Malcolm Nance on Nov. 13, 2018 at the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)
Former MSNBC defense analyst Malcolm Nance frequently offers his analysis of world events but there are times when his take doesn’t hit. For example, some consider him to be wrong about the Nord Steam pipeline and Nazis. So why should Black America trust him on his thoughts about the Ukraine war?
On Sept. 26, a series of deep-sea explosions hit the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipelines that run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea near the Danish island of Bornholm. The explosions rendered them inoperable and caused significant leaks of gas. After the attack, Poland and Ukraine immediately blamed Russia, and both the U.S. and other NATO allies thought the same. But U.S. and European intelligence agencies have apparently been unable to find any evidence of Russia’s involvement.
Nord Stream is a network of offshore natural gas pipelines which run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany to provide Western Europe with natural gas. Nord Stream 2 is a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany; it has not yet entered service.
Nance, too blamed Russia.
“Why did Russia bomb the Nordstream pipeline? TO FREAK EUROPE OUT OVER LOSING A CRITICAL SOURCE OF ENERGY. Russia kept claiming European solidarity w/Ukraine would break if gas shipments were stopped. So they stopped them …enter super sleuth Seymour Hersh who says America did it!” Nance later tweeted in February 2023.
Nance was so outraged after the pipeline explosions he flew to Ukraine to fight against Russia.
In April 2022, the U.S. Navy veteran confirmed that he is defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion by joining the country’s international legion, a military unit of volunteers.
Nance, 60, is the founder and executive director of the Terror Asymmetrics Project, a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank and policy consultant on terrorism and defense. Nance runs the project with his partner Chris Sampson. Both have written numerous books on regional and functional aspects of terrorism. Nance is a frequent contributor to TV talk shows on security and global issues and a regular analyst on MSNBC.
Most recently the New York Times ran an article entitled “Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History.”
Written by Thomas Gibbons-Neff, the article claims Ukrainian soldiers are wearing Nazi patches.
“In each photograph, Ukrainians in uniform wore patches featuring symbols that were made notorious by Nazi Germany and have since become part of the iconography of far-right hate groups,” Gibbons-Neff wrote, adding, “The photographs, and their deletions, highlight the Ukrainian military’s complicated relationship with Nazi imagery, a relationship forged under both Soviet and German occupation during World War II.”
Nance took offense at this.
In a tweet directed at Gibbons-Neff, Nance wrote, “For a former US Marine in an organization that was rife with Nazi-lite imagery, @tmgneff seems like he has literally NO POSITIVE STORIES TO REPORT IN UKRAINE. I told him after his gaff filled, high school gossip column in March, where the biggest news he found was I called a fat guy fat, to write about the fallen members of the International Legion … nope. He wrote this for Putin.”
Some have questioned Nance’s take on things before. In 2018, The Intercept described Nance as, “Malcolm Nance (pictured above), whose background is quite sketchy but is presented by the cable network (and now by NBC News) as an ‘intelligence expert’ and former intelligence officer for the U.S. Navy.”
In 2016, Nance claimed Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein had ties to Russia. In an MSNBC interview with Joy Reid, Nance said, “Jill Stein has a show on Russia Today.” The statement turned out to be completely untrue.
There were calls for MSNBC to correct what was considered a lie by Nance.
“What Nance said was made up out of whole cloth — fabricated — in order to encourage MSNBC viewers to believe that Stein, one of the candidates running against Clinton, was a paid agent of the Kremlin and employee of RT,” The Intercept reported.
Even Nance’s time in the military has been called out.
“Nance’s biography notes his proximity to actions in Beirut, Ground Zero on 9/11, and others. The word that stands out is ‘peripherally’ — likely the most accurate word to describe his service. Technically, he was a SERE instructor, yet as a matter of honor, Nance did not train Aviators or Special Operators directly as he did not attend the school simply due to the fact that his ‘expertise’”’ of counter-terrorism, intelligence officer and interrogator, did not place him near or behind enemy lines,” Peter Morlock wrote in an opinion piece for the military media outlet SOFREP (Special Operations Forces Report) abiyt his own dealings with Nance in the military.
Malcolm Nance moderates Veterans Day: Television and the Military Experience, a special Television Academy member event, on Nov. 13, 2018 at the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)
