Posted on 04/16/2009 9:30:41 AM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
MOMBASA, Kenya — As the Maersk Alabama plowed through the glassy waters of the Indian Ocean early last Wednesday, the cargo ship's 70-year-old electrician sat in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee, counting the minutes to breakfast.
Suddenly, the ship's alarm sounded, shattering the morning calm. The electrician rose with a start. It was, he reckoned immediately, the scenario that he'd been warned about for four months, ever since he set off aboard the Alabama into the most dangerous waters in the world.
Four Somali pirates had boarded the ship...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
If the crew had been allowed to arm themselves, this story would be very different!
Not enough was made of this:
which was ferrying 17,000 tons of food aid to East Africa ,
Talk about biting the hands that feed you.
Saying how might get them fired or arrested; someone probably had an "illegal" weapon aboard. Good on them!
True. this isn’t getting much attention from the anti-military (ALL) media.
With a handy pick, one of the ship’s hands stabbed the hand that bit the hand that was trying to feed them.
That's obviously what it takes to run a ship.
The insurance companies will not let the sailors arm themselves. Seems that increases the ins. co’s “risk”. As in “oh, somebody might make a boo-boo, a gun goes off, and we have to pay for the injury”. No, much smarter to pay the millions the pirates demand. Yep, way smarter! I mean, this IS America, we are known for our international humanitarianism (OMG! that is one long word to spell correctly!).
So, the pirates steal food meant for poor countries (yeah, Somalia, you’re not the only starving nation on the planets). They hold the food ranson for the $$. And I’m guessing once they’ve been paid, the ships are returned- minus the food they were carrying. See, the pirates then have to blackmarket the food, thereby making even more money.
Man, that’s a genius way to fund a nation’s economy! If it wasn’t for the fact that I know, in the end, we all end up paying for it, it’s pretty funny. Sort of a “National Lampoon Runs the World Economy”!
****the only pirate alive to tell their side of this story. ****
The Pirates dont have a side inthis story. They tried to hijack a ship and they failed. The price for failure is execution-———or rather it should be.
(at least . . . that's a good story and they can stick to it if they want to.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.