people up. Extra details add extra points of reference that can be crosschecked and examined. In Hersh’s case, this is exactly what appears to have happened. On the surface level, the level of detail checks out to laymen or people without more niche knowledge of the subject matter mentioned. When you look closer though, the entire story begins to show massive glaring holes and specific details can be debunked.

It’s worth the read if you’re in the mood for a righteous takedown, or at the very least, an incredibly detailed and technical one.

If you’re wondering about Bakhmut, it still stands. Yesterday’s update by OSINT analyst Andrew Perpetua captured the claims and counterclaims from various sides on the active areas around the city. Russia may or may not have advanced here or there. Ukrainian counter-attacks may or may not have recaptured lost ground. And Russia may or may not have recaptured the recaptured territory.

Today, Mad’ar’s update from inside Bakhmut (he’s the guy with the now-famous pointer, in drone videos counting Russian dead around Bakhmut) claims Russia focused on picking up its dead.

x Bakhmut update, 19 Feb: the worms "announced" a sanitary day: they remove 200/300 in broad daylight, under artillery cover



Two signs: the current assault potential is exhausted; Wagner replaced by regular troops (Wagner did not care as much about wounded and killed) - Mad'ar pic.twitter.com/8uY4ngBJcC — Dmitri (@wartranslated) February 19, 2023

He says today was a “light” day. Listen to the artillery barrage in the background.

I’m going to copy and paste what Mark wrote yesterday:

"We will hold Bakhmut,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday. “Anyone who complains that the defense demands too many victims should not forget: if we withdraw, another city will become a new Bakhmut. That is why our soldiers fight for every square centimeter.” Why is Russia throwing away thousands in Bakhmut if it has no strategic value? Because logistical factors make it the easiest place for Russia to attack. Quite possibly Bakhmut is the only place that Russia can currently muster consistently large forces, because the logistical effort at other locations is too great. Why is Ukraine willing to expend men and materials in fighting at Bakhmut? Because the longer they keep the fighting concentrated around this once already heavily damaged area, the longer they spare other locations in Ukraine from the kind of destruction seen around Bakhmut.

Neither reason is strategic. Quite frankly, it’s quite bizarre. But Ukraine at least has a logical reason for expending so much on Bakhmut’s defense. Russia has none for attacking it.

Few things get me angrier than the thought of Russia and Belarus taking part in the upcoming Paris summer Olympics. And yes, while Ukraine is the biggest reason why, it’s also because Russia is a nation of cheaters. Even while sanctioned for its cheating at last year’s Winter Olympics, competing under a “neutral” flag, they were cheating.

Eight months ago, the Russian Olympic Committee’s first-place finish in the team figure skating event at the Beijing Olympics was thrown into limbo when it was revealed, a day later, that 15-year-old Russian phenom Kamila Valieva had failed a drug test. Medals for the event have still not been awarded, irking the second-placed U.S. team, in particular. Now, Russia’s anti-doping agency says it will never publicly release its report on the Valieva case, triggering fresh outrage. But whatever decision Rusada reaches for its star athlete, it may not stop the Russian Olympic Committee from claiming the gold medal. That’s because while the determinations of the Russian investigation will almost certainly be challenged by international sports bodies, forcing it into the open, sports lawyers saw a variety of ways that the Court of Arbitration for Sport could still uphold the team event outcome.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has been Russia’s biggest booster in the growing campaign to exclude Russia and Belarus.

Asked Sunday at the Alpine skiing world championships if the IOC could be on the wrong side of history, Bach dismissed the suggestion. “No, history will show who is doing more for peace. The ones who try to keep lines open, to communicate, or the ones who want to isolate or divide,” the IOC leader said. “We have shown this in the past with great success in the Olympic movement,” Bach said, pointing to the examples of North and South Korea, Israel and Palestine, and Kosovo. “Our role is bringing people together.”

But don’t worry, Bach added that “Every Ukrainian athlete can be rest assured that we are standing in full solidarity with them and that all their comments are taken very, very seriously into consideration.” Well, every Ukrainian athlete that Russia hasn’t murdered.

x this is maksym malkov. he was a rising star of ukrainian rowing, a promising 20yo athlete. but then r*ssia invaded his homecity of mariupol and he joined the defense. he was murdered by r*ssians in may. IOC must stop trying to conceal r*ssian genocide crimes with white flags pic.twitter.com/XmxGA6UGmR — вареничок.еріставі 🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈 (@maksymeristavi) February 10, 2023

Another one:

x Ukrainian athlete and defender Volodymyr Androshchuk, 22, will not represent #Ukraine at the Olympics because the russian army killed him near #Bakhmut two weeks ago.

📷 Daria Rudyk#BoycottRussianSport pic.twitter.com/VdCODc0NF9 — Writings from the war (@WarWritings) February 16, 2023

More?

x Ukrainian karate fighter Mykola Yaremchuk died in the battle near Kramatorsk/ He was an athlete and coach of the Chernivtsi club "Dzammai", won silver at the junior championship of Ukraine. #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/bzCvir38jZ — Devana 🇺🇦 (@DevanaUkraine) February 17, 2023

In fact, Ukraine’s entire athletic future is being wiped out.

x 11 year-old #Ukrainian gymnast Katia Diachenko dies.

A projectile of #Russian invaders hit a house in #Mariupol where Katia was at that moment.

Memory eternal. R.I.P Katia. #Russia commits terrible war crimes. We will never forget,never forgive#StandWithUkraine #StopPutinNOW pic.twitter.com/FRdAxyzjEP — Emine Dzheppar (@EmineDzheppar) March 23, 2022

Not to mention, the idea that Russian athletes are “neutral” is ludicrous, given how sports have always been an extension of the government and key propaganda arm since Soviet times. Check out this thread:

x 🧵 Why letting Russia participate in the Olympics isn’t okay—and how Putin’s regime uses star athletes to sell its wars. A basic guide to Russia's sporting fascism. pic.twitter.com/a6VjJfq8pO — Dr. Ian Garner (@irgarner) February 16, 2023

Russia doesn’t belong in the Olympics, nor Belarus. The IOC may not want to do the right thing, given what’s happening in Ukraine. But they can’t even do the right thing with a country that proudly and consistently cheats.

So it will come down to whether enough other countries threaten to boycott (the Baltic nations and Poland are leading the way), and whether sponsors will want to see their names dragged into the gutter with the inevitable pressure campaigns begin in earnest.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/19/2153848/-Ukraine-Update-More-holes-emerge-in-Seymour-Hersh-s-fanfic-story-No-Russia-in-2024-Olympics

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