Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Bitter on September 30, 2008, 08:51:13 AM

Title: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bitter on September 30, 2008, 08:51:13 AM
Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/africa/01pirates.html?hp

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition said in an interview Tuesday that they had no idea that the ship was carrying arms when they seized it on the high seas.

“We just saw a big ship,” the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, told The New York Times. “So we stopped it.”

The pirates quickly learned, though, that their booty was an estimated $30 million worth of heavy weaponry, heading for Kenya or Sudan, depending on whom you ask.

In a 45-minute-long interview, Mr. Sugule expounded on everything from what the pirates want — “just money” — to why they were doing this — “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters” — to what they eat — rice, meat, bread, spaghetti, “you know, normal human-being food.”

He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”

The pirates who answered the phone call on Tuesday morning from The New York Times said they were speaking by satellite phone from the bridge of the Faina, the Ukrainian cargo ship that was hijacked about 200 miles off the coast of Somalia on Thursday. Several pirates talked, but they said that only Mr. Sugule was authorized to be quoted. Mr. Sugule acknowledged that they were now surrounded by American warships bristling with firepower but he did not sound afraid. “You only die once,” Mr. Sugule said.

He said that all was peaceful on the ship, despite unconfirmed reports from a maritime organization in Kenya that three pirates had been killed in a shoot-out among themselves on Monday night.

He insisted that the pirates were not interested in the weapons and had no plans to sell them to Islamist insurgents battling Somalia’s weak transitional government. “Somalia has suffered from many years of destruction because of all these weapons,” he said. “We don’t want that suffering and chaos to continue. We are not going to offload the weapons. We just want the money.”

He said that they were asking for $20 million in cash — “we don’t use any other system than cash.” But he added that they were willing to bargain. “That’s deal making,” he explained.

Piracy in Somalia is a highly-organized, lucrative, ransom-driven business. Just this year, pirates have hijacked more than 25 ships, and in many cases, they were paid million dollar ransoms to release them. The juicy payoffs have attracted gunmen from across Somalia and the pirates are thought to now number in the thousands.

The piracy industry started about 10 to 15 years ago, Somali officials said, as a response to illegal fishing. Somalia’s central government imploded in 1991, casting the country into chaos. With no patrols along the shoreline, Somalia’s tuna-rich waters were soon plundered by commercial fishing fleets from around the world. Somali fishermen armed themselves and turned into vigilantes by confronting illegal fishing boats and demanding that they pay a tax.

“From there, they got greedy” explained Mohamed Osman Aden, a Somali diplomat in Kenya. “They starting attacking everyone.”

By the early 2000s, many of the fishermen had traded in their nets for machine guns and were hijacking any vessel — sailboat, oil tanker, United Nations-chartered food ship — that they could catch.

“It’s true that the pirates started to defend the fishing business,” Mr. Mohamed said. “And illegal fishing is a real problem for us. But this does not justify these boys to now act like guardians. They are criminals. The world must help us crack down on them.”

The United States and several European countries, in particular France, have been talking about ways to patrol the waters together. The United Nations is even considering creating something like a maritime peacekeeping force. Because of all the hijackings, the waters off of Somalia’s 1,880-mile-long coast are now considered the most dangerous shipping lanes in the world.

On Tuesday, several American warships had the hijacked freighter cornered along the craggy Somali coastline. The American ships were allowing the pirates to bring food and water on board but not to take any weapons off. A Russian frigate is also on its way to the area.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Navy spokesman, said on Tuesday that he had heard the unconfirmed reports about the inter-pirate shootout but that the Navy had no more information. “To be honest, we’re not seeing a whole lot of activity” on the ship, he said.

Kenyan officials continued to maintain that the weapons aboard were part of a legitimate arms deal for the Kenyan military, even though several Western diplomats, Somali officials and the pirates themselves said the arms were part of a secret deal to funnel the weapons to southern Sudan.

Somali officials are urging the Western navies to storm the ship and arrest the pirates because they say that paying ransoms only fuels the problem. Western diplomats, however, have said that it would be a very difficult commando operation because the ship is full of explosives and the pirates could use the 20 crew members as human shields.

Mr. Sugule said that his men are treating the crew members well (the pirates would not let the crew members speak on the phone, saying it was against their rules). “Killing is not in our plans,” he said. “We only want money, so we can protect ourselves from hunger.”

When asked why the pirates needed $20 million to protect themselves from hunger, Mr. Sugule laughed over the phone and said: “Because we have a lot of men.”
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bitter on September 30, 2008, 08:52:32 AM
These fools have a spokesman and press releases.
I guess like the man say, "You only die once."
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Touches on September 30, 2008, 11:56:07 AM
I find this is real TV ting.

I go keep following this story.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: capodetutticapi on September 30, 2008, 11:59:03 AM
if they want to protect they self from hunger they should fish.they already in the sea.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bourbon on September 30, 2008, 12:25:46 PM
Wait nah...how dem manage to hijack a boat carrying GUNS? Yuh woulda think dat de men transporting said guns woulda have some way to defend themselves.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: weary1969 on September 30, 2008, 12:45:24 PM
Really no demand 4 anybody 2 b freed etc. Just d money capitalism at its very best
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: grimm01 on September 30, 2008, 03:40:47 PM
The funny thing is while these pirates gallerying and enjoying their 15 minutes of infamy, somewhere, Uncle Sam has a squad of Navy SEALS practicing to storm a boat...
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on September 30, 2008, 03:53:29 PM
The funny thing is while these pirates gallerying and enjoying their 15 minutes of infamy, somewhere, Uncle Sam has a squad of Navy SEALS practicing to storm a boat...

Practicing?  Yuh mean preparing.


This thing is real serious... for the past year I've been getting a daily email from Haights Maritime Newsletter (here's a link to the archives http://www.hklaw.com/id49733/spotlight1/mpgid4720/), which tracks maritime related activities around the world.  This piracy thing has been brewing for some time but getting worse the past 6 months or so as copycat pirates crop up.

The thing that still baffling me is how a band of gun-toting pirates in pirogues and dinghies manage tuh stop ah big ass tanker.  Yuh mean tuh tell me dem backsides on de ship wasn't armed themselves?
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: WestCoast on September 30, 2008, 04:09:46 PM
check the world piracy map (http://www.icc-ccs.org/extra/display.php)
I did not think modern piracy was that wide spread
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Blue on September 30, 2008, 04:15:25 PM
Mr. Sugule acknowledged that they were now surrounded by American warships bristling with firepower but he did not sound afraid. “You only die once,” Mr. Sugule said.

 :challenge: :challenge: :challenge:
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: asylumseeker on October 01, 2008, 05:34:27 AM
This is akin to an opportunistic local kidnapping or street crime on ground level anywhere. It captures the imagination because of the scale and because it seems 'unlikely', but it's reached 'garden variety' now and you'll have a few entrants to the marketplace that reflect the character above. This is just the current window of opportunity going on off the coast of Djibouti, Somali etc. until it's not ... then these same actors will turn to the next lucrative market ...
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on October 01, 2008, 01:47:48 PM
Somali Pirates Said to Reduce Ransom  


October 2, 2008

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya — Negotiations over the arms-laden freighter hijacked by Somali pirates intensified on Wednesday and several people close to the talks said the showdown had come down to price.

The pirates, who seized the ship last Thursday, initially demanded a $35 million ransom, then dropped it to $20 million and now it seems they are willing to settle for much less.

“It’s down to $5 million,” said Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator for the Seafarers’ Assistance Program in Kenya, which tracks pirate attacks and communicates with the families of crew members. “But this needs to be done quickly. The longer that ship stays in Somalia, the more people who are going to get involved and the greedier they’re going to get.”

“My advice,” said Mr. Mwangura who has been involved in several hijacking negotiations, “is give these gunmen what they want before the sharks come.”Western diplomats and Somali officials had talked tough about a military strike against the pirates. The pirates had crossed a red-line, diplomats said this week, and there would be no capitulation to their demands. Somali officials, in particular, were adamant that paying the pirates, especially in such a well-publicized case, would only fuel more attacks, which have turned Somalia’s waters into the most dangerous, pirate-infested in the world. Already this year more than 25 ships have been hijacked. The going price is usually $1 million to $2 million to free them.

But the pirates have hardened their position as well — resupplying themselves with fresh food and water, bringing live animals on deck to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Id al-Fitr and chatting with journalists on their satellite phone. It has become clear that they do not plan on leaving the ship without getting paid.

Moreover, the pirates do not seem especially worried about the five or so American warships bristling with missiles and high-technology weapons that are boxing them in against the craggy Somali shore. The only other option, Western officials have said, is a commando raid, no easy task on a huge freighter packed with explosives and with 20 human shields (the crew, who are mostly Ukrainian with a couple Russians). The commando option, for the moment, seems less likely.

“The whole thing now is about the price,” said one Western official involved in the ransom negotiations. “The ship owners are talking with the pirates. But the two sides are still pretty far apart.”A further complication is Russia. A Russian frigate heading toward the coast of Somalia was expected to arrive within days.. It was unclear how or even if the American forces would work with the Russians, and Somali officials did not appear to be helpful.

. On Wednesday, a Somali diplomat in Moscow announced that Somalia was inviting Russia to fight the pirates on sea and on land, possibly setting up a cold war-style duel for influence like the kind that turned Somalia into a dumping ground of weapons — and problems — in the 1970s and 1980s.Russia is known for its aggressive tactics in hostage situations and many diplomats here in Kenya worry the Russians may storm the ship. The American military, on the other hand, seems content to babysit the ship for now. American officials said they are most concerned about the cargo, which includes 33 T-72 Soviet-designed battle tanks, grenade launchers, anti-aircraft guns and piles of ammunition.

American officials have said their priority is to make sure the pirates do not unload the arms and sell them to Islamist insurgents battling Somalia’s weak central government. There is no appetite right now, several American officials said, to risk American lives to free Ukrainian and Russian sailors.

“I think you will see the pirates’ ransom demands continue to decline the closer the Russian frigate gets to Somalia," said a senior State Department official.

Kenyan politicians have called for military action, saying that the weapons aboard were for the Kenyan military and they wanted them back. But several American officials have said that the weapons were part of a secret — and possibly illegal - arms deal brokered by the Kenyan government for southern Sudan.

On Wednesday, a relative of one of the Ukrainian sailors said the ship had originally been scheduled to head to Syria with a load of cars.

“All of a sudden the plans changed,” the relative said, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisals against the crew member. “And the crew found out at the last minute that the ship was carrying tanks. They were scared to be sailing past Somalia with tanks.”

Many relatives of the crew are now pleading with the Ukrainian government to help the shipping company pay the ransom, whatever it may be.

“We are praying for the government to negotiate,” the relative said. “We just want our people back.”

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/world/africa/02pirates.html?hp
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bourbon on October 01, 2008, 11:19:40 PM
check the world piracy map (http://www.icc-ccs.org/extra/display.php)
I did not think modern piracy was that wide spread

How it have so much by we? Dahs dem CD pirate and dem who does be on Frederick Street or wha? ;D
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: dinho on November 17, 2008, 01:14:03 PM
Somali pirates seize supertanker loaded with crude

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081117/ap_on_re_af/ml_piracy (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081117/ap_on_re_af/ml_piracy)

(http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20081117/capt.57e1f061543349caa2b989dc9985f6e6.south_korea_piracy_tanker_hijacked_sel801.jpg?x=213&y=141&xc=1&yc=1&wc=410&hc=271&q=100&sig=xNrrXTbCjURkXACjmNmqAQ--)

By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press Writer Barbara Surk, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 7 mins ago
This undated picture made at an unknown location shows the Sirius Star tanker AP – This undated picture made at an unknown location shows the Sirius Star tanker conducting a trial run …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Somali pirates hijacked a supertanker hundreds of miles off the Horn of Africa, seizing the Saudi-owned ship loaded with crude and its 25-member crew, the U.S. Navy said Monday.

It was the largest ship pirates have seized, and the farthest out to sea they have successfully struck.

The hijacking highlighted the vulnerability of even very large ships and pointed to widening ambitions and capabilities among ransom-hungry pirates who have carried out a surge of attacks this year off Somalia.

Saturday's hijacking of the MV Sirius Star tanker occurred in the Indian Ocean far south of the zone patrolled by international warships in the busy Gulf of Aden shipping channel, which leads to and from the Suez Canal. A U.S. Navy spokesman said the bandits were taking it to a Somali port that has become a haven for seized ships and bandits trying to force ransoms for them.

Maritime security experts said they have tracked a troubling spread in pirate activity southward into a vast area of ocean that would be extremely difficult and costly to patrol, and this hijacking fits that pattern.

"It is very alarming," said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau. "It had been slightly more easy to get it under control in the Gulf of Aden because it is a comparatively smaller area of water which has to be patrolled, but this is huge."

The tanker, owned by Saudi oil company Aramco, is one of the largest ships to sail the seas. It is 330 1,080 feet long, or about the length of an aircraft carrier, and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.

Fully loaded, the ship's cargo could be worth about $100 million. But the pirates would have to way of selling crude and no way to refine it in Somalia.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, said the Sirius Star was carrying crude at the time of the hijacking, but he did know how much. He also had no details about where the ship was sailing from and where it was headed at the time of the attack.

Christensen said the bandits were taking the ship to an anchorage off Eyl, a northeastern Somali port town that is a haven for pirates and the ships they have seized.

The ship was sailing under a Liberian flag and its 25-member crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. A British Foreign Office spokesman said there were at least two British nationals aboard the vessel.

The Sirius Star was attacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the U.S. 5th Fleet said in a statement from its Middle East headquarters in Bahrain.

"It's the largest ship we've seen hijacked and one attacked farthest out on the sea," Christensen said.

The capturing of the oil tanker represents a "fundamental shift in the ability of pirates to be able to attack merchant vessels," he said.

Classed as a Very Large Crude Carrier, the Sirius Star was commissioned in March and is 318,000 dead weight tons.

With a full load, the ship's deck would be lower to the water, making it easier for pirates to climb aboard with grappling equipment and ladders, as they do in most hijackings.

It is not clear if there was a security team on the vessel. An operator with Aramco said no one was available to comment after business hours. Calls went unanswered at Vela international, the Dubai-based marine company that operated the ship for Aramco.

Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades.

As pirates have become better armed and equipped, they have sailed farther out to sea in search of bigger targets, including oil tankers, among the 20,000 tankers, freighters and merchant vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden each year. Attacks have increased more than 75 percent this year.

With most attacks ending with million-dollar payouts, piracy is considered the most lucrative work in Somalia. Pirates rarely hurt their hostages, instead holding out for a huge payday.

The strategy is effective: A report last month by a London-based think tank said pirates have raked in up to $30 million in ransoms this year alone.

In Somalia, pirates are better-funded, better-organized and better-armed than one might imagine in a country that has been in tatters for nearly two decades.

They do occasionally get nabbed, however. Earlier this year, French commandos used night vision goggles and helicopters in operations that killed or captured several pirates, who are now standing trial in Paris. The stepped-up international presence recently also appears to have deterred several attacks.

Raja Kiwan, a Dubai-based analyst with PFC Energy, said the hijacking raises "some serious questions" about securing such ships on the open seas.

"It's not easy to take over a ship" as massive as an oil tanker, particularly VLCC's that can transport about 2 million barrels of crude, he said. He said such vessels typically have armed guards but could not say if that was the case with the Sirius Star.

Pirates have gone after oil tankers before, most recently in October when they were thwarted by a Spanish military plane.

Warships from the more than a dozen nations as well as NATO forces have focused their anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden, increasing their military presence in recent months.

But Saturday's hijacking occurred much farther south.

Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd, said the increased international presence is simply not enough.

"The coalition has suppressed a number of attacks ... but there will never be enough warships," he said, describing an area that covers 2.5 million square miles.

He said the coalition warships will have to be "one step ahead of the pirates. The difficulty here is that the ship was beyond the area where the coalition were currently acting."

___
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: capodetutticapi on November 17, 2008, 07:53:42 PM
fight fire with fire,put armed mercenaries on ships with valuable cargo.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: jimbo on November 17, 2008, 08:13:16 PM
doe frighten dem fellas goe get wha comin to them....how long dey tink dey could do this for....

My take iz that these pirates are the small fry and iz more sophisticated mafia guys is d real kingpins...
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bourbon on November 17, 2008, 09:01:52 PM
Now...a commodity like this of no real use unless someone buys it eh. So if nobody willing to buy it..what would happen next?
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: asylumseeker on November 18, 2008, 02:37:03 AM
At the moment, amongst the immediate victims are several non-US concerns ... Koreans reported to be considering sending their navy to the area, if they haven't done so yet ... However, someone will lose dey patience just now ... and somebody somewhere will commit to booking a flight on Delta ... Air France.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Andre on November 18, 2008, 08:01:03 AM
they forking with the wrong people goods & money.

watch the europeans, chinese and indians roll in their with their big ships and blow them away.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Trini Madness on November 18, 2008, 10:29:53 AM
they forking with the wrong people goods & money.

watch the europeans, chinese and indians roll in their with their big ships and blow them away.

along with de $100 million of oil
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Aviator on November 18, 2008, 11:29:54 AM
they forking with the wrong people goods & money.

watch the europeans, chinese and indians roll in their with their big ships and blow them away.

To give 'big oil' a reason to artificially jack up the price of oil ??? ???
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: ZANDOLIE on November 18, 2008, 06:42:36 PM
The funny thing is while these pirates gallerying and enjoying their 15 minutes of infamy, somewhere, Uncle Sam has a squad of Navy SEALS practicing to storm a boat...

Practicing?  Yuh mean preparing.


The thing that still baffling me is how a band of gun-toting pirates in pirogues and dinghies manage tuh stop ah big ass tanker.  Yuh mean tuh tell me dem backsides on de ship wasn't armed themselves?

I think the whole idea behind piracy of large tankers is the threat of a fire fight with $100 mill worth of oil/fuel in close proximity. I believe this is why they don't need a much more than a pirogue at this point. A few good RPGs and explosives is probably all the threat they need to make the security forces back TFD.

I would suspect the ability of these pirates to acquire these munitions is likely due to shitty accounting and control procedures for arms sales/disposal in the horn of Africa etc.

Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Andre on November 19, 2008, 07:52:06 AM
the indians starting to shoot.

Indian navy sinks suspected pirate "mother" ship
By SAM DOLNICK, Associated Press Writer
18 mins ago

NEW DELHI – An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said Wednesday, yet more violence in the lawless seas where brigands are becoming bolder and more violent.

Separate bands of pirates also seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden, where Somalia-based pirates appear to be attacking ships at will, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

"It's getting out of control," Choong said.

A multicoalition naval force has increased patrols in the region, and scored a rare success Tuesday when the Indian warship, operating off the coast of Oman, stopped a ship similar to a pirate vessel mentioned in numerous piracy bulletins. The Indian navy said the pirates fired on the INS Tabar after the officers asked it to stop to be searched.

"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers," said a statement from the Indian navy. Indian forces fired back, sparking fires and a series of onboard blasts — possibly due to exploding ammunition — and destroying the ship.

They chased one of two speedboats that had been shadowing the larger ship, and which fled when it sank. One was later found abandoned. The other escaped, according to the statement.

Larger "mother ships" are often used to take gangs of pirates and smaller attack boats into deep water, and can be used as mobile bases to attack merchant vessels.

Last week, Indian navy commandos operating from a warship foiled a pirate attempt to hijack a ship in the Gulf of Aden. The navy said an armed helicopter with marine commandos prevented the pirates from boarding and hijacking the Indian merchant vessel.

Tuesday incidents raised to eight the number of ships hijacked this week alone, he said. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

"There is no firm deterrent, that's why the pirate attacks are continuing," Choong said. "The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high."

The pirates used to mainly roam the waters off the Somali coast, but now they have spread in every direction and are targeting ships farther at sea, according to Choong.

He said 17 vessels remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 300 crew members, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with weapons and a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude.

Despite the stepped-up patrols, the attacks have continued unabated off Somalia, which is caught up in an Islamic insurgency and has had no functioning government since 1991. Pirates have generally released ships they have seized after ransoms are paid.

NATO has three warships in the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet also has ships in the region.

But U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the 5th Fleet said naval patrols simply cannot prevent attacks given the vastness of the sea and the 21,000 vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden every year.

"Given the size of the area and given the fact that we do not have naval assets — either ships or airplanes — to be everywhere with every single ship" it would be virtually impossible to prevent every attack, she said.

The Gulf of Aden connects to the Red Sea, which in turn is linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal. The route is thousands of miles (kilometers) and many days shorter than going around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa.

