Tuesday - March 15, 2011
Booyah
The operation is one of the most successful since Somalian pirates escalated their campaign of extortion and kidnap on the Indian Ocean two years ago.
The Indian authorities have yet to disclose the nationality of the suspects but they are believed to be from either Somalia or Yemen.
They were arrested after an Indian naval ship closed in on a hijacked fishing vessel just under 700 miles off the Kerala coastal port of Cochin.
The boat was carrying 61 suspected pirates and 13 of the boat’s crew who had been held captive.
The suspected pirates had hijacked the boat, the Mozambique-flagged Vega 5 in December last year and had since used it as a base for attacks on other ships.
They were finally caught on Sunday after they opened fire on the approaching Indian naval ship. They were forced to jump overboard when their own vessel was set ablaze [and] caught fire in fierce retaliatory fire from the Indian ship.
The 13 original crew members were freed in the raid. Indian officials said they found 80 to 90 small arms or rifles and some heavy weapons on the fishing vessel.
So what they’re really saying is that they managed to pluck 61 pirates from the drink, and that the prisoners were freed after the ship was captured. Unfortunately, in order to capture the ship it was necessary to shoot it full of holes, set it on fire, and sink it. Gee, too bad. Best idea: don’t shoot at the navy; they can shoot back much better.
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Monday - March 07, 2011
Hijacked Tanker Rescued
MANAMA, Bahrain – A request for assistance from a Japanese-owned merchant vessel in the Somali Basin led to Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) warship USS Bulkeley (DDG 84) securing the release of the vessel and its 24 crew members from four suspected pirates, Mar. 6.
At approximately 3.00pm local time, Mar. 5, the oil tanker MV Guanabara reported it was under attack when it was 328 nautical miles south east of Duqm, Oman. Bulkeley, assigned to CMF’s counter-piracy mission Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 was directed to intercept Guanabara, supported by the Turkish warship TCG Giresun of NATO’s counter-piracy Task Force 508.
Following confirmation from Guanabara’s master that the suspected pirates were on board and his crew had taken refuge in the ship’s “citadel”, Bulkeley’s specialist boarding team, supported overhead by its embarked SH-60 helicopter, secured the Bahamian-flagged vessel and detained four men.
There was no exchange of fire at any time during the operation to release the MV Guanabara. The decision on what to do with the suspected pirates is ongoing.
USS Bulkeley is a 10 year old Arleigh Burke class destroyer nearly 510 feet long with a crew of 380.
MV Guanabara is a medium tanker, 106,045 dwt, 755 in length, built in 2007.
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Monday - February 28, 2011
Will This Wake People Up?
Probably not.
Pirates have seized a Danish sailboat with four adults and three children on board, Denmark’s government said Monday.
The ship was hijacked Thursday while traveling through the Indian Ocean and is now on its way to Somalia, Denmark’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Charlotte Slente told DR News, a national TV News channel in Denmark.
A Danish couple, their three children—aged 12-16—and two crew members were on board.
“It has now been confirmed that the sailboat was hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean,” the ministry said in a statement.
Most hostages captured in the pirate-infested waters off East Africa are professional sailors, not families. Pirates are not known to have captured children before.
Earlier Monday, the European Union Naval Force said Somali pirates hijacked a Greek-owned cargo vessel with 23 crew on board.
The MV Dover was seized Monday in the north Arabian sea, 260 miles northeast of the Omani port of Salalah, the naval force said. The MV Dover was on its way to Yemen from Pakistan when it was attacked. It was registered with shipping and naval authorities.
There are three Romanians, 19 Filipinos and a Russian aboard the Panama-flagged vessel. There is no communication with the ship and no information regarding the condition of the crew.
If you’ve ever wondered where the money goes, you are not alone. A large part of it goes to islamotherfugging terrorists. Just like you thought it did.
Some analysts - such as the Kenyan-based security consultant Bruno Schiemsky - say pirates have given as much as 50% of their revenue to the Islamist al-Shabab militia in the areas it controls.
However, al-Shabab has stated that it opposes piracy.
Sure it does. Against fellow muslimes perhaps.
