Posted on 09/06/2012 6:17:13 PM PDT by mandaladon
The Venezuelan government has seized a U.S. flagged ship and detained its captain for more than a week. The ship Ocean Atlas has been at port in Maracaibo, Venezuela since August 29. After four hours in port, the ship was boarded by armed security personel, and the captain was detained on suspicion of trafficking in arms or drugs. The rest of the crew of 16 Americans has remained on board under guard. According to a well-placed source arrest warrants have been issued for all of the crewmembers, who are to be taken off the ship for questioning.
Incredibly, my Forbes colleague Jeff Bercovici has been in touch over email with one of the crewmen, Russell Macomber, who has managed to post updates to his Facebook account while under detention. In a sardonic tone, he even relayed that when Venezuelan authorities raided the Ocean Atlas they stole cartons of cigarettes, ate the crew’s ice cream and let their dogs defecate on the deck. Macomber writes that he would like nothing more than an airdrop of Budweiser. Officials at the ship’s operator, Intermarine, did not immediately respond to Forbes’ requests for information. Nor did officials at American Maritime Officers, which is believed to have provided the crew for the ship. A spokeswoman at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington said she would look into the incident.
A spokesman for the Seafarers Union confirmed the seizure to Forbes and said, “The SIU is working feverishly to help resolve this situation and to ensure the safety of all mariners aboard the Ocean Atlas. We are staying in touch with the crew and will continue doing so.”
A U.S. Embassy official in Caracas also confirmed the incident to Reuters earlier today.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
It will probably take Hugo a few more days to pack
the Cocaine shipment into special compartments in
the hull and remove all the ATF arms shipment.
but but but I thought Chavez and obama were homies
Obama allowing Chavez to seize our ships? nice...
” he would like nothing more than an airdrop of Budweiser.”
I gotta question this guy’s judgement!
He is Obama’s buddy. Obama talks tough, sends in Spec Ops and rescues them... vote for me!!!!
“The Department of State requested that the vessel be quietly diverted to Libya, where under special security cover, the vessel was loaded in its entirety with equipment from Libya’s nuclear and other WMD programs arsenal. They included specialized centrifuges used in the processing of uranium to weapons grade, equipment from a uranium conversion facility, and Libya’s five SCUD-C longe-range missiles. The cargo was discharged at an undisclosed U.S. East Coast port. The Libyan cargo move was truly a spur-of-the-moment operation.”
So that’s how they got the gold out of Libya. Nukes and
scuds were just a cover.
Project Gun Floater?
Obama will just kiss his buddy Chavez’s ass and promise to give him anything he wants.
-PJ
We are just hearing of this????
ARE YOU SH***ING ME? We are allowing this little punk to hold one of our ships and crew and we haven’t blown their toilet bowl country off the map yet? Lord help us!
Ping.
Well now, don’t you understand how “efficient” Obama’s political machine thinks? You have to hold off responding to this incident until after the convention, then when his post-convention bounce (as small as it will be) begins to drop and inexorably slide south, he’ll unleash the SEALs again to save the day and rescue the crew. Voila! A new, large upswing in his attaboys for being such a tough leader. /S/
The list, Ping
Thanks Army Air Corps
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