The Thai boat, which was flying a flag from the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati but operated out of Thailand, made a distress call as it was being chased by pirates in two speedboats but the phone connection was cut off midway.

Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, manager of Sirichai Fisheries Co., Ltd. told The Associated Press that the ship, the "Ekawat Nava 5," was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment.

"We have not heard from them since so we don't know what the demands are," Wicharn said. "We have informed the families of the crew but right now, we don't have much more information to give them either."

Of the 16 crew members, Wicharn said 15 are Thai and one is Cambodian.

The Iranian carrier was flying a Hong Kong flag but operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

On Tuesday, a major Norwegian shipping group, Odfjell SE, ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi tanker Saturday.

"We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," said Terje Storeng, Odfjell's president and chief executive.

Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, has condemned the hijacking and said it will join the international fight against piracy. Despite the fact that its government barely works, Somali officials vowed to try to rescue the ship by force if necessary.

The supertanker, the MV Sirius Star, was anchored Tuesday close to Harardhere, the main pirates' den on the Somali coast, with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Aviator on November 19, 2008, 02:30:28 PM
Pirates' luxury lifestyles on lawless coast

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars, marrying beautiful women -- even hiring caterers to prepare Western-style food for their hostages.
Hostages and armed pirates on the MV Faina.

And in an impoverished country where every public institution has crumbled, they have become heroes in the steamy coastal dens they operate from because they are the only real business in town.

"The pirates depend on us, and we benefit from them," said Sahra Sheik Dahir, a shop owner in Haradhere, the nearest village to where a hijacked Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude was anchored Wednesday.

These boomtowns are all the more shocking in light of Somalia's violence and poverty: Radical Islamists control most of the country's south, meting out lashings and stonings for accused criminals. There has been no effective central government in nearly 20 years, plunging this arid African country into chaos.

Life expectancy is just 46 years; a quarter of children die before they reach 5.

But in northern coastal towns like Haradhere, Eyl and Bossaso, the pirate economy is thriving thanks to the money pouring in from pirate ransoms that have reached $30 million this year alone.

In Haradhere, residents came out in droves to celebrate as the looming oil ship came into focus this week off the country's lawless coast. Businessmen started gathering cigarettes, food and cold glass bottles of orange soda, setting up small kiosks for the pirates who come to shore to re-supply almost daily.

Dahir said she is so confident in the pirates, she instituted a layaway plan just for them.

"They always take things without paying and we put them into the book of debts," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Later, when they get the ransom money, they pay us a lot."

For Somalis, the simple fact that pirates offer jobs is enough to gain their esteem, even as hostages languish on ships for months. The population makes sure the pirates are well-stocked in qat, a popular narcotic leaf, and offer support from the ground even as the international community tries to quash them.

"Regardless of how the money is coming in, legally or illegally, I can say it has started a life in our town," said Shamso Moalim, a 36-year-old mother of five in Haradhere.

"Our children are not worrying about food now, and they go to Islamic schools in the morning and play soccer in the afternoon. They are happy."

Despite a beefed-up international presence, the pirates continue to seize ships, moving further out to sea and demanding ever-larger ransoms. The pirates operate mostly from the semiautonomous Puntland region, where local lawmakers have been accused of helping the pirates and taking a cut of the ransoms.

For the most part, however, the regional officials say they have no power to stop piracy.

Meanwhile, towns that once were eroded by years of poverty and chaos are now bustling with restaurants, Land Cruisers and Internet cafes. Residents also use their gains to buy generators -- allowing full days of electricity, once an unimaginable luxury in Somalia.

There are no reliable estimates of the number of pirates operating in Somalia, but they must number in the thousands. And though the bandits do sometimes get nabbed, piracy is generally considered a sure bet to a better life.

NATO and the U.S. Navy say they can't be everywhere, and American officials are urging ships to hire private security. Warships patrolling off Somalia have succeeded in stopping some pirate attacks. But military assaults to wrest back a ship are highly risky and, up to now, uncommon.

The attackers generally treat their hostages well in anticipation of a big payday, hiring caterers on shore to cook spaghetti, grilled fish and roasted meat that will appeal to a Western palate. They also keep a steady supply of cigarettes and drinks from the shops on shore.

And when the payday comes, the money sometimes literally falls from the sky.

Pirates say the ransom arrives in burlap sacks, sometimes dropped from buzzing helicopters, or in waterproof suitcases loaded onto tiny skiffs in the roiling, shark-infested sea.

"The oldest man on the ship always takes the responsibility of collecting the money, because we see it as very risky, and he gets some extra payment for his service later," Aden Yusuf, a pirate in Eyl, told AP over VHF radio.
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The pirates use money-counting machines -- the same technology seen at foreign exchange bureaus worldwide -- to ensure the cash is real. All payments are done in cash because Somalia, a failed state, has no functioning banking system.

"Getting this equipment is easy for us, we have business connections with people in Dubai, Nairobi, Djibouti and other areas," Yusuf said. "So we send them money and they send us what we want."
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: jimbo on November 19, 2008, 03:15:33 PM
A wonder what kind of ships does be passing by d gulf of paria to the west of trinidad & the Atlantic Ocean to the East of Trini...

Time to rounds up ah team.....free loot :devil:

Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Jumbie on November 19, 2008, 07:27:12 PM
Indian warship sinks Somali pirate vessel, navy says.


An Indian warship was able to fight off and destroy a suspected Somali pirate vessel, the navy said on Wednesday, the same day two other ships were hijacked off the coast of Somalia.

Meanwhile, the owners of a seized Saudi oil supertanker were reportedly negotiating for the release of the ship, anchored off the coast of Somalia.

The pirates had threatened to blow up the INS Tabar after Indian officers asked the pirate vessel to stop on Tuesday to be searched in the Gulf of Aden, the Indian navy said. Officials said they had also spotted pirates with rocket-propelled grenade launchers on the vessel.

The pirate vessel then opened fire on the Indian ship, which, according to GlobalSecurity.org, is a 122-metre vessel, carrying cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and six-barreled 30-mm machine guns for close combat.

"INS Tabar retaliated in self-defence and opened fire on the mother vessel," the navy said in a statement.

"Explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel," the navy said, adding that the vessel then sank.

The Indians chased one of two speedboats accompanying the pirate vessel. The speedboat was later found abandoned. The other speedboat escaped, according to a navy statement.

The attack came the same day a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo ship with a crew of 25 were also hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.
Hijacked supertanker anchored off Somalia

Also Tuesday, pirates who hijacked a Saudi-owned supertanker anchored the vessel off the north coast of Somalia. The Sirius Star was anchored near Harardhere, 425 kilometres from Eyl. It is loaded with two million barrels of crude oil valued at around $100 million.

The ship, with 25 crew members on board, was seized over the weekend by Somali pirates, 830 kilometres off the Kenyan coast.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Wednesday that the owners of the tanker "are negotiating on the issue" of a ransom but wouldn't elaborate.

He said "we do not like to negotiate with pirates, terrorists or hijackers." But he said the owners of the tanker are "the final arbiter" on the issue.

Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, said a total of 17 vessels are currently being held hostage in Somali waters with more than 300 crew members.

"It's getting out of control," Choong told the Associated Press.

Choong said eight ships have been hijacked this week. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

"There is no firm deterrent, that's why the pirate attacks are continuing," Choong said. "The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high."

Pirates have generally released ships they have seized after ransoms are paid.



Source: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/11/19/pirate-somali.html
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: ChipChipSilver on November 26, 2008, 08:13:02 PM
Indian warship sinks Somali pirate vessel, navy says.


An Indian warship was able to fight off and destroy a suspected Somali pirate vessel, the navy said on Wednesday, the same day two other ships were hijacked off the coast of Somalia.

Meanwhile, the owners of a seized Saudi oil supertanker were reportedly negotiating for the release of the ship, anchored off the coast of Somalia.

The pirates had threatened to blow up the INS Tabar after Indian officers asked the pirate vessel to stop on Tuesday to be searched in the Gulf of Aden, the Indian navy said. Officials said they had also spotted pirates with rocket-propelled grenade launchers on the vessel.

The pirate vessel then opened fire on the Indian ship, which, according to GlobalSecurity.org, is a 122-metre vessel, carrying cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and six-barreled 30-mm machine guns for close combat.

"INS Tabar retaliated in self-defence and opened fire on the mother vessel," the navy said in a statement.

"Explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel," the navy said, adding that the vessel then sank.

The Indians chased one of two speedboats accompanying the pirate vessel. The speedboat was later found abandoned. The other speedboat escaped, according to a navy statement.

The attack came the same day a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo ship with a crew of 25 were also hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.
Hijacked supertanker anchored off Somalia

Also Tuesday, pirates who hijacked a Saudi-owned supertanker anchored the vessel off the north coast of Somalia. The Sirius Star was anchored near Harardhere, 425 kilometres from Eyl. It is loaded with two million barrels of crude oil valued at around $100 million.

The ship, with 25 crew members on board, was seized over the weekend by Somali pirates, 830 kilometres off the Kenyan coast.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Wednesday that the owners of the tanker "are negotiating on the issue" of a ransom but wouldn't elaborate.

He said "we do not like to negotiate with pirates, terrorists or hijackers." But he said the owners of the tanker are "the final arbiter" on the issue.

Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, said a total of 17 vessels are currently being held hostage in Somali waters with more than 300 crew members.

"It's getting out of control," Choong told the Associated Press.

Choong said eight ships have been hijacked this week. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

"There is no firm deterrent, that's why the pirate attacks are continuing," Choong said. "The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high."

Pirates have generally released ships they have seized after ransoms are paid.



Source: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/11/19/pirate-somali.html


Oops! 'Pirate' ship was fishing trawler
 

NEW DELHI – The pirate "mother ship" sunk last week by the Indian navy was actually a Thai fishing trawler seized hours earlier by pirates, a maritime agency said Wednesday, but the Indian navy defended its actions, saying it fired in self-defence.

Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, said one Thai crew member died when the Indian frigate INS Tabar fired on the boat in the Gulf of Aden on Nov. 18.

Fourteen others are missing while a Cambodian sailor was rescued four days later by passing fishermen, he said. The maritime bureau received a report on the apparent mistake late Tuesday from Bangkok-based Sirichai Fisheries, which owned the trawler, the Ekawat Nava5, he said.

"The Indian navy assumed it was a pirate vessel because they may have seen armed pirates on board the boat which has been hijacked earlier," Choong said.

India's navy said last week that the INS Tabar, which began patrolling the gulf on Nov. 2, battled a pirate "mother ship" on Nov. 18, setting the ship ablaze.

In New Delhi, Indian navy spokesman Commander Nirad Sinha said Wednesday that the INS Tabor was responding to threats from pirates on board the ship to attack.

"Insofar as we are concerned, both its description and its intent were that of a pirate ship," he said. "Only after we were fired upon did we fire. We fired in self defence. There were gun-toting guys with RPGs on it."

"Pirates take over ships," he said. "They've been doing that since the days of Long John Silver."

Sirichai Fisheries found out about the mishap after speaking to the Cambodian sailor, who is now recuperating in a hospital in Yemen, said Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, the company's managing director. The trawler was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was hijacked.

"We are saddened with what has happened. It's an unfortunate tragedy. We hope that this incident won't affect the anti-piracy operation by the multi-coalition navies there," Choong added.

Sirichaiekawat said his company had contacted the International Maritime Bureau after getting messages from other boats in the region that the Ekawat Nava5 had come under pirate attack. The boat was outfitted with a transmitter sending out its location, which indicated the boat was headed toward the coast of Somalia, he said.

Sirichai Fisheries asked if any naval ships were in the area to help their stricken boat. The British navy responded, asking for information, but later told the company that pirates had already boarded the ship and any sort of attack on them could cause the crew to be harmed.

"The British navy instructed us to wait until the pirates contacted us," he said.

Meanwhile, the International Maritime Bureau alerted the multi-coalition forces patrolling the region and other military agencies in the area, sending them photos of the vessel, Choong said.

However, it was unclear if the Indian navy had received the information because it has no direct communication links to the maritime bureau, he said.

"We hope that individual navy warships that are patrolling the gulf would coordinate with the coalition forces or request information from us" to avoid such incidents, Choong added.

It's unclear whether darkness played a role in what happened. The Indian navy said earlier that the final showdown with what they called the "mother ship" occurred after nightfall, but also said the entire incident had taken a few hours, and that it had begun in the evening.

Somalia, an impoverished nation caught up in an Islamic insurgency, has not had a functioning government since 1991. Somali pirates have become increasingly brazen recently, seizing eight vessels in the past two weeks, including a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil.

There have been 96 pirate attacks so far this year in Somali waters, with 39 ships hijacked. Fifteen ships with nearly 300 crew are still in the hands of pirates, who have demanded multimillion-dollar ransom.

At present, warships from Denmark, India, Malaysia, Russia, the U.S. and NATO patrol a vast international maritime corridor, escorting some merchant ships and responding to distress calls in the area.

Shippers worldwide have called for a military blockade of the waters off Somalia's coast to intercept pirate vessels heading out to sea, but NATO officials said there were no such plans. France has also rejected such a call, saying it was not feasible.

– – – – –

Associated Press Writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report. 02:57ET 26-11-08
Title: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: capodetutticapi on December 02, 2008, 10:19:42 AM
Pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by international warships, a maritime official said Tuesday.

The liner, carrying 656 international passengers and 399 crew members, was sailing through the Gulf of Aden on Sunday when it encountered six bandits in two speedboats, said Noel Choong who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

The pirates fired at the passenger liner but the larger boat was faster than the pirates' vessels, Choong said.

"It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape," he said, urging all ships to remain vigilant in the area.

The International Maritime Bureau, which fights maritime crime, did not know how many cruise liners use these waters.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said it was aware of the failed hijacking but had no further details.

Ship owner Oceania Cruises Inc. identified the vessel as the M/S Nautica.

In a statement on its Web site, the company said pirates fired eight rifle shots at the liner, but that the ship's captain increased speed and managed to outrun the skiffs.

All passengers and crew are safe and there was no damage to the vessel, it said.

The Nautica was on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore, with stops at ports in Italy, Egypt, Oman, Dubai, India, Malaysia and Thailand, the Web site said. Based on that schedule, the liner was headed from Egypt to Oman when it was attacked.

The liner arrived in the southern Oman port city of Salalah on Monday morning, and the passengers toured the city before leaving for the capital, Muscat, Monday evening, an official of the Oman Tourism Ministry said Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The head of a shipping agency branch in Salalah had contact with the liner there.

"They talked about pirates opening fire at their ship off the Somalian shores," Khalil Shaker told The Associated Press by telephone. He said he had no details of the incident.

It is not the first time a cruise liner has been attacked. In 2005, pirates opened fire on the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the Somali coast. The faster cruise ship managed to escape, and used a long-range acoustic device — which blasts a painful wave of sound — to distract the pirates.

The International Maritime Bureau, in London, cited only the 2005 liner attack and a raid on the luxury yacht Le Ponant earlier this year as attacks on passenger vessels off Somalia.

International warships patrol the area and have created a security corridor in the region under a U.S.-led initiative, but the attacks have not abated.

In about 100 attacks on ships off the Somali coast this year, 40 vessels have been hijacked, Choong said. Fourteen remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 250 crew members.

In two if the most daring attacks, pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter loaded with 33 battle tanks in September, and on Nov. 15, a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude oil.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych said Monday that negotiations with Somali pirates holding the cargo ship MV Faina are nearly completed, the Interfax news agency reported.

A spokesman for the Faina's owner said Sunday that the Somali pirates had agreed on a ransom for the ship and it could be released within days.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, and pirates have taken advantage of the country's lawlessness to launch attacks on foreign shipping from the Somali coast. Around 100 ships have been attacked so far this year.

Somali prime minister Nur Hassan Hussein said Tuesday that his country has been torn apart by 18 years of civil war and cannot stop piracy alone.

"This needs a tremendous effort," Hussein told The Associated Press. He has appealed for international troops, as his government's Ethiopian allies have said they would pull out their forces by the end of the year.

Ethiopia, the region's military powerhouse, has been integral in boosting the government. But Islamic insurgents have now seized control of all of southern Somalia except for the capital and the parliamentary seat of Baidoa.

Title: Re: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: capodetutticapi on December 02, 2008, 10:20:17 AM
them gettin real brazen and cockish now.
Title: Re: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: WestCoast on December 02, 2008, 10:31:12 AM
"The pirates fired at the passenger liner but the larger boat was faster than the pirates' vessels, Choong said."
dem pirates were rowing their boat or what? :devil:
Title: Re: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: mal jeux on December 02, 2008, 10:45:00 AM
"The pirates fired at the passenger liner but the larger boat was faster than the pirates' vessels, Choong said."
dem pirates were rowing their boat or what? :devil:

ent! daiz the same ting I saying. dat cruise ship probably eh even getting 25 knots.
Title: Re: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: dervaig on December 02, 2008, 11:03:37 AM
Put 2 drones over the coastline of Somalia, anything ventures out
into the water, shoot to kill. ANYTHING!

Let's see how brazen they will be after this.
Title: Re: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: WestCoast on December 02, 2008, 11:42:29 AM
Put 2 drones over the coastline of Somalia, anything ventures out
into the water, shoot to kill. ANYTHING!

Let's see how brazen they will be after this.
that's it :applause: :applause:
Title: Re: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: Bakes on December 05, 2008, 03:34:20 PM
Danish Navy Rescues Suspected Pirates  

December 6, 2008

By ALAN COWELL

LONDON -- A Danish warship on patrol to thwart piracy in the Gulf of Aden ended up rescuing seven of its presumed prey when its crew found suspected Somali pirates adrift this week with a broken motor on their speedboat, the Danish Navy said on Friday.

Danish sailors brought the hungry, thirsty Somalis on board their own ship, a naval official said. Then they sank the speedboat.

The incident highlighted the challenges facing a small international flotilla patrolling vast expanses of ocean where pirates have struck with increasing audacity, hijacking vessels including a Ukrainian freighter laden with armaments and a supertanker carrying an estimated $100 million of crude oil.

Earlier this week, pirates chased and shot at an American cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by the international warships, officials told The Associated Press.

The Danish warship, a combat support vessel called the HDMS Absalon, picked up the seven men about 90 miles off the coast of Yemen on Wednesday after a maritime patrol aircraft spotted them signaling in distress, said Lt. Cmdr. Jesper Lynge, a Danish Navy spokesman, in a telephone interview from Copenhagen.

But when Danish special forces from the Absalon went alongside the stricken speed-boat, they found rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles -- familiar pirate weapons -- which they confiscated.

“Their ship had been without propulsion for several days,” he said. “They were hungry and thirsty. We had them checked out by our doctor. We gave them blankets, food and water.”

But they did not arrest them.

“We had a situation where these guys were shipwrecked persons,” Lieutenant Commander Lynge said. “But we haven’t caught them in an act of piracy, and what their main purpose was -- your guess is as good as mine.”

The Danish crew handed them over early Friday to the Yemen coast guard, he said.

The Absalon, with a crew of 100, was deployed in the Gulf of Aden last September as part of an international effort to curb piracy.

The Danish actions followed another incident last month in which an Indian Navy warship sank what officials called a pirate “mother ship,” but later described by its owner as a hijacked Thai fishing trawler.

Negotiations are under way to free the Ukrainian freighter, the Faina, captured more than two months ago.

Last Sunday, Andrew Mwangura, who as head of a Kenyan maritime association has helped mediate the situation, said the Somali pirates who seized the Ukrainian vessel had agreed on a ransom with the ship’s owners. He would not reveal the figure, but he said that the only thing left was to figure out how to get the money to the pirates and hand over the ship.

The hijacked supertanker, the Sirius Star, is anchored a few miles off the coast of Somalia, near the town of Xarardheere. Its cargo of 2 million barrels of Saudi crude is worth about $100 million; the ship itself is worth more than $100 million. There are 25 crew members aboard. The pirates who seized it have been reported by news agencies to have demanded between $15 million and $25 million for its release.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/world/europe/06pirate.html?hp

Vid... http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/05/yemen.pirates/index.html?iref=newssearch#cnnSTCVideo
Title: Re: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: fari on December 05, 2008, 04:28:09 PM
my wife said on NPR there was a story this week about these piratas, supposedly youths in somalia aspiring to this when they grow up...wtf
Title: Re: Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt
Post by: mukumsplau on December 05, 2008, 09:51:52 PM
if its all they have its all they have
Title: German navy foils Somali pirates
Post by: D.H.W on December 25, 2008, 07:48:48 PM
The German navy says it has foiled an attempt by pirates to hijack an Egyptian cargo vessel off Somalia.

