U.S. destroyer joins pursuit of pirates off Somalia

[inanna]

Source: LA Times

NAIROBI, KENYA -- A U.S. destroyer and a Russian warship headed Saturday for a possible confrontation with pirates who hijacked a cargo ship carrying battle tanks, machine guns and a crew of 21.

Though pursued by ships from two of the world's biggest naval powers, the pirates showed no sign of surrendering the Ukrainian vessel Faina, which they boarded Thursday off the Somali coast as it headed to Kenya. Instead, according to unconfirmed reports, they were demanding a $35-million ransom to turn over their unconventional booty, which includes 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks.

The pirates also warned against any raids by the U.S. or Russian navies.

The brazen seizure occurred in notoriously dangerous international waters off the Horn of Africa, where pirates exploit Somalia's lawlessness. A Greek oil tanker was also seized by pirates in the area Friday, maritime officials said. And twice this year, French commandos have intervened to rescue citizens taken hostage off Somalia.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pirates28-2008sep28,0,6285878.story

[TrogL]

1. They forgot Canada's frigate

It's out there too. Unless it got hijacked.

[BunkerHill24]

18. LOL

:rofl:

[nebenaube]

2. something tells me

that these pirates are really saying "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit...". How do they expect to collect?

[bertman]

3. Now you know where they got the saying "between the Devil and the deep blue sea."

Oughta make a good Movie channel movie.

[Norrin Radd]

4. They are saying, "Hey, isn't this a great scam for selling arms to

smaller countries (in order to foment war) by pretending that this ship was hijacked?!"

[thunder rising]

5. Somalia our last Republican nation building project. Neocons will never learn.

[INDIA]

31. errrr....Bill Clinton's a neo-con? wtf?

[tom_paine]

6. I do believe we have the plot for a future Action Movie.

Seriously, though, I've got no problem with this. I mean, does ANYONE?

Or can we all agree "Pirates Bad"?

[Angleae]

7. The pirates are warning the US & Russian navies?

Just what do they think they're going to do to a real warship?

[Caradoc]

8. Take a small pleasure vessel....

...load it with weapons and a super-sexy squad ('Fox Force Five, anyone?') of deadly, highly trained special ops women parading around in Bikinis. That'll teach them pirates!

Seriously, though, a few irresistable targets that can defend themselves, and a policy of 'no arrest, no surrender' and you'll soon see the pirate numbers thinning. A way better task for our armed forces.

[Giant Robot]

12. Sunday morning brain freeze

Where does Fox Force Five come from? I can see Uma Thurman delivering the line but I can't picture the movie.

[armodem08]

16. pulp fiction... n/t

[slackmaster]

11. All the pirates could really do at this point is sink the ship they hijacked

Or provoke one of the military vessels into sinking it.

There is an innocent crew board, plus a valuable cargo that is supposed to become the property of the government of Kenya, if they haven't already paid for it.

[Freddie Stubbs]

27. Kill their hostages

[BearSquirrel2]

9. I'm glad to see we can agree on something ...

I'm glad to see the US and Russia can cooperate on something, blowing pirates into hell.

With all the swashbuckling in "Pirates of the Carribean" I fear that children might be getting the idea that pirates are something other then cutthroat murdering thieves.

[Mike Daniels]

22. For all the talk of democracy on pirate ships, they didn't give their captives much choice

Basically it came to join us or die.

Thankfully, POTC gave rise to a flood of books that made every effort to remind people of the true nature of piracy.

[BreweryYardRat]

23. Yeah.

What's the line?

"The chivalrous rogues of romance are murderous bastards in reality."

[Blue_Tires]

30. +1

[Romulox]

10. Sick of US being policeman to the world. Somalia is a lot closer to Greece than the USA.

What a thankless and expensive job that is!

Perhaps the Greeks, possessing one of the oldest seafaring culturing still extant can consider developing a navy of some kind. :eyes:

[slackmaster]

13. I think it's in the interests of the USA to make sure those tanks don't fall into hostile hands

I'm happy to have our Navy work this particular problem.

Perhaps the Greeks, possessing one of the oldest seafaring culturing still extant can consider developing a navy of some kind.

Triremes and dudes with spears aren't going to cut it against large ships with modern weapons.

[achtung_circus]

15. Those tanks

will not fall into hostile hands, offloading is very easy to stop in a country with limited crane capacity at ports.

Of more concern is the lives of the captured crewmen. There are also machine guns carried as cargo on this ship- they are far more portable and more suitable for the ongoing Somali conflict.

I have read (where?) that the only death from pirates was accidental, but these people do remain hostages.

[Blue_Tires]

29. they make a phone call to Poseidon and it's taken care of

[Pavulon]

14. They can surrender.

or

These are not LEO. They board and retake by lethal force.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/29/black_hawk_narrowweb__300x440,0.jpg

[happyslug]

19. Yes, and hopefully the Pirates do NOT have dead men switches

For that is what I would do, have one or two of my crew be equipped with "Dead men Switch" i.e. they MUST keep a grip on the switch or it goes off automatically sinking the ship. Thus killing the Pirate sets off the explosives sinking the ship and is cargo.

