Somali Pirates Blitz LiberianTanker

(CBS/AP)  Somali pirates seized control of a chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Friday and a NATO helicopter gunship, too late to prevent the hijacking, picked up three security guards who jumped into the sea.

Both France and Germany, which have ships in the area as part of an international anti-piracy coalition, sent the aircraft after receiving a distress call just after dawn, French military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck said. But in the 15 minutes it took to get to the site, the pirates had already boarded and had taken the crew of 25 Indians and two Bangladeshis hostage.

The two British guards who leapt overboard with their Irish colleague were safe onboard a French warship, he said.

Germany and France have ships in the area as part of a NATO fleet which, along with warships from Denmark, India, Malaysia, Russia and the U.S., have started patrolling the vast maritime corridor.

They escort some merchant ships and respond to distress calls in the fight against increasingly brazen pirate attacks off Somalia's coast, a major international shipping lane through which about 20 tankers sail daily. Friday's was the 97th ship hijacking this year.

One of the hijacked ships, the Malta-flagged cargo ship Centauri, was released Thursday with all 25 Filipino crew unharmed after more than two months in the hands of pirates, Greece announced.

The ship hijacked Friday, the Liberian-flagged MV Biscaglia, is operated out of Singapore, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

The pirates are growing bolder. Hugh Martin, manager of Hart Security, said 20 speedboats filled with pirates launched a simultaneous attack on two slow-moving companion vessels off the south coast of Yemen on Thursday. Hart staff onboard both ships were armed, but managed to use evasive maneuvers and non-lethal methods to prevent the pirates from boarding during the four hour attack.

On Friday, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said it was possible the U.N. might pass a new resolution with more aggressive rules of engagement.

"Even harsher sanctions, harsher measures, harsher calls to the international community may be passed," he told Russian TV channel Vesti-24. "It would give the possibility for more energetic actions by the naval forces of those countries, including Russia, that have dispatched their ships (to Somalia) for the fight against piracy."

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[mrmeatspin]

"The pirates are growing bolder. Hugh Martin, manager of Hart Security" They are local heroes as in Bonnie & Clyde. They have the fast cars, and fancy women in a lawless land.

They are terrorists. We need to act. Sooner or later, they are going to get their hands on something really important, and possibly dangerous. Paying ransom doesn''''t cut it. Piracy shoul not be tolerated.

We need to prepare to board these ships and take them back from the yahoos. It can be done. In the long run, a brutal and decisive response will save lives.

In the meantime, NATO should put a couple of squads of troops on every ship. A couple of .50 caliber machine guns should do the trick.


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Posted by LMartinK at 07:39 PM : Nov 29, 2008
+ report abuse


**************
With Bush on the way out and Obama and his liberal zombies coming in...WHY NOT? WHO IS GOING TO STOP THEM?

[babooph]

A few "fake" commercial ships with some marines aboard& pop up weopons would slow the skinny guys down FAST!!!

[buttonjockey]

From the article,

: "The U.S. navy says it is impossible to patrol all 2.5 million
: miles of dangerous waters. "


There''s a much simpler PROVEN method! For about 50 years in the U.S. train robbery flourished. Trains were easy pickings because of the vast uninhabited areas unique to the U.S. at the time. The train robbery industry came to an end when the railroads took to packing military personel in a box car near the locomotive and they would unleash on the train robbers as they attacked. These "soldiers" would not only fend off the robbers, they would chase them down and catch or kill them. This was a big step above having simple guards on trains, just like they are trying to do on ships.

So the simple solution is that you hire mercenaries to to stay on board the ship, ones who have the fire-power to fend off the pirates but you HAVE TO chase them down too! Whether it''s the navy or the mercenaries themselves, that strategy will put an end to modern day piracy.

They had better do it soon before the practice spreads to other areas of the globe!

[georgew1956]

give them the ransom they robbed ( opec ) everyone with high prices billions in profits and we should feel bad over pirates getting what we should be getting back ha get all you can pirates.

[earache4]

"The two British guards who leapt overboard with their Irish colleague were safe onboard a French warship..."

There is something so wrong about this sentence, it''s just hard to put my finger on it though....

[docpeter1953]

Posted by runningralph at 10:29 PM : Nov 28, 2008

Saddma Hussein was in it for himself, not Islam. He was a dictator, not religeous at all.

[docpeter1953]

From the above article, ''Somali pirates seized control of a chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Friday and a NATO helicopter gunship, too late to prevent the hijacking, picked up three security guards who jumped into the sea...The two British guards who leapt overboard with their Irish colleague were safe onboard a French warship, he said.''
_____________

Well at least the British and Irish ''security guards'' are ok. Wonder if they knew they were ''guards'' or were they thinking they were just along for the ride.

[wtcmedic911]

i dont know why the countries/companies are so afraid of using letal measures. I hope that will soon change. hang the bodies from the railing and plot a course close enough to shore to show their bodies hanging from the rail. samolia is the butt hole of the world.

[earache4]

Still no device to thwart boarding? How about electrified netting hung down around the deck of the boat? Motion sensing flame throwers 15'' above the waterline? Somebody''s got to come up with something....

[runningralph]

DIXXSON says it is wrong to segregate violence. He is correct. Bush outlined the war on terror after 9/11. He said the US will go after terrorists worldwide and go after any government that harbors terrorists. The US has lead this war as it lead the war on Communism. The US is not alone in this struggle, it is the leader.