(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45327000/jpg/_45327291_006642419-1.jpg)
German forces with the frigate Karlsruhe

Six Somali pirates were captured by sailors of the frigate Karlsruhe in the Gulf of Aden.

However, the pirates were immediately released on the orders of the German government, officials told the BBC.

Separately, three Chinese naval ships were due to leave their home port of Sanya on Thursday to protect Chinese ships off Somalia.

There have been more than 100 pirate attacks this year in the Gulf of Aden and several countries have deployed warships there.

Confiscated

The Karlsruhe sent a helicopter to protect the Egyptian cargo ship Wadi al-Arab from the pirates, who shot and injured a member of its crew as they tried to board the vessel.

A German navy spokesperson based in Djibouti told the BBC's Greg Morsbach the Somali attackers were disarmed by German sailors and their weapons confiscated.

"We had forces on board the frigate, and they used fast small boats, and together with the helicopter we were able to surround the pirates and disarm them," he said.

He said the decision not to detain or arrest them was taken by the German government in Berlin.

A spokesman for the EU's mission off Somalia, Cdr Achim Winkler, told the BBC's Europe Today programme that Germany would only bring pirates to justice where German interests were hurt.

This would be the case if a German ship was attacked or German citizens were killed or injured, he said.

The injured crewman is being treated on the Karlsruhe.

The UN Security Council recently passed a resolution giving members states extra powers to deal with pirates on the High Seas, including the power of detention and arrest.

The Chinese ships - two destroyers and a supply ship - aim to defend Chinese shipping from pirates, the ministry of defence said.

The BBC's Chris Hogg in Beijing says China has followed a doctrine of non-interference in other nations' affairs and despite this new type of deployment the ministry insists this has not changed.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on January 09, 2009, 08:30:16 PM
Pirates Free Tanker After Ransom  

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/09/world/pirates.600.1.jpg)
A U.S. Navy photo shows a parachute, possibly containing a ransom payment, dropped by a small aircraft on Friday
onto the Sirius Star, a Saudi-owned supertanker.


January 10, 2009

By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and GRAHAM BOWLEY

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A Saudi-owned supertanker held by pirates off the coast of Somalia for two months has been released for a ransom of $3 million, according to one of the pirates and residents of Xarardheere, a pirate town on the Somali coast near where the tanker was being held.

The tanker, about the length of an American Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, is the largest ship known to have been seized by pirates, and it was fully loaded with two million barrels of oil.

The pirates were due to leave the ship after they received the money, paid by the ship’s owners, on Friday, according to the pirates and residents, who later said the ship had moved away from the coast where it had been anchored since November.

News agencies had reported that the pirates originally asked for $25 million for the oil tanker, the Sirius Star, but a pirate in Xarardheere who gave his name as Jama said, “They have agreed on $3 million.” He said he had spoken to pirates who had gone to the ship for the payment.

The International Maritime Bureau in London, a clearinghouse for piracy information and maritime safety issues, said it could not yet confirm that the pirates had freed the tanker.

“The information that we have from the owner is that the vessel is not yet released,” said Cyrus Mody, a spokesman for the organization. The owner, Vela International Ltd., could not be immediately reached for comment.

But a maritime group based in Kenya confirmed the release. Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers Assistance program was quoted by Reuters as saying: “The last batch of gunmen have disembarked from the Sirius Star. She is now steaming out to safe waters.”

The Sirius Star was seized in November off the coast of Somalia, in seas where pirates have struck with increasing audacity in recent months, hijacking vessels including a Ukrainian freighter laden with armaments that is still being held.

China said last month that it would send naval ships to the Gulf of Aden. And on Thursday, the United States Navy said a new international force under American command would begin patrols to confront pirates off the Horn of Africa.

As for the supertanker, Abdi Ahmed of Xarardheere said, “The big fishes left Xarardheere on Thursday afternoon to the Sirius Star ship to get the ransom money and to set free the ship.”

The pirate named Jama said he was waiting for his share of the ransom. “When the pirates receive the money, they will divide in shares on the spot, so that they will disembark tonight from the ship with everyone’s share in pocket,” he said.

Mohammed Ibrahim reported from Mogadishu, and Graham Bowley from New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/world/africa/10somalia.html?hp
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: ZANDOLIE on January 09, 2009, 08:35:54 PM
Pirates Free Tanker After Ransom  

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/09/world/pirates.600.1.jpg)
A U.S. Navy photo shows a parachute, possibly containing a ransom payment, dropped by a small aircraft on Friday
onto the Sirius Star, a Saudi-owned supertanker.



The pirate named Jama said he was waiting for his share of the ransom. “When the pirates receive the money, they will divide in shares on the spot, so that they will disembark tonight from the ship with everyone’s share in pocket,” he said.


Wey sah, I in the wrong profession!
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Dutty on January 09, 2009, 08:57:30 PM
color=navy]A U.S. Navy photo shows a parachute, possibly containing a ransom payment, dropped by a small aircraft on Friday
onto the Sirius Star, a Saudi-owned supertanker.
[/color]


The pirate named Jama said he was waiting for his share of the ransom. “When the pirates receive the money, they will divide in shares on the spot, so that they will disembark tonight from the ship with everyone’s share in pocket,” he said.



Wey sah, I in the wrong profession!

Check de heights as to why dat ransom get pay normal....dem global oil broker HAPPY de tanker get hijack

The longer de tankers stay outside...de more money dey go make speculating on the rise on the price of crude
dem fellahs currently fillin up all de worlds supertankers and parkin dem offshore....just waitin

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahkU9Lg5fzoA&refer=home (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahkU9Lg5fzoA&refer=home)

ah think ah glad de somali robbin dem outside...cause dem oil barons robbin we inside
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: grimm01 on January 10, 2009, 09:32:09 AM
So how bout some of the pirates from the Saudi tanker incident take their money on a boat and it sink and dey drown. The irony is strong here.

BTW how yuh go be a pirate and can't swim?


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090110/ap_on_bi_ge/piracy

5 Somali pirates drown with ransom share
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press Writer 19 mins ago

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Five of the Somali pirates who released a hijacked oil-laden Saudi supertanker drowned with their share of a reported $3 million ransom after their small boat capsized, a pirate and a relative of one of the dead men said Saturday.

Pirate Daud Nure said the boat with eight people on board overturned in a storm after dozens of pirates left the Sirius Star following a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden that ended Friday.

He said five people died and three people reached shore after swimming for several hours. Daud Nure was not part of the pirate operation but knew those involved.

Abukar Haji, the uncle of one of the dead men, said the deaths were an accident.

"The boat the pirates were traveling in capsized because it was running at high speed because the pirates were afraid of an attack from the warships patrolling around," he said.

"There has been human and monetary loss but what makes us feel sad is that we don't still have the dead bodies of our relatives. Four are still missing and one washed up on the shore."

Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi said Saturday that the crew of the Sirius Star was safe and that the tanker had left Somali territorial waters and was on its way home.

A Saudi Oil Ministry official said the ship was headed for Dammam, on Saudi Arabia's Gulf coast, but gave no estimated time of arrival. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The Liberian-flagged ship is owned by Vela International Marine Ltd., a subsidiary of Saudi oil company Aramco. A spokesman for the Dubai-based Vela, Mihir Sapru, would not provide details of the ship's destination or plans once in port.

"We are very relieved to know that all the crew members are safe and I am glad to say that they are all in good health and high spirits," said a statement by Saleh K'aki, president and CEO of Vela. "Throughout this ordeal, our sole objective was the safe and timely release of the crew. That has been achieved today."

U.S. Navy photos released Friday showed a parachute, carrying what was described as "an apparent payment," floating toward the tanker. The Sirius Star and its 25-member crew had been held since Nov. 15. Its cargo of crude oil was valued at US$100 million at the time.

The capture was seen as a dramatic demonstration of the pirates' ability to strike high-value targets hundreds of miles offshore.

On the same day the Saudi ship was freed, pirates released a captured Iranian-chartered cargo ship, Iran's state television reported Saturday. The ship Delight was carrying 36 tons of wheat when it was attacked in the Gulf of Aden Nov. 18 and seized by pirates. All 25 crew are in good health and the vessel is sailing toward Iran, the TV report said.

The pirate-infested Gulf of Aden is one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

The U.S. Navy announced this week it will head a new anti-piracy task force after more than 100 ships were attacked last year. NATO and the European Union already have warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden and have intervened to prevent several ships from being captured.

More than a dozen ships with about 300 crew members are still being held by pirates off the coast of Somalia, including the weapons-laden Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina, which was seized in September.

The multimillion dollar ransoms are one of the few ways to earn a living in the impoverished, war-ravaged country. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 and nearly half of its population depends on aid.

Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on January 10, 2009, 10:08:48 AM
God doh like ugly.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: capodetutticapi on January 10, 2009, 12:40:52 PM
they really sleep with de fishs.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: truetrini on January 11, 2009, 05:34:19 PM
Pirate's body washes ashore with $153,000
The Somali man drowned Friday just after receiving a huge ransom


(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28580204/displaymode/1176/rstry/28607365/)
Image: Ransom payment
Aw2 David B. Hudson / AP
An apparent ransom payment fall via parachute to pirates holding the Sirius Star.
 View related photos

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The body of a Somali pirate who drowned just after receiving a huge ransom washed onshore with $153,000 in cash, a resident said Sunday, as the spokesman for another group of pirates promised to soon free a Ukrainian arms ship.

Five pirates drowned Friday when their small boat capsized after they received a reported $3 million ransom for releasing a Saudi oil tanker. Local resident Omar Abdi Hassan said one of the bodies had been found on a beach near the coastal town of Haradhere and relatives were searching for the other four.

"One of them was discovered and they are still looking for the other ones. He had $153,000 in a plastic bag in his pocket," he said Sunday.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

Ransom delivery
The U.S. navy released photos of a parachute dropping a package onto the deck of the Sirius Star, and said the package was likely to be the ransom delivery.

But five of the dozens of pirates who had hijacked the tanker drowned when their small boat capsized as they returned to shore in rough weather. Three other pirates survived but also lost their share of the ransom.

Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of the British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd, said the incident was unlikely to deter attacks.

"The loss or potential loss of the ransom means the pirates will be all the more keen to get the next ransom in," he said. "There are people lining up to be pirates."

The Sirius Star had been held near the Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina, which was loaded with 33 Soviet-designed battle tanks and crates of small arms. The same day the Sirius Star was released, the family members of the Faina crew appealed for help, saying they were not being kept informed about the negotiations or the state of their loved ones' health.

But a pirate spokesman assured The Associated Press on Sunday that the 20 crew members on the MV Faina were doing well.

"The cargo is still there unharmed and the crew is healthy," Sugule Ali said. "Once the negotiations end in mutual understanding, the ship, its crew and the cargo as well will be released."

False alarms
There have been several false alarms about the release of the MV Faina since it was seized last September. Ali said the pirates were still negotiating with the ship's owners.

"Nothing has changed from our previous demand of $20 million ransom for the release of the ship, but as negotiations continue we are likely to reduce the amount," he said. He declined to give further details.

American warships have been closely monitoring the Faina amid fears that some of the weapons onboard could be taken onshore and fall into the hands of Islamic insurgents.

The shaky Somali government is battling insurgents the U.S. State Department says are linked to al-Qaida. But the situation is complicated by clan militias and rivalries within the Islamist movement.

  Click for related content
5 Somali pirates drown with ransom money

The latest clashes among Islamist militias have killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 50 others in central Somalia, witnesses said Sunday. The government now only controls the parliamentary seat of Baidoa and pockets of Mogadishu, the capital.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 and its lawless coastline is a perfect haven for pirates, who attacked 111 ships in the Gulf of Aden and kidnapped 42 of them last year alone. The multimillion dollar ransoms are one of the only ways to make money in the impoverished Horn of Africa nation.

An international flotilla including U.S. warships has been patrolling the area. The flotilla has stopped many attacks, but the area is too vast to keep all ships safe.

 
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: capodetutticapi on January 11, 2009, 11:49:45 PM
them boy really naive to tink they could just sail away.
Title: Somali pirates hijack German gas tanker
Post by: capodetutticapi on January 29, 2009, 12:36:49 PM
Crew of 12 Filippinos and an Indonesian taken hostage in the Gulf of Aden

NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates hijacked a German gas tanker and its 13-man crew Thursday in the Gulf of Aden, the third ship captured off the Horn of Africa this month.

The MV Longchamp, registered in the Bahamas, is managed by the German firm Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which said in a statement that seven pirates boarded the tanker early Thursday.

Spokesman Andre Delau said the ship's master had been briefly allowed to communicate with the firm and had said the crew of 12 Filipinos and one Indonesian were safe.

"We think that everything is in order, nobody is injured," he told The Associated Press.

No ransom demands have been made yet, the company said.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Bahrain-based spokesman for the U.S. 5th Fleet, said the ship was seized off the southern coast of Yemen, 60 miles from the town of al-Mukalla, the capital of Yemen's Hadramaut region. Yemen is on the north side of the Gulf of Aden, while Somalia is on the south.

Robin Phillips, deputy director of the Bahamas maritime authority in London, said the Longchamp had been traveling in a corridor secured by EU military forces when it sent a distress signal before dawn.

"Ships and helicopters were dispatched, but they arrived too late," said Phillips, who added that gun shots could be heard over the radio.

He said the ship later set a course south for Somalia.

The tanker is designed to carry pressurized liquefied gas, but Phillips said he did not know whether it was full. Liquefied petroleum gas is a mixture of gases used to fuel heating appliances and vehicles. The mixture can be mostly propane, or mostly butane, or a combination of both.

Increasing toll
Piracy has taken an increasing toll on international shipping, especially in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, which links the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal with the Indian Ocean. Pirates made an estimated $30 million hijacking ships for ransom last year, seizing more than 40 vessels off Somalia's 1,900-mile coastline.

Somali waters are now patrolled by more than a dozen warships from countries including Britain, France, Germany, Iran and the United States. China and South Korea have also ordered warships sent to the region to protect their vessels and crews from pirates.

Somalia, a nation of about 8 million people, has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other. Its lawless coastline is a haven for pirates.

The Longchamp is the third ship to be hijacked in the Gulf of Aden this year. Six have been released. Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau said 166 crew on nine ships were still being held off the coast of Somalia, not including the Longchamp.

Title: Re: Somali pirates hijack German gas tanker
Post by: capodetutticapi on January 29, 2009, 12:40:50 PM
i really doh understand how these men could pull up in ah row boat,fuh argument sake,leh we say they have ah speed boat,and just board ah friggin oil tanker.these big tankers doh have radar to see approachin vessels and if so cyar take precaution.
Title: Re: Somali pirates hijack German gas tanker
Post by: truetrini on January 29, 2009, 01:00:52 PM
i really doh understand how these men could pull up in ah row boat,fuh argument sake,leh we say they have ah speed boat,and just board ah friggin oil tanker.these big tankers doh have radar to see approachin vessels and if so cyar take precaution.

Dem little boats real hard t pick up on radar, sometimes dey look jes like a wave or swell.

Take dem huge tankers, yuh know how tll dem really are?

An Aircraft carries does be able to alunch a plane very 25 seconds and does be around 20 stories tall and about 1100 feet long...dat longer than most buildings are tall.
Title: Re: Somali pirates hijack German gas tanker
Post by: truetrini on January 29, 2009, 01:04:35 PM
another thing, dem small boats so manouverable it hard to pick dem up, add the fact dat most radars designe to pick up enemy ships and missiles and planes dan small boats.

I feel the solution might be to equip them tankers with infrared and thermal imaging cameras....dem doh miss!
Title: Re: Somali pirates hijack German gas tanker
Post by: capodetutticapi on January 29, 2009, 01:12:40 PM
another thing, dem small boats so manouverable it hard to pick dem up, add the fact dat most radars designe to pick up enemy ships and missiles and planes dan small boats.

I feel the solution might be to equip them tankers with infrared and thermal imaging cameras....dem doh miss!
and one or two sharpshooters
Title: Re: Somali pirates hijack German gas tanker
Post by: WestCoast on January 29, 2009, 01:19:31 PM
another thing, dem small boats so manouverable it hard to pick dem up, add the fact dat most radars designe to pick up enemy ships and missiles and planes dan small boats.

I feel the solution might be to equip them tankers with infrared and thermal imaging cameras....dem doh miss!
and one or two sharpshooters
yeah dais it right there
a couple sharp shooters

I was reading this (http://www.boats.com/news-reviews/article/radar-offshore-the-unsung-crew) and it says that radar should be able to pick up small craft.
Could it be the location of the radar on the tanker?
Title: Re: Somali pirates hijack German gas tanker
Post by: Dr. Rat on January 29, 2009, 03:02:58 PM
Try transporting millions of gallons of fuel/oil and try running away from a man that can potentially destroy with rocket launcher.  These ships have no choice but to stop.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bitter on April 08, 2009, 10:04:31 AM
They have to break out the Kraken for these people.

Somali Pirates Seize U.S. Ship in Latest Attack
20 Americans Held by Pirates on Container Ship Carrying Food Aid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/08/AR2009040800940.html?hpid=topnews

By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 8, 2009; 11:31 AM

NAIROBI, April 8 -- Somali pirates seized a U.S.-operated container ship Wednesday with 20 American crew on board, the latest in a spate of pirate attacks that have drawn an international flotilla of naval vessels to the waters off Somalia's coast.

A U.S. Navy spokeswoman, Cmdr. Jane Campbell, confirmed the attack on the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama, which was carrying food aid. She said it was the first seizure in recent memory of a U.S.-operated ship.

Campbell also noted that the pirates, who have been operating a multimillion-dollar shakedown business mostly in the crowded shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, seem to be moving south to the less-controlled, open sea off Somalia's vast coast -- a shoreline roughly the length of the East Coast of the United States.

The Maersk Alabama was seized 500 miles south of the Gulf of Aden transit routes where most of the 20 or so naval vessels are patrolling, Campbell said. The nearest navy ship was about 300 miles away.

"It's an incredibly vast area, and basically we're seeing pirates in more than a million-square-mile operating area," said Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain. "So while the presence of naval vessels has had an effect, we continue to say that naval presence alone will never be a total solution. It starts ashore."

That shore belongs to Somalia, where a newly-elected transitional government is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency with ties to al-Qaeda. The pirate networks are controlled by clan-based militias, which so far have remained separate from the Islamist insurgent group known as al-Shabab.

The Maersk Alabama is owned and operated by Maersk Line Ltd. in the United States, part of the Copenhagen-headquartered A.P. Moller Maersk Group, according to a statement on the company's Web site.

It is the sixth ship to be seized in the past week, said Andrew Mwangura, coordinator for the East African Seafarer's Assistance Program based in Mombassa, Kenya, where the Maersk Alabama was headed.

Mwangura said the attack marks a rise in a piracy problem that cost companies $150 million in ransom last year. The attacks had been stemmed in recent months by patrolling navy ships sent from the United States, Russia, China, Turkey and Pakistan, among other nations.

There are now 18 ships being held by Somali pirates, a wily bunch who deploy a high- and low-tech arsenal of satellite phones, rocket-propelled grenades and wooden ladders to take over the massive container ships. Although there is no word yet on the fate of the Maersk Alabama crew, the pirates usually take sailors onto shore and begin negotiating hefty ransoms that fund lavish lifestyles centered in Somalia's pirate capital of Eyl, along the coast.

Campbell said that despite the deployment of heavily armed ships to combat piracy, at least three shipping companies have managed to fend off pirates recently using relatively low-tech methods.

One simply zigzagged, outmaneuvering the pirates, who typically attack in 15-foot skiffs. Another used flares and a water hose. The third one: old-fashioned barbed wire.

"These boats are usually armed to the teeth with RPGs and automatic weapons, but the method of boarding is literally tilting a ladder and climbing," she said. "In this case, when they got to the top of the ladder, the barbed wire was there."

Maritime officials reported that the pirate attack on the Maersk Alabama began late at night and lasted about five hours. Up to three pirate skiffs were said to be involved. The container ship's crew tried to take evasive action before the pirates eventually were able to board it.

Piracy experts attribute the recent surge in successful hijackings largely to an improvement in the weather in recent weeks.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: E-man on April 08, 2009, 10:32:22 AM
self-reliant American crew takes ship back.


US crew reportedly takes over ship from pirates
AP

By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer Katharine Houreld, Associated Press Writer – 1 min ago

NAIROBI, Kenya – Pentagon officials said Wednesday that the American crew of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship had retaken control from Somali pirates who hijacked the vessel far off the Horn of Africa.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because information was still preliminary. But they said the hijacked crew had apparently contacted the private company that operates the ship.

