Pirates: Part Two

Well I feel sorry for him. Hopefully he can find training in other employment as chum or join his friend over here in a double wedding.

Would any one like to venture a guess about what is going on here ?
What with two apparent boardings and the mystery cargo ?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/missing_ship

Leaves you kind of wondering if the Cap could be pirating his own ship.

It doesn't look like the pirates are getting any smarter:

http://tinyurl.com/yd9mxfk

Not the brightest bulbs in the shop.

I think they used up all their electricty a long time ago.

It is too bad they didn't mistake a Russian military ship ... I don't think we would have even heard about this.

These militarys really have to stop wasting all this fuel chasing these guys. Bullets are faster, cheaper and have a much better deterrent effect.

I saw a documentary on National Geographic yesterday on the Pirate attack on the "Maersk Alabama" container ship, it was interesting, quite some sensationaliszation as well but worth a watch.

Hi,

Here are a couple of things I came across on the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8274030.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8303957.stm

Looks like they have mistaken it for a Canadian ship, hoping for immediate; landed refugee status, free housing & medical, and the ability of having their extended pirate family immigrate once they were established in their new government jobs.

I think yu made a few mistakes in your text, please see below.

Looks like they have mistaken it for a New Zealand ship, hoping for immediate; landed refugee status, free housing & medical, and the ability of having their extended pirate family immigrate once they were established in their new government jobs.[/QUOTE] with large cash compensation payments if this is delayed in any shape or form including the original applicants non suitability to arrive in the first place.


Sorry for my NON PC Rant Mods

This is a little out of date but I see it was not mentioned here:

Teen Somali piracy suspect appears in NY court
By LARRY NEUMEISTER (AP) – Sep 17, 2009

NEW YORK — The prosecution of a Somali teenager accused of leading a pirate attack on an American cargo ship off the coast of Africa was taken off the fast track Thursday after a lawyer said more time will be needed to translate some Somali recordings into English.

Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where he was brought after his arrest aboard the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama in April.

Authorities say Muse was the only surviving pirate of a group that he led in an attack off the coast of Africa on the cargo ship, which was carrying humanitarian supplies.

During a three-minute hearing before U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, Muse listened through earphones as a translator relayed the words of lawyers who reached agreement to delay further court proceedings in the case until Jan. 12.

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How come this guy is called a "piracy suspect" and "teenager" rather than "surviving pirate" or "terrorist?" Every other gun toting adult or child threatening us in the world is rightly called a terrorist and either shot or sent to Guantanamo or some other hell-hole if captured but this waste of oxygen will probably get an apology and a full ride scholarship at Fort Schuyler or Kings Point.


Defense attorneys are saying he is just a poor fisher boy who go mixed up with a bad crowd. Yeah, and led them on a pirating expedition. They should call off this legal charade before we waste a few more million. I think they should let him go. Take him back to where they found him and drop him off .... from the door of a helicopter.

I'd rather see that he [pirate] was referred to in the obituary section of the local print a few days following the event.

Wishful thinking?

Waste of ink.

No argument there.

Hi,

The Piracy Season seems to be underway again....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091019/wl_afp/somaliapiracyshippingchinaeu

Piracy Season

Hi K1W1 -

Are you referring to the milk run yachts returning to Antigua?

Hi,

That's a different kind of Piracy.

Hi,

Here is another one.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/8327416.stm

The Alabama is again the wrong ship for pirates

Pirates again attack US-flagged Maersk Alabama
11/18/2009 4:14:32 AM
By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press Writer
Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama for the second time in seven months on Wednesday, but guards on board the U.S.-flagged cargo ship repelled the takeover attempt, the EU's naval force said.

Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April and took ship captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days. Navy SEAL sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

Somali pirates attacked the ship with automatic weapons early Wednesday about 350 nautical miles east of the Somali coast, but guards on board the craft fired back and thwarted the attempted hijacking.

Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force, called it "pure chance" that the Maersk Alabama had been targeted a second time.

"It's not the first vessel to have been attacked twice, and it's a chance that every single ship takes as it passes through the area," Harbour said. "At least this time they had a vessel protection detachment on board who were able to repel the attack."

An EU patrol aircraft from the Horn of Africa nation Djibouti was called in to investigate, and the closest EU Naval Force vessel was tasked with searching for the pirate attack group, the EU Naval Force said in a statement.

Phillips' ordeal last spring galvanized the attention of the U.S. public to the dangers of operating merchant ships in the Horn of Africa, one of the busiest and most precarious sea lanes in the world.

Pirates have greatly increased their attacks in recent weeks after seasonal rains subsided. On Monday, a self-proclaimed pirate said that Somali hijackers had been paid $3.3 million for the release of 36 crew members from a Spanish vessel held for more than six weeks _ a clear demonstration of how lucrative the trade can be for impoverished Somalis.

Phillips told The Associated Press last month from his farmhouse in Vermont that he was contemplating retiring from sea life after his ordeal. He's been given a book deal and a movie could be in the works.

Phillips was hailed as a hero for helping his crew thwart April's hijacking before he was taken hostage, but he says he never volunteered, as crew members and his family reported at the time.