Posted on 05/10/2011 8:08:50 PM PDT by jazusamo
Pirate attacks quadrupled in the first three months of this year, as compared to the same time last year, several piracy experts said, and there have been four attacks in the last few days, prompting calls for Western powers to take a tougher stand against the threat.
The most recent attacks were unsuccessful, but they shows the pirates still pose a serious threat despite improved patrols in the Gulf of Yemen.
Pirates are now using hijacked motherships to do their dirty work, the European Union Naval Force in Somalia said. This makes them more powerful in two ways: They can travel much farther out to sea, to areas where seamen used to feel safe, and they do their hijacking with hostages on board human shieldswhich makes international navies reluctant to use fire.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., just returned from a fact-finding trip to the Horn of Africa. He thinks the U.S. Navy should put a total blockade on pirate ports.
We should recall our Jeffersonian past and blockade main pirate port locations," he said. "That means they will not be able to meet their payrolls, and the number operatives and expeditions leaving Somalia will be reduced. And once you put a U.S. frigate or a naval destroyer off a pirate anchorage, with comprehensive rules of engagement to engage and sink pirate controlled vessels youll see a lot less piracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Send out bait ships and kill every pirate that bites. This is not a complicated problem.
Jefferson was very strong on trying to do something aggressive. Congress was timid. He spent a lot of effort trying to get European countries to unite in concerted action against the Barbary Pirates. Not much success. Now that Obama’s street cred is up with the Osama success, perhaps he can get better cooperation than Jefferson did.
Cossacks respond to the Turkish sultan's demand they surrender. They laugh about the insults they are sending back. This scene is about 3 by 5 inches, and is based on two paintings by the Ukrainian painter Repin.
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