1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:04,560
Speaker 1: Boston's Bulldozer operates seven days a week. The Kuoner Report

2
00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:08,039
Speaker 1: weekend edition WRKO, The Voice of Boston.

3
00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:18,320
Speaker 2: Oh mate, good morning, Cooner contrary. Okay, my friends. Yesterday

4
00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:23,400
Speaker 2: President Trump in a very dramatic announcement, and then this

5
00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:26,760
Speaker 2: was followed up by the release of the unclassified video

6
00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:31,080
Speaker 2: footage announced to the United States and to the world

7
00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:36,640
Speaker 2: that the US Coast Guard, backed by the US Navy,

8
00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:44,400
Speaker 2: Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, seized a massive, large

9
00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:51,360
Speaker 2: Venezuelan oil tanker right off the coast of Venezuela. And

10
00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:54,680
Speaker 2: apparently what we're getting information now, it's been coming out

11
00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:59,920
Speaker 2: in little driblets, but there was a seizure warrant issued

12
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:04,240
Speaker 2: by a judge several weeks ago. So I guess they

13
00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:06,520
Speaker 2: knew this tanker was going to be on the move

14
00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:12,319
Speaker 2: to seize this tanker, which is exactly what they did.

15
00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:17,160
Speaker 2: And the reason why they decided to seize the tanker

16
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:21,640
Speaker 2: is because this is a tanker that has been under

17
00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:27,760
Speaker 2: US sanctions for many, many years. It is a tanker

18
00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:36,560
Speaker 2: that has been shipping elicit either Venezuelan oil or Iranian oil.

19
00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:40,440
Speaker 2: It is so sometimes it flies under the Venezuelan flag.

20
00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:44,399
Speaker 2: Other times it flies under the Iranian flag. But it

21
00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,480
Speaker 2: is a Venezuelan tanker and it has been known to

22
00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:55,440
Speaker 2: ship oil, sanctioned oil, illegal oil from Venezuela, usually to

23
00:01:55,520 --> 00:02:04,120
Speaker 2: communists China or to Hezbollah and terrorist organizations based in Iran.

24
00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:08,320
Speaker 2: And so this is a tanker that they have wanted

25
00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:13,359
Speaker 2: to get for a very very long time. The troops

26
00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:18,520
Speaker 2: executed almost a perfect maneuver. As you know, tensions are

27
00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:23,720
Speaker 2: running very high with the Venezuelan government, the authoritarian strongman

28
00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,600
Speaker 2: Maduro has put his country now on a war footing.

29
00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:33,240
Speaker 2: He is anticipating a potential US invasion or even regime change,

30
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:40,040
Speaker 2: missile strikes, ground strikes, land strikes, and so tensions now

31
00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:44,360
Speaker 2: are almost at a boiling point. Maduro, in the wake

32
00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:48,520
Speaker 2: of the seizure of the oil tanker, has said this

33
00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:53,440
Speaker 2: is piracy on the high seas, and he now vows

34
00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:57,600
Speaker 2: that he will quote unquote break the teeth of the

35
00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 2: North American Empire, meaning the United States, and that there

36
00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:06,920
Speaker 2: will be revenge for what President Trump did here. The

37
00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:12,359
Speaker 2: Democrats are going ballistic. The media is going ballistic, saying

38
00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:17,720
Speaker 2: that Donald Trump is now the akin akin to Jack Sparrow.

39
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,919
Speaker 2: If you've seen Pirates of the Caribbean starring Johnny Depp.

40
00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:26,360
Speaker 2: They're now claiming that he is a modern day pirate.

41
00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:27,359
Speaker 1: He is.

42
00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:34,120
Speaker 2: Someone now who is violating the law, flouting the law,

43
00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:40,200
Speaker 2: going on the high seas, seizing boats, murdering people like

44
00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,640
Speaker 2: a modern day Blackbeard. Or the meme they keep using

45
00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:49,800
Speaker 2: is on social media in particular, is the Johnny Depp

46
00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:54,600
Speaker 2: character Jack Sparrow in that movie franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean,

47
00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:59,640
Speaker 2: And so he's now being accused of piracy, of lawlessness,

48
00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:06,160
Speaker 2: of gangsterism, and of violating international law. President Trump yesterday

49
00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:11,560
Speaker 2: told the stun Press Corps, we have now seized one

50
00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:16,279
Speaker 2: of the biggest oil tankers ever off the coast of

51
00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:20,200
Speaker 2: Venezuela roll cut one a mic.

