Richard Arnold: US Correspondent discusses US coastguard chasing Venezuelan tanker

The US has launched another pursuit of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela - the second operation within days.

Reuters reports the US Coast Guard is actively chasing the vessel in international waters, to make it the third tanker seized in less than two weeks.

President Donald Trump last week ordered a full blockade of sanctioned oil shipments in and out of Venezuela. 

US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Andrew Dickens that it's not clear what the US plans to do with the tankers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Time to Hit to America. Richard Arnold, Good morning to you, Andrew,
very good morning. They've seized a Venezuelan tanker. Now is
this legal?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Ah, that's a good question. It depends who you ask
us to what the answer is. But the other question
is what next? The US here boorded a second oil
tanker of Venezuela or escalating the tensions in the Caribbean.
They released video of those US forces propelling from the
chopper ons of the deck of the ship called the Centuries.
That is the same method they used in early December
when they seized a tanker called Skipper, which also was

(00:48):
carrying Venezuelan oil and was under US sanctions. This is
different though. This latest tanker was not under specific sanctions
and is not known to have transported oil to Iran
as had the other one. Instead, it was en route
to China, which is the biggest importer of Venezuelan and crude. Still,
it was part of what they call the Dark Fleet,
and the oil was loaded onto this tanker under the

(01:09):
false name of Crag. Not clear what the US plans
to do with this tanker now, but Trump says he
intends to continue ramping up pressure on Maduro's Venezuela right now.
There were more than seventy old tankers in Venezuelan waters
that are part of the Shadow Fleet, and some thirty
eight are under sanctions, says Trump.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Doctor let anybody going through that shouldn't be going through. Well.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
President Trump just asserted that he has ended ninety four
percent of all seaborn drug trafficking to this country. The
reality is that fentanyl, which has been one of the
key concern in Whitehouse accounts, comes mostly from Mexico, not
from Venezuela, with a component shipped in from China. So
many raised doubts that this was ever the real issue.
Trump now has announced an entirely new rationale for this

(01:52):
escalating campaign.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Took our oil rights?

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Can we want it back?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
So?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Is it about drugs or oil? The US used to
be the biggest recipient of Venezuela oil before Maduro took over. Then,
also in a series of controversial interviews with Vanity fairmaks
I see, Trumps chief of staff Suzy Wilde said that
Trump quote wants to keep on blowing up boats up
until Maduro cries, uncle, We've seen those attacks on the

(02:17):
fishing boats over recent weeks. So is it drugs, oil
or regime change? Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State,
is saying on this it.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Is clear that the current status quo with the Venezuelan
regime is intolerable for the United States.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
But he does not spell it out, does he. What
we do know is that the US is the master
the biggest fleet in the Grubbian in decades, including the
world's largest aircraft carrier, Venezuela accusing the US of piracy,
and Maduro has ordered his navy to escort oil tankers
leading Venezuelan port. So bottom line, this is escalating.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
If it smells like a false flag and looks like
a false flagger, possibly is a false flag. But there
we go. Now the story that keeps on giving, and
we're talking about the Epstein files. And on Saturday we
had some documents disappear from DOJ website.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
You know, this was supposed to be the big moment
for the full release of these files, the massive trove
documents about Pedophilogy I for Epstein and his partner in
crime g Max Lane Maxwell didn't happen. Instead, only a
relatively small amount of that material has come out, and
it is largely blacked out. You know, there's a cartoon
on the Internet where a woman is praising her boyfriend's outfit, saying,

(03:24):
I like your Epstein style T shirt. His T shirt
is all black. So Republican Thomas Massey, who is one
of the key people pressing for an end to the
cover up, says of the Trump Justice Department.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
They're flouting the spirit and the letter of the law.
It's very troubling the posture that they've taken. And I
won't be satisfied until the survivors are satisfied.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Democratic leader in the House of Kim Jeffrey says politicians
will demand a full accounting. Well, we'll see.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
The next step in the process is going to be
that written justification to try to explain the Congress to
the survivors, most importantly and to the American people why
things have apparently fallen short.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Democrats are slow as well. You know, they got hold
of ninety five thousand photos from the Epstein estate. They
released nineteen. They say there is a moater come ninety
five thousand versus nineteen. Seriously, now it's being said that
maybe ten percent of the Epstein materials has come from
the Justice Department as well, ten percent. These include photos
of famous men. We've seen some of them, among them

(04:25):
Bill Clinton in a spa and a swimming pool with
Eulaine Maxwell, Woody Allen, and Steve Baden also along in
some of these photos. What's missing is the FBI interviews
with the survivors, now Justice Department records as to why
Epstein was let off the hook in O eight when
he was allowed to plead to a low level state
prostitution charge. Also, since the weekend file dump, the story

(04:47):
is as you indicate, at least sixteen files have disappeared
less than a day after they came out. These include
a photo of a drawer at Epstein's place showing a
photo of Trump alongside has once described best friend of
fifteen years Epstein, along with Maxwell and Milania Trump is
in there as well. That photo has vanished, as have
some others. The Justice Department suggesting that some of these
images include pictures of people whose photos need to be

(05:10):
blacked out. They suggest those pictures will be made public
again sometime.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
All right, there was a power outage in San Francisco
while back, and the question on everybody's lips is, what
the hell happened to all those automated self driving robot vehicles.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
You know, it's pretty wild with these things. I was
surprised by one of these small scale things the other day.
I was just walking on a footpath of one of
these things, kind of buzzed up behind me, carrying some
food for somebody. It's kind of unexpected. But anyway, Yeah,
in the Bay City, they try to get back into
operation after a massive power blackout plunge the place, or
large sections of it into darkness. On the northern side

(05:45):
of the city. They restored some of that power at
the minute, not all of it. They say a fire
was the cause of some of this, but apart from
homes and businesses being sidelined, it also affected yeap self
driving cars. There were driverless cars stalled in the middle
of streets, apparently unable to detect traffic lights and whether
to stop or go. That caused some significant traffic jams. Weimo,
the company that has self driving taxi, suspended their right

(06:07):
hailing service as results. So it appears can we say
this that humans do maybe a little bit better than
the robots when things go awright.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Absolutely, the future is always a lot more difficult than
its providence, suggests Richard Arnold from the United States of America.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
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