At a noon news conference, Maersk Line Ltd. CEO John Reinhart said that the company was working to contact families of the crew.

"Speculation is a dangerous thing when you're in a fluid environment. I will not confirm that the crew has overtaken this ship," he said.

A U.S. official said the crew had retaken control and had one pirate in custody.

"The crew is back in control of the ship," a U.S. official said at midday, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on the record. "It's reported that one pirate is on board under crew control — the other three were trying to flee," the official said. The status of the other pirates was unknown, the official said, but they were reported to "be in the water."

The official said the status of the other pirates was unknown but they were reported to "be in the water." The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Another U.S. official, citing a readout from an interagency conference call, said: "Multiple reliable sources are now reporting that the Maersk Alabama is now under control of the U.S. crew. The crew reportedly has one pirate in custody. The status of others is unclear, they are believed to be in the water."

The ship was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

It was the sixth vessel seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said that it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory." She did not give an exact timeframe.

The top two commanders of the ship graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the Cape Cod Times reported Wednesday.

Andrea Phillips, the wife of Capt. Richard Phillips of Underhill, Vermont., said her husband has sailed in those waters "for quite some time" and a hijacking was perhaps "inevitable."

The Cape Cod Times reported his second in command, Capt. Shane Murphy, was also among the 20 Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama.

Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, says his son is a 2001 graduate who recently talked to a class about the dangers of pirates.

Somali pirates are trained fighters who frequently dress in military fatigues and use speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades. Far out to sea, their speedboats operate from larger mother ships.

The U.S. Navy said that the ship was hijacked early Wednesday about 280 miles (450 kilometers) southeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia.

U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the closest U.S. ship at the time of the hijacking was 345 miles (555 kilometers)away.

The International Maritime Bureau says 260 crew on 14 hijacked ships are being held off the coast of Somalia, including the U.S.-flagged ship seized Wednesday, the Maersk Alabama and its crew of 20 U.S. nationals.

The Combined Maritime Forces issued an advisory Wednesday highlighting several recent attacks that occurred hundreds of miles off the Somali coast and stating that merchant mariners should be increasingly vigilant when operating in those waters.

The advisory said the "scope and magnitude of problem cannot be understated."

Douglas J. Mavrinac, the head of maritime research at investment firm Jefferies & Co., noted that it is very unusual for an international ship to be U.S.-flagged and carry a U.S. crew. Although about 95 percent of international ships carry foriegn flags because of the lower cost and other factors, he said, ships that are operated by or for the U.S. government — such a food aid ships like Maersk Alabama — have to carry U.S. flags, and therefore, employ a crew of U.S. citizens.

There are fewer than 200 U.S.-flagged vessels in international waters, said Larry Howard, chair of the Global Business and Transportation Department at SUNY Maritime College in New York.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Babalawo on April 08, 2009, 10:39:54 AM
the Somalians so law bitting. I think they should just organize and tax who ever ships want to pass on their waters. Do robbery the legal way  ;)
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Aviator on April 10, 2009, 01:09:01 PM
Have no idea how to embed this video, but here is a little background from a Somalians perspective.

http://www.afrovideo.org/play.php?vid=3920
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Dutty on April 10, 2009, 02:58:28 PM
Have no idea how to embed this video, but here is a little background from a Somalians perspective.

http://www.afrovideo.org/play.php?vid=3920


well, he might have point for initial reasoning...but he self say..is pure greed dem on now

this ting turning into a saga...I feel dem somali should start buying eye patch and parrots oui

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090410/us_nm/us_somalia_piracy (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090410/us_nm/us_somalia_piracy)

  By Abdi Guled Abdi Guled   – Fri Apr 10, 8:39 am ET

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali pirates holding an American on a drifting lifeboat vowed on Friday to fight any attack by U.S. naval forces and reportedly recaptured their hostage when he jumped overboard to escape.

Ship captain Richard Phillips leapt into the sea, but was quickly brought back, U.S. media said, citing defense sources.

"We are not afraid of the Americans," one of the pirates told Reuters by satellite phone on behalf of the gang holding Phillips far off the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean.

"We will defend ourselves if attacked."

Despite their defiant talk, maritime groups tracking the saga -- the first time Somali pirates have captured an American -- say a more likely outcome is a negotiated solution, possibly involving safe passage in exchange for their captive.

The gang is also seeking a ransom, friends say.

Four pirates have been holding Phillips, a former Boston taxi driver, since Wednesday after a foiled bid to hijack the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama several hundred miles off Somalia.

The ship's lifeboat has run out of fuel.

Two boats full of heavily-armed fellow pirates have taken to sea in solidarity with the four on the lifeboat, but are too nervous to come near due to the presence of foreign naval ships including the USS Bainbridge destroyer which is up close.

"Other pirates want to come and help their friends, but that would be like sentencing themselves to death," said Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program that monitors the region's seas.

"They will release the captain, I think, maybe today or tomorrow, but in exchange for something. Maybe some payment or compensation, and definitely free passage back home."

Phillips is one of about 270 hostages being held at the moment by Somali pirates, who have been plying the busy sea-lanes of the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean for years.

They are keeping 18 captured vessels at or near lairs on the Somali coast -- five of them taken since the weekend alone.

Yet the fact Phillips is the first U.S. citizen seized, and the drama of his 20-man American crew stopping the Alabama being hijacked on Wednesday, has galvanized world attention.

It has also given President Barack Obama another foreign policy problem in a place most Americans would rather forget.

Perched on the Horn of Africa across from the Middle East, Somalia has suffered 18 years of civil conflict since warlords toppled former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Americans remember with a shudder the disastrous U.S.-U.N. intervention there soon after, including the infamous "Black Hawk Down" battle in 1993 when 18 U.S. troops were killed in a 17-hour firefight that later inspired a book and a movie.

U.S. SENDS MORE SHIPS

In another Somali-American saga, Captain Phillips apparently volunteered to get in the lifeboat with the pirates on Wednesday to act as a hostage for the sake of the Alabama's 20 American crew members, who somehow retook control of their ship.

The freighter, which is carrying food aid for Uganda and Somalia, is now on its way to its original destination, Mombasa port in Kenya. It is expected to arrive by Sunday night.

Friends of the pirates on the lifeboat said the situation was becoming desperate.

"The captain might be harmed and so might my friends," said a pirate on one of the two boats that left the Somali coast. "We see more warships coming to the scene. We cannot go further."

The USS Bainbridge has called on the FBI and other U.S. officials to help negotiate with the pirates.

U.S. military officials said more forces were on the way and that all options were on the table to save the captain.

Last year saw an unprecedented number of hijackings off Somalia -- 42 in total. That disrupted shipping, delayed food aid to east Africa, increased insurance costs, and persuaded some firms to send cargoes round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, a critical route for oil.

It also brought a massive international response, with ships from the United States, Europe, China, Japan and others flocking to the region to protect the sea-routes.

As the patrols mainly focused on the Gulf of Aden, the gateway to the Suez, the pirates began moving further afield and have been striking as far south as Indian Ocean waters near the Seychelles and Madagascar.

Analysts say the attack on the Alabama could lead to a new phase in international efforts to stop piracy.

"Piracy may be a centuries-old crime, but we are working to bring an appropriate, 21st-century response," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

With a vast area for the pirates to roam in, however, analysts say the only real solution is peace and stable government in Somalia itself.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on April 10, 2009, 03:35:35 PM
Time to send in the SEALS.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: truetrini on April 10, 2009, 04:13:56 PM
yuh feel if dat crew was Canadain dem was ever fighting and taking back control ah dat ship>  steups...dais wah yuh get when yuh mess with yankee resolve!
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on April 10, 2009, 05:03:51 PM
yuh feel if dat crew was Canadain dem was ever fighting and taking back control ah dat ship>  steups...dais wah yuh get when yuh mess with yankee resolve!

Yankee resolve need to line up some snipers and cut the fukkery.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: truetrini on April 10, 2009, 08:09:18 PM
yuh feel if dat crew was Canadain dem was ever fighting and taking back control ah dat ship>  steups...dais wah yuh get when yuh mess with yankee resolve!

Yankee resolve need to line up some snipers and cut the f**kkery.
  it coming...wait
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: D.H.W on April 10, 2009, 08:30:53 PM
(http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/images/2008/05/16/lifeboat_2.jpg)

how they shoot them in that
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on April 10, 2009, 08:43:52 PM
(http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/images/2008/05/16/lifeboat_2.jpg)

how they shoot them in that

How hard yuh think it go be to get two frog men to go put some hole in de bottom ah dat?
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: elan on April 10, 2009, 09:21:53 PM
(http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/images/2008/05/16/lifeboat_2.jpg)

how they shoot them in that

How hard yuh think it go be to get two frog men to go put some hole in de bottom ah dat?

How the hell you know what I thinking....I done say that long time. That should be sinking right now.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: zuluwarrior on April 11, 2009, 08:40:36 AM
He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”


Ah find it funny non ah alyuh adressing the reason why these fiehermen became pirates ,is it ok for the western big ships to dump they shit in the people waters ,fish in the people waters with they big ships and no body cares about them is only natural at some point they would fight back and this is their way of fighting back it might not be right but what the weastern world is doing to the people is not right either and is time for this problem to be address . As the man say we have know coast guard so think of them like the somalia coast guard .as i see it a coin have two sides not one .
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: D.H.W on April 11, 2009, 09:04:38 AM
Breaking --

Pirates seize a US-owned, Italian-flagged, tugboat in the Gulf of Aden with 16 crew aboard, amid a standoff over a US captain held hostage.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on April 11, 2009, 10:14:28 AM
He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”


Ah find it funny non ah alyuh adressing the reason why these fiehermen became pirates ,is it ok for the western big ships to dump they shit in the people waters ,fish in the people waters with they big ships and no body cares about them is only natural at some point they would fight back and this is their way of fighting back it might not be right but what the weastern world is doing to the people is not right either and is time for this problem to be address . As the man say we have know coast guard so think of them like the somalia coast guard .as i see it a coin have two sides not one .

Ah find it funny that you would post this nonsense... all of these incidents are occurring in international waters... that jackass trying hard to justify the bullshit that they doing and you steady eating de chain up.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: zuluwarrior on April 11, 2009, 11:20:57 AM
Yes bakes  i understand that it happening in international waters now  because they see the kind ah money they could make but what i am asking what cause these fishermen to reach to that point there must be a cause they did not juss getup one day and say let us be pirates what have these people been dealing with before they got to this point ? Doh get me wrong i am not sayin that they are right, did anybody listen when the fishermen complain .
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Dutty on April 11, 2009, 12:15:28 PM
yuh feel if dat crew was Canadain dem was ever fighting and taking back control ah dat ship>  steups...dais wah yuh get when yuh mess with yankee resolve!

*steeuuupps**

last time allyuh went in somalia...dem fellahs take some bow and arrow and sling shot an blow out de black hawk, some humvees and run allyuh out de place...now yuh wuh sen tadpole and frog to get another round of sampat?

heh..tell yuh people spray dat in de pirate eye patch it might wukk dis time
(http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A1119/111950/470_111950.jpg)
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on April 11, 2009, 12:25:19 PM
Yes bakes  i understand that it happening in international waters now  because they see the kind ah money they could make but what i am asking what cause these fishermen to reach to that point there must be a cause they did not juss getup one day and say let us be pirates what have these people been dealing with before they got to this point ? Doh get me wrong i am not sayin that they are right, did anybody listen when the fishermen complain .

What caused it may very well be the internal strife that's taking place in Somalia... but what does the international community have to do with that?  Somalia has been under the vise of warlord politics for the past twenty years and that has stifled an already troubled economy.  Why these pirates don't band together and topple the government if they that dissatisfied?  If is oppression and injustice they oppose then what they doing about the refugees in Darfur, right in their own backyard?  Somalia is a blight on the facking map of the world, plain talk.  Let it not be lost in all of this that the ship whose captain is being held, was actually delivering food and relief supplies to Kenya... this isn't a case of rich merchants explointing the poor Somalis.  The international community needs to get together and make an example of these so-called pirates.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: capodetutticapi on April 11, 2009, 01:03:07 PM
them fukkers seize another ship in de presence of de US warships.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: capodetutticapi on April 11, 2009, 01:05:06 PM
Pirates seize Italians on tug as US ships converge
NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates hijacked an Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew Saturday, a NATO spokeswoman said, as U.S. warships closely watched a lifeboat where an American captain was being held hostage for a fourth day.

The tugboat was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's northern coast as it was pulling barges, said Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman at NATO's Northwood maritime command center.

The Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed 10 of the 16 crew members are Italian. The crew members also include five Romanians and one Croatian, according to Micoperi, the Italian maritime services company that owns the ship.

"We received an e-mail from the ship saying 'We are being attacked by pirates,' and after that, nothing," Silvio Bartolotti, the owner of the company, told The Associated Press.

The attack on the Italian boat took place as the American captain of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama was held on a lifeboat watched by two U.S. warships, hundreds of miles from land. The two hijackings did not take place near each other and it was unclear whether they were related.

The Alabama was heading toward the Kenyan port of Mombasa — its original destination — with 20 American crew members aboard. It was expected to arrive Saturday night, said Joseph Murphy, whose son is second-in-command of the vessel.

Port officials moved shipping containers Saturday afternoon to block reporters' and photographers' views of the ship when it docks.

A Nairobi-based diplomat, who receives regular briefings on the situation, said the four pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips some 380 miles off shore had tried to summon other pirates from the Somali mainland.

The diplomat, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, said that pirates had been trying to reach the lifeboat.

He said that at least two American ships and U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft had been attempting to deter pirate ships and skiffs from contact with the lifeboat but he did not know if the pirates and Navy ships had come into contact.

A Somali who described himself as having close ties to pirate networks told The Associated Press that pirates had set out in four commandeered ships with hostages from a variety of nations including the Philippines, Russia and Germany. The diplomat told the AP that large pirate "motherships" and skiffs were heading in the direction of the lifeboat.

A second Somali man who said he had spoken by satellite phone to a pirate piloting a seized German freighter told the AP by phone Saturday that the pirate captain had reported being blocked by U.S. forces and was returning Saturday to the pirate stronghold of Harardhere.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, the Somali man said the pirate captain told him the ship was in sight of a U.S. Navy destroyer Saturday morning local time, received a U.S. warning not to come any closer and, fearing attack, left the scene without ever seeing the lifeboat.

A Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations said in Washington Saturday morning that there had been no developments overnight. He declined to comment on the report that the U.S. Navy had turned back the pirates.

However, two U.S. officials said Saturday that FBI agents are investigating the Somali pirates who are holding Phillips hostage, raising the possibility of federal charges against the men if they are captured. The officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

The Somali man said the pirate also told him that two other commandeered ships from Taiwan and Greece that were trying to reach the lifeboat feared a showdown with the U.S. Navy and returned to Eyl, a port that serves as a pirate hub, on Friday night. It was not immediately possible to contact people in Eyl Saturday.

The Somali man said the fourth ship that had tried to reach the lifeboat was a Norwegian tanker that was released Friday after a $2 million ransom was paid. The owner of the Norwegian tanker Bow Asir confirmed Friday that it had been released two weeks after it was seized by armed pirates off the Somali coast, and all 27 of its crew members were unhurt.

Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was seized Wednesday when he thwarted the takeover of the 17,000-ton U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama, which was carrying food aid for hungry people in Somalia, Rwanda and Uganda. He told his crew of 20 to lock themselves in a cabin, crew members told stateside relatives.

Phillips surrendered himself to safeguard his men. The crew later overpowered some of the pirates but the Somalis fled with the captain to an enclosed lifeboat, the relatives said.

On Friday, Phillips jumped out of the lifeboat and tried to swim for his freedom but was recaptured when a pirate fired an automatic weapon at or near him, according to U.S. Defense Department officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the sensitive, unfolding operations.

Negotiations had been taking place between the pirates and the captain of the Bainbridge, who was getting direction from FBI hostage negotiators, the officials said.

Sailors on the USS Bainbridge, which has rescue helicopters and lifeboats, were able to see Phillips but at several hundred yards away were too far to help him. The U.S. destroyer is keeping its distance, in part to stay out of the pirates' range of fire.

The lifeboat has some gas and the ability to move, according to U.S. defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive details.

U.S. sailors saw Phillips moving around and talking after his return to the lifeboat, and the Defense Department officials said they think he is unharmed.

The Bainbridge was joined Friday by the USS Halyburton, which has helicopters, and the huge, amphibious USS Boxer was expected soon after, the defense officials said. The Boxer, the flagship of a multination anti-piracy task force, resembles a small aircraft carrier. It has a crew of more than 1,000, a mobile hospital, missile launchers and about two dozen helicopters and attack planes.

The vice president of the Philippines, the nation with the largest number of sailors held captive by Somali pirates, appealed for the safety of hostages to be ensured in the standoff.

"We hope that before launching any tactical action against the pirates, the welfare of every hostage is guaranteed and ensured," said Vice President Noli de Castro. "Moreover, any military action is best done in consultation with the United Nations to gain the support and cooperation of other countries."

On Friday, the French navy freed a sailboat seized off Somalia last week by other pirates, but one of the hostages was killed.

France's defense minister promised an autopsy and investigation into the death of the hostage killed during the commando operation, which freed four other captives and was prompted by threats the passengers would be executed.

The pirates had seized the sailboat carrying Florent Lemacon, his wife, 3-year-old son and two friends off the Somali coast a week ago.

Two pirates were killed, and Lemacon died in an exchange of fire as he tried to duck down the hatch. Three pirates were taken prisoner in the operation, and are to be brought to France for criminal proceedings.

Piracy along the anarchic and impoverished Somali coast, the longest in Africa, has risen in recent years.

Somali pirates have been seizing ships with many hostages and anchoring it near shore, where they have quickly escaped to land and begun negotiations for multimillion-dollar ransoms.

They hold about a dozen ships with more than 200 crew members, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a piracy watchdog group based in Malaysia. The bureau lists 66 attacks since January, not including the Alabama.

Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Brownsugar on April 12, 2009, 06:09:53 AM
I find dis shit going on too long now.....steups

p.s. LOL @ Dutty.... :rotfl:
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: WestCoast on April 12, 2009, 06:16:12 AM
so....................
what is THEIR government doing for them?


here read this

HMCS Winnipeg thwarts Arabian Sea pirate attack

CTV.ca News Staff
 
Updated: Sun. Apr. 5 2009 8:00 PM ET

A Canadian warship has had a busy weekend on the Arabian Sea, thwarting a pirate attack and delivering supplies to a boatload of Somali refugees all in the same 24-hour period.

On Saturday, HMCS Winnipeg, currently involved in an anti-pirate NATO mission called Operation Allied Protector, saw three skiffs approaching an Indian merchant vessel.

The Pacific Opal radioed for help and Cmdr. Craig Baines, the commanding officer of the Canadian warship, sent out a Sea King helicopter to investigate.

Baines told CTV Newsnet that HMCS Winnipeg got the call for help while it was busy escorting another ship.

"We were actually escorting another vessel at the time when we noticed that another ship launched three smaller vessels that rapidly closed in on a merchant vessel that was nearby in the area," he said Sunday.

Pilot Maj. James Hawthorne said the pirates complied with Canadian instructions, which came in the form of a sign hanging from the side of the helicopter with the word "Stop" written in Somali.

"Whatever their intentions were, they complied without instructions and allowed the merchant vessel to proceed," Hawthorne said, when quoted in a military statement that was released Saturday.

Baines said the helicopter shadowed the suspected pirate skiffs for about 15 minutes in total.

"After we've deterred something, if they haven't actually done an act of piracy, which in this case they hadn't because we intervened beforehand, we usually just let them carry on and try to monitor their position," Baines said.

Few pirates would engage a military ship or helicopter, he said, because the risks are too high.

"The fortunate thing is that the pirates want nothing to do with warships or helicopters," Baines said.

"They are in this for economic gain only and so they know that if they ever tried to engage a ship or a helicopter, it would end badly for them."

Afterward, the HMCS Winnipeg crew got a thank you message from the crew on board the Pacific Opal, Baines said.

Lieut. Gen. Michel Gauthier said the incident "highlights the importance of our mission and the efforts to make a difference with our coalition partners in the fight against piracy and international terrorism."

HMCS Winnipeg saw further action on Sunday when it brought supplies to a boatload of Somali refugees who were hungry and thirsty after being at sea for two days.

