OK I know Joe is in a difficult situation with shortage of oil, very high prices for gas, diesel and Jet fuel, workers complaining about the cost to drive to work … even asking the nice neighbour to the north if he can borrow some billions of cups of oil while releasing some from what is supposed to be the Strategic Reserve but isn’t this a wee bit overboard?
Snatching a ship load of “stuff” that belongs to a foreign sovereign nation used to get you hung from the yardarm! }};-@
U.S. seizes Iranian oil cargo near Greek island - sources
By Jonathan Saul, Lefteris Papadimas and Renee Maltezou
LONDON/ATHENS, May 26 (Reuters) - The United States has confiscated Iranian oil held on a Russian-operated ship near Greece and will send the cargo to the United States aboard another vessel, three sources familiar with the matter said.
It was unclear whether the cargo was impounded because it was Iranian oil or due to the sanctions on the tanker over its Russian nexus. Iran and Russia are facing separate U.S. sanctions.
The Iranian-flagged ship, the Pegas, was among five vessels designated by Washington on Feb. 22 - two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - for sanctions against Promsvyazbank, a bank viewed as critical to Russia’s defence sector.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-seizes-iranian-oil-c… LONDON/ATHENS, May 26 (Reuters) - The United States has confiscated Iranian oil held on a Russian-operated ship near Greece and will send the cargo to the United States aboard another vessel, three sources familiar with the matter said.
It is probably not widely known, but the US Constitution gives Congress the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal. Basically, the government can sanction piracy on the high seas, if it is sufficiently motivated to do so.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei Article I, Section 8 The Congress shall have power... ...To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
A letter of marque and reprisal (French: lettre de marque; lettre de course) was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a nation at war with the issuer. After capturing, the privateers could bring the case of that prize before their own admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer. A letter of marque and reprisal would include permission to cross an international border to conduct a reprisal (take some action against an attack or injury) and was authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders.
I doubt they went through such formalities in this Iranian case. Rather, they just cited some existing official sanctions against Iran or Russia or both. Also, it was apparently the Greek authorities that did the initial confiscation of the ship and cargo.
Pete: It is probably not widely known, but the US Constitution gives Congress the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal. Basically, the government can sanction piracy on the high seas, if it is sufficiently motivated to do so.
Oh I’m from Halifax, we know all about letters of marque! We have a large building on the waterfront called the Privateers Warehouse. It was actually built with planks from USS Chesapeake that was captured by HMS Shannon.
Canadian and British Privateers in the War of 1812 Less is known of the Canadian privateers during the War of 1812, but in the whole period of the Napoleonic Wars the British government issued more than 4000 commissions. Canadian privateers preferred to rely on small, lightly armed vessels and cruised fairly close to home. Halifax teemed with ships either preparing for cruises, or guarding their prizes. Of some 40 privateers the most successful were the Sir John Sherbrooke, the Retaliation and the Liverpool Packet. The schooner Liverpool Packet was the most successful privateer of the whole War of 1812, with some 50 prizes valued at between $264 000 and $1 000 000. A former slaver captured by the Royal Navy, it carried a crew of 40 men and 5 carriage guns. The vessel’s owners bought the schooner for £420.