Follow The Watchman's Post on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-watchmans-post/id6797946719On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0341mgjXKRUnbuyiTR9zFVIf this series has earned it, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts is the most useful thing a listener can do for this work. It is how the watch gets found.Start free — five briefings and the chokepoint map: https://www.eliasmaren.com/freeKHARG ISLAND: THE WATCH BEGINS — The Aegis Directive, Book Seven. Out Tuesday, November 11.Watchman Edition, $10.99 pre-order ($14.99 after launch): https://www.eliasmaren.com/kharg-islandRead Chapter One, "The Empty Berth": https://www.eliasmaren.com/kharg-island/chapter-oneTHE COMPLETE WATCHMAN LIBRARY — all 21 audiobooks, five series, about 62 hours, $79.99: https://www.eliasmaren.com/audiobooks/complete-watchman-libraryNine days, nine principles. Day Seven: the toll was ruled unlawful, and nobody asked who would be paying it.Day seven of nine. PRINCIPLE SEVEN: No administrative correction may ignore lawful civilian dependencies.This is the episode where the institutions do their job properly and it still is not enough.The Revolutionary Guard is reportedly charging two million dollars a transit on routes it designates. And something good happened. In July the International Maritime Organization's Council formally insisted that any Iran–Oman arrangement over the Strait keep passage non-discriminatory and free of tolls. The June Islamabad memorandum had to contain an express provision for temporarily toll-free passage. Michael Schmitt's analysis is precise on the law: charges imposed merely because of passage are prohibited, and charges tied to cargo value rather than services rendered exceed what a coastal state is even competent to levy.The Film Room grades Hormuz: The Strait That Powers The World CONFIRMED — and names a fifty-year blind spot. The book argued the strait has no substitute, and Schmitt's analysis contains that very clause as a condition of law. But the book was written entirely out of barrels, and the binding constraint this year has been eight hundred to a thousand ships that cannot get out. A pipe that gets blocked is an economic story. A door that gets locked with people inside is a different story.The Ledger Line: port tariffs are public and itemised to the cent, everywhere on earth. There is no published schedule anywhere of what any of it costs a crew. And the blank column turns out to be a map of who was in the room.Plus Matthew 23:4, where "heavy burdens" is phortia barea — a shipping word, meaning freight — and the charge is not cruelty but never touching the load.And a note on authorship: Coach did not write Principle Seven.CHAPTERS(00:00) Did anybody ask who pays(01:55) Day seven of nine(02:30) The new fee(06:10) The dossier: the chain(10:40) The empty chair(12:20) Clyde's Question(14:30) The Film Room: Hormuz(15:50) The Ledger Line(16:40) One More Thing: Matthew 23(17:40) Anchor: Principle SevenAUDIOBOOK SHORTCUTSStart here for this run:HORMUZ: THE STRAIT THAT POWERS THE WORLD - Nations in the Valley. The chokepoint itself, 1 hr 52 min.THE TEHRAN TOLL BOOTH - Global Chokepoints Series. How Iran monetizes the passage, 1 hr 53 min.SHADOW AXIS - The IRGC and the Houthis in the Red Sea War, 1 hr 28 min.THE COMPLETE WATCHMAN LIBRARY - all 21 audiobooks, five series, about 62 hours, $79.99:https://www.eliasmaren.com/audiobooks/complete-watchman-libraryThe Maren Brief — the companion brief, The Toll On The Crew, free, no paywall:https://marenbrief.substack.comThe Watchman documents. The listener concludes.Verify before testify.