Pirates: Part Two

Just heard that the French went to the aid of a Liberian vessel, drove off the pirates and followed them home. At dawn they attacked the mother ship taking 11 prisoners who will be brought back to France for trial. These guys are really standing up. Viva la France.

Might work

Having a little experience on the water this comes to mind;

Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LE190192.htm

The 20,000 ships divided by 365 days= 54.794 or let's call it 50 vessels pass through troubled waters per day. Half may be coming or going so many may have no cargo at all and are less likely to be a target.

If those 50 vessels collected at one or the other end of the infested waters and made the passage as a new convoy starting each day and had an armed vessel or two escorting them; it seems like the "PIRATE ATTACKS" would fall off drastically.

The passage through pirate territory would not take too many days of armed guard and would be cost effective in the long run!

A few random shipping vessels could also be armed to confuse the pirates a bit more

The armed guard cost would be shared by those vessels in the convoy. Not much cost to the shipping companies for a better chance of product delivery without much risk. There is safety in numbers.

Any vessel that did not want to be in the convoy would be free to travel any time at their own risk!

Maybe too simple to work but just a thought.

On second thought... maybe not too simple but still might work.

Read more at IMO

there are a lot of informatione, rules etc at

http://www.imo.org/dynamic/mainframe.asp?topic_id=1613

go on and read

Why doesnt Blackwater jump on this opportunity to prove its usefulness? They would get the job done for a fraction of the cost and without the political difficulties. They have heavily armed pirate deterrent vessels, turboprop planes with Hellfire missiles, premo satellite access, and a bunch of bloodthirsty mercenaries... Their troops are the highly trained, ex-military bunch that Obama is so afraid of.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_USA

Blackwater rebranded to Xe fwiw.

The pirates speak out!

http://somalipirate.livejournal.com/

Here’s the reason this is still going on. I assume the same rules apply to any warship that catches these guys, if they don't directly attack their national flagged vessel.
Or, maybe NATO needs to "relax" their guidelines.
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NATO ships, helicopters hunt down 7 pirates

By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer Katharine Houreld, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 19, 7:13 am ET

NAIROBI, Kenya – NATO warships and helicopters pursued Somali pirates for seven hours after they attacked a Norwegian tanker, NATO spokesmen said Sunday, and the high-speed chase only ended when warning shots were fired at the pirates' skiff.
Seven pirates attempted to attack the Norwegian-flagged MV Front Ardenne late Saturday but fled after crew took evasive maneuvers and alerted warships in the area, said Portuguese Lt. Cmdr. Alexandre Santos Fernandes, aboard a warship in the Gulf of Aden, and Cmdr. Chris Davies, of NATO's maritime headquarters in England.
"How the attack was thwarted is unclear, it appears to have been the actions of the tanker," Davies said. Fernandes said no shots were fired at the tanker.
Davies said the pirates sailed into the path of the Canadian warship Winnipeg, which was escorting a World Food Program delivery ship through the Gulf of Aden. The American ship USS Halyburton was also in the area and joined the chase.
"There was a lengthy pursuit, over seven hours," Davies said.
The pirates hurled weapons into the dark seas as the Canadian and U.S. warships closed in. The ships are part of NATO's anti-piracy mission.
"The skiff abandoned the scene and tried to escape to Somali territory," Fernandes said. "It was heading toward Bossaso we managed to track them ... warning shots have been made after several attempts to stop the vessel."
Both ships deployed helicopters, and naval officers hailed the pirates over loudspeakers and finally fired warning shots to stop them, Fernandes said, but not before the pirates had dumped most of their weapons overboard. NATO forces boarded the skiff, where they found a rocket-propelled grenade, and interrogated, disarmed and released the pirates.

The pirates cannot be prosecuted under Canadian law because they did not attack Canadian citizens or interests and the crime was not committed on Canadian territory.
"When a ship is part of NATO, the detention of person is a matter for the national authorities," Fernandes said. "It stops being a NATO issue and starts being a national issue."

The pirates' release underscores the difficulties navies have in fighting rampant piracy off the coast of lawless Somalia. Most of the time foreign navies simply disarm and release the pirates they catch due to legal complications and logistical difficulties in transporting pirates and witnesses to court.