One country that does seem to be involved in Somali piracy is Yemen.
Maritime security experts say the ‘mother ships’ from which pirate attacks are launched are often refuelled, resupplied and even armed in Yemen.
A UN report said: “Members of the Harardhere pirate group have been linked to the trafficking of arms from Yemen to (the Somali towns of) Harardhere and Hobyo, which have long been two of the main points of entry for arms shipments destined for armed opposition groups in Somalia and Ethiopia.”
It’s likely that the truth about all the money made from piracy will never be uncovered.
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Permalink • Tuesday - February 22, 2011
Damnation
In some sort of odd falling out amongst thieves, Somali pirates fired on a trailing American warship in the middle of the night and then gunned down the 4 Americans aboard their 58’ sailboat that the Somali pirates had hijacked a few days before.
Navy responded, captured all the pirates. Found 2 dead pirates on the boat. Shot and killed one in the process and gutted another one with a knife. 15 or more pirates arrested.
I don’t know what Obama is going to do, but I sure can figure out what Ronald Reagen and Teddy Roosevelt would have done.
Four American hostages on board a yacht hijacked by pirates last week were killed by their captors Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The vessel, named the Quest, was being shadowed by the military [USS Sterret] after being captured by pirates off the coast of Oman on Friday. Officials had said earlier Tuesday it was less than two days from the Somali coast.
Ship owners Jean and Scott Adam and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle were found shot by U.S. forces who boarded the vessel about 1 a.m. ET, officials said.
The forces responded after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a U.S. Navy ship about 600 yards away—and missed—and the sound of gunfire could be heard on board the Quest, U.S. Navy Adm. Mark Fox told reporters.
“Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds,” U.S. Central Command said.
The incident took place as negotiations involving the FBI were underway for the hostages’ release, Fox said. Two pirates had boarded a U.S. Navy ship on Monday for the negotiations, he said. He told reporters he had no information on details of the negotiations or whether a ransom had been offered.
Two pirates were found dead on board the Quest, he said. In the process of clearing the vessel, U.S. forces killed two others, one with a knife, Fox said. Thirteen others were captured and detained along with the other two already on board the U.S. Navy ship. A total of 19 pirates were involved, he said.
The Americans were sailing the world on a Christian mission to distribute bibles when they were ambushed last week by pirates in dangerous waters nearly 300 miles off the Somali coast. On board the yacht were Jean and Scot Adam from California and Phyllis MacKay and Bob Riggle from Washington state.
...
It was only after the gunfire was detected, according to the military official, that point US special ops forces boarded the Quest and engaged the pirates. Until weapons were fired at the Quest , US forces did not assault the yacht, according to the official.“As [U.S. Forces] responded to the gunfire, reaching and boarding the Quest, the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds,” according to a statement released by U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida.
The last time pirates targeted an American vessel - the Maersk Alabama in 2009 - the heist ended with all but one of the pirates killed by US navy sharp-shooters.
“They think they are Americans, they must be rich and able to pay whatever ransom is demanded. However, I think these pirates have made a grave mistake,” said Steve Ganyard, former deputy assistant secretary of state, ABC News consultant [speaking earlier]. “I think in this case they pushed the United States government just too far, and I think there will be a drama that will play out in the days to come.”
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Permalink • Thursday - February 17, 2011
half good news
Yay!!! Woo hoo!!
2/16/2011 - Boarding teams from the British Navy frigate HMS Cornwall rescued five Yemeni fishermen and captured 17 Somali pirates last week during a rescue operation the Gulf of Aden, the Royal Navy confirmed Tuesday. The hostages were the original crew of a fishing dhow who had been held hostage aboard their Yemeni-flagged vessel for 92 days, the Royal Navy said in a statement.
Since taking the dhow on November 11, 2010, the pirates used it as a “mother ship” for raiding operations, equipping three skiffs with powerful outboard motors, ladders and other paraphernalia, according to the statement.
The rescue operation was carried out Thursday by boarding teams from the Cornwall, supported by Lynx helicopters, according to the statement. The frigate had received a distress call from a South Korean merchant vessel in the area, whose crew had become suspicious of the dhow’s actions.
