Posted on 06/16/2010 11:51:19 AM PDT by nickcarraway
How do you tell the difference between a Somali pirate in a small boat and a largely identical but innocent fisherman? It all comes down to the ladders.
Pirates often take fishing gear out with them into the deep waters of the Indian Ocean to help feed themselves, and fishermen from the lawless country often carry AK-47s for self protection. Grappling hooks can be easily hidden out of sight.
But if naval officers see a small boat with long metal ladders lashed to the deck, they say they know for sure the occupants have set to sea with only one thing in mind.
That means maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters flying along the Somali beach can pick out pick out so-called "pirate action groups" putting to sea and feed the information back to warship and command centre operations rooms.
"You can see the giveaway signs that this is a pirate gathering," says Andreas Kutsch, a German naval officer working as an assistant chief of staff for the EU's anti-piracy task force, using a laser pointer to show the ladders among the brightly coloured plastic containers for spare fuel and water. "Fishermen don't need ladders."
(Excerpt) Read more at af.reuters.com ...
Fishermen need ladders like fish need a bicycle!
We need to develop ladder-seeking torpedoes.
Sorry guys, couldn't resist.
Blow ‘em away!
Kirbdog
Why do they give information like this out?? What is wrong with these people??
Outsource the whole kit and caboodle to the Russians. They know how to work it.
Isn’t it nice the Al Reuters is there to share this information with the pirates!
Or the dock they tie up to is higher than their little boat...
Can we just bring back the practice of killing the pirates?.. I’m relatively certain Maritime Law hasn’t changed an awful lot. From the 1780’’s, that is.
The Russians have already done that, thought they claimed that they released them in their small boat and they were alive at the time. I wonder if there have been any further attacks on Russian ships since that incident?
Then there would be a ladder on the dock.
Maybe they’re fish ladders.
Ladders on the dock don’t last long where there are thieves. You have to have your own.
Alhumdoolillah! from now on, I and the other chaps in the Somali Environmental and Fisheries Protection Scouts will take apart the ladders and stow them out of sight.
Shukran Jazeelan
Achmed the Pirate
If you announce that the only way you know they are pirates is if you see ladders won’t they just start concealing the ladders?
They will do what the gangs here do. They will all start carrying ladders to hide the pirates. Every boat will have a boarding ladder.
In the US, gangs of street thugs will all wear exactly the same outfit while one of them commits a crime. When the police arrive and get witness statements, there are 20 or 30 people in the street who look exactly like the suspect.
Young black male, white t-shirt, and blue jeans...
There is no way for the cops to figure it out.
What you do is wear TWO wildly different tee shirts, one for the crime, one for when the cops shows up. If it gets to court, your public defender be using one of the variations of the famed "Tyrone" defense.
Defense attorney dress look-alike Tyrone in an outfit similar to the witness statements and get a mis-identification.
"Your honor, this ain't be my client. Be Tyrone."
Just kill all of them.
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