Posted on 11/21/2008 6:07:21 PM PST by george76
Somali pirates built up their defences around a captured Saudi Arabian super-tanker Friday after demanding a 25 million dollar ransom.
As foreign navies sent warships to Somalia's dangerous waters and shipping companies sought alternative routes, extra clan militia and other fighters were brought in at the pirate lair of Harardhere...
"Some of them are inside the town and others are taking shelter in a nearby village and can be called if need be," ... He said the fighters had come from neighbouring Gulgudud and Mudug regions.
Local militia and hardline Shebab fighters also arrived in Harardhere in what some residents said was a move to position themselves for a share of any ransom paid.
The pirates on Thursday gave the owners 10 days to pay a 25 million dollar ransom, said a pirate who identified himself as Mohamed Said, threatening "disastrous" consequences if Vela International, shipping arm of the Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco, fail to comply.
He did not specify the threatened action but the 330-metre (1,000-foot) long tanker is carrying two million barrels of crude oil.
Environmental groups have warned of a huge catastrophe if oil from the super-tanker was released.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
There should be enough money available to hire seals, helicopters...and more.
Insurance versus these ransom demands.
Carpet bomb the pirates ?
I believe there are some AC-130s based in the area.
Didnt G Gordon Liddy used to have a calender of women with weapons? well she qualifies.
Now I see it (different article)
thanks.
CURRENT international law may forbid merchant vessels to be armed. But there is nothing in the traditional Law of the Sea that would make any such requirement. I assume this is a typical piece of UN/EU/Wimp nonsense, and I think we should work on reversing it--or else ignore it.
In the old days, merchant ships were ALWAYS armed. A few small cannons, cutlasses, pistols, etc. How else would you deal with pirates?
East India convoys might have armed escorts, but ordinary trading vessels certainly did not.
It was not good form to run out your guns when coming into a friendly harbor, but the guns were there, behind the closed gunports.
If we don't rethink this whole business and DO something promptly, piracy is going to revive all over the world. Why not? How can they lose, if no one is going to put up a fight?
Where do I find this web page? I’d like to read more.
Thats why this site rocks,we back up things with those silly things called actual facts, Btw Obama is all for coal.
If we nuke the ship there shouldn’t be much oil left to contaminate anything.
Replace the oil with iodine-131 and strontium-90. Brilliant!/s;)
As Bumble from Oliver Twist says, If the law demands that, "the law is an ass." And Justice Robert H. Jackson would have added that "International Law is not a suicide pact." The answer is obvious:
1. Ships must ignore the law until it can be made sensible, arming themselves and responding forcefully to pirates - go ahead and pretend to surrender, but then fire simultaneous RPGs into each ship and speedboat when they get close, two RPGs each to make sure the job is a success.
2. All decent governments must work together to kill every pirate on the high seas and in their home ports.
3. Those who ever engage in piracy must be treated like Nazi war criminals in the sense that they should be hunted down and brought to justice with no statute of limitations on their crimes.
LOL!
Optional long-term solution: Contaminate several thousand tons of kat with a carcinogen and then distribute it throughout the region. Multiple problems solved “going forward.”
Oh hey so yer an ex sailor also, wish I had some cool saying like semper fi or ho-ahh but as a sailor I guess I’ll just say “aint you got something to paint”?
If it doesnt move, paint it. If it moves, wait until it stops then paint it. LOL
Time to start hourly straifing runs...
To use an old ‘internet meme’.........”Kill it with fire!”
Here’s where I found the map. It’s still hard to read.
http://bp0.blogger.com/_cys2T5FgJdo/R_ZOMrQ-mmI/AAAAAAAACGQ/v88J3XytEAs/s1600-h/UNPiracyMap.JPG
Yea but it sure aint semper fi. hey, did that stantion move.
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