After rescuing the fishing crew and apprehending their captors, the Cornwall restored the vessel to its rightful Yemeni owners, the Royal Navy said.
The group of about half a dozen sailors and Royal Marines, dispatched from a British warship that is part of an anti-piracy mission in the region, found and destroyed several weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades.
Boo! Hiss!
The pirate vessel, a dhow, was returned to the rescued Yemeni crew, who were able to make their way home, while the 17 pirates were taken aboard HMS Cornwall and deposited in Somalia, where they were released. Under international law, Britain does not have the jurisdiction to arrest suspected pirates unless attacked.
Brits must be loosing their Viking heritage. Here’s how the modern jarls do it:
2/13/2011 - NATO says that a Danish warship has freed a hijacked fishing vessel and arrested 16 suspected Somali pirates.
Sunday’s press release says the HDMS Esbern Snare stopped a suspicious vessel with two skiffs on deck. The warship fired warning shots and sent a boarding party to the hijacked Yemeni vessel.
NATO says there were 16 suspected pirates and two Yemeni hostages on board. The original fishing crew of nine people had been held for a year but most of them had been released.
Better, but not best. Here’s a real Viking, and of course he’s an embarrassment to the Norwegian authorities:
OSLO, Norway — A Norwegian shipping magnate was strongly criticized Wednesday for suggesting that pirates captured off the Horn of Africa should be sunk with their skiffs or executed on the spot.
“When (piracy) implies a great risk of being caught and hanged, and the cost of losing ships and weapons becomes too big, it will decrease and eventually disappear,” Jacob Stolt-Nielsen said in an op-ed in Norwegian financial newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv.
The 79-year-old is the founder of Stolt-Nielsen Ltd, one of Norway’s biggest shipping companies. He stepped down as chairman two years ago but still serves on the board.
“Pirates captured in international waters have always been punished by death, often on the spot,” Stolt-Nielsen wrote Tuesday, arguing that modern navies should deal with the problem like Roman pirate hunter Pompey did more than 2,000 years ago.” “Not arrest them and say, ‘naughty, naughty, shame on you,’ and release them again, but sink their boats with all hands,” he wrote. “The pirates won’t be frightened by being placed before a civilian court.”
The article drew sharp criticism in Norway, a seafaring nation known as a peace broker in many of the world’s armed conflicts and as the home of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Jacqueline Smith, president of the Norwegian Seafarers Union, described Stolt-Nielsen’s views as “barbaric” and said killing pirates could endanger the 700 seafarers now held as hostages in Somalia.
Bloody Socialists. Of course they’re barbaric! You meet fire with fire, or else you get burned. What are you going to do, send down a longship full of Vikings and threaten to clog dance at the pirates unless they go home?
“Perhaps I was a bit tough in the commentary, but I’m just telling it like it is,” Stolt-Nielsen told DN, “The way to solve the pirate problem is to sink the pirates and their ships.”
“The only way to fight piracy is to hang the pirates,” he said. “The only language they understand is force.”
Somali pirate researcher Mohamed Husein Gaas warns of possible reprisals on Norwegian crews and ships in the wake of Jacob Stolt-Nielsen’s uncompromising remarks.
His statements were not well received by the Somali community in Norway, according to the paper. Mohamed Husein Gaas believes Mr. Stolt-Nielsen’s idea will make pirates deliberately target Norwegian ships and sailors.
“Pirates are very vindictive. Rumors spread really fast, and all the locals down there digest Norwegian and international news”, he tells DN.
He also believes killing the pirates would not solve the problem, because they do not care about being killed.
“They are not rational. Local Somalis live daily with the fear of dying anyway.”
Shirdon Abdikarim, general manager of the Somali Resource and Rehabilitation Centre in Oslo is also concerned about the consequences of the shipping magnate’s remarks.
He knows they are familiar with the various shipping companies’ designs and flags, enabling them to distinguish the vessels from several hundred meters.
“The statement puts the Norwegian, and other sailors and hostages in great danger”.