52
00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:28,320
Speaker 3: Been an interesting day from the same point of news.

53
00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:34,839
Speaker 3: As you probably know, We've just seized a tanker on

54
00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:40,360
Speaker 3: the coast of Venezuela large tanker, very large, largest one

55
00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:43,080
Speaker 3: ever sees actually, and.

56
00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:44,760
Speaker 4: Other things are happening.

57
00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,920
Speaker 3: So you'll be seeing that later and you'll be talking

58
00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:49,560
Speaker 3: about that later with some other people.

59
00:04:50,839 --> 00:04:52,760
Speaker 2: So in other words, he's saying, look, they're going to

60
00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:58,480
Speaker 2: give you all the reasons, the legal the sort of

61
00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:02,160
Speaker 2: the legal foundation for why this operation was carried out

62
00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:08,360
Speaker 2: and the national security geopolitical necessity of doing this. Clearly,

63
00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:13,160
Speaker 2: it's to disrupt now both Venezuela and Iron from being

64
00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:17,520
Speaker 2: able to on the black market illicitly ship oil which

65
00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:22,320
Speaker 2: is sanctioned, it's illegal to apparently China, and there are

66
00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:26,880
Speaker 2: some very there are rogue energy brokers in Asia that

67
00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:30,560
Speaker 2: they sell I guess at below market price. They buy

68
00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,560
Speaker 2: and then they resell at a higher price. Anyway, apparently

69
00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:37,920
Speaker 2: that's where this oil was apparently going. It was going

70
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:44,320
Speaker 2: to go, apparently from Venezuela carrying Venezuelan oil to someplace

71
00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:48,040
Speaker 2: in China or around China to some of these rogue

72
00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:51,400
Speaker 2: energy brokers who were going to buy it. I'm just

73
00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,159
Speaker 2: making up a figure. You buy for forty five or

74
00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,600
Speaker 2: fifty bucks a barrel, and you sell it for like

75
00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:00,520
Speaker 2: say seventy or seventy five bucks a barrel or whatever

76
00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:04,600
Speaker 2: it's going now on the world market. So Trump said, no,

77
00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,880
Speaker 2: we're putting the squeeze into Maduro. We had our site

78
00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:12,720
Speaker 2: set on this tanker for a while. It has been

79
00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:17,800
Speaker 2: a sanctioned tanker carrying illicit, illegal oil. We saw our chance,

80
00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,839
Speaker 2: We made our move Listen now to the president going

81
00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:25,680
Speaker 2: back and forth with the reporter, and the reporters asking now,

82
00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:31,880
Speaker 2: why why would you do this? This is almost never done,

83
00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:38,120
Speaker 2: and the implication is that this smacks of piracy. This

84
00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:41,360
Speaker 2: is almost like the eighteenth century or the seventeenth century,

85
00:06:41,839 --> 00:06:45,919
Speaker 2: where we're just seizing boats. Now, roll cut one a

86
00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:47,320
Speaker 2: a mic.

87
00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,039
Speaker 3: Thank you. I explained a little more about this beans oil.

88
00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:56,159
Speaker 4: And oil tanker, and well, I let the people do it.

89
00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:58,600
Speaker 4: But you see the result, and I guess they probably

90
00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:04,000
Speaker 4: have released the picture now pretty soon. You'll discuss that

91
00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:07,640
Speaker 4: with the appropriate people later on. But no, it received

92
00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:08,640
Speaker 4: for very good reason.

93
00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:12,560
Speaker 2: So what he's basically saying is, look, we'll give you

94
00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,400
Speaker 2: all the reasons. I pretty much gave him to you.

95
00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:19,320
Speaker 2: But his argument is we're not going to be you know, suddenly,

96
00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:21,400
Speaker 2: We're not just going to start seizing boats off the

97
00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:25,880
Speaker 2: high seas. This was a large tanker that carried a

98
00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:28,720
Speaker 2: ton of oil. It had been doing this for years.

99
00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:34,360
Speaker 2: This was illegal oil, sanctioned oil, both from Venezuela and Iran.

