Pirates: Part Two

Kind of tangential, but assuming we want a thread about piracy in general...

I was listening to NPR and apparently the French stormed a yacht that was held by pirates, rescuing 4 of the 5 hostages, including a small boy. The 5th was the boys father who died along with 2 of the pirates. The pirates did not even ask for ransom, they simply steared the yacht towards the Somali coast.

Back on topic, do we not have diverse who can sneak up and breech the craft? with only four they probably have just one awake at some point in the night. I vote for sinking every vessel in the fleet that comes to get them.

Pretty tricky I would think. It's an enclosed lifeboat with the armed pirates in very, very close proximity to the hostage at all times.

It's my understanding he did try to make a break for it by jumping over board but the pirates apparently shot at or near him and forced him to swim back to them.

Between first giving himself over as a hostage and then trying to escape by swimming away in what would have to be shark filled waters, I would guess, he's a very, very brave man.

NO NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS EVEN IF THEY CALL THEMSELVES PIRATES! Surround them. Ram them. Sink them. Starve them. Hold them hostage. Once they give up KILL EVERY ONE OF THEM! This is the perfect opportunity put a stop to this.

Yeah, that is going to be a mess unless they can keep those boats away without causing harm to or harm coming to the foreign national hostages on board those pirate held ships.

If they bring the hostages into the theatre there may well be casualties, but it also brings them into a place where a resue attempt can be attempted without invading a nation. It also affords the opportunity to bring this piracy to an end. Say a prayer and bring 'em hell.

Being former Coast Guard I understand that it is very risky and you are extremely vulnerable going over the side of a ship especially when the people are armed and have hostages. Once they have hostages they have a real advantage over us no matter how much firepower they may have. But what about this life boat? Does anyone know what the provisions are onboard. I have been on numerous ships with these but have know clue about food and water. If they could wait them out that way I don't think they would harm their only leverage. Just a thought.

By the way sorry I posted my website on here I see now its against the rules.

S.B.

What *really* really, frosts my balls about this issue is that this has been an problem for some time. It has increasingly going from bad to worse.
However, in the escalation of it, we rarely heard about it in the general media. If and when we did, it was 2nd or 3rd string news via the TV, or in print. Obviously, those in the marine industry and such hear of it first hand, because it's near and dear to us.

Now that there is an American Captain at stake, it's blasted across every news charter's headline as the front line / first string story. All of a sudden, because we have an American who is a hostage, it becomes a frenzy with the attention it so deserves.

Where the hell were all you media junkies (CNN, BBCA, MSN, MSNBC, ABC, etc.) when it was a Philippine, S. African, Chinese, or English Captain?

Because it's an American, it's news?
This really ticks me off to no end.

I can only hope that the Captain, (in this case, and in every other that will come in the future) is safe, well, released, and the pirates are shot dead and left for the sharks.

I heard before that they have supplied the life raft with food and water. I think that's called a carrot. The sticks are arriving by the hour.

The U.S. is big, does things in a big way and it makes big news. For the past 8 years that hasn't been such a great thing. I think most Americans would much prefer to use that celebrity to help. In the mean time hats off to the French. I just heard they rescued (by force) another private yacht that was taken. Being a pirate is getting to be not such a great career choice.

This stuff really gets my goat, but I'll mellow for ya.

Imagine if the captain wasn't being held hostage...

THERE WOULD BE A SHOOTING GALLERY/TURKEY SHOOT FOR THE US NAVY!!!

Just think - the entire pirate flotilla of Somalia versus 3 destroyers, a cruiser, and an aircraft carrier.

Kill ratio (10,000:0)

Boat ratio (hundreds of downed skiffs versus a rope tangled around the prop of the Abraham Lincoln)

Hopefully now that the U.S. is alerted to whats going on over there we can do everything we can to protect not just the American captain, but the everyother person in trouble over there now and in the future. The French have got it right, we all know that the pirates can not hold their own against a few commandos. Hopefully the SEALS get their chance because like PropBet said this has been going on way too long, I would love to see this ended quickly, safely for the hostages and permanantly for the pirates.

Dan

I agree this has been going on for too long, but the ships owners with the ships the pirates have taken have a lot at stake. The ship, the cargo, and the crew, therefore they pay the bribe which makes the pirates more powerful and more aggressive. It's a tough situation

In this situation we should hold fast and not give in to their demands. We should also take a zero tolerance policy with this and capture and sink any boat the pirates have, if we can without harming the crew. Also, I don't understand with our technology how we can't decipher the hostage boats from fishing boats with satellite imaging and such. We should be able to detect or see weapons in their open skiffs, long before they arrive at a ship and take them out of the water. The one thing I can't understand is how the crew allows them to board. Do you know how high most of these freightors decks are above the water and that without a rope ladder, they'd be impossible to board from a fishing skiff. I know the hostages have RPG's, but I don't think an RPG would sink most freightors. It might cause a good amount of damage, but not actually sink it. We should employ soldiers on a large amount of ships with good weapons and basically sink the pirates when they attempt to attack.

The French managed to get one hostage killed. Or killed one. (The facts have not all come out yet.)

The American forces in this case can't afford that kind of "success" ratio.

As to the use of spy satellites, I'm not sure if any are in geosynchronous orbits. If they aren't you can't be "seeing" one area all the time I would think. Not to mention cloud cover and such. That's why the have all those drone observation planes. Plus I'm not sure if they send back real time video or just high res. stills.

Anybody know for a fact what they can do and in what time frame?

As to how they get aboard, from what I've read they board with ladders and grappling hooks on climbing ropes.

As to arming all ships, bare in mind, petroleum tankers and gun fire don't mix very well from what I've been told. Plus the cost involved to the shipping companies. Not to mention international shipping laws that prevent merchant ships from being turned into armed warships. There is also the UN Law of the Sea Convention to deal with.

Real life is rarely like a TV show or movie.

I just saw a TV documentary with a French team visiting the Somali hometowns and ports of the pirates. What the authorities are saying is that never pay them, or they will continue. The pirates say that our fishing fleets have taken out their fish so they are using their boats for piracy now. Just imagine what two million dollars can buy you compared to next to nothing.

When a French navy ship was inspecting a typical piracy setup of a mothership and a few smaller boats, they found no weapons, but also said that sometimes they have weapons for self defence, so it is only if they will find heavy weapons that they can do something about it.

What is clear is that the local police have very little to put up against the pirates, they would need a fleet of fast boats to chase them they say and the pirates are very well organized, perhaps with just one leader...

Remember that this country is out of a powerful government since many years.