Somali Pirates Blitz LiberianTanker

27 Crew Members Taken Hostage In Lightning Fast Attack; Three Security Guards Jump Ship, Rescued

(CBS/AP)  The U.S. navy says it is impossible to patrol all 2.5 million miles of dangerous waters. It has called on ship owners to hire private security contractors to protect vulnerable vessels, leading to a boom in business some contractors fear will encourage unlicensed or inexperienced companies to cash in.

Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, which employs the three guards who leapt off the Biscaglia on Friday, says on its Web site that it was formed in July 2008 and all its staff are ex-Royal Marines. They do not carry weapons.

Many companies prefer non-lethal methods of deterring pirates, including evasive maneuvers, electrifying handrails and the use of sonic weapons that can blast a wave of painful sound up to half a miles away.

Cyrus Mody, head of the International Maritime Bureau, said the onus should be on international navies and not individual ship owners to ensure their vessels' protection. He said the governments whose navies patrol the Gulf of Aden must strengthen their rules of engagement and put a legal framework in place to try suspected pirates.

"You don't have to blow them out of the water, just confiscate the weapons and the ship," he said. Navies needed to patrol more aggressively, boarding and searching suspected "mother ships" from which pirates launched their small fast attack boats, Mody said. Navies now are reluctant to search or detain suspected pirates because their legal standing is unclear, he said.

Somalia, an impoverished Horn of Africa nation, has not had a functioning government since 1991 and it cannot police its long coastline.

Greek Ship Released
A cargo ship seized by Somali pirates more than two months ago has been released with all 25 crew members unharmed, Greek authorities said Friday.

The Merchant Marine Ministry said the Malta-flagged cargo ship Centauri was released Thursday but gave no other details.

The Greek-owned vessel was carrying salt when it was seized on Sept. 18 as it was sailing from Ethiopia to a Kenyan port.

The ministry said all 25 crew members were from the Philippines. The vessel is owned by Athens-based operator Navigation Maritime, ministry officials said.

Guyanese Pirates Killed
Three suspected pirates and a policeman died Friday in a shootout in Guyana as the South American country struggles against piracy at sea, according to authorities.

The three dead suspects were likely part of a gang accused of raiding fishing boats between Guyana and neighboring Suriname, police spokesman Ivelaw Whitaker said. They fired upon authorities who arrived in Corentyne to investigate piracy complaints, he said.

Whitaker said one of the suspects killed was a former army officer recently charged with stealing guns.

On Wednesday, the Coast Guard rescued five fishermen attacked by pirates who seized their vessel and set them adrift in a small boat. It is unclear whether that attack was perpetrated by the three suspects killed on Friday.

The coast of Suriname and Guyana is plagued by piracy, prompting Guyana's parliament to approve tougher penalties. The president has not yet signed legislation to punish piracy with life in prison and allow the death penalty for murder during a pirate attack.

Most attacks off Guyana and Suriname target small fishing boats, unlike the brazen attacks that occur off Somalia's coast in Africa, where heavily armed pirates sometimes use speedboats to overcome large vessels.

[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.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

[dixxson-2009]

I believe it is wrong to segregate the violence.
The violence and Iraq War refugees in Leabanon
We count a drop in deaths in Iraq as proof of success,
as if the Deaths in Afghanistan, all military and all
civilians don''t count!
I believe the new escalations of violence in
India, Cambodia, Philippines, Syria, Turkey, Jordan,
Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel Russia and other places.
And now the Piracies" are all a part of the long time
fermenting" and now "Escalating "World War "3".

[babooph]

So much legitimate banking spied on to stop funding terrorism -now the hostage money funds it so much better-too bad our leader is an idiot.

[bushie3]

how did the world deal with the last pirates we had?
Oh yeah they hunted them down like dogs and killed as many as they could.

[Wookiee-1138]

May it please the God of miracles
though we live but a week after it
Grainne Mhaol and a thousand warriors
routing the foreigners!

[runningralph]

Iwashungry68 wants a list of Muslim leaders that sent out suicide bombers in the name of Islam. I''ll play. Osama bin Laden, Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Al zarkawi, Al queda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Moamar Khadafi, Yassir Arafat, on and on. I could come up with more with some research, but honestly there have been so many they all run together. I''ve been watching them since Sirhan Sirhan killed Bobby Kennedy.

[jowand]

The real solution to this piracy thing is to have 20 or 30 pigs roaming around on the decks of each ship.

[jowand]

Name ALL of the muslims / Islamic leaders that have sent suicide bombers out in the name of Islam.

Or do you believe that THEY ALL are evil?

Posted by IwasHungry68 at 04:55 PM : Nov 28, 2008

It would be a much, much shorter list to name the ones who haven''t.

[whitemale08]

whitemale08: If they trace back the hatred, they''''''''ll find you and some Muslims.

Posted by downsteamjim at 02:56 PM : Nov 28, 200--

Hey, Why don''t you tell your Lord and Saviour so-called Prince Charlie to practice his call for ''population reduction'' by himself in the privacy of his public-housing complex.

And then you and him can leave the rest of us human beings alone and in peace without your stupid ''globalization'' nonsense.

[centerfall94]

Nerve gas the ship. Two or three of those incidents and there won''t be any more pirate attacks.

[downsteamjim]

walt: I was so worried that it was you involved with the theft of your hero''s golden book mark. Is it true you injured your arm doing a seig heil in a portalet? Happy Thanksgiving!