The D Brief: US hits 70 ISIS targets; Another tanker seized; Army seeks common C-UAS controller; More firms cleared for Golden Dome work; And a bit more.
Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston | December 22, 2025
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Developing: U.S. Coast Guard chases third oil tanker with alleged ties to Venezuela. The vessel was reportedly fleeing the Caribbean Sea on Sunday carrying oil from Venezuela as the U.S. Coast Guard worked to intercept it, U.S. officials told multiple media outlets, including Associated Press, CBS News, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. U.S. Coasties seized their first tanker with alleged Venezuelan ties on December 10.
U.S. forces seized their second tanker on Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on social media along with a more than seven-minute video of the interception. “It was a falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said on social media. That crude oil tanker is called Centuries and it travelled with the Panama flag when it was reportedly intercepted east of Barbados.
Venezuelan officials called the U.S. interception a “serious act of international piracy,” and accused the U.S. military of “the forced disappearance of its crew,” Reuters reported.
Also worth noting: The vessel has allegedly not been sanctioned by the U.S., according to Jeremy Paner of the law firm Hughes Hubbard and a former investigator at the Office of Foreign Assets Control. If true, that “runs counter to Trump’s statement that the U.S. would impose a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers,” Paner told Reuters.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/12/the-d-brief-december-22-2025/410342/?oref=d1-homepage-river