The warship has a crew of some 240 officers and non-commissioned members and is based out of Esquimalt, B.C.

It has been at sea since February and is scheduled to return to B.C. in August.

With files from The Canadian Press

© 2009  All Rights Reserved.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090405/pirate_attack_090405/20090405
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Deeks on April 12, 2009, 08:47:44 AM
Happy Easter Warriors!!!
                                   Unfortunately, the area that the US navy has to cover is about the size of the east coast. Them ship can't just speed up to each highjacking incident  just like that. The pirates decides when to attack. They making sure them warships are about 300 mls or more from them. The issues as everybody rightly agree on is resolving the entire Somali mess. That country has to be fixed. I don't know how? Maybe they should split it in 3. They had over 20 yrs to figure out what they want. They can't agree.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: zuluwarrior on April 12, 2009, 11:38:00 AM
The Captain was freed and 3pirates geh ded
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: truetrini on April 12, 2009, 11:56:36 AM
yuh feel if dat crew was Canadain dem was ever fighting and taking back control ah dat ship>  steups...dais wah yuh get when yuh mess with yankee resolve!

*steeuuupps**

last time allyuh went in somalia...dem fellahs take some bow and arrow and sling shot an blow out de black hawk, some humvees and run allyuh out de place...now yuh wuh sen tadpole and frog to get another round of sampat?

heh..tell yuh people spray dat in de pirate eye patch it might wukk dis time
(http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A1119/111950/470_111950.jpg)

Maybe we need to start shipping some ah dem cans ah resolve into PANSY ass Canada!

U.S. Navy rescues captain held by pirates
Three of the Somali captors were killed and one was in custody
Image: Maersk Alabama crew
Sayyid Azim / AP
A crew member waves from the Maersk Alabama at the Mombasa port in Kenya, on Sunday.
 View related photos
   
  Pirates reportedly fire upon U.S. sailors
April 11: U.S. sources tell NBC News that well after sunset, the pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips fired several shots at a small Navy patrol boat circling their location. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports.

Nightly News
   
Video
   
  Crew remains aboard Maersk Alabama
April 11: A Maersk spokesperson says the crew will remain on the docked ship until the FBI finishes its investigation into the pirate attack.
 

MOMBASA, Kenya - The U.S. Navy has rescued the American sea captain held by Somali pirates.

A senior U.S. intelligence official said hostage Richard Phillips was not hurt in what appeared to be a swift firefight off the Somali coast on Sunday. Phillips was safely transported to a Navy warship nearby.

The official said three pirates were killed and one was injured.
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The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. warships and helicopters had been stalking the lifeboat holding the captain and his  captors as a Somali official and others reported earlier that negotiations for his release had broken down.

The district commissioner of the central Mudug region said talks went on all day Saturday, with clan elders from his area talking by satellite telephone and through a translator with Americans, but collapsed late Saturday night.

"The negotiations between the elders and American officials have broken down. The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates in Puntland and elders refused the arrest of the pirates," said the commissioner, Abdi Aziz Aw Yusuf. He said he organized initial contacts between the elders and the Americans.

Two other Somalis, one involved in the negotiations and another in contact with the pirates, also said the talks collapsed because of the U.S. insistence that the pirates be arrested and brought to justice.

Nineteen American sailors guarded by U.S. Navy Seals reached safe harbor in Kenya's northeast port of Mombasa on Saturday night, exhilarated by freedom but mourning the absence of Capt. Richard Phillips, who sacrificed himself as a hostage to save them.

"He saved our lives!" second mate Ken Quinn, of Bradenton, Florida, declared from the ship deck. "He's a hero."

‘Hooks and ropes’
ATM Reza, a crew member who said he was first to see the pirates board the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on Wednesday described how the bandits "came on with hooks and ropes and were firing in the air."

He was responding to a throng of reporters shouting questions from shore about the ordeal that began with Somali pirates hauling themselves up from a small boat bobbing on the surface of the Indian Ocean far below.

As the pirates shot in the air, Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself to safeguard his men, crew members said.

Phillips was still held hostage in an enclosed lifeboat Sunday by four pirates being closely watched by U.S. warships and a helicopter in an increasingly tense standoff. The lifeboat is out of fuel and drifting.

A Pentagon spokesman said Saturday night that negotiations to free Phillips were continuing.

But Abdiwali Ali Tar said they were deadlocked. "Some local elders as well as our company have been involved in the negotiations but things seem to be deadlocked because the pirates want to make sure to be in a safe location first with the captain — either on one of the ships their colleagues hold or Somali coastal villages — but the Americans will not allow that," said Tar, the head of a private security firm acting as the coast guard in northeast Puntland region, a haven for pirates.

Talks had begun Thursday with the captain of the USS Bainbridge talking to the pirates under instruction from FBI hostage negotiators on board the U.S. destroyer.

It was not clear where the lifeboat was on Sunday. But a statement from Maersk Line, owner of the Maersk Alabama, which Phillips captains, said "the U.S. Navy had sight contact" of Phillips earlier Sunday — apparently when the pirates opened the hatches.

A pirate who says he is associated with the gang holding Phillips, Ahmed Mohamed Nur, told The Associated Press that the pirates say "helicopters continue to fly over their heads in the daylight and in the night they are under the focus of a spotlight from a warship."

He spoke by satellite phone from Harardhere, a port and pirate stronghold where a fisherman said helicopters flew over the town Sunday morning and a warship was looming on the horizon. The fisherman, Abdi Sheikh Muse, said that could be an indication the lifeboat may be near to shore.

The U.S. Navy has assumed the pirates would try to get their hostage to shore, where they can hide him on Somalia's lawless soil and be in a stronger position to negotiate a ransom.

Three U.S. warships were within easy reach of the lifeboat on Saturday, but fears of endangering Phillips' life limit their ability to use their overwhelming firepower. The pirates have threatened to kill Phillips if attacked.

On Friday, the French navy freed a sailboat seized off Somalia last week by other pirates, but one of the five hostages was killed.

Early Saturday, the pirates holding Phillips in the lifeboat fired a few shots at a small U.S. Navy vessel that had approached, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The official said the U.S. sailors did not return fire, the Navy vessel turned away and no one was hurt. He said the vessel had not been attempting a rescue. The pirates are believed armed with pistols and AK-47 assault rifles.
Phillips jumped out of the lifeboat Friday and tried to swim for his freedom but was recaptured when a pirate fired an automatic weapon at or near him, according to U.S. Defense Department officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the unfolding operations.

Emphasizing the U.S. stand on bringing pirates to justice, U.S. Coast Guard chief Adm. Thad Allen said Sunday that "an international legal framework" is needed. Speaking on ABC's "This Week" program, Allen said "What you really have to have is a coordinating mechanism that ultimately brings these pirates to court where they can be held accountable."

The United States has signed, but not ratified, the U.N.-sponsored Law of the Sea, which allows signatories to bring pirates arrested in any part of the world to trial in their countries. France, for example, is holding alleged pirates arrested off Somali waters for trial.
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has promised to work to get the treaty ratified. The United States originally objected, during the Cold War, that the treaty provisions militated against a free market. More recently it objected to the treaty's regime governing exploitation of minerals of the deep seabed. Lately, treaty critics claim it would impinge on U.S. sovereignty.

Stabbed with an ice pick
In Mombasa, meanwhile, the Alabama crew described how they overpowered the pirates.

Reza, a father of one from Hartford, Connecticut, said that after the pirates boarded, he had led one to the engine room where he stabbed him in the hand with an ice pick and tied him up.

The crew have told family members by phone that they took one pirate hostage before giving him up in the hope their captain would be released. Instead, the Somalis fled with Phillips to the lifeboat.

Maersk President John Reinhart said from Norfolk, Virginia, that the ship was still a crime scene and the crewmen could not leave until the FBI investigates the attack.

"When I spoke to the crew, they won't consider it done when they board a plane and come home," Reinhart said. "They won't consider it done until the captain is back, nor will we."

Other bandits, among hundreds who have made the Gulf of Aden the world's most dangerous waterway, seized an Italian tugboat off Somalia's north coast Saturday as it was pulling barges, said Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman at NATO's Northwood maritime command center outside London.

The Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed 10 of the 16 crew members are Italian. The others are five Romanians and a Croatian, according to Micoperi, the Italian company that owns the ship.

A piracy expert said the two hijackings did not appear related.

"This is just the Somali pirate machine in full flow," said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, founder of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Ltd.

In Phillips' hometown, the Rev. Charles Danielson of the St. Thomas Church said the congregation would continue to pray for Phillips and his family, who are members, and he would encourage "people to find hope in the triumph of good over evil."

Reinhart said he spoke with Phillips' wife, Andrea, who is surrounded by family and two company employees who were sent to support her.

"She's a brave woman," Reinhart said. "And she has one favor to ask: 'Do what you have to do to bring Richard home safely.' That means don't make a mistake, folks. We have to be perfect in our execution."

More from msnbc.com
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: truetrini on April 12, 2009, 11:58:04 AM
dais wha yuh get when yuh try to f**k with de greatest NAVY this world has ever seen...biatches!

like yuh was hoping for disaster...well dere was one!  At least from the so-called pirates view point.

Word to the pirates:  "Go after Canadian, Saudi, French ships....leave de US registered vessels alone....or DIE!"

Ah wonder if Canada have any ah de pirogues floating around out dere?
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Dr. Rat on April 12, 2009, 12:09:12 PM
Cheers to the US Navy and to a resilient captain. :beermug:
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: D.H.W on April 12, 2009, 12:54:17 PM
Navy Seal Commandos did the Job, big up to them brave men  :beermug:
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Dutty on April 12, 2009, 01:27:31 PM
dais wha yuh get when yuh try to f**k with de greatest NAVY this world has ever seen...biatches!

l
:violin:
The brits will beg to differ


So lemme get this straight.. 3 fully staffed warships vs 4 nashy somali with 2 pistol, ah AK and a slingshot

what next? an army ranger platoon to stop de bullying in virginia elementary schools?

(http://www.webstaurantstore.com/advantage-chemical-glass-cleaner/advantage-chemical-glass-cleaner.jpg)

I feel de hostage captain mus be did take out at least 2 ah dem fellahs first
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on April 12, 2009, 01:42:24 PM
Ah bet dai's de last time they take an American hostage... f**kers.  .50 cal in dey c**t.

What the global community needs to do now is band together and set up patrols.  Set a perimeter off the coast of Somalia and any Somali vessel wanting to cross must show cause as to why they should be allowed inot international waters.  If yuh doh want to be that drastic then allow them to cross the perimeter and just watch dem like a f**king hawk.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: truetrini on April 12, 2009, 01:52:34 PM
dais wha yuh get when yuh try to f**k with de greatest NAVY this world has ever seen...biatches!

l
:violin:
The brits will beg to differ


So lemme get this straight.. 3 fully staffed warships vs 4 nashy somali with 2 pistol, ah AK and a slingshot

what next? an army ranger platoon to stop de bullying in virginia elementary schools?

(http://www.webstaurantstore.com/advantage-chemical-glass-cleaner/advantage-chemical-glass-cleaner.jpg)

I feel de hostage captain mus be did take out at least 2 ah dem fellahs first

The Brits could beg to differ, or beg for mercy...DE GREATEST NAVY EVER-US NAVY!

Now let me put yuh sour grapes ass stright....any NAvy we take on...is advantage USA!

Put dat in yuh dutty pipe and ...welll...smoke it!

Eeven if the American Captain took dem all out..dais what yuh get for messing with american shipping interests!

BTW...yuh never tell me about de Maple Leaf pirogues and dem.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: E-man on April 12, 2009, 05:53:14 PM

US captain rescued from pirates

Capt Phillips family was informed of his release hours before it became official

The captain of a US cargo ship taken hostage by Somali pirates has been released and is safe, the US Navy says.

Three pirates were killed in the operation to free Captain Richard Phillips after being held in a lifeboat for several days.

Captain Phillips was "resting comfortably" aboard a US warship after a medical check-up, a spokesman for the Navy's 5th Fleet said.

He was seized when pirates attacked his ship, the Maersk Alabama, on Wednesday.

On Friday he failed in an attempt to swim free.

On Sunday he jumped overboard for a second time, and the pirates were shot and killed before they could take action to get him back.

The order for US snipers to kill the pirates came when "the on-scene [US navy] commander determined that the captain was in imminent danger," Vice Admiral William Gortney, head of the US Naval Central Command, said in a Pentagon briefing from Bahrain.

"He had a weapon aimed at him - that would be my interpretation of imminent danger," said Admiral Gortney.

US forces apparently took advantage of the fact that one of the pirates was negotiating on a US Navy vessel when the incident happened.

The surviving pirate is now in US military custody and "being cooperative" according to the navy.

Spokeswoman: Family 'relieved' at release

Capt Phillips was initially taken on board the USS Bainbridge, a warship sent to track the pirates holding him, before being flown to the USS Boxer for a medical examination, navy spokesman Lt Nathan Christensen told AP.

Somali elders had been trying to resolve the standoff but most recent reports had suggested the talks had stalled, apparently because US officials were insisting that the pirates be arrested and brought to justice.

'Model for Americans'

"At approximately 7.19 pm (1619 GMT) US naval forces rescued Capt Richard Phillips, the master of Motor Vessel Maersk-Alabama," a statement from US Naval Forces Central Command said.

"US military forces have one pirate in custody, three were killed in the rescue," it said.

How Captain Phillips was rescued (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7996213.stm)

Central Commander Vice Admiral Bill Gortney paid tribute to "an incredible team effort" and said he was "extremely proud of the tireless efforts of all the men and women who made this rescue possible."

US President Barack Obama said he was very pleased that Capt Phillips had been rescued and that his courage was a "model for all Americans".

He said he was resolved to deal with the threat of piracy in the region.

Admiral Gortney acknowledged that the military end to this hostage incident may raise the stakes for pirates in the region.

"This could escalate violence in this part of the world, no question about it."

Reading a statement on behalf of Capt Phillips' wife Andrea, a spokeswoman for ship owner Maersk Line Ltd said the family was "happy and relieved".

"This is truly a very happy Easter for the family," the statement said.

The head of Maersk praised the captain's behaviour.

"He's a leader of men... he exhibited the true spirit of an American," John Reinhart told reporters.

He said Capt Phillips had told him: "I'm just the byline, the heroes are the Navy seals who brought me home."

Mr Reinhart added that it was time to bring both captain and crew home, and that this would be done "in the next couple of days".

The ship's crew are currently in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, being questioned by US federal agents.

Crew members put a US flag over the side of the ship, whistled, pumped their fists in the air and fired off a red flare, AP said.

'Indebted'

They have hailed Capt Phillips as a hero, saying he offered himself as a hostage in order to save them when the Maersk Alabama was attacked.

Joseph Murphy, the father of the ship's chief officer, Shane Murphy, said in a statement: "Our prayers have been answered on this Easter Sunday.

"My son and our family will forever be indebted to Capt Phillips for his bravery. If not for his incredible personal sacrifice, this kidnapping - an act of terror - could have turned out much worse."

News of the captain's release came shortly after four French citizens, including a three-year-old boy, whose yacht was seized by pirates returned to Paris.

They were freed by French troops on Friday. The yacht's owner, Florent Lemacon, was killed during the operation along with two pirates.

On Saturday, pirates hijacked a tugboat in the Gulf of Aden. The Buccaneer has 16 crew members on board, 10 of them Italians.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: fari on April 12, 2009, 07:53:12 PM
i read an article in this month's GQ magazine and it shed a lot of light on the pirate scene.   my take is that  is one thing to shoot the lil skinny man and dem in the boats, but them fellas getting resources, food, arms, boats from higher placed sources (in the government and in society). shooting them pirates ent go make a difference, they like medusa, when u shoot one, 7 does jump up.   to stop this pirate scourge govts need to help these ppl out (infrastructure, education, u know the deal), is real misery ppl in somalia suffer for years now, and while i ent condoning they actions i dont blame them either, cause the word is that pirates does live large.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on April 12, 2009, 11:39:24 PM
April 13, 2009

In Rescue of Captain, Navy Kills 3 Pirates  

By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN and SCOTT SHANE

Navy Seal snipers rescued an American cargo ship captain unharmed and killed three Somali pirates in a daring operation in the Indian Ocean on Sunday, ending a five-day standoff between United States naval forces and a small band of brigands in a covered orange lifeboat off the Horn of Africa.

Acting with President Obama’s authorization and in the belief that the hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips, was in imminent danger of being killed by captors armed with pistols and AK-47s, snipers on the fantail of the destroyer Bainbridge, which was towing the lifeboat on a 100-foot line, opened fire and picked off the three captors.

Two of the captors had poked their heads out of a rear hatch of the lifeboat, exposing themselves to clear shots, and the third could be seen through a window in the bow, pointing an automatic rifle at the captain, who was tied up inside the 18-foot lifeboat, senior Navy officials said.

It took only three remarkable shots — one each by snipers firing from a distance at dusk, using night-vision scopes, the officials said. Within minutes, rescuers slid down ropes from the Bainbridge, climbed aboard the lifeboat and found the three pirates dead. They then untied Captain Phillips, ending the contretemps at sea that had riveted much of the world’s attention. A fourth pirate had surrendered earlier.

Shortly after his rescue, Captain Phillips was taken aboard the Bainbridge, underwent a medical exam and was found to be in relatively good condition for a 53-year-old seafarer who had been held since Wednesday by pirates who had demanded $2 million for his life. He called home and was flown to the Boxer, an amphibious assault ship also off the Somali coast. Arrangements were being made Sunday night for his return home to Vermont.

“I share the country’s admiration for the bravery of Captain Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “His courage is a model for all Americans.”

Jubilation over the dramatic rescue reached from the White House to Underhill, Vt., Captain Phillips’s hometown, and from personnel aboard the Bainbridge to the cheering, fist-pumping 19-member crew of the captain’s cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, docked in Mombasa, Kenya.

Captain Phillips, who was said to be resting comfortably, spoke to officials of the Maersk Line, who quoted him as saying: “The real heroes are the Navy, the Seals, those who have brought me home.” He also spoke to his wife, Andrea, and two college-aged children in Underhill, where dozens of yellow ribbons fluttered on the white picket fence of his home and two small American flags jutted up from the lawn.

“This is truly a very happy Easter for the Phillips family,” said Alison McColl, a Maersk representative assigned to speak for the family. “They are all just so happy and relieved,” she said. “I think you can all imagine their joy and what a happy moment it was for them.”

On the family’s behalf, Ms. McColl thanked the nation and the people of Vermont for their prayers and support. . “Obviously, this has been a long journey for the family,” she said. John Reinhart, president and chief executive of Maersk Line Ltd., praised the Navy and federal officials for their performance. “Everyone’s worked around the clock,” he said. “It’s magnificent to see the outcome.”

While the outcome was a triumph for America, officials in many countries plagued by pirates said it was not likely to discourage them. Pirates are holding a dozen ships with more than 200 crew members, according to the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau.

In Somalia itself, other pirates reacted angrily to the news that Captain Phillips had been rescued, and some said they would avenge the deaths of their colleagues by killing Americans in sea hijackings to come.

“Every country will be treated the way it treats us,” Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the pirate den of Gaan, a central Somali town, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying in a telephone interview. “In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying.”

Aboard the Maersk Alabama, a 17,000-ton cargo ship, Captain Phillips’s crew erupted in cheers, waved American flags and fired off flares. When four pirates attacked the ship on Wednesday, the crew escaped harm after the captain offered himself as a hostage. He told his crewmen to lock themselves in cabins, and allowed himself to be taken at gunpoint into the lifeboat in which the pirates fled.

Over the ensuing days, according to official accounts of the episode, the pirates made repeated threats to kill the captain as their motorized lifeboat moved about 30 miles off the Somali coast. It was closely watched by United States warships and helicopters in an increasingly tense standoff.

Talks to free the captain began Thursday, with the commander of the Bainbridge communicating with the pirates under instructions from F.B.I. hostage negotiators flown to the scene. The pirates threatened to kill Captain Phillips if attacked, and the result was tragicomic: the world’s most powerful navy vs. a lifeboat.

Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of the United States naval forces in the region, said in a briefing in Bahrain that despite ransom demands from the pirates the United States had not discussed any ransom and had talked to the pirates only about the release of Captain Phillips and the pirates’ surrender.

The Defense Department twice sought Mr. Obama’s permission to use force to rescue Captain Phillips, most recently on Friday night, senior defense officials said. On Saturday morning, the president agreed, they said, if it appeared that the captain’s life was in imminent danger.