Pussies. Muzzie sell-outs. “Researcher” Yeah, he researches what times the ships sail and tells the damn pirates. He’s an enabler, guaranteed. And an apologist.
BTW, WTF does effin’ OSLO have a damn “Somali Resource and Rehabilitation Centre” in the first place. Wouldn’t getting the hell out of Somalia all the way to lovely Norway be rehabilitation enough?
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Wednesday - February 02, 2011
Gurhkas In The Indian Navy?
The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard in a joint operation on Friday, destroyed a pirate mother ship, Prantalay, off the Lakshadweep group of islands and arrested 15 pirates.
They also rescued 20 fishermen of Thailand and Myanmarese nationalities who were being held hostage by the pirates after Prantalay was hijacked by them on April 18 last year. Since its hijack, the vessel was being extensively used by the pirates to launch attacks on merchant vessels passing along the shipping lanes off the island chain.
“The vessel has been a risk to international shipping for many months and has carried out several attacks,” said the Navy in a media release.
As reported by The Hindu on Friday, a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft on Friday shooed away two skiffs that were closing in on MV CMA CGM Verdi, a Bahama Flagged container ship, about 300 nautical miles west of Lakshadweep. “Seeing the aircraft, the skiffs immediately aborted their piracy attempt and dashed towards the mother vessel Prantalay, which hurriedly hoisted the two skiffs onboard and set a westerly course to escape from the area. This action cleared all doubts of Prantalay being used by pirates as a mother vessel. Whilst the Coast Guard and Navy Dorniers continuously tracked Prantalay, Indian Naval Ship Cankarso (a recently commissioned Water Jet Fast Attack Craft) which was already deployed in the area for anti-piracy patrol, was directed to intercept and investigate Prantalay,” said the Navy.
According to the Navy, Cankarso fired a warning shot well ahead of the bows of Prantalay to compel it to stop in keeping with internationally accepted norms. Instead of stopping, however, Prantalay suddenly opened fire on INS Cankarso. The warship returned limited fire in self defence. Thereafter, it was observed that a fire had broken out on Prantalay (mother vessels are known to carry additional fuel drums to fuel the skiffs). Personnel were also seen jumping overboard, the Navy said.
INS Cankarso recovered 20 fishermen of Thai and Myanmarese nationalities. These were the original crew of the fishing vessel and were being held hostage for several months. Fifteen pirates were also recovered, under humanitarian considerations.
Blindfolded and handcuffed, they were produced in a sort of line-up today in Mumbai. Minus their AK-47s, they looked less potent than their at-sea avatars. The 15 men, many of them Somalian, are pirates captured over the weekend off India’s coast.
There were 25 pirates originally and they trespassed into Indian waters at 10.30 am on Friday and tried to hijack a container ship off the coast of Lakshwadeep.
The target ship’s call for help was picked up by a Coast Guard aircraft. The Indian Navy’s INS Cankarso pitched in for a 12-hour battle. Ten pirates were killed and their hostages - 20 fishermen from Thailand and Myanmar were rescued.
India is not yet clear on how to try these men. Ten Somali pirates are awaiting trial in a Kochi jail, in the absence of any international law to try pirates.
NEW DELHI: The Navy’s sinking of a pirate ‘mother vessel’ off the Lakshadweep Islands will send a “strong message” to the sea brigands that India will not tolerate their nefarious designs anywhere near its waters, Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma told TOI [the Times Of India] on Sunday.
“There is no question of anybody messing in our waters or area… it’s absolutely unacceptable to us,” Admiral Verma said.
Pirates have begun to operate with impunity far away from their bases in and around Somalia since last year, with some even launching attacks in the eastern Arabian Sea near the Lakshadweep Islands.
India in response has deployed some Navy and Coast Guard frigates and fast attack craft, along with patrol aircraft, helicopters and marine commandos, to “locate and disable pirate mother ships and skiffs” and “sanitise” the area.
“After our stepped-up deployment there, the trend is that the pirates have begun to move westwards, back towards the African coast,” Admiral Verma said.
A German ship-owner has confirmed the death of a sailor during a failed bid to free a cargo ship seized by Somali pirates off the Seychelles last week.
