US destroyer watching hijacked ship off Somalia

Associated Press ^ | September 27, 2008 | MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN

[george76]

A U.S. destroyer off the coast of Somalia closed in Saturday on a hijacked Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and ammunition, watching it to ensure the pirates who seized it do not try to remove any cargo or crew.

Nikolsky said the ship was anchored near the Somali town of Hobyo and that two other apparently hijacked ships were nearby. Hobyo is in the central region of Mudug, south of Puntland. It is a natural port and does not have any facilities.

[PapaBear3625]

Thus with the U-boat effectively lured towards the apparently abandoned vessel the Q-Ship would run up the white ensign and the deck structure would be collapsed by the remaining ship’s crew revealing a series of up to four manned guns, which would immediately open fire.

Which directly and predictably led to the German's treating ALL ships as potential Q ships, and simply torpedoing them. Which led to the German torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania, with the deaths of over a thousand civilians, and the entrance of the United States into the war

The whole point of the Q ship was to create civilian casualties to make it easier to sell having the US enter the war.

I have a simpler solution. Have an AC-130 cruise along the length of Somalia's coast, and destroy EVERY Somali boat. Repeat every few nights. The pirate incidents will stop.

[Reeses]

the Q-Ship would run up the white ensign and the deck structure would be collapsed by the remaining ship’s crew revealing a series of up to four manned guns, which would immediately open fire.

I'm not seeing the honor at all in using the French flag like that.

[Salvavida]

I would think a reasoned, relatively cheap approach would be to put a couple of Marine harriers in DJ, with a tanker; and give all commercial maritime traffic the freq to call for help. But what do I know?

[Salvavida]

Pirates aren’t honorable, so it’s all good. It cancels the other out. :-)

[dynachrome]

How ‘bout, after the crew is rescued/released, the ships are sunk so as to block the harbor and the populace of the town is given 12 hours to evacuate before said town and any harbor facilities are leveled?

Repeat as necessary.

[proudofthesouth]

GWB has openly joined the Demonrats in destroying our country.

I truly regret that I ever voted for him but look at who the alternatives were......

[Candor7]

My Mistake. I hope that we have USN SOG on that ship before another hour goes by.

Red Cell 6 to be exact.

[BlazingArizona]

Use it for live fire exercise and send it to the bottom of the ocean. Don’t let the Ruskies get the tanks and ammo back.

No. Burn the town of Hobyo to the ground, leaving not so much as a flea alive. Serve notice that the same shall happen to any part of Puntland that shelters pirates.

[xkaydet65]

A ship is its flag not its cargo, admiralty law. If the Ukies don’t want the Russkies then the Russkies have no standing in law. The final vote may come down to who actully owns the vessel. If it’s a private company in Ukraine than the company has the call. If it’s a Russkie company flagging its ships with Ukrianian registry because of better port facilities than the owners can accept or refuse help as they wish.

[redstateconfidential]

http://unosat.web.cern.ch/unosat/freeproducts/somalia/Piracy/UNOSAT_Somalia_Pirate_Attacks_Map_2008_Lowres_v5.pdf

[BobS]

"I have a simpler solution. Have an AC-130 cruise along the length of Somalia's coast, and destroy EVERY Somali boat."

They can. If every 3rd shot is WP. I fixed all the Ku and X-band antennas for the bunch. The fire-control was done by other people.

[ladyjane]

Any number of nations have the power to stop these pirates. Why do we and others allow it to continue?

[Paladin2]

Why do we and others allow it to continue?

Uh, Rodney King was put in charge of Pirate Affairs at the UN?

[tflabo]

Sorry to sound so cruel but WE DONT NEED SOMALIS here in the USA.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

It would be funny of we end up working with the Russians on this one. The pirates better watch out. Russia doesn’t take this sort of stuff. All I can see is that lots of people are going to die. I bet the pirates saw the Ukrainian Flag and thought it would be easy pickings not knowing it was filled with a Russian cargo. It might even help Russian and Ukrainian relations in the end? Somalia should be seized by a power and ran as an territory. Let the French or the Germans or even the Russians rule it. They would stop pirates and terrorists.

[Army Air Corps]

I don’t know if the Russians will take military action. In February of 2008, a Russian tug was hijacked and the Russians paid the ransom while the US Navy fired missiles at the pirate village responsible for the hijacking (also, the Puntland forces attacked the same village).

[palomonte]

you are no doubt correct...however I believe that the russians don’t want 33 of their battle tanks and spares getting pirated and ending up who knows where - especially if they haven’t been paid for.

[shield]

A warship manned by Russian sailors? Now this should be funny to watch...I’ve read Russia has a pretty lousy group they call a military.

[claymax]

You are not cruel in saying that, Somalis, well....belong in Somalia. Their religion and beliefs do not fit the same as Americans and I think they need to have some beliefs we hold true to us to be here. Just my opinion.

[Reeses]

I found out the "white ensign" flag is the British Navy flag and is not a fancy way of saying surrender flag.