By Friday, with several warships within easy reach of the lifeboat, the negotiations had gone nowhere. Captain Phillips jumped into the sea, but was quickly recaptured. On Saturday, the pirates fired several shots at a small boat that had approached from the Bainbridge.

By the weekend, however, the pirates had begun to run out of food, water and fuel. That apparently provided the opening officials were hoping for. In briefings, senior officers who spoke anonymously because they had not been authorized to disclose information said that the pirates agreed to accept food and water. A small craft was used to deliver them and it apparently made several trips between the Bainbridge and the lifeboat.

On one trip, one of the four pirates — whose hand had been gashed during the capture of Captain Phillips — asked for medical treatment and, in effect surrendering, was taken in the small boat to the Bainbridge. Justice Department officials were studying options for his case, including criminal charges in the United States or turning him over to Kenya, where dozens of pirates have faced prosecution. Three pirates were left on board with Captain Phillips.

Meanwhile, members of the Navy Seals were flown in by fixed-wing aircraft. They parachuted into the sea with inflatable boats and were picked up by the Bainbridge. On Sunday, the pirates, their fuel gone, were drifting toward the Somali coast. They agreed to accept a tow from the Bainbridge, the senior officials said. At first, the towline was 200 feet long, but as darkness gathered and seas became rough, the towline was shortened to 100 feet, the officials said. It was unclear if this was done with the pirates’ knowledge.

At dusk, a single tracer bullet was seen fired from the lifeboat. The intent was unclear, but it ratcheted up the tension and Seal snipers at the stern rail of the Bainbridge fixed night-vision scopes to their high-powered rifles, getting ready for action.

What they saw was the head and shoulders of two of the pirates emerging from the rear hatch of the lifeboat. Through the window of the front hatch they saw the third pirate, pointing his AK-47 at the back of Captain Phillips, who was seen to be tied up
.

That was it: the provocation that fulfilled the president’s order to act only if the captain’s life was in imminent danger, and the opportunity of having clear shots at each captor. The order was given. Senior defense officials, themselves marveling at the skill of the snipers, said each took a target and fired one shot.

“This was an incredible team effort,” Admiral Gortney said when it was over. “And I am extremely proud of the tireless efforts of all the men and women who made this rescue possible.”

Robert D. McFadden reported from New York, and Scott Shane from Washington. Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington, Serge F. Kovaleski from Underhill, Vt.; and employees of The New York Times from Somalia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/world/africa/13pirates.html?_r=1&hp


^^^^This is some ole Sam Fisher, Splinter Cell shit right here... ah love it © Andre Samuel
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: truetrini on April 13, 2009, 06:10:31 AM
Trinidad-born sailor Jamille Sabga hid with almost 20 crewmates in a cramped metal room next to his ship's engine in 120-degree Fahrenheit heat for hours as pirates seized control of a United States cargo ship in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia.

Sabga, 65, was on board the Maersk Alabama, a container ship carrying food aid for Somalians, when it was attacked by heavily armed Somali pirates on Wednesday.

Sabga grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and moved to New York, then emigrated to Canada about 25 years ago after marrying a citizen of that country.

He has worked on ships in a career at sea spanning more than 30 years, a relative in Trinidad said yesterday.

John Hadad, whose mother is Sabga's cousin, told the Express yesterday that Sabga and his crewmates locked themselves in a small, sweltering room next to the ship's engine room for nine hours as armed pirates held the vessel hostage.

He and more than a dozen American crewmates had locked themselves in the tight quarters when their captain, Richard Phillips, signalled that they were under attack by pirates.

"They locked themselves in the room, next to the engine, in 120-degree heat," Hadad told the Express in a phone interview yesterday. "Even though the pirates tried to force them to open the door, they did not as they had a code with the captain that told them if it was safe to come out."

As Sabga's captain continued to be held hostage, Sabga and his shipmates understood it was time to make their escape.

As a standoff for their captain began, Sabga and the crew apparently fought off the Somali pirates and regained control of the vessel on Thursday, even though their captain remained in the hand of the pirates who demanded a US$2 million ransom.

Hadad said Sabga disembarked from the vessel and was medically examined by doctors who said he was in good health.

United States FBI agents have also debriefed Sabga and his crewmates and he is expected to return to his wife in Canada tomorrow, Hadad said.

"His family and friends are relieved that he has come out of it as my mother has been praying for days," Hadad said, adding that in a brief telephone conversation from Mombasa to his family, Sabga said that he was in good spirits and joked that this experience signalled the end of his career at sea.

Hadad said Sabga returns to Trinidad about once a year to spend time with his sister, other relatives and friends living here.

Captain Phillips was freed from captivity at the hands of Somali pirates in a dramatic ending to the five-day standoff with American naval forces, the US Navy said yesterday.

Phillips was freed unharmed and the US military killed three of four pirates who had held him hostage on a lifeboat after trying to seize his vessel. It said a fourth pirate was in custody.
   
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: JDB on April 13, 2009, 06:23:52 AM
Very happy that Obama made the right call. Even happier in the fact that he has not chosen to capitalize on the success and use it as proof of his much doubted ability to be Commander in Chief.

He take a very reserved line giving credit where it is due, while showing concern for other countries affected by this scourge who are less fortunate than the US, business as usual.

Kudos.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Jumbie on April 13, 2009, 07:09:16 AM
where's Cana? You notice ah Trini was in the mix ...AGAIN!

Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: D.H.W on April 13, 2009, 07:49:09 AM
Somalis fighting back now, mortars fired at US congressman. in Somalia 
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Brownsugar on April 13, 2009, 08:01:32 AM
where's Cana? You notice ah Trini was in the mix ...AGAIN!



We like sweetie paper....EVERYWHERE!!!....  ;D
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: asylumseeker on April 13, 2009, 08:10:29 AM
Somalis fighting back now, mortars fired at US congressman. in Somalia 

Dahis Donald Payne, a man said to be fairly supportive of CARICOM issues. He may have Caribbean roots.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: TriniCana on April 13, 2009, 08:41:23 AM
where's Cana? You notice ah Trini was in the mix ...AGAIN!



It never frigging fails eh.. Everywhere it have some blasted commotion, ah TRINI in dat and always living to tell dey tale. Hopefully some Americanas influences will hit they arse one day to write ah book - make some damn money man :devil:

No Bajan, Grenadian, Lucian or even Vincey - ah TRINI....

We juss kissmehass farse :P
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Deeks on April 13, 2009, 12:30:07 PM
The Somali pirates may have legimate gripes. The fishing industry is/was "dsetroyed" by the asian fishing fleets. Also gabbage being dump in their waters. I believe that. But that being said how can we justify piracy. They theifin'. That is unlawful. It is only a matter of time before they kill somebody. Then it go be tit for tat. Well it start already. Frenchie did not negotiate. They bust them up, even at the expense of one of their own citizen.

Then their is also the elements of islamist or Al-Qaida getting involved. The issue is the failed state of Somalia. This has gone on for 20 yrs. As long as the West don,t talk with the radicals, this will continue to fester. There have to be some form of stable government  there to resolve the current situation. But law and order has to prevail or else them shipping companis and maritime insurance companies will just pass the bucks on the consumers. Security tax.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: TriniCana on April 13, 2009, 01:20:17 PM


http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/04/13/lawrence.pirates.rescue.tic.toc.cnn
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: zuluwarrior on April 14, 2009, 09:02:59 PM
Another US ship attacked by them pirates and the us  NAVY came to the rescue destroyer bainbridge .
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: verycute1 on April 15, 2009, 01:04:40 PM
where's Cana? You notice ah Trini was in the mix ...AGAIN!



It never frigging fails eh.. Everywhere it have some blasted commotion, ah TRINI in dat and always living to tell dey tale. Hopefully some Americanas influences will hit they arse one day to write ah book - make some damn money man :devil:

No Bajan, Grenadian, Lucian or even Vincey - ah TRINI....

We juss kissmehass farse :P


LOL

One ah dese days, A trini go end up on the moon
Title: China Reports Dolphins Foiled Pirate Attack
Post by: daryn on April 15, 2009, 06:19:15 PM
China Reports Dolphins Foiled Pirate Attack
By Robert Mackey

(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/14/xin_5920406141120000159014.jpg)

According to a report from China’s official news agency Xinhua (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/14/content_11184581.htm), “thousands of dolphins” recently prevented an attack on Chinese merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Xinhua’s Web site published the photograph above, and three others, which first appeared on the Web site of China Radio International on Monday.

It has to be said that none of the photographs actually shows the boats said to contain Somali pirates being blocked by the dolphins, but Xinhua reported news of the dolphin intervention as fact. Xinhua’s English-language report, about a group of merchant ships escorted through the dangerous waters by vessels from the Chinese navy, contains some translation errors, but describes the efforts of the newest members of the anti-piracy coalition in glowing, even poetic, detail:

    The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China’s fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some   suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China’s.

    The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.


Xinhua does not suggest that the cetacean force may have been part of a classified military program, but given that we know that the United States military has at least tried to train dolphins to work for the government, The Lede is not yet willing to rule out the possibility.

In 1989 Timothy Egan, who now blogs for The Times, reported in the newspaper that the United States Navy was working on a plan to use dolphins (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/09/us/navy-unmoved-by-critics-presses-plan-for-dolphins-to-guard-subs.html) to guard a nuclear submarine base and had already spent millions of dollars on training, though there had been some problems:

    As part of a top-secret program expanded in the Reagan administration, the Navy has spent nearly $30 million in the last four years trying to put the highly intelligent marine mammals to military use. [...]

    Critics question the ethics of using what is seen as a benign creature for military tasks and charge that dolphins, known to be independent and unpredictable, are not reliable guardians. [...]

    Navy officials admit that dolphins and sea lions, which are also being trained for military use, have occasionally been absent without leave or have refused to obey orders.


While that Dr. Evil-like plan was officially abandoned in 1991 because of budget cuts after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and former dolphin members of the Soviet Navy were reportedly finding new lines of work in 1997, there were reports in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that, as the Guardian suggested in 2005: “Armed dolphins, trained by the U.S. military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.” The Guardian report cited concerns that the dolphins may have been trained “to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises,” and added, not so reassuringly, that “the U.S. navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.”

from: NYTimes news blog (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/china-reports-dolphins-foiled-pirate-attack/?hp)
Title: Re: China Reports Dolphins Foiled Pirate Attack
Post by: Dutty on April 15, 2009, 08:26:13 PM
wayzzz  :o...even the dolphins have resolve
Title: Re: China Reports Dolphins Foiled Pirate Attack
Post by: truetrini on April 15, 2009, 09:26:27 PM
wayzzz  :o...even the dolphins have resolve

Yep..they are Miami Dolphins...wha yuh expect?
Title: Re: China Reports Dolphins Foiled Pirate Attack
Post by: Bakes on April 15, 2009, 09:30:13 PM
^^^^ bllttttt


 :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: legal alien on April 16, 2009, 12:39:15 AM
   Look, this is one issue I can't bring myself to side with the U.S (and ,as it seems , everyone else here).The Somalis are the victims. One can say that they are engaging in illegal activity, but what the hell do you want these Somalis to do ? Foreigners taking all their fish and dumping nuclear waste in Somali waters-pure advantage. The Somalis simply trying to make money for their impoverished country.They didn't want to kill the hostages. But with the U.S killing these pirates, they really messed up . Any American sailor caught henceforth will be dead.
    I am happy the guy got home safe, but I am sure they didn't have to kill those pirates.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: mukumsplau on April 16, 2009, 06:23:27 AM
the pirates were never going to kill him. now d US make it bad fuh everybody
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: fari on April 16, 2009, 10:19:14 AM
check your facts LA...these somalis are not as altruistic as you claim.  i would venture that most if not all of these fellas just want to buy a big house, bling and have all the women and best parties.   little boys in somalia now aspire to be pirates when they grow up.  you think these lil boys thinking about the welfare of somalia?   i agree that other nations have taken advantage of the somalis but at some point somalians have to stand up for their country and try to pull together.   
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Deeks on April 16, 2009, 10:29:38 AM
LA and all those who think that the highjacking of ships is ok, I beg to differ. You are correct that all the other nations are stealing the fishes and not paying any taxes. But bandit is bandit. Them fellas ain't altruistic. They seize the opportunity to make money. It was only a matter of time before somebody dead.  But the Somali political situation has to be resolve first before that banditry stop. If they don't stop the Somalis will be the loosers. As a matter of fact I think the poliicians and klans are encouraging them to do it. They may be getting a cut in the ransom money.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Bakes on April 16, 2009, 11:08:03 AM
LA and all those who think that the highjacking of ships is ok, I beg to differ. You are correct that all the other nations are stealing the fishes and not paying any taxes. But bandit is bandit. Them fellas ain't altruistic. They seize the opportunity to make money. It was only a matter of time before somebody dead.  But the Somali political situation has to be resolve first before that banditry stop. If they don't stop the Somalis will be the loosers. As a matter of fact I think the poliicians and klans are encouraging them to do it. They may be getting a cut in the ransom money.

Not only that... but even if yuh accept the argument that they just doing this to compensate for people thiefing dey fish and dumping in dey waters then how does that justify them robbing Peter to pay for Paul?  Yuh think them Somalis checking ID to see who guilty from who innocent?  The Maersk was carrying food and humanitarian relief to Kenya, dem wasn't dumping or fishing.  Even if yuh still try and say it justified to snatch each and every ship they find they snatching these ships in INTERNATIONAL waters, not Somali waters.  Even still, yuh think the Somali people seeing any of this money?  Please.  Dem pirates driving Range Rover and building big house and thing...

Quote
On the ground in Somalia, some pirates are seen as "flamboyant middle aged men," said Mahad Shiekh Madar, a car salesman living in the northeastern port town of Bossaso on the tip of Africa's horn. "They always travel in beautiful four-wheel-drive luxury cars and look like people who are working for a big business company."

Abdulahi Salad, a 43-year-old former pirate in the central coastal village of Gaan, said pirates were "different from the ordinary gunmen in Somalia. They are not thin, and they have bright faces and are always happy."

Indeed, they are often regaled for bringing wads of cash into impoverished communities.

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A local elder in Gaan, Haji Muqtar Ahmed, said "being a pirate is not shame ... it is believed to be a noble profession."

Ahmed said people there used to make a living fishing, "but now the only livelihood they have is the income from the piracy."


http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/us_world/Somali-Pirates-All-About-Huge-Ransoms.html

Quote
Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars, marrying beautiful women — even hiring caterers to prepare Western-style food for their hostages.

And in an impoverished country where every public institution has crumbled, they have become heroes in the steamy coastal dens they operate from because they are the only real business in town.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=6288745
Title: How Somalia's Fishermen Became Pirates
Post by: zuluwarrior on April 22, 2009, 06:40:11 PM
How Somalia's Fishermen Became Pirates
By Ishaan Tharoor Saturday, Apr. 18, 2009A fisherman carries a sword fish on his head from the Indian Ocean in the port city of Kismayu

 

Ever since a civil war brought down Somalia's last functional government in 1991, the country's 3,330 km (2,000 miles) of coastline — the longest in continental Africa — has been pillaged by foreign vessels. A United Nations report in 2006 said that, in the absence of the country's at one time serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become the site of an international "free for all," with fishing fleets from around the world illegally plundering Somali stocks and freezing out the country's own rudimentarily-equipped fishermen. According to another U.N. report, an estimated $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the country's coastline each year. "In any context," says Gustavo Carvalho, a London-based researcher with Global Witness, an environmental NGO, "that is a staggering sum."

In the face of this, impoverished Somalis living by the sea have been forced over the years to defend their own fishing expeditions out of ports such as Eyl, Kismayo and Harardhere — all now considered to be pirate dens. Somali fishermen, whose industry was always small-scale, lacked the advanced boats and technologies of their interloping competitors, and also complained of being shot at by foreign fishermen with water cannons and firearms. "The first pirate gangs emerged in the '90s to protect against foreign trawlers," says Peter Lehr, lecturer in terrorism studies at Scotland's University of St. Andrews and editor of Violence at Sea: Piracy in the Age of Global Terrorism. The names of existing pirate fleets, such as the National Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia or Somali Marines, are testament to the pirates' initial motivations.

The waters they sought to protect, says Lehr, were "an El Dorado for fishing fleets of many nations." A 2006 study published in the journal Science predicted that the current rate of commercial fishing would virtually empty the world's oceanic stocks by 2050. Yet, Somalia's seas still offer a particularly fertile patch for tuna, sardines and mackerel, and other lucrative species of seafood, including lobsters and sharks. In other parts of the Indian Ocean region, such as the Persian Gulf, fishermen resort to dynamite and other extreme measures to pull in the kinds of catches that are still in abundance off the Horn of Africa. (Read about illegal wildlife trade.)

High-seas trawlers from countries as far flung as South Korea, Japan and Spain have operated down the Somali coast, often illegally and without licenses, for the better part of two decades, the U.N. says. They often fly flags of convenience from sea-faring friendly nations like Belize and Bahrain, which further helps the ships skirt international regulations and evade censure from their home countries. Tsuma Charo of the Nairobi-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, which monitors Somali pirate attacks and liaises with the hostage takers and the captured crews, says "illegal trawling has fed the piracy problem." In the early days of Somali piracy, those who seized trawlers without licenses could count on a quick ransom payment, since the boat owners and companies backing those vessels didn't want to draw attention to their violation of international maritime law. This, Charo reckons, allowed the pirates to build up their tactical networks and whetted their appetite for bigger spoils.

Beyond illegal fishing, foreign ships have also long been accused by local fishermen of dumping toxic and nuclear waste off Somalia's shores. A 2005 United Nations Environmental Program report cited uranium radioactive and other hazardous deposits leading to a rash of respiratory ailments and skin diseases breaking out in villages along the Somali coast. According to the U.N., at the time of the report, it cost $2.50 per ton for a European company to dump these types of materials off the Horn of Africa, as opposed to $250 per ton to dispose of them cleanly in Europe.

Monitoring and combating any of these misdeeds is next to impossible — Somalia's current government can barely find its feet in the wake of the 2006 U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion. And many Somalis, along with outside observers, suspect local officials in Mogadishu and in ports in semi-autonomous Puntland further north of accepting bribes from foreign fishermen as well as from pirate elders. U.N. monitors in 2005 and 2006 suggested an embargo on fish taken from Somali waters, but their proposals were shot down by members of the Security Council. (See photos of dramatic pirate rescues.)

In the meantime, Somali piracy has metastasized into the country's only boom industry. Most of the pirates, observers say, are not former fishermen, but just poor folk seeking their fortune. Right now, they hold 18 cargo ships and some 300 sailors hostage — the work of a sophisticated and well-funded operation. A few pirates have offered testimony to the international press — a headline in Thursday's Times of London read, "They stole our lobsters: A Somali pirate tells his side of the story" — but Lehr and other Somali experts express their doubts. "Nowadays," Lehr says, "this sort of thing is just a cheap excuse." The legacy of nearly twenty years of inaction and abuse, though, is far more costly.

Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: ribbit on April 24, 2009, 11:31:28 AM
they did an audit of the european fish market last year, near the mediterranean, and a huge proportion (40 - 50%) of the fish they found were illegally caught. big big market, especially for somalia.
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Dutty on April 24, 2009, 03:22:52 PM
why bother wit red snapper when yuh could reel in ah oil tanker
Title: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Dutty on February 22, 2011, 11:46:35 AM
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/02/navy-pirates-shot-hostages-022211w/ (http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/02/navy-pirates-shot-hostages-022211w/)

Navy retakes vessel; pirates kill 4 hostages

By Sam Fellman - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 22, 2011 9:46:52 EST
   
U.S. forces discovered Tuesday that pirates had killed four American hostages as a U.S.-led team was attempting to negotiate for their release in the waters off Somalia.

Pirates onboard a hijacked yacht fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the destroyer Sterett, 600 yards away. It missed. The sound of gunfire onboard the sailboat followed. A special forces boarding team, in two high-speed assault craft, rushed alongside and boarded. They killed two pirates, one with a knife, and captured 13. But they found the four Americans had been mortally shot and rendered aid, according to a statement released by U.S. Central Command.

The actions occurred around 8 a.m. local time, 50 miles off the Somali coastline, said Lt. Col. Mike Lawhorn, a Central Command spokesman.

“We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest,” Marine Gen. James Mattis, head of Central Command, said in a statement.

The dead were yacht owners Jean and Adam Scott and crewmembers Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, Vice Adm. Mark Fox, 5th Fleet commander, told reporters Tuesday. He said that their families and kin had been notified.

