Hacker News Reader

Comment by stevenalowe | Hacker News Reader

Under what authority???

> Under what authority???

Under U.S. law, if they're smart, anti-piracy and anti-narcotics interdiction. They're not, so they're citing sanctions.

Practically, however, this is sort of the endgame to the spheres-of-influence narrative. China can ram Phillipine fishing boats. Russia can steal children. America can commandeer random shit in the Western hemisphere.

Under Operation Freedom. We're gonna make sure every drop of oil is liberated from Venezuela.

So, despite all the stupid trolling there's an actual answer to this question.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea authorizes any state to interdict stateless vessels, which this was.

I can find no such claim in the news, the articles all say “Venezuelan oil tanker”

Poor quality articles.

Here's an actual industry source which captures the whole story in the headline https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1155836/Weve-just-seized-a-tank...

I stand corrected, thank you.

I still don’t approve of it, but it does appear to be “legal”

It's generally considered best practice to detain these vessels as they tend to present a danger to ... well, basically everyone.

It's really a good thing the US did this, one less dangerous stateless vessel at sea. Trump admin does lots of bad things, this is beyond reproach.

Non but superior firepower the US is reverting to might makes right for all to see. I can't wait for the response to "China seizes container ship leaving Taiwan loaded with illicit semiconductors to enforce its tariffs and export restrictions on trade with the 'rebelious province' by force".

The problem with that is that those ships leave from Taiwan’s east coast and the ryukyus with american military resources are in the way of China getting to the east coast of Taiwan (which is really another reason they want Taiwan along with developing some bases in the South China Sea, they are basically hemmed in with the current political arrangement).

The Epstein Distraction Act.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com