Somali pirates seize another ship

[seemslikeadream]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/11/200811190427825729.htmlS

Somali pirates strike again


Somali pirates have struck again in the Gulf of Aden, hijacking another ship a day after seizing a Saudi oil supertanker with a cargo worth $100m.

The Delight, a Hong Kong-registered vessel carrying 33,000 tonnes of wheat, was sailing to Iran with 25 crew members when it was seized, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said.

A spokesman for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Gulf confirmed on Tuesday that the Delight had been hijacked.

A Hong Kong government spokesman said "this could be a serious matter for us. We will deal with it".

Saudi tanker anchored

News of the latest hijack came as the hijackers of the Saudi Sirius Star – the biggest vessel ever hijacked – anchored the vessel off Somalia.

Related link

'Toxic waste' behind Somali piracy


The vessel was seized in the Indian ocean off East Africa on Sunday in the boldest attack by pirates operating from lawless Somalia.

"We can confirm the ship is anchoring off the Somali coast at Haradheere," Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet, said on Tuesday.

Haradheere is situated roughly in the centre of Somalia's coastline.

The supertanker had been heading for the US via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, instead of heading through the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.

The hijacking occurred despite an international naval response, including from the Nato alliance and European Union, to protect one of the world's busiest shipping areas.

[MidwestTransplant]

1. Those guys are idiots. First rule is don't mess with oil. Just ask Saddam.

[NorCalDem]

14. LOL, so true, so true...

I am intrigued by the pirate stories however. I wonder if any of them have cool nick-names like "Blackbeard" and wear eye patches or anything. Seriously, what person didn't love pirates as a child. They're crazy people, and I doubt the retirement package is good, but they definitely make for an interesting story....

[Mike Daniels]

36. Crazy people who gave their captives two choices

Join with us or die.

Granted, probably the only reason there hasn't been a full-on "wipe from the face of the earth" campaign against this group is because they're going the Barbary method of capture and ransom.

[NMDemDist2]

2. why don't we get a coalition of ships and go clean out this nest of vipers? n/t

[ben_meyers]

6. Shouldn't we talk with them first and see what their

grievances are. Must we always resort to violence? I'm sure they can be reasoned with.

[NMDemDist2]

7. reason and a $10million payoff. n/t

[TheWraith]

19. Their grievances are they want to be rich. That's pretty much it.

This isn't a protest, it's a profit enterprise.

[123infinity]

32. That's probably a good example of when the sarcasm smiley really -is- needed.

:-)

[Mike Daniels]

37. Pirates don't have grievances...they're thieves out for profit

[Alamuti Lotus]

10. There already is one

And that isn't working so well, and will continue not doing anything about the situation. These pirates took the ship almost 500 nautical miles out to sea! -- how can such a vast space be watched? Had the "international community" not created this situation in the first place by taking advantage of a weakened people, this would not be happening to such a degree.

However, after this latest puppet provisional warlord gov't falls in Muqdisho, and the US-backed Ethiopian occupation army along with it, al-Shabaab (Somali Islamic resistance) will likely advance north and clear out Puntland region--which is the current home of the "nest of vipers", in the same way that Kismayo and Muqdisho bases were neutralized and now quiet.

Alternative scenario is that the Somaliland and Puntland separatist regimes may demand international recognition in exchange for dealing with the gangs on their coast. This would be probably more palatable to the proud coalition of imperialist powers.

[NorCalDem]

15. #1 reason - MONEY

Do you want to pay to police the thousands and thousands and thousands of square miles of the open ocean? That shit's expensive.

[Romulox]

27. Because there are hundreds of other countries in the world? Time for someone else to lead.

[varun]

31. Indian navy sinks suspected pirate 'mother ship'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_af/piracy

NEW DELHI – An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said Wednesday, as separate bands of brigands seized Thai and Iranian ships in the lawless seas.

A multinational naval force has increased patrols in the waters between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, where pirates have grown bolder and more violent. The force scored a rare success Tuesday when the Indian warship, operating off the coast of Oman, stopped a ship similar to a pirate vessel described in numerous bulletins. The Indian navy said the pirates fired on the INS Tabar after the officers asked to search it.

"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers," said a statement from the Indian navy. Indian forces fired back, sparking fires and a series of onboard blasts — possibly due to exploding ammunition — and destroying the ship.