They had been participating in an ocean sailing cruise, the Blue Water Rally, which they joined just before Christmas, race organizers said in a Feb. 19 news release. “Quest chose to take an independent course from Mumbai to Salalah, [Oman,] leaving the rally on 15 February,” they said. Quest was hijacked Feb. 18.

“We feel desperately sorry for our four friends onboard,” the released said.

Fox said the pirates commandeered the 58-foot sailboat and were steering a course southwest, back towards Somalia. Four warships had been tracking Quest for three days: the aircraft carrier Enterprise, cruiser Leyte Gulf, and destroyers Sterett and Bulkeley.

On Monday, two pirates were brought aboard Sterett to negotiate for the hostages’ release. They were still onboard on Tuesday, when the gunfire broke out. The boat was midway between the northeastern horn of Somalia and the island of Socotra. “It was very clear that they wanted to bring the hostages to Somali territorial waters, if nothing else,” Fox said.

All 15 pirates, included the two sent to negotiate, are now in custody on a U.S. warship, Fox said.



.... first time I ever heard of them fellahs killin dey meal ticket,,,,either way dey fried

Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Deeks on February 22, 2011, 04:21:01 PM
Sad. RIP!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 22, 2011, 06:25:26 PM
They really need to do something yes... dem pirates operating with impunity in international waters, I find the navy and other naval forces in that area need to set up a drag net and shoot them out the water on sight.  Once you have high powered arms on board in international waters and no legitimate explanation for why or how... and you Somalian yuh getting rope een.  It eh nice... but what they doing eh nice either.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Deeks on February 22, 2011, 07:30:49 PM
Bakes, the only countries to assist the US in that area are Kenya and Tanzania, but they do not want to do anything unless the pirates operate in their waters. That goes for Kenya especially seeing that they are next door neighbors and has a lot of ethnic Somali Kenyan-born citizens. Where is the African Union in all of this? They are so tied up in other conflicts, I don't see them doing anything without considerable Euro-American help.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 22, 2011, 08:08:52 PM
Nah Deeks the French and British patrolling the international waters... Tanzania and Kenya are providing the logistical land-based support, but a stronger naval presence is necessary.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Deeks on February 22, 2011, 09:05:40 PM
Nah Deeks the French and British patrolling the international waters... Tanzania and Kenya are providing the logistical land-based support, but a stronger naval presence is necessary.

I agree a stronger naval prescence is needed. Do Ken-Tan have the naval resources to compliment the french and Brits?
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: PantherX on February 23, 2011, 09:47:25 AM
This problem cannot be solved by naval power alone.  The area that needs to be covered is vast and the Somali pirates have shown that they're not afraid to travel far out to sea to capture vessels.  They also know that they can operate with impunity from Somali soil.

The only way to make an impact is to strike the bases the pirates operate from, destroy their boats and weapons and kill the pirate warlords if possible.  Once that feeling of impunity disappears the number of attacks will lessen.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on February 23, 2011, 07:03:43 PM
This problem cannot be solved by naval power alone.  The area that needs to be covered is vast and the Somali pirates have shown that they're not afraid to travel far out to sea to capture vessels.  They also know that they can operate with impunity from Somali soil.

The only way to make an impact is to strike the bases the pirates operate from, destroy their boats and weapons and kill the pirate warlords if possible.  Once that feeling of impunity disappears the number of attacks will lessen.

soon.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 23, 2011, 07:43:19 PM
This problem cannot be solved by naval power alone.  The area that needs to be covered is vast and the Somali pirates have shown that they're not afraid to travel far out to sea to capture vessels.  They also know that they can operate with impunity from Somali soil.

The only way to make an impact is to strike the bases the pirates operate from, destroy their boats and weapons and kill the pirate warlords if possible.  Once that feeling of impunity disappears the number of attacks will lessen.

Panther... yuh really can't do that though, you talking about "striking" at another sovereign state, even a lawless sovereign state as the Sudan currently is.  The international community cannot or should not let that happen.  Blasting them in international waters is much easier because there are no jurisdictional issues.  And yes, it can be done with just naval power, the pirates cannot venture that far from land in the vessels that they do, there are limitations (fuel, seaworthiness) on how far they can range.  Not only that, with the collective radar capabilities of the are it shouldn't be very difficult to blanket the area or to monitor traffic.

------------------------------


Deeks, I don't know... but somehow I doubt it.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on February 23, 2011, 11:06:01 PM
so hw come they striking Taliban in Pakistan?
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 24, 2011, 12:20:03 AM
so hw come they striking Taliban in Pakistan?

Uhmm because they're fighting a war in neighboring Afghanistan... and they're striking at Taliban forces in Pakistan with Pakistani assistance/authority...
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: ribbit on February 24, 2011, 08:26:11 AM
dey eh striking no taliban - dey striking whomever de pakistanis want to target. de usa cyah tell a taliban from a moko jumbie anyhow.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: ribbit on February 24, 2011, 10:29:12 AM
looks like de somalis call de FBI bluff ....  :-\

==

Seizing of Pirate Commanders Is Questioned (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/africa/24pirates.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1)

By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: February 23, 2011


WASHINGTON — When the two pirates boarded the U.S.S. Sterett off the coast of Somalia on Monday, American officials thought they were headed for a breakthrough in the four-day standoff with a gang that had seized four Americans vacationing on their 58-foot yacht.

But an F.B.I. hostage-rescue negotiator aboard the Sterett came to believe the two Somalis were not serious. So the Americans took them into custody and told the pirates back on the yacht to send over someone they could do business with.

What happened next is sharply contested and raises questions about the crucial decision to detain the pirate leaders.

American officials said the pirates on the yacht, called the Quest, seemed relieved — even “exceptionally calm” — when told their senior commander was cooling his heels in a Navy brig.

But hours later, panic ensued among young pirates. Some Americans theorized that a fight had broken out among the gang members, suddenly leaderless, and fearing they were about to be overtaken by the four Navy warships that surrounded them. One person who has talked to associates of the pirates said their leader had told them that if he did not return, they should kill the hostages, though American officials say they do not know that to be the case.

The death of the four Americans — the yacht’s owners, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., and two crew members, Phyllis Macay and Robert A. Riggle of Seattle — is certain to add momentum to a wide-ranging review the Obama administration is conducting on how to combat the growing threat from bands of Somali pirates. The episode began last Friday, when the Quest sent out a distress signal 275 miles from the coast of Oman, in open waters between Mumbai and Djibouti. A Yemeni fishing vessel that served as a mother ship for the pirates was seen near the yacht when it was hijacked by pirates in a smaller craft, maritime officials said, but it disappeared once the American warships drew near.

As the military converged on the yacht, officials learned that there might be a way to negotiate with the pirates’ financiers and village elders, who could have acted as shore-based intermediaries if communication permitted. But for unknown reasons these contacts did not pan out.

On Monday, the two pirates boarded the Sterett, which had pulled within 600 yards of the Quest, to conduct face-to-face negotiations, apparently knowing that it was unlikely they could get away with the yacht or its passengers. One of the pirate negotiators was a seasoned commander, who had several successful hijackings under his belt, according to one person who has regular contacts with pirate cells.

The F.B.I. agent involved was a hostage negotiator from a special team based at Quantico, Va., who was experienced in both domestic and international hostage crises, a law enforcement official said Wednesday. It was unclear whether the agent had ever negotiated with Somali pirates.

The two pirates were brought on board “in a good-faith attempt to negotiate the safe release of the hostages” a military official said. Once the Americans came to believe they were not serious, the official said, the pirate commander and his ally were detained and their fellow pirates were notified.

“The pirates who were brought aboard the ship never communicated back to their pirate allies on the Quest,” said the official, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because of the F.B.I. investigation.

“The pirates on the Quest seemed relieved and were exceptionally calm in discussions with the negotiator,” said the military official. He said the Americans placed an offer on the table. The pirates could take the Quest, or another small Navy boat. But they had to release the hostages and could not take them to join the hundreds of travelers who are believed being held for ransom in pirate strongholds.

The pirates communicated back that they wanted to sleep on the offer, the military official said. The Americans agreed, giving them eight hours.

Whatever calm the pirates displayed on the surface masked a roiling split, according to one person who has been in contact with Somali pirate cells, including people who were in communication with others who know those aboard the Quest.

Somali pirate specialists say the pirates once had an informal code that required members to treat one another well and not harm hostages, valuable commodities who draw ransom payments on average of $4 million. But while Somali pirates might once have been a tight-knit group motivated by money, not murder, pirates and pirate experts say the lure of big money was attracting less-disciplined young Somalis hungry to share in the new riches.

Somali pirates interviewed Wednesday said something must have gone very wrong in the case of the Quest, since killing hostages is bad for business and is almost certain to draw a more aggressive response from countries like the United States. “We don’t kill hostages,” said a pirate in Hobyo who gave his middle name as Hassan. “We have many hostages here, and we treat them well. But the pirates might have been angered by the Americans.”

The person in contact with pirate cells said a gun fight had broken out below deck on the Quest, likely over money or the hostages’ fate. American officials theorize this may have been the case. Five minutes after the pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Sterett, and small arms fire erupted, 15 Navy SEAL commandos stormed the yacht. The hostages were dead or dying. American officials said it was unclear whether they had been executed or killed in the pirates’ cross-fire. Other pirate hostages have died in captivity or during rescue attempts, but there are few, if any, cases of pirates intentionally killing hostages.

The commandos shot and killed one pirate and stabbed another. Two other pirates were found dead, apparently killed by their comrades, and 13 surrendered to the Americans.

“While the pirates clearly knew, from the beginning of our negotiations, that we were not going to allow the Quest to make shore, they gave no warning, no visible signs whatsoever that the hostages’ lives were in danger,” said the military official. The senior law enforcement official added, “These incidents, by their very nature, often move at a rapid pace which requires difficult decisions in real time.”

Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: AB.Trini on February 25, 2011, 09:13:21 PM
Put dem up against the wall:

Gash dem and light dem
For the negative vibes weh dem a bring
Gash dem and lite dem
Mi come fi mash up and wreck up
Dem senseless killing
Gash dem and lite dem
Boy haffi reverse wid dem bag a gun ting
Gash dem and lite dem
Stand guard and come outa di wages of sin."
(Gash Dem an Light Dem, Chuck Fender).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzuJu__a_LI

Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on February 26, 2011, 07:03:07 AM
so hw come they striking Taliban in Pakistan?

Uhmm because they're fighting a war in neighboring Afghanistan... and they're striking at Taliban forces in Pakistan with Pakistani assistance/authority...

I have always read new reports that Islamabad was against the drone strikes..always.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/59575/us-should-change-its-policy-on-drone-strikes-fo/

Quote
Speaking to a news briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit said drone attacks violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and the US should change its policy regarding these strikes.

The Foreign Office denied that there was any agreement between Pakistan and the US which permits America to carry out strikes in the country.

He also said that Pakistan has repeatedly objected to the attacks on its soil terming them counter-productive.

Quote
According to The New York Times, Pakistani national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani made an unannounced visit to Washington and voiced his country's anger in person to top White House officials.

Pakistan's upper house of parliament passed a unanimous resolution saying it "strongly condemned the missile attacks by US drones in Pakistani territory resulting in immense loss of life".

"The Senate calls upon the government to convey Pakistan's strong protest to the US" and NATO-led force in Afghanistan and seek assurances for "full respect of Pakistan's sovereignty," it said.

Such attacks are "most unfortunate" and constitute a "gross violation of our national sovereignty and territory," it went on.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hdXM1vDzMxB2_m5ogZzNUuW03OCA

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/09/us-pakistan-usa-drones-idUSTRE6080IH20100109



Quote
By Michael Georgy

ISLAMABAD | Sat Jan 9, 2010 2:14am EST

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has renewed calls for an end to U.S. drone aircraft strikes, an issue that could strain ties as the CIA hunts down Muslim militants after one of the deadliest attacks in its history in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan officially objects to the operations against suspected al Qaeda and Taliban militants along its border with Afghanistan, saying they violate its sovereignty.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 26, 2011, 09:42:14 AM
^^^ I'm really not sure what your contention is.  I said that there cannot be strikes against a 'sovereign' state, and you respond with asking about Pakistan.  I mention that the US is striking at the Taliban/Al Qaeda with the authorization of the Pakistani government... you now respond with talk about the Predator drones.

Are the Predator drones the sum of US operations in Pakistan?  Are the US there without permission?  The Pakistani government could "strongly condemn" all they want but the fact of the matter is that they have still given the US permission to operate in their country, thereby not violating their sovereign territorial rights.

Let's try and keep focus here.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on February 26, 2011, 10:38:55 AM
^^^ I'm really not sure what your contention is.  I said that there cannot be strikes against a 'sovereign' state, and you respond with asking about Pakistan.  I mention that the US is striking at the Taliban/Al Qaeda with the authorization of the Pakistani government... you now respond with talk about the Predator drones.

Are the Predator drones the sum of US operations in Pakistan?  Are the US there without permission?  The Pakistani government could "strongly condemn" all they want but the fact of the matter is that they have still given the US permission to operate in their country, thereby not violating their sovereign territorial rights.

Let's try and keep focus here.

well as I see it, if Pakistan objects to air strikes and the US goes ahead and does it anyway, then that is striking a sovereign nation.  And yes, it violates the soveriegity of that nation.

The US has a habit of striking nations in violation of their soverignity anyway.  Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia...long, long list..Syria, and more

Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 26, 2011, 10:50:57 AM

well as I see it, if Pakistan objects tp air strikes and the US goes ahead and does it anyway, then that is striking a sovereign nation.  And yes, it violates the soveriegity of that nation.



I really have no patience or interest in countering this type ah nonsense talk.  If the US action violated their sovereignty (maybe you need to look up the definition of the word) then the Pakistani government would have expelled them or raised a protest to their presence to the international community.

The US has a habit of striking nations in violation of their soverignity anyway.  Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia...long, long list..Syria, and more



Do you understand the difference between war against a government and discriminate targeting of criminal elements within a sovereign nation... or are you just insisting on twisting yourself into a logical pretzel to offer tenuous justification of your argument?  When has the US ever had a military strike against Iran? When have they had military strikes against Pakistan? 

The closest argument you can make is regarding strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Syria and Somalia, and even then that was part of a larger war effort.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on February 26, 2011, 11:23:37 AM

well as I see it, if Pakistan objects tp air strikes and the US goes ahead and does it anyway, then that is striking a sovereign nation.  And yes, it violates the soveriegity of that nation.



I really have no patience or interest in countering this type ah nonsense talk.  If the US action violated their sovereignty (maybe you need to look up the definition of the word) then the Pakistani government would have expelled them or raised a protest to their presence to the international community.

The US has a habit of striking nations in violation of their soverignity anyway.  Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia...long, long list..Syria, and more



Do you understand the difference between war against a government and discriminate targeting of criminal elements within a sovereign nation... or are you just insisting on twisting yourself into a logical pretzel to offer tenuous justification of your argument?  When has the US ever had a military strike against Iran? When have they had military strikes against Pakistan? 

The closest argument you can make is regarding strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Syria and Somalia, and even then that was part of a larger war effort.

Man I doh have the energey either.  The US struck aginst Syria, you say as part of the larger war effort. when was war declare and against whom?

The so called Al Qaeda strike in Somalia turned out to be nothing more than a place making meds.  In Pakistan they have killed childrena nd women and they pay condolonce fees of 2500.00 per person..life real cheap in those places.

I stated that they made strikes against sovereign nations, and that is what I interpret military action as..even if they did not target the governments per se, they took military action against targets in those nations, and that is in violation to every international law.

You may see justification and call them pre-emptive, but that is semantics in my opinion.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on February 26, 2011, 11:30:01 AM
What then is there to prevent the US military from making a discriminate strike against Somali pirate targets as they are disrupting US trade and are in violation of international law?

That was the justification used for making the illegal war against Iraq, and the strikes aginst Al Qaeda in Syria and Pakistan?
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 26, 2011, 03:26:16 PM
Man I doh have the energey either.  The US struck aginst Syria, you say as part of the larger war effort. when was war declare and against whom?

Did the US declare war on France in WWII before engaging the Nazis there on the beaches of Normandy?  The rules of engagement for war are different... you supposed to be ex-military and yuh acting like yuh don't know that?  If a country is providing safe harbor to an enemy with which you are engaged in combat then diplomacy is the preferred route, but you are free to pursue them into that state... whatever it does for your relationship with them after that is another matter.
 
The so called Al Qaeda strike in Somalia turned out to be nothing more than a place making meds.  In Pakistan they have killed childrena nd women and they pay condolonce fees of 2500.00 per person..life real cheap in those places.

You have comprehension issues or what?  Whether you want to dispute the accuracy of the intel the fact of the matter is that they are engaged in war with Al Qaeda factions.  They didn't strike at Somalia to blow up a medicine joint... right or wrong the rationale is that they were pursuing an enemy with whom they are engaged in war.  And yuh coming back with this Pakistan talk... they are there with permission, what part of that yuh not understanding?

I stated that they made strikes against sovereign nations, and that is what I interpret military action as..even if they did not target the governments per se, they took military action against targets in those nations, and that is in violation to every international law.

You may see justification and call them pre-emptive, but that is semantics in my opinion.

You contradicting yuh own self... how can they make strikes "against" sovereign nations without targeting the government??  Is not what YOU interpret as a military violation of a nation's sovereignty... it's what international law says.  If as you say that US actions are in violation of international law then offer proof... show us the law/s it violating.

Bottom line is that the US cannot unilaterally strike at the Somali pirates... dispensing with all this long talk.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 26, 2011, 03:27:53 PM
What then is there to prevent the US military from making a discriminate strike against Somali pirate targets as they are disrupting US trade and are in violation of international law?

That was the justification used for making the illegal war against Iraq, and the strikes aginst Al Qaeda in Syria and Pakistan?

The justification for the strikes in Somalia, Syria and Egypt was the declaration of war against Al Qaeda.  I feel you must be a product of the same Jamaican schools reggae-fan and them went to.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on February 26, 2011, 04:14:17 PM
tell me when war was declared by the US Congress.  Thanks.

A military strike against any target in a foreign country without approval is a violation of international law and a violation of that country's soverenity.

I find it incredoulus that you argue differently.

Quote
The
 United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, Philip Alston, says the drone strikes may amount to summary executions, which are illegal under international law.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2335320/un_us_drone_strikes_may_violate_international.html


Quote
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told a debate at a leading London think tank that the pursuit of al Qaeda and Taliban extremists should be a law enforcement issue, not a military one.

“The strongest conclusion is that there is no legal right to resort to drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere where the US is not involved in armed conflict,” she told the respected Chatham House centre. She was particularly critical of strikes by the US Central Intelligence Agency in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan which border Afghanistan and are a haven for militants who use it as a base to attack NATO and Pakistani forces.

“The use of drones is causing really serious anger in Pakistan, I really seriously question the necessity for what we are doing,” she said.

O’Connell said they could not be justified because there was no open consent from Pakistan and the strikes could not be taken as an act of war because they did not happen on Afghan soil, where US troops operate.


An argument can certainly be made that searching out Al Qaeda has changed the way we deal with terror susects as they hide here and there, but certainly as the law stands we are breaking international law.

We invaded an entire country becasue the Taliban was harboring Osmam Bin Laden...why?  They struck civil;ian targts in the US and we went after them...what is so different about what they did and what the US is doing?

This is a very interesting read:

http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-ilaw.htm

Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on February 27, 2011, 10:26:44 AM
tell me when war was declared by the US Congress.  Thanks.

A military strike against any target in a foreign country without approval is a violation of international law and a violation of that country's soverenity.

I find it incredoulus that you argue differently.

Quote
The
 United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, Philip Alston, says the drone strikes may amount to summary executions, which are illegal under international law.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2335320/un_us_drone_strikes_may_violate_international.html


Quote
Mary Ellen O’Connell, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told a debate at a leading London think tank that the pursuit of al Qaeda and Taliban extremists should be a law enforcement issue, not a military one.

“The strongest conclusion is that there is no legal right to resort to drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere where the US is not involved in armed conflict,” she told the respected Chatham House centre. She was particularly critical of strikes by the US Central Intelligence Agency in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan which border Afghanistan and are a haven for militants who use it as a base to attack NATO and Pakistani forces.

“The use of drones is causing really serious anger in Pakistan, I really seriously question the necessity for what we are doing,” she said.

O’Connell said they could not be justified because there was no open consent from Pakistan and the strikes could not be taken as an act of war because they did not happen on Afghan soil, where US troops operate.