100
00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:38,040
Speaker 2: There's in nexus now between those two regimes and has

101
00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:42,600
Speaker 2: been for a while. Hezbolah has been operating ourselves of

102
00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:48,240
Speaker 2: Hesbola operating within Venezuela, and they're helping to facilitate this

103
00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:52,000
Speaker 2: illegal oil that they're shipping primarily, as I said, to

104
00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:56,720
Speaker 2: either North Korea or China across the high seas. And

105
00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:00,600
Speaker 2: now Trump said enough, he got a judge to give

106
00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:04,240
Speaker 2: them a seizure warrant, and his navy and Coastguard made

107
00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:10,560
Speaker 2: their move. Listen now to President Trump asked by your reporter, well, okay,

108
00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,480
Speaker 2: what happens to the oil and what happens to the ship,

109
00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:19,600
Speaker 2: And as President said, President Trump said, well, we're definitely

110
00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:23,040
Speaker 2: keeping the oil. That's for sure. We're seizing all of

111
00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:23,600
Speaker 2: that oil.

112
00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:24,800
Speaker 3: The ship.

113
00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:34,000
Speaker 2: We shall see world cut one B a mic before

114
00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:34,480
Speaker 2: we keep it.

115
00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:35,239
Speaker 4: I guess.

116
00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,040
Speaker 3: When you have to follow the tanker, you know, here

117
00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,640
Speaker 3: a good news, but just follow the tanker, follow it.

118
00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:47,040
Speaker 3: Get a helicopter and follow the tanker. But we're going

119
00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:48,319
Speaker 3: to I assume we're going.

120
00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,720
Speaker 2: To keep the So we're just we're keeping the oil.

121
00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:57,800
Speaker 2: So look, my position on this is very clear. Uh

122
00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:03,280
Speaker 2: to me, it's about time we start to enforce our

123
00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:08,280
Speaker 2: sanctions against the Maduro regime. Trump is now clearly putting

124
00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:12,199
Speaker 2: the screws into Maduro. Look, if they can't sell their

125
00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:16,439
Speaker 2: oil on the international black market. If their tankers are

126
00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:19,920
Speaker 2: gonna get seized, then there's gonna be no money left

127
00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:23,520
Speaker 2: to finance that regime. Trump now is you know, he's

128
00:09:23,559 --> 00:09:27,120
Speaker 2: just tightening the screws and tightening the screws and tightening

129
00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:30,720
Speaker 2: the screws, and so do I think this is the

130
00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:34,840
Speaker 2: action of a pirate. Absolutely not. I think this shows

131
00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,760
Speaker 2: that he is serious about reasserting American dominance in the

132
00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:43,360
Speaker 2: Western hemisphere and about letting Maduro now know that we

133
00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:46,760
Speaker 2: are going to put maximum pressure on his regime for

134
00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:52,680
Speaker 2: him to step down and stop his narco terrorism that

135
00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:56,800
Speaker 2: has been killing tens and tens of thousands of Americans

136
00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:01,960
Speaker 2: here in the United States. And so you run sanctioned oil,

137
00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:06,280
Speaker 2: you run illegal oil, you're part of an illicit, illegal

138
00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:12,520
Speaker 2: shipping network. Those days of Joe Biden are over. We're

139
00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:17,520
Speaker 2: gonna enforce these sanctions and we're gonna target these oil tankers. Now.

140
00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:22,160
Speaker 2: If the oil revenue drives up, then Maduro's finished. I

141
00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,040
Speaker 2: mean he's really finished. Yes, he's got drug money coming in,

142
00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:29,320
Speaker 2: but you can't finance a country on drug money. You

143
00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,080
Speaker 2: can line your own pockets as he has, and that

144
00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:36,679
Speaker 2: of his cronies yes, with their villas and their homes,

145
00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:41,120
Speaker 2: and their yachts and their boats and their cars. But

146
00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:45,320
Speaker 2: you can't pay the salaries of the military, the police.

147
00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:50,319
Speaker 2: So they are squeezing him and squeezing him and squeezing him.

148
00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:56,920
Speaker 2: Now the Democrats are up up in arms saying that

149
00:10:57,040 --> 00:10:59,920
Speaker 2: this was illegal, this is the act of a bus,

150
00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,560
Speaker 2: that Trump is now a modern day pirate. My question

151
00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:10,280
Speaker 2: to you, is Trump now a modern day Jack Sparrow,

152
00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:15,439
Speaker 2: a modern day Blackbeard? And do you support a decision

153
00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:19,240
Speaker 2: to seize the oil and the tanker or not to

154
00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:20,959
Speaker 2: seize the oil and the tanker?

155
00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:27,840
Speaker 1: You're locked into Boston's bulldozer. The Kooner Report weekend edition,

156
00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:30,320
Speaker 1: The Voice of Boston WRKO