A Seychelles patrol ship opened fire while trying to free the Beluga Nomination on Wednesday, the head of Bremen-based Beluga told German media.
One pirate was killed and the others shot dead a crewman in retaliation, Niels Stolberg said.
Mr Stolberg described the response to the hijacking as a “disaster”.
The cargo ship, which is 9,775 dead weight tonnes, was captured last Monday by armed pirates using a skiff, 390 nautical miles (722km) north of the Seychelles.
BBC mapA Seychelles patrol boat appears to have reached the hijacked vessel first, with a Danish warship from Nato’s counter-piracy force only arriving after the fatal clash. When the Seychelles boat opened fire the pirates “evidently lost control”, Mr Stolberg told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. In the ensuing confusion, reports suggest the crew tried to overwhelm their captors, and two crew members managed to escape.
“The pirates shot dead one of our men, probably in a fit of anger,” Mr Stolberg said.
Nato spokeswoman Lt Cdr Jacqui Sherriff told the BBC News website that when the Danish ship, the Esbern Snare, reached the scene, the master of the Beluga Nomination urged it to keep its distance because of the earlier clash.
“We did not want to inflame the situation so we backed off,” Cdr Sherriff said.
The German ship owner described attempts to rescue them as a “disaster”.
“The crew spent two and a half days in a reinforced room but nobody came to help them,” he said.
“The international community has failed. An absolutely uncoordinated intervention like that is totally incomprehensible.”
Mr Stolberg added that the cargo ship’s navigational equipment had been damaged in the shooting and the pirates had called out another captured ship, the York, to assist it in reaching the Somali coast.
Pointing out that the pirates had been exhausted and disorientated after the shooting, he criticised both the Nato force and Navfor, the EU’s counter-piracy force, for failing to intervene.
An attempt to rescue the pirated German freighter Beluga Nomination off the coast of Somalia ended in tragedy, with at least one crew member dead. Now shipowners are demanding that the German military protect their ships. Some have already resorted to hiring armed guards.
“There is a major danger of escalation if merchant ships have armed guards,” Roger Middleton, an expert on Somalia for London-based think tank Chatham House, told the Christian Science Monitor in 2009. “If pirates approach an unarmed ship, they might shoot to scare. But if they approach a ship and that ship fires back on them, they will shoot to kill.”
Until now, however, mercenaries have proven to be both deadly and efficient. For instance, when Somali pirates attacked the Panamanian freighter Almezaan last March, the armed guards on board opened fire. When the Spanish warship Navarra, which was part of the EU’s military operation in the region, arrived at the scene somewhat later, they saw two bullet-riddled assault boats speeding away from the freighter, with six surviving pirates and one dead pirate on board.
German shipowners are also vehemently calling on the German government to provide protection for their vessels, preferably in the form of soldiers. They argue that the attack on the Beluga Nomination showed that the passive concept of the safe room or citadel only works if warships attack the pirates quickly enough. Offen, a large Hamburg-based shipping company, has decided that armed guards will always be on board its ships in the future when they pass through the pirate zone.
Niels Stolberg, head of the Bremen-based Beluga shipping company, proposes stationing three ships in strategic locations in the Indian Ocean. Like armed security officers on commercial flights, German soldiers would board potentially endangered ships and, once they had passed through the Indian Ocean, would then be taken off the ships again. The owners would pay a portion of the costs, says Stolberg. The German Shipowners’ Association supports Stolberg’s plan.
Sounds to me like international patience is about worn out with these little bastards. The shipping companies have tried the soft solutions like their governments wanted, and they aren’t working. Now they’ll start doing what works. Are such actions beyond the line? No ... because a ship far at sea is by actual definition “beyond the line”. Arm them up and shoot to kill. What the hell, if the islamos can have a nebulous war on the West, then western businesses can declare a war on Somalia. Somebody has to.
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Thursday - January 27, 2011
Sitting Duck, Plucked
On the afternoon of 22 January 2011, the MV BELUGA NOMINATION was attacked by a skiff, with an unknown number of suspected pirates on board. Small arms were used against the vessel during the attack.