An argument can certainly be made that searching out Al Qaeda has changed the way we deal with terror susects as they hide here and there, but certainly as the law stands we are breaking international law.

We invaded an entire country becasue the Taliban was harboring Osmam Bin Laden...why?  They struck civil;ian targts in the US and we went after them...what is so different about what they did and what the US is doing?

This is a very interesting read:

http://deoxy.org/wc/wc-ilaw.htm



Dred you still arguing about f**king drone strikes??  The US is operating within Pakistan with the expressed permission of the Pakistani government.  The only thing in question is the SCOPE of the operations... in particular the fact that the Pakistanis don't like some of what they're doing, namely the Predator strikes.  But as an initial matter they are there with permission and therefore not in violation of any international law as it relates to Pakistani sovereignty.  I find you having real problems maintaining focus.  If the Pakistanis are so upset then they can expel the US forces currently there.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on March 17, 2011, 06:51:44 PM
17 March 2011 Last updated at 14:31 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Pakistan army chief Kayani in US drone outburst
Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani warned that drone strikes undermined the militant fight Continue reading the main story
Taliban ConflictMake-or-break year ahead
Can Afghan forces step up?
Who are the Taliban?
Pakistan's very unhappy new year
Pakistan's army chief has condemned the latest raid by US unmanned drones as "intolerable and unjustified".

In a strongly worded statement, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the attack, which killed about 40 people, was "in complete violation of human rights".

Most of the victims were believed to be civilians attending a tribal meeting near North Waziristan's regional capital, Miranshah.

Tension has been growing in recent weeks between the US and Pakistan.

The US drone attacks are a long-running source of bad feeling, but the acquittal of CIA contractor Raymond Davis of murder has sparked protests across Pakistan.

The Pakistani military often makes statements regretting the loss of life in such incidents, but rarely criticises the attacks themselves.

Gen Kayani, however, said such "acts of violence" make it harder to fight terrorism.

"It is highly regrettable that a jirga [meeting] of peaceful citizens including elders of the area was carelessly and callously targeted with complete disregard to human life," he said.

"It has been highlighted clearly that such aggression against people of Pakistan is unjustified and intolerable under any circumstances."

Pakistan's intelligence agency is often accused of complicity in the raids, either by supporting them or allowing them to happen.

Militants targeted
 
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says Thursday's drone strike is the deadliest such attack since 2006.

 Officials say two drones were involved in the latest attack, in the Datta Khel area 40km (25 miles) west of Miranshah.

One missile was fired at a car carrying suspected militants. Local tribesmen say the drones then fired another three missiles at their open-air meeting, or jirga.

Our correspondent says the car was moving close to the jirga, and the missiles hit the vehicle as well as the jirga.

According to the tribesmen, the meeting was being held to discuss a local land dispute over the ownership of chromite deposits in the area. They say that no militants were present at the time.

Officials said the drones were targeting militants linked to Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur. One of his commanders, identified as Sharabat Khan, was in the vehicle hit in the attack and was killed, one local official told the BBC.

The US military and the CIA do not routinely confirm that they have launched drone operations, and Gen Kayani did not specifically name the US or mention drones.

But analysts say only American forces could deploy such aircraft in the region.

The attacks have escalated in the region since US President Barack Obama took office. More than 100 raids were reported in the area last year.
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on March 17, 2011, 07:38:18 PM
Quote
The US drone attacks are a long-running source of bad feeling, but the acquittal of CIA contractor Raymond Davis of murder has sparked protests across Pakistan.

... didn't even realize there was a trial.

 ::)
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: truetrini on March 17, 2011, 08:47:28 PM
true dat Bakes, the US paid the two faimilies fo the men killed some cash and they pardoned him and under sharia, he was released.


Quote
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan—

A CIA contractor charged with murdering two Pakistani men was freed Wednesday after the victims' families pardoned him and accepted financial compensation. The resolution was viewed by many analysts as the best option to salve strained relations between the U.S. and Pakistan while minimizing the potential for a volatile reaction from Pakistanis who wanted the American tried and convicted.

Just hours after Lahore trial court judge Muhammad Yousaf Ojla announced Raymond Davis' formal indictment on murder charges, the 36-year-old American was on a plane headed out of the country.

Punjab provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said he was freed after the families of the slain men decided to accept diyat, or "blood money," under an Islamic tradition that permits a killer to win a pardon from the heirs of a victim by paying compensation.

Sanaullah said family members of the men, Faizan Haider and Fahim Shamshad, appeared in court after the indictment was handed down and told Ojla they had agreed to pardon Davis. With that decision, the judge announced the acquittal and paved the way for Davis' swift release.

"They confirmed in court that they forgave Davis after receiving diyat," Sanaullah said. "This right to forgive is given to them by Sharia [Islamic law] and Pakistani law, and neither you nor I nor the court can snatch this right from them. They used their right, and the court released him."

The terms of the compensation had not been announced as of Wednesday evening. A Pakistani official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the families each received $1.1 million.

However, speaking in Cairo, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States did not pay any compensation to secure Davis' release, the Associated Press reported. A U.S. official who asked not to be named said there was no formal quid pro quo arrangement that paved the way for Davis' release. The official would not elaborate.

Relatives and neighbors say both families have locked up their homes and left, and their whereabouts are unknown. A senior police official who asked not to be named said Pakistani authorities assisted in helping the families quietly leave "to avoid the wrath of the public, particularly from the religious parties."

Officials at the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city of Lahore were present at Wednesday's court hearing, and left with Davis after he was released, Sanaullah said. Officials with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.

However, in a prepared statement, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter confirmed that the families of the men had pardoned Davis and said he was "grateful for their generosity." Munter did not reveal how much compensation was given, but he said that the U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation of the Jan. 27 shootings in Lahore.

Davis and U.S. officials have maintained that the CIA contractor and former Special Forces soldier acted in self-defense. Davis says he was in his car in heavy traffic when the two men on a motorcycle approached and attempted to rob him. One of them brandished a handgun, he said.

Davis fired his Glock 9-millimeter handgun at the men, first through the windshield of his car and then as he stepped outside. Haider and Shamshad had five gunshot wounds each.

Police discounted Davis' claim of self-defense, saying several of the bullet wounds were in the men's backs and the gun one had was loaded but did not have a bullet in the chamber.

Another U.S. employee, rushing to Davis' aid in an embassy vehicle, struck and killed a motorcyclist. Pakistani authorities believe the driver has returned to the United States.

The case quickly became one of the trickiest tests for the already tenuous relationship between the two nations. Washington needs Pakistan's assistance to uproot Al Qaeda and the Taliban from strongholds in the volatile northwest and to help broker an end to nine years of war against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

The United States had repeatedly demanded Davis' release, citing the Vienna Convention of 1961 that gives immunity from criminal prosecution to all diplomats. Washington argued that it had notified Pakistani officials in January 2010 of Davis' role as "administrative and technical staff" member assigned to the U.S. Embassy, a status that afforded him diplomatic immunity under the convention.

However, Pakistan's embattled civilian government, viewed by many Pakistanis as a puppet of the U.S., feared unrest if Davis were to be freed on the grounds of immunity.

What remains to be seen is whether Pakistan's Islamist hard-line clerics and religious parties will try to mobilize large protests over Davis' release. Sporadic protests over the case broke out late Wednesday in Karachi and Lahore.

"Whether there will be a popular reaction will depend on how the parties that are whipping it up react," said Zafar Hilaly, former Pakistani ambassador to the United States.

"But don't forget, there's a gulf between the elite and the rest of the population, and this gulf is growing. So it's difficult to say how deep the resentment will be and how widespread it will be."

alex.rodriguez@latimes.com

Special correspondent Shahnawaz Khan in Lahore and Times staff writer Ken Dilanian in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

 
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Comments (76)Add / View comments | Discussion FAQ
jaguar2009 at 10:12 AM March 17, 2011
Ah - the great merciful  Kafir Raymond Davis is free- finally Pakistan has seen reason ! That Davis has acually done good jihad and helped committed Jihadis o go to heaven to meet Allah and get 72 virgin goats. 

Of course - the matter of 2 millions - this loose change coming from American gift cheques is actually  enough to blow up entire Lahore !!

May be Davis can get back to his preferred job again!!
Dick Tator at 10:11 AM March 17, 2011
I think he shouldn't have been imprisoned in the first place. Just assuming (I could be wrong) that since he's from the CIA, there must have been a legitimate reason for him to kill those two. They could've been plotting against America for all we know.
launchme520 at 5:14 AM March 17, 2011
Davis was scheduled to be indicted for murder charges today. Security forces picked up the families last night. A payment estimated a $2 million was made to secure the release. The families are still in police custody. Davis is now at an undisclosed location, rumored to be Bagram Air Force Base in Kabul. THE REAL STORY Press stories are largely inaccurate and incomplete. This is what actually happened according to high ranking sources in the Punjab police and government officials who wish to remain anonymous. Tonight, Afzal, the uncle of Shumaila, the widow of one of the slain men who had committed suicide, went on Pakistani television. He told the audience, moments ago: Family members were told they were being taken to the police station to make statements. Instead, they were taken to a secret location and held in isolation and told that unless they signed a letter pardoning Davis, “you will never see daylight.” Ijazul Haq, Pakistan's former Minister of Religion and son of former Prime Minister Zia al Haq reports, in a VT exclusive, that members of the family and others involved, were given US citizenship to protect them from reprisals.BACKGROUND


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Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Deeks on March 17, 2011, 09:05:07 PM
In the end, money talks. f--king crazy!!!!
Title: Re: Pirates kill hostages
Post by: Bakes on May 13, 2011, 08:57:52 PM
Dred you still arguing about f**king drone strikes??  The US is operating within Pakistan with the expressed permission of the Pakistani government.   The only thing in question is the SCOPE of the operations... in particular the fact that the Pakistanis don't like some of what they're doing, namely the Predator strikes.  But as an initial matter they are there with permission and therefore not in violation of any international law as it relates to Pakistani sovereignty.  I find you having real problems maintaining focus.  If the Pakistanis are so upset then they can expel the US forces currently there.


As I was saying...


Denying Links to Militants, Pakistan’s Spy Chief Denounces U.S. Before Parliament
 
By JANE PERLEZ
 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In an unusual, and apparently heated, closed-door session of Parliament, Pakistan’s spy chief issued a rousing denunciation of the United States on Friday for its raid that killed Osama bin Laden and denied that Pakistan maintained any links with militant groups, according to lawmakers.

Rather, the spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, blamed an intelligence failure for the presence of Bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad, where a top military academy is located and where the leader of Al Qaeda was killed in an American raid on May 2.

General Pasha said he had offered his resignation twice to the leader of the army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. As his presence before Parliament made clear, it was not accepted.

The two generals were called before the extraordinary 11-hour session to answer to the failures of the military and the intelligence agency that allowed a team of American commandos to enter and leave Pakistan in a stealth helicopter operation undetected.

Unusually vibrant criticism by some politicians and the Pakistani press after the raid compelled them to try to repair the reputation of the military and the intelligence agency, which the army controls.

But after recognizing the lapse, General Pasha rallied Parliament behind him, several legislators said, with strong criticisms of the United States that elicited thumps of approval from the chamber, including leading members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the major partner in the coalition that the Obama administration supports.

At the end of the session, the leader of the opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-N, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who has been one of the most severe critics of the military since the raid, closed ranks behind the military. The session was organized so that “a positive message should go out to the masses,” Mr. Khan said.

A resolution that was passed at the session said Pakistan would revisit its relationship with the United States “with the view to ensuring Pakistan’s national interests were fully respected.”

In that vein, Pakistan’s chief spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, will not allow the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct operations in Pakistan without the full knowledge of the ISI, General Pasha said.

The spy chief did the talking. General Kayani attended the session, along with the heads of the air force and the navy, but did not speak, apparently to be spared the humiliation. Senior military officials, considered to be above civilian law and a power unto themselves, rarely appear before Parliament, or even its defense committees.

General Pasha told Parliament he had a “shouting match” with the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, over C.I.A. activities in Pakistan when they met recently in Washington, several lawmakers who attended the session said.

Reviewing the history of American relations with Pakistan, General Pasha declared that the United States, which has provided Pakistan with about $20 billion in aid over the last decade, had let Pakistan down at every turn since the 1960s, including imposing sanctions on the country in the 1990s.

“And now they have conducted a sting operation on us,” General Pasha said, according to one lawmaker. The intelligence chief was referring to the fact that the Obama administration had decided not to inform Pakistan in advance of the raid because of fears that the Pakistanis could not be trusted.

Before answering questions from the more than 400 members of Parliament from both chambers, the military gave a PowerPoint presentation that included photographs of Qaeda militants captured or killed by the ISI since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

General Pasha then explained that Pakistan should be given credit for dismantling Al Qaeda even before the United States killed Bin Laden, according to the accounts from lawmakers after the session.

In a direct assault on statements by American officials that the ISI supports jihadist militant groups, including the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, General Pasha said there was no such policy. “We have nothing to do with the Haqqani network,” he was quoted as saying.

American officials have long maintained suspicion that the Haqqani group, along with the Taliban, has been sheltered and sponsored by Pakistan, which uses them to push Pakistani interests in Afghanistan, where the insurgents attack NATO forces.

Some of the legislators asked for explanations of why the Pakistani Air Force did not detect the American helicopters that ferried the team of Navy Seal commandos into Abbottabad and out again.

The deputy chief of Air Staff Operations, Air Marshal Muhammad Hassan, said the American helicopters were equipped with stealth technology that enabled them to evade radar.

By the time the air force learned about the raid from ground reports at Abbottabad and launched fighter jets, the helicopters had completed their mission and flown out of Pakistan, he said.

But the air marshal, in answer to a question, said that the F-16 jet fighters provided by the United States to Pakistan were capable of shooting down the drones that the C.I.A. flies over the tribal areas to attack militants. The drone campaign has become increasingly unpopular among Pakistan’s politicians even as the Obama administration insists that it has no intention of halting the flights.

For the first time, according to one lawmaker, Air Marshal Hassan acknowledged that Pakistan allowed the United States to fly the drones out of Shamsi Air Base in Baluchistan.

The Pakistani government has always maintained in public that it does not condone the drone campaign, while in private it has given permission for the flights.



Salman Masood contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/world/asia/14pakistan.html?hp
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: Dutty on June 21, 2011, 06:40:52 AM
 ??? :o

Somalia sentences US, UK nationals to long prison terms over cash flown in for pirate ransom

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A Somali court on Saturday sentenced three British nationals, an American and two Kenyans to at least 10 years in prison each for bringing millions of dollars intended for pirate ransom into the country.

Two of the defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, said Somali Information Ministry spokesman Abdifitah Abdinur. The other defendants were sentenced to 10 years and a $10,000 fine.

The men were arrested in Mogadishu last month after their planes were found to be carrying millions of dollars in cash. A Somali official previously said the planes are used by companies that frequently deliver ransoms to pirates.

Officials did not give further details on the jailed Westerners.

Pirates have been receiving millions of dollars in ransoms for several years now, but Saturday was the first time Westerners were sentenced for their role in paying out the ransoms.

The average ransom paid to pirates has reached nearly $5 million. The ransoms are often air-dropped down to hijacked ships.

It seemed unlikely the six defendants would have to serve their full sentences. A Western official who was not authorized to speak publicly said discussions were under way to reduce or overturn the sentences.

Asked about possible pardons or parole, Abdinur said that "everything is possible and I can't comment on the future."

Elsewhere in Mogadishu, meanwhile, Somalia's most powerful militant group, al-Shabab, executed two men over allegations of spying for the government. A man with the rank of judge in the group said the men admitted the charges against them. They were killed by a firing squad. Al-Shabab summoned residents to watch the execution.

Al-Shabab wants to impose an ultraconservative version of Islam on Somalia. The group carries out such punishments as amputations and stonings.

Somalia hasn't had a functioning central government since 1991, which has allowed pirates to flourish in the north and militants to take control of wide swaths of territory in the south.

http://www.startribune.com/world/124129659.html (http://www.startribune.com/world/124129659.html)
Title: Re: Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money
Post by: asylumseeker on March 07, 2012, 10:27:05 AM
Somalis fighting back now, mortars fired at US congressman. in Somalia 

Dahis Donald Payne, a man said to be fairly supportive of CARICOM issues. He may have Caribbean roots.

The gentleman died yesterday.

From the Washington Post website:

US Rep. Donald Payne of NJ, known for civil rights work and advocacy for poor, dies at age 77

By Associated Press, Published: March 6
NEWARK, N.J. — Days before U.S. Rep. Donald Payne died of cancer, it wasn’t the phone calls of encouragement from presidents that cheered him. It was when a Washington hospital orderly recognized the New Jersey congressman as the only U.S. official to visit his village in the African nation of Eritrea.

Hearing from the orderly how much the visit had meant, and knowing he had made a difference in the lives of people struggling against violence and poverty — from his native Newark, N.J., to sub-Saharan Africa — was the reason why Donald Payne had dedicated his life to public service, his brother William said Tuesday.

“He walked with kings, but never lost the common touch,” William Payne said.

Donald Payne, the first black congressional member from New Jersey, passed away Tuesday at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, N.J. He was 77.

The 12-term member of the House had announced in February that he was undergoing treatment for colon cancer and would continue to represent his district. He was flown home to New Jersey on Friday from Georgetown University Hospital as his health took a sudden turn for the worse.

He was first elected in 1988 after twice losing to former Rep. Peter Rodino, who retired after 40 years in Congress.

Payne, often considered one of the most progressive Democrats in the state’s delegation, was elected to a 12th term in 2010. He represented the 10th District, which includes the city of Newark and parts of Essex, Hudson and Union counties.

In Washington, he was remembered for his work as a defender of human rights, both at home and abroad.

President Barack Obama, who ordered flags lowered in Payne’s honor, called him a “leader in US-Africa policy, making enormous contributions towards helping restore democracy and human rights across the continent.”

Former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Payne a “force for peace and progress” in New Jersey and throughout the world.

“His impact was immeasurable and his legacy will live on in the lives he has touched,” they said.

Payne was a member of House committees on education and foreign affairs. He served as chairman of the House subcommittee on Africa, and had traveled many times to the continent on foreign affairs matters.

He was remembered Tuesday as one of the first U.S. officials to speak out on the situation in Darfur and South Sudan.

“He was fearless in describing what was happening to people; he didn’t mince words;” said Faith McDonnell, a member of the Act for Sudan coalition who worked with Payne on issues in the region. “This is a huge loss to the people of Darfur, and for all marginalized people, who I really regret won’t have his voice and his helping hand the way others did.”

During an April 2009 trip, mortar shells were fired toward Mogadishu airport as a plane carrying Payne took off safely from the Somali capital. Officials at the time said 19 civilians were injured in residential areas. Payne had met with Somalia’s president and prime minister during his one-day visit to Mogadishu to discuss piracy, security and cooperation between Somalia and the United States.

He also had been the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and a congressional delegate to the United Nations.

At home, he was remembered as a trailblazer for African-Americans, as an advocate for the underprivileged, and as a gentleman.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker called him a “a humble hero who lived an extraordinary life of contribution and distinction” and “a defender of and advocate for the rights, liberties, equal opportunities, and dignity of all people.”

Born and raised in Newark, Payne came up through the ranks of Essex County politics. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Seton Hall University in 1957 and taught in Newark schools for 15 years. He went on to become an insurance executive and member of the Newark City Council from 1982 until 1988.

It was his work with the YMCA — starting as a young volunteer at a segregated storefront office in Newark and rising to become the president of the national organization — that opened his eyes to the wider world, according to his brother. He traveled to more than 80 countries as a member of the YMCA’s international board before becoming a congressman, his brother said. But Payne always remained as firmly rooted in local politics and community concerns as he was in raising awareness on issues from armed conflict to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, his brother said.

“He was committed to causes that impacted on people who had no voice; people who were forgotten by society,” William Payne said. “My brother had a great deal of compassion, and he stepped out on a lot of unpopular causes.”

Payne was a widower with three children and four grandchildren. His son, Donald Payne Jr., is a Newark city councilman. Services haven’t been announced.

While Payne faced the prospect of a primary challenge from Newark Councilman Ronald C. Rice, his death will open the field in the heavily Democratic district.

Gov. Chris Christie’s office said Tuesday that out of deference to the congressman and his family they would not discuss whether the governor would fill the seat immediately, or let it stand vacant until a special election can be held, which has typically been done.

A public plaza between two government buildings in Newark now bears Payne’s name in tribute to his long career in public service.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Miga in Washington contributed to this report. DeFalco reported from Trenton.

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