All I can say is that I am confused or may be I am concerned too much or may be I do not understand this world completely with it’s new “rules based order” .
Can sb here put me at ease with some soothing comment. Dr.Sal in his latest videos on drone attacs and tanker seizures, nyet orders fm USN ships, extrajudicial killings/executions/blowing up alleged narco boats , shipwreck attacs , executions of ppl in distress tried desperately but failed .
Can alleged narco boat cover abt 1400 NM w/o refuelling ? Please help !!!
My question is this: would USA attack Venezuela if it’s main income was from growing/production& export of BROCCOLI or potatoes???
Fact: Dist fm Aruba to Miami is abt 1200 miles.( straight line)
From the article… “Chevron, which partners with PDVSA, said its operations … normal and continuing without disruption. The company, responsible for all Venezuelan crude exports to the U.S., last month increased crude exports to the U.S. to some 150,000 bpd…”
So, somebody (?) feels entitled to Venezuela’s oil, didn’t want anyone else buying it, so they stole it!
Have I got that right?
(I suppose we should be grateful that this “boat” WASN’T blown out of the water - try justifying 1.1Mbbls/175million ltrs of that drifting through the Caribbean in time for Christmas!)
There is no mention of the nationality of the crew but I would hazard a guess that they have very little connection to Venezuela. Many many years ago when I was employed on a tanker owned by American interests I had no idea who owned the cargo at any one time .
It looks like the boarding of the ship was scripted in Hollywood against a vessel whose weapons were in the ships galley consisting of miscellaneous knives and a meat cleaver.
I have nothing but distain for drug smugglers or Maduro but the USA by its actions is inviting comparison with some more odious regimes.
The tanker said to have been captured is reported to be the “Skipper” IMO: 9304667
BBC Verify has done an investigation of the recent history of this tanker:
The actual owner and manager if this vessel is hard to find.
Here is some info that may or may not be accurate and up to date:
Trump has declared Venezuela’s actions to be direct attacks on the USA. Specifically, the drug invasion is directly attacking America and can thus be declared acts of war triggering justifiable warlike responses from Trump. By killing drug runners and destroying their cargo, he strikes directly at the cartels and their source of income and sends an unmistakable message. Try it and die.
The cartels are not simply money making enterprises. They are controlled by forces that want to utterly destroy America and are attacking America by multiple means (5th generation warfare) to ultimately militarily defeat America. This form of warfare uses various means not necessarily obvious such as fomenting internal disruptions (racial unrest, political disharmony, health scares, pandemics, psychological mind control, insurgency via illegal immigration and criminal cartels, bribery of officials, judges, police, politicians, attacks on food sources and processing, and creation of fear and uncertainty.
All of those can be from disguised sources. They are not direct attacks by military forces, and ordinarily might not warrant military responses, but they can be far more effective by softening the battlefield, weakening resistance and destroying resolve. Trump sees that and has deployed and authorised use of force by military forces externally and within the US. Good on him.
Venezuela has also been involved in the election fraud throughout the world and has been shown to have rigged results of elections in many countries. Trump declared foreign interference in US elections to be acts of war triggering US warlike responses we now see.
He doesn’t want to directly invade Venezuela. He just needs to change Maduro’s mind. Pack your bags and go, or Trump’ll cut your legs from under you by steadily hitting the cash trail.
Who’s going to stop him? A bunch of hyperventilating sea lawyers?
Coming back to the actual theme of the OP, and thinking of my earlier remark in post #2 as quoted, what do we know now…
Up to 1.8Mbbls onboard.
According to Equasis - false-flag; unclassed; no ISM of record; no P&I of record; etc …
Therefore vessel condition is… ?
Insurance status is… ?
It is now about to pass through the islands of the Caribbean under the command & navigational control of… ?
I hope somebody on that bridge knows what they are doing!
Probably and hopefully the Master and Officers have been left “in command” of navigation (although “at the point of a gun”)
I don’t know who they are, but most likely just ordinary seafarers of different nationalities that has been “shanghaied” by some scrupulous crewing agent, without being told what they were getting into.
And it beats me why with such accumulation of assets of various purposes they could not interdict alleged narco tiny boats in order to apprehend and catch both the cargo and personel suspected of wrong doing. Instead extrajudicial executions were performed . What such an act of rather dubious legal quality was supposed to demonstrate i have no effing clue.
In the past we discharged to shuttle tankers off Sabine Pass. I don’t know if the refinery can handle Venezuelan crude. We were carrying Nigerian Light.
The word is they were flying a false flag. The master will hopefully have evidence that he was being kept ignorant of any shenanigans.
