Iran making life as difficult as possible for The West:
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That 1953 coup is still proving costly.
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According to your link, the ship was a flagged Marshall Islands tanker, crewed by 18 Filipinos and 1 Greek, and chartered by a Turkish oil refiner.
What makes it a US tanker?
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I wondered that myself. All the news say itâs a US tanker:
Edit
Some news outlets are now saying itâs a US bound oil tanker
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The Marshal Islands used to be âownedâ as it were by the US. Like Guam, The US Virgin Islands and a few others? Itâs indy now but ⌠maybe itâs a âmediaâ thingâŚ? Hype the cause for concern.
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The money? Who owns the ship or the cargo, or otherwise makes money off it?
Steve
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Send in special ops with five times the fire power. Do not dilly about as if we are just sliding in there in the middle of the night. Kill anything that moves and anyone on the tanker.
This does not have to be a Jimmy Carter moment.
And when Iran complains tell them they are lucky we are not at war with them.
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Many, many years ago when I was training with KPMG I recall speaking to someone from our London office who dealt with the marine industry. Cargo ships can be registered anywhere and are often owned by trusts set up in tax havens.
I donât think that the news outlets have any more knowledge than we do though. They just noted that the ship was heading for the USA.
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Yup. That has been the situation for decades. Avoid those âburdensome, job-killing, regulationsâ about safety and training.
Steve
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The issue is our navy needs to control the shipping lanes.
I get going easy on Somalian pirates. What are you going to do?
But the Houthis and Iranians need a big black eye. Cut the crap or just get wiped out. Stop the sniveling.
As of the news on NPR yesterday, Blinken was trying to get the Iranians to cool it with the Houthis. This was the response to that.
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Yep, even happened with P&O in Europe a while ago:
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Just what Putin wants.
The USA should know by now that itâs a lot easier to start a war than to end it.
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They were a German colony and were captured by Japan in 1914. After the war they were administered as a Japanese mandate for the League of Nations. They were then captured by the US in WW2 and after that war were administers as a trust territory for the United Nations. The Marshalls have been an independent country for 45 years.
DB2
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All of which is null and void vis a vis what I said. But thanks anyway.
Youâre welcome. The Marshall Islands tend to be a rather obscure topic.
DB2
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This may be what caused Iranâs actions:
The USA âconfiscatesâ a cargo, while Iran âseizesâ it 
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Itâs all in the translation. 
Andy
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According to your article, the tanker was headed towards Turkey. So, in summary:
The ship was not flagged in the USA.
The crew is not American.
The ship and cargo was not headed to the USA.
The operator is Turkish.
The owner is Greek.
Daily Mail headline: Iran Seizes US Oil Tanker!
I used to think the Daily Mail editors were simply incompetent. But Iâve recently concluded they are actually genius. There is no way they could generate this volume of misinformation and stupidly on accident. They put real effort into making themselves appear to be drooling idiots. Masterfully done.
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I never post anything from a newspaper without checking with other news outlets, and certainly not from The Mail. Most news services were reporting that a US ship had been seized.
It seems complicated:
Iran seizes oil tanker with links to US in Gulf of Oman
Even the Iranian news service claimed that it was an American ship
âThe navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran seized an American oil tanker in the waters of the Gulf of Oman in accordance with a court order,â
Still a puzzling story!
There would be no war. Iran would shink away in the global theater. These are cheap shots because they can do it. If they get a black eye they stop. They have very little forward offensive capacity.