They chased one of two speedboats shadowing the larger ship. One was later found abandoned. The other escaped, according to the statement...

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. Looks like the terrorists are winning

I'm just sayin'

[Warpy]

4. They're starting to piss off a lot of the wrong people

around the globe. If the UN doesn't get involved in this mess, I think there will probably be a coalition of countries in the region going in to topple the warlords and remove their source of income: piracy.

In the meantime, as we withdraw from Iraq, I can see the Navy escorting tankers through the region in the short term.

[Interceptor7]

5. not smart pissing off China

and messing with oil headed for the U.S. is going to put them at the top of our shit list pretty damn quick.
I agree the U.S. Navy will be paying very close attention to shipping lanes and probably paying said pirates a visit soon, if the Chinese don't rip them a new one first.

[marshall]

33. I just hope the US stays OUT of it.

Let the rest of the world handle the pirate mess.

[1]

8. why don't we get a coalition of pirates go seize a bunch of oil tankers?

then the u.s. navy could escort them to u.s. refineries.

our official government response could be "what tankers?"

:rofl:

[flvegan]

9. Are we going to see more ships departing with military aboard?

Seems to me, it would be cheaper to have 10 trained military with weapons aboard each ship rather than paying a $10 million ransom here and there.

Plus, a few dozen dead pirates...maybe that job becomes tougher to fill.

[Alamuti Lotus]

11. That's not allowed

The powers that made all of these international laws (and sometimes even follow them) were kind enough to add provisos against military personnel on merchant ships. Basically, the presence of the military MAKES them a valid target and blurs the lines between commerce and military and it makes the passage of (what becomes) military vessals through other national waters dicey.

[flvegan]

12. I should have said "militia"

meaning not military, but "protective services".

[Alamuti Lotus]

13. Still, that blurs the lines

All merchant vessals would become suspect when passing through national waters. Good idea, I suppose, but it doesn't fit with international commercial conventions.

[NorCalDem]

17. Wow Alamuti

you have had some very astute observations in this thread! and with a star and only 67 posts and definitely would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to DU!

Anyway, back on topic, could the private merchants hire private security to be on board with them? In essence give the crew training and weapons? Obviously the presence of the army blurs the lines between navy/merchant, but i wonder about private security. I actually think i read that someone suggested the shipping companies hire private patrols. If so, say hello to expensive gas again cause oil companies will have another excuse to gouge the consumer, e.g. "we have to pay to police our shipping lanes."

[bridgit]

40. True, particularly true in a civilized commercial setting. Blame it on the Bush's Doctrine...

of flouting civilized settings in general I suppose; but doesn't this sort of activity encourage at least para-military, Blackwater-esque responses? Isn't it a matter of time before decoys are sent forward drawing these individuals out to engage once again on the high seas? Predator drones w/hellfire missiles circling high-risk straits & passages?

For the moment, Somali pirates would seem to be receiving Robin Hood Awards from Somali' and others that may not have thought much beyond the edges. And while they may have opened it all by themselves; in this point & click/eye in the sky world I think they've opened a can of worms they'll have a hard time closing on their own.

[Romulox]

29. They're allowed to have private security. nt

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

16. These are not the pirates of myth and romance, wearing eye-patches,

drinking rum and saying "Arrr, matey." These are a bunch of assholes who are soon going to be looking down the barrel of some very heavy Naval gunnery. Kalashnikovs ain't gonna cut it against the US or British Navy.

[NorCalDem]

18. To be fair...

the mythical pirates of lore were, at their time, basically a bunch of assholes who were tempting the best guns of the british and spanish navies.

And we remember them so fondly... :D

[Dorian Gray]

26. Piracy never went away

When I student taught, i had a bunch of kids who were refugees from Vietnam. They had spent years in the Phillippines and Hong Kong refugee camps, and many of their ships had been boarded and raided by pirates in the South China Sea. They were robbed of everything, and often the women were raped and the men killed. Very horrible.

It's shocking to think that piracy still exists in today's modern world.

[Mike Daniels]

41. The pirates of myth and romance were pretty much vicious thugs as well

who raped and sold their female captives and gave males captives a "join us or die" ultimatum.