Remember the shipper wants his ship back with the cargo if possible. The Crew wants to live. The pirates want what they can sell or use (And that does NOT include the Tanks) thus the big fear is the Pirates will sink the ship. What I expect to happen, is the Pirates take off any light arms (Machine guns, Rifles, RPGs, Ammunition etc) and leave the ship, the tanks and the crew. Any assault on the ship will have to show that the Assault will NOT only return the Ship, the tanks and the Crew but something more (i.e. the small arms etc). Right now that is NOT possible, so nothing is going to happen except maybe the Pirates unloading the light weapon and fuel via boats. Once that is done I expect this to end with the Pirates abandoning the Ship, leaving the ship, tanks and crew. I do not see the Pirates holding out for money, but they may do so by setting a charge in the haul i.e. unless you pay us, we will blow the ship, and its crew and the tanks. Even if the ship is taken by force, a lot of the small arms, ammunition and fuel would have been unloaded. The US and Russian ships technically can not take this ship without Ukrainian permission (it is a Ukrainian ship) and the Ukraine may prefer to pay so the crew, ships and tanks are returned (The tanks to Kenya, the crew and ship to the Ukraine).

Side note why does Kenya want T-72 tanks? Ethiopia is tied up in Somalia, but part of "Greater Somalia" includes parts of Northern Kenya. Is Kenya worried about expansion of the Somalia problem to its northern region? When Africa's borders were drawn up in the Treaty of Berlin in 1885 (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference for more details) The best port of Somalia was given to the French, the British obtain the northern 1/4 while Italy was given the rest. When the Ethiopians defeated the Italians in 1896 it was agreed that the area between the Ethiopia highlands and what became Italian Somalia would be part of Ethiopia not Somalia even through most of the people in that section were Somalians NOT Ethiopians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibouti
More on Ethiopia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia
The Ethiopia region of Somali (The area I was talking about above):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Region

Thus Somalia has always had a desire to connect these five parts into one (British Somalia, Italian Somalia, Kenya Somalia and Ethiopia Somalia as while as the Port of Djibouti (For more on Djibouti see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibouti ). Djibouti's population is 60% Somalia and 35% Afar (who are also a minority in Northern Ethiopia, being mostly herders their tribe is often more important then whatever country they are in, as are most herding societies i.e. the Highland Scots before the British removed them from the Highlands starting in the late 1600s). The Afar extend into southern Eritrea (For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea ).

Thus the question why does Kenya need tanks? Are they concern about Somalia? Is it something internal? Kenya has no one single ruling nationality (Unlike England, France and Germany) For details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya



They has been internal problems in Kenya, NOT in the Eastern Somalia section but with the Western part of the country:
http://tinyurl.com/kenya-2007-2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_in_Kenya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_in_Kenya

This tank shipment is for something, maybe Somalia related may be internal, only time will tell and what happen to this shipment may be independent of those internal forces or part of those internal forces only time will tell (i.e. did someone in Kenya have this ship Pirated? the opposite question is also possible, the Pirating of this Ship may have some affect in Kenya do to bring the shipment of tanks to the People of Kenya's attention, if a I knew which is the case I would give a better answer but I do not and those that do are not talking).

[ohio2007]

17. The pirates are going nowhere

Philadelphia clinched



theres always next year

[704wipes]

20. Does Ukraine have a seaport?

This is a Ukrainian ship?

[daleo]

21. Sure - a port on the Black Sea

Sevastopol, I believe. Black Sea to Mediterranean, then to Atlantic or Indian Ocean.

It was a big deal during the Crimean War.

[davepc]

24. Do these pirates realise they wont even see the missile that blows their boat to hell?

The 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas and the 1982 LOS Convention (http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_convention.htm) don't give any protection to pirates.

[ohio2007]

25. The real pirates will start to send their lackeys out to see as 'bait'

just until "the coast is clear"

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. US circles hijacked ship with Sudan-bound weapons

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — U.S. warships and helicopters on Monday surrounded a hijacked cargo ship loaded with Sudan-bound tanks and other arms to keep the weapons from falling "into the wrong hands," an American Navy spokesman said.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a deputy spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said the shipment of 33 Russian-designed tanks, rifles and ammunition on the Ukrainian-operated Faina was headed for Sudan — not Kenya as previously claimed by Kenyan officials.
...
Christensen said U.S. destroyers and cruisers have been deployed within 10 miles of the Ukrainian vessel and American helicopters were circling above.
...
The shipment was destined for southern Sudan — not Darfur — and did not violate the embargo, a Western diplomat in Nairobi, Kenya, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to the press, told the AP.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5igGmlfz-K3g6EyC2vN8yK10vpCugD93GF8V00

[Regret My New Name]

28. Am I the only one rooting for the pirates here?

I've always had a special place in my heart for pirates ever since I played Sid Meier's Pirates!


For some reason I don't think this is gonna end the way these pirates are hoping... But hey, what do I know? I just got the top score ever in Sid Meirer's Pirates! It's not like I know what I'm talking about or anything... jeez :eyes:

[Stryguy]

32. WOOT!

You just gained +3 to Charisma in my eyes.