US Offered Millions To Captain To Help Seize Iranian Oil Tanker

[James Regan + 1,776]

The United States has offered several million dollars to the captain of the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 to steer it to a port in a country that would detain the ship on behalf of the United States, the Financial Times reported, citing emails that the top U.S. envoy for Iran had sent to the vessel’s captain.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Offered-Millions-To-Captain-To-Help-Seize-Iranian-Oil-Tanker.html

Sanctions are one thing but bribery is another, one more bad facet of the US and its dirty war tactics, this smells like the CIA in Afghanistan paying off tribesmen etc, surely we are better than this.

Why not man up and go and seize the vessel in international waters, this situation is becoming ridiculous.

 

Not all treasure is silver or gold mate - Capt Abu Sparrow

Edited September 6, 2019 by James Regan

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

This sounds like BS to me. There is no supporting evidence for anything attributed to the Financial Times. Ask yourself, ‘Does the US really care if this ship EVER reaches a friendly port?’, isn’t it perfectly acceptable for it to wander until it runs out of fuel?. Why would the US pay out millions for what is essentially last weeks news?

Furthermore, do you honestly believe that a ‘top US envoy’ would directly contact the Captain using a traceable e-mail address?

This just reeks of unsupported media sensationalism....but should start a never ending rant on OilPrice!

 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

If the USA were to go seize the tanker out on the High Seas, then the US and the men involved would be no more than common pirates.  And that poses a real problem:  pirates by long-standing legal tradition are "outlaws," who have removed themselves from the protections of any and every Convention.  The pirates, if captured, are exposed to summary execution without trial. The execution can be in the form of Hanging (usually done) or by "walking the plank," where you are tossed overboard to the sharks.  Either way, a rather unpleasant end. 

Notwithstanding, today the "civilized" Western nations do not take that approach.  For example, you have the issue of the Somali Pirates out there in the Gulf of Aden.  Those guys simply surrender by tossing their guns over the side and raising their hands in surrender.  Legally, they can simply be shot, but only the Russians will do that.  There are cases of a Danish warship taking the prisoners, finding that no nation wants them for trial, so they get put back into their open boat, a process the Americans refer to as "catch and release."  That, incidentally is a term from sport fishing; you hook the fish, but then unhook and toss it back into the sea.   There is even a case where the Somali Pirates could not get their engine re-started so the mechanics from the warship went aboard and got it fixed, and got them some fuel.  The principle is that no sailor will be left in distress on the high seas.

To no surprise, this generous attitude does nothing to discourage these attacks, as the pirates know that nobody is going to do anything about it, and if they can seize the ship at gunpoint and steer it back to Somalia, they can hold that ship for a large ransom.  There is even one dusty outpost in Somalia where there are at least a dozen big ocean ships at anchor offshore, their crews being held hostage, going nowhere as the shipowners have abandoned the ship and crew  (the ship is paid by insurance and the crew - well, those are peasants from the Philippines, so they are expendable and replaceable).  If the US Marines need a little field practice, they can go hammer that village, free the hostages, and tow the ships out.  As for the outlaw pirates, well......

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

1 hour ago, James Regan said:

The United States has offered several million dollars to the captain of the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 to steer it to a port in a country that would detain the ship on behalf of the United States

Turns out that "Captain" is a Pakistani.  Hey, he just might be susceptible to a bribe.  Could be.   Then again, he might get stiffed and never paid.  Also could be.