Just as the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group entered Caribbean waters on Tuesday, it's been revealed that the United Kingdom has made the unprecedented and provocative move of
cutting off intelligence-sharing with the United States related to suspected drug trafficking vessels off Venezuela.
CNN reports Tuesday that Britain cited that it
does not want to be complicit in ongoing US military strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats, as it
believes the action is illegal, amounting to extrajudicial killings, also after recent criticisms from United Nations officials. However, it is said to be a cut-off in only "some" intel-sharing.
This is of immense importance from one of America's closest allies - and part of the 'Five Eyes' intelligence sharing nations - which has
time and again enthusiastically joined in Washington's military adventurism abroad, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya and Syria.
The fresh report details the UK's prior role in assisting US agencies in the Caribbean, where Britain has small overseas
territories:
For years, the UK, which controls a number of territories in the Caribbean where it bases intelligence assets, has helped the US locate vessels suspected of carrying drugs so that the US Coast Guard could interdict them, the sources said. That meant the ships would be stopped, boarded, its crew detained, and drugs seized.
The intelligence was typically sent to Joint Interagency Task Force South, a task force stationed in Florida that includes representatives from a number of partner nations and works to reduce the illicit drug trade.
The report confirms that the intelligence has
actually been paused for over a month, which would have been soon after the Pentagon began attacking small boats off Latin America in September.
There is an irony in London suddenly discovering the moral high ground on the issue of Venezuela, given that for years the government has
frozen more than $1.8bn worth of Venezuelan gold stored at the Bank of England. The Maduro government has sued to get it back, denouncing the move as brazen theft.
It could be that UK leaders sense that Trump is serious about pressing regime change in Caracas, and doesn't want to be a direct part of it. Indeed the unprecedented numbers of US warships currently parked in SOUTHCOM waters does strongly point to imminent military action.
But clearly London is now saying it will sit on the sidelines on this particular military adventure in America's backyard. At this point some 76 alleged drug-smugglers have been killed, and 19 boats destroyed, in the Trump-ordered Pentagon action.
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