The attack took place in the Indian Ocean, 390 nautical miles north of the Seychelles. The MV BELUGA NOMINATION is an Antiguan and Barbudan flagged, German owned, general cargo vessel which was on passage to Port Victoria in the Seychelles at the time of the attack. There is no information on the condition of the mixed crew of 12 (Polish, Filipino, Russian and Ukrainian) at this time. EUNAVFOR are monitoring the situation.
MV BELUGA NOMINATION was registered with MSC(HOA) and had reported to UKMTO.
When the pirates boarded the vessel the crew went into a citadel which the pirates were eventually able to enter. I
...
The nearest EU NAVFOR warship at the time of the attack was over 1000 Nm away. The warship was waiting to escort a World Food Programme (WFP) vessel delivering vital humanitarian aid to Somalia, which is EU NAVFOR’s primary task within its mandated mission. The remainder of the EU NAVFORs warships were even further away carrying out tasks in the IRTC (Internationally Recognized Transit Corridor), which is their secondary task within the mandated mission.
After the crew, consisting of a Polish captain, 2 Ukrainians and 7 Philippinos, had radioed the emergency, they took shelter in the citadel. But the pirates welded open the room with professional equipment and took control over the vessel, heading west for the Somalian coast. A surveillance plane of the Seychelles Coastguard reached the ship only on Jan 25 and saw 4 hijackers on deck. A patrol boat of the CG followed the ship for some time but had to return due to bad weather. No ship of the Atalanta-forces was able to provide help in time. The German frigate “Hamburg” was in Djibouti for bunkering purposes, and it would have taken 3-4 days to reach the vessel, and also the closest navy ship would have been 1000 miles away.
Evolution in action: Ship crews have taken to locking themselves in a safe room (ie., a citadel) where the pirates can’t get at them. These rooms often contain additional controls for the ship. So now we’re seeing pirates bringing a cutting torch onboard with them. I guess thicker doors and walls for these rooms will be next, perhaps with water cannons mounted above the doors operated from inside.
The MV Beluga Nomination was built in 2006 as the MV BBC Ireland, is 132 meters long with a 16 meter beam, and has a top speed of only 7.4 knots. Less than 9mph! She is a general cargo container ship with a capacity of 9775 dwt, which means this is a pretty small ship. A coastal freighter for the poorer parts of the world. That would explain the low speed: a smaller engine uses less fuel, and you need to watch every penny with small cargo runs. It took a couple of days before the authority types would admit that the ship was actually hijacked, but at this point it’s undeniable.
1000 nautical miles away from any other ship, putting along at 8mph. This one was a no-brainer. A sitting duck.
Hang on a second ... the one source page may have been in error. According to the builder’s page, this ship has a 5217hp Caterpillar diesel engine, and can go 14.8 knots. Which is 17mph. Still slower than a pirate speedboat, but not as totally pathetic as I was lead to believe at first. Even so ... from what I gather, the ship was bound for the Seychelles, which is 1000 miles from anywhere, and it’s smack dab in the middle of Somali Pirate waters, which have grown considerably this past year. What are they supposed to do, let the Seychelles starve? But it seems rather sneaky, perhaps ironic, that while the navy was busy protecting an aide ship bound for Somalia, Somalis were busy hijacking a ship somewhere else. It’s almost like they knew the navy would be busy. And far away.
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Permalink • Friday - January 21, 2011
South Korea, Eff Yeah
South Korean special forces stormed a hijacked freighter in the Arabian Sea on Friday, rescuing all 21 crew members and killing eight assailants in a rare and bold raid on Somali pirates, South Korea said.
The military operation in waters between Oman and Africa, which also captured five pirates and left one crew member wounded, came a week after the Somali attackers seized the South Korean freighter and held hostage eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 citizens from Myanmar.
“We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future,” South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in a brief televised statement, adding that the rescue was a “perfect operation.”
The successful raid is a triumph for Lee, whose government suffered harsh criticism at home in the weeks following a North Korean attack in November on a South Korean island near disputed waters. Critics said Lee’s military was too slow and weak in its response to the attack, which killed two marines and two civilians.
