Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

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Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Trump warns of more U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil sector

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Energy Independence

Comments: 0

The United States is preparing to impose more sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, in an attempt to choke financing to President Nicolas Maduro's government.

"You will be seeing something on that in the not too distant future," Trump told a news conference in Delhi when asked if Washington would impose more sanctions on Venezuela or on Indian firms that buy Venezuelan oil from third parties after imposing sanctions on a trading unit of Russian oil giant Rosneft.

"There could be very serious sanctions," he said, without giving details. "You are going to see in a little while. You are asking a question right in the middle of us doing something."

The United States imposed sanctions last week on Rosneft Trading SA as it emerged as a key intermediary for the sale of Venezuelan oil.

India and China are the important buyers of Venezuelan oil, with India importing about 342,000 barrels per day for Venezuela in 2019, according to tanker data obtained by Reuters.

Reliance Industries Ltd, operator of the world's biggest refining complex, and Nayara Energy, part-owned by Rosneft, are the only Indian buyers of Venezuelan oil. The two firms had been purchasing Venezuelan oil from Rosneft.

U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams told Reuters on Monday that new sanctions against Venezuela's oil sector will be more aggressive in punishing people and companies that violate them.

Trump said Venezuela had been "wealthy 15 years ago and very wealthy 20 years ago, the wealthiest in all of Latin America."

"When you look today they don't have water, they don't have basic food, they have no medicines... We are watching Venezuela very closely. We don't like it, not at all," he said.

Since the latest sanctions were announced, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has shifted several oil cargoes from Rosneft Trading to TNK, another Rosneft affiliate, Reuters reported on Monday, citing internal PDVSA documents.

Rodent's units take Venezuelan oil as repayment for billions of dollars in loans extended to Venezuela in recent years. They also swap Venezuelan crude for imported fuel that the poverty-stricken South American country desperately needs.

Other firms taking Venezuelan oil as repayment of loans or late dividends - including U.S. oil major Chevron Corp and Spain's Repsol SA - have not been sanctioned by Washington.

Photo: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins FILE PHOTO: An oilfield worker walks next to drilling rigs at an oil well operated by Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, in the oil rich Orinoco belt, near Morichal at the state of Monagas

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