Robert Louis Stevenson and Hollywood are pretty much exclusively responsible for the "glamorous pirate life".

[Ichingcarpenter]

20. Good thing the fleet is off of Iran

to protect shit!

[Alamuti Lotus]

21. ......and yet another

a friend of mine in Kismayo just emailed me that another ship was taken, a Thai fishing boat. In addition, she heard on the radio that an Indian navy ship fought off what is referred to as a "mother ship" (heavily armed off-shore base for the more mobile speedboats/etc) off Oman.

In reference to the first, the foreign fishing operations are a serious issue, for they are essentially taking advantage of the weak government to illegally plunder the waters of a starving nation -- not a popular bunch of 'tourists' with people there.

[Alamuti Lotus]

22. found a link for these

Indian navy says it fought off pirate ship

NEW DELHI – An Indian warship dedicated to fighting pirates along Somalia's coast destroyed a ship that had opened fire in an attempted attack in the Gulf of Aden, the navy said Wednesday.

The attack late Tuesday came the same day that pirates hijacked a Thai ship and an Iranian bulk cargo carrier off the coast, the navy said in a statement. It came three days after pirates seized a towering Saudi supertanker.

The INS Tabar, which is patrolling Somalia's coast for buccaneers, approached the ship 285 nautical miles southwest off Salalah, Oman, and asked it to stop to be searched, according to the navy statement.

The vessel appeared to be a "mother vessel" loaded with food, diesel and water and had two speed boats in tow. Naval officers could see men roaming the ship's deck with rocket propelled grenade launchers and guns, the statement said.

Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said he was not aware of the Indian navy's claim.

The incident marks the third attack that the INS Tabar has fended off since it began its anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden on Nov. 2. Naval commandos flying in a helicopter foiled an attempt to hijack an Indian merchant ship on Nov. 11.

Raiders hijacked a Thai ship with 16 crew members on Tuesday, the same day a major Norwegian shipping group ordered its tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal because pirates had seized the Saudi supertanker.

[KillCapitalism]

23. The Pirates need to be stamped out.

Any nation that has a navy should send any war vessels to that area and patrol the waters. This is getting out of hand. What if these pirates hijack a battleship, aircraft carrier, or a nuclear sub? If they got ahold of some real weapons like that, it would be very bad.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

24. The burp guns and Kalshnikovs that modern pirates pack

would not fare well against the major league munitions of a modern navy such as the US' or Britain's. The pirates would be sent to Davy Jones' Locker by the first salvo of big guns or computer guided missiles like AEGIS. There wouldn't be enough left for the sea buzzards to get a snack off of.

[exboyfil]

25. Trade deficit and the U.S. Navy

I have always wondered why we are the ones who spend the big dollars on a Navy to protect shipping lanes so that stuff can get to the U.S. and fuel our $800B trade deficit. It seems like the net exporters should be the ones footing the bill.

As we move more to spending more time with regional concerns, I hope we can scale back on being in other countries' regional domains.

Since one of President Elect Obama's first priorities is energy independence (I would go with merely a regional independence at first), hopefully we can disengage from Middle Eastern concerns pretty quickly (perhaps in the next 4 to 8 years???). We finish up in Iraq and Afghanistan, take Israel off the table (let them know it is time for them to figure out a way to get along with their neighbors) and come up with an alternative source of energy at an equivalent of even $100/barrel, then I see no reason for the U.S. military to even be in the Middle East.

[Romulox]

30. Wish I could rec a response! "It seems like the net exporters should be the ones footing the bill."

[lonestarnot]

28. Oh boy a free- for-all. Are capt. Jack Sparro and Capt. Morgan aboard?

[greguganus]

34. A Hong Kong government spokesman said "this could be a serious matter for us. We will deal with it".

Sounds like Hong Kong is gonna go Jackie Chan on their asses.

[comtec]

35. pffft

honk kong is the center of half the world's black market.
I seriously doubt anything will be done.
but it'll be interesting... how would china's military response be regarded?

[dorkulon]

38. What arrrrrrr we coming to?

These pirates arrrrrrrr crazy.

[NeedleCast]

39. Sunk a Pirate "mother ship" today it looks like

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_bi_ge/piracy

[bridgit]

42. "Argh, we're Piracy!! The only growth industry actually going for broke!"