Posted on 06/30/2007 4:20:23 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Edited on 06/30/2007 4:33:29 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
North Korean freighter disappears off Horn of Africa
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 03:33pm (Mla time) 06/29/2007
NAIROBI -- A North Korean-flagged freighter has gone missing off the Horn of Africa coastline after last being spotted seven weeks ago, a Kenyan maritime official said Friday.
The MV Sea Prince was last seen loading cargo in Djibouti port in May, Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenyan branch of the Seafarers' Assistance Program, said.
"On May 11, it was spotted loading 2,400 tons of cereals in Djibouti port and was headed to the Somali ports of Berbera and Bosasso. Since then, it has gone missing and we have not heard any word from the captain or the owners," Mwangura told Agence France-Presse.
"Efforts to contact its managers in Ukraine have been unsuccessful," he added.
Mwangura said information on the missing freighter had been handed over to the US Navy patrolling the Horn of Africa, diplomatic missions in Nairobi and the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre.
Four vessels -- one from Taiwan, another from Denmark and two from South Korea -- are already currently in the hands of pirates off the coast of war-torn Somalia.
The International Maritime Bureau, based in Malaysia, has reported at least seven pirate attacks this year off Somalia's 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) of unpatrolled coastline.
Pirate attacks stopped in the second half of 2006 during six months of strict rule by Islamists, who were ousted by Ethiopian and Somali government troops at the end of the year.
Somalia, which lies in a strategic position at the mouth of the Red Sea, has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle.
Ping!
‘cereal’? or delivery now complete?
Since the vessel was North Korean I think it might rather have to do with missile parts being delivered around between rogues.
It will be interesting to see who (more like “if anyone”) will play the part of Thomas Jefferson, in this little pirate story, and decide to actually punish the pirates.
My first thought, exactly.
This pirate issue could be settled quite easily.
Put a few navy guys on one in ten of the ships passing through the problem area with small missiles.
Blow the attacking boats out of the water and just keep steaming, leaving the survivors to the sharks.
Piracy will stop quickly.
And hopefully many of those missile parts are now at the bottom of the ocean. Damn those pirates. ;-)
You caught that too...
Amazing how much BS can be spoon-fed to the media, and they just run with it like sissors through the house...One of these days it’ll catch up to them...
So a coomunist flagged “freighter” loads up with “cereal” in a Djibouti port (not a land of friendliness to begin with) is in route to another African port to offload...
Unless they are providing a “charter” service...It doesn’t seem like this NK ship should be doing this...It should be working to facilitate the vacumn created by Kimmy-boy in their own country...They need the cereal worse than some folks in Africa...
This does not, once again, pass the smell test...
You’d think this was not a smooth move on the pirates part, knocking off one of Kim’s puddle jumpers...He might end up shooting off another missle to get attention, again...
Is this not the area that has the giant waves that sink ships with no warning?
I'm sure this hasn't gone unnoticed by the US Navy's 5th Fleet.
I was thinking the same thing.
Take a small freighter and put some deck guns on her and hide them. Crew it with SEALS. Let the pirates come out and engage, then let the SEALS have at 'em. Leave one survivior to go home and tell the story. Repaint the ship, wait a week or two and do it again. Pretty soon the pirates stop thinking like a group and start thinking like individuals.
Could it have been the freighter with the nukes in it bound for al queda?
There may be much, much more to this official story.
“‘cereal’? or delivery now complete?”
That’s what I was thinking. Whatever was on that ship is probably now in Iran.
One time I do support islamic justice is for pirates.
The problem is they have a history of sponsoring them.
hostis humani generis
pirates and islamo fascists have a great deal in common
Seals removed the weapons stored in the secret compartments and are sailing the ship around the horn to be released off Angola.
Looks like it.
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