Read this article this morning. Tell me these punks don't need to be shot on sight...

Yeah, I told you they should have put him back on that lifeboat with his buddies and tow him back to the scene of the crime ... then leave him to think about it.

Teenager my **s, he's a well-seasoned piece of crap who was happy to get his own AK and try to make a few bucks. I am disgusted that the Canadians let those b*****ds go free after chasing them. The chase should have been enough reason to blow them out of the water and leave the flotsam for the birds and fish to deal with.

Court in NY says he's an ADULT.

You all need to keep the tone in this thread down. I think the thread to talk about piracy is fine but getting in the dimension of personal facets and jabs is beginning to take it further. Keep the tone down or else Carl will close the thread once more.

Too bad American taxpayers have to fund a judicial charade. That piece of crap should never have been allowed onboard the destroyer to begin with. He was a pirate onboard a hijacked vessel with a hostage, should have been shot then and there.

If his public defenders want to waste our money and try to make a case that he was illegally brought to the U.S. then we should just take him back where we found him ... and leave him there.

?? What did I miss? Is there a post missing?

No worries Ron. The sentiments posted here reflect the beliefs of many.

Should read...

"I am disgusted that the Canadians and the USS Halyburton let those b*****ds go free after chasing them"

I have a feeling that they are also not very pleased.
As mentioned before, NATO does not have authority to arrest anybody unless they attack one of their citizens or their flagged vessels.
It was mentioned on the news today, that they are looking into amending/changing that rule soon.

Hi,

If that's the case then Carl, can you let me know when the auto asterisk machine will be turned off for this thread?

In the case of my asterisks, they were self-imposed in keeping with my concern for the feelings of others and my own sensitivity to the impact of strong language on some readers.

i am admittedly somewhat torn on this issue. i continue to read/hear how the people of that region are suffering hard. a Somali from what i read earns $60 a year. there is rampant starvation and hoplessness. i personally have never been hungary, so i cannot directly relate to what it must be like to not know where your next meal will come form.

does this justify stealing what does not belong to you, and terrorizing people that have nothing to do with your sitiuation? not to my way of thinking. from what i can understand Somalia is an Muslim nation. there are exceedingly wealthy Muslim countries on that continent. if Islam is such a benevolent religion/culture why do they not help their hard suffering brothers and sisters in Islam?

while i have some level of emphathy to the plight of these people, justice must be steel jawed and cold hearted. the terrorizers, must be terrorized. i believe the only way piracy in that region will end swiftly, is to not only make the individual terrorist pay a price. but to increase the suffering of the entire population which spawns and harbors and protects the terrorist.

my suggestion would be for each attack and/or kidnapping result in Naval Gunfire Support be prosecuted on area villages until the hostage/s are freed.

how do we know what village is responsibe? we don't. the end result we desire is that after a few of these prosecutions, mom or dad will shot the 16 year old son themselves before allowing him to board a prirate ship.


Mike

Nothing to be torn about. The Alabama was carrying humanitarian supplies FOR SOMALIA. The "pirates" don't care any more about their neighbors than they do about their victims. They're just a pack of criminals and murderers.

That is a bit too close to what the French endured during the Nazi occupation and all other considerations aside, it just reinforces hatred for those who directly inflict the damage.

I think it is reasonable to make it very clear in advance that any port that harbors pirates and/or their vessels or is used to hold a captured ship will be destroyed by cruise missiles or similar means. Make it very clear that any vessel outside their territorial waters will be boarded and if arms are found will be destroyed and the survivors (if any) will be left to fend for themselves.

We have to make the reasons not to be a terrorist more compelling than the reasons to become one. We just give them money and make local heroes of them, hardly a deterrent. Has anyone noticed that you or I are more likely to be arrested for coming to the attention of some BS domestic anti-terrorism program than a so called Somali "pirate" is likely to be? We don't even call them terrorists even though their actions are outright economic terrorism and the impact on the victims is barbaric.

That piece of crap we just hauled to New York should never have seen land again, much less been given celebrity status. Why have Western governments declared these people a protected class?