With a South Korean destroyer and a Lynx helicopter providing covering fire, South Korea’s special navy forces stormed the hijacked vessel in a pre-dawn rescue operation that left eight of the pirates dead and five captured, Lt. Gen. Lee Sung-ho told reporters.
The 11,500-ton chemical carrier Samho Jewelry was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka when it was hijacked. It was the second vessel from South Korea-based Samho Shipping to be hijacked in the past several months.
In November, Somali pirates freed the supertanker Samho Dream and its 24 crew — five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos — after seven months of captivity.
Pretty sure that the Samho Dream was also being used as a mothership while the pirates had her. That’s got to be embarrassing for the country that owns/operates/crews the ship, don’t you think?
[South Korea’s] President Lee Myung-bak went live on national television to announce the successful conclusion of the five-hour operation, 1,300 kilometers northeast of Somalia.
Mr. Lee told the country South Korea will not tolerate future attacks on any of its nationals. On board the Malta-flagged chemical tanker was a crew of 11 Burmese, eight South Koreans and two Indonesians. It is operated by South Korea’s Samho Shipping.
Military officials in Seoul say a South Korean naval destroyer, the Choi Young, with 300 special forces aboard, tailed the hijacked ship for days before moving in early Friday.
Two other South Koreans are currently being held hostage by Somali pirates, following the hijacking of their 241-ton fishing trawler, the Keummi 305, last October in waters off Kenya’s Lamu Island.
A total of 29 vessels and 693 hostages are known to be held captive by pirates off the coast of Somalia.
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Permalink • Friday - January 14, 2011
The World Still Exists, Part I
The crew of a Danish weapons ship have been kidnapped by pirates in the Gulf of Aden off Oman, but in an unusual departure from normal practice, the vessel was not seized, a report said Thursday.
Sources told the TradeWinds shipping publication that the 2,000-tonne ship, The Leopard, was carrying “sensitive” cargo, believed to include weapons.
Vessels operated by the Leopard’s Danish operator, Shipcraft, routinely carried nuclear items, although none were believed to have been on board this vessel, it said.
The six crew—two Danes including the captain, and four Filipinos—had been taken to a seized Taiwanese fishing vessel being operated as a mothership, the report added.
The ship had meanwhile been located and searched by the Turkish navy and no trace of any pirates or pirate skiffs had been found.
Nato sailors searched the abandoned vessel. Its cargo is said to be intact.
The Nato sailors from a Turkish warship, the Gaziantep, boarded the M/V Leopard on Thursday, when it was found to be drifting.
It is not clear why the ship was immobilised, said a spokesman for the EU’s Navfor anti-piracy mission.
“We believe the ship was carrying arms, ammunition and explosives, and we believe the cargo is still intact,” said the spokesman, Wing Commander Paddy O’Kennedy.
One single shipload of weapons would be enough for any Somali warlord to arm enough followers to take over the entire country. At the very least it would keep his pirates armed to the teeth for years to come. Like I said, d’oh!!
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Permalink • Saturday - December 04, 2010
One Month, One Map
Via EagleSpeak, a map that shows Somali pirate activity for about a 35 day period.
Bright yellow pins are successful hijackings.
Dull yellow pins are unsuccessful hijackings.
Red pins are attacks.
Green pins are suspected mothership sightings.
I count 53 attacks, hijackings, and attempted hijackings. In just over a month.
Doesn’t look like the world’s navies are doing such a hot job. Piracy seems to be epidemic in a full quarter of the Indian Ocean. Perhaps they should change their strategy; protection and interdiction at sea are not effective, so how about blockading the coast? Nothing gets in, nothing gets more than 20 miles from shore.
That would require doing something, and putting all those expensive floating toys ever so slightly in harm’s way. Which is what a Navy is for, isn’t it?
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Monday - November 29, 2010
the french take action while brits dither? surely not.
I had mentioned the other day, on the subject of nutcase happenings, the idea that a couple of Somali pirates have relations here in the UK, and that one already had a wife and kids here. He said he wants to come here under asylum. No doubt they’d grant him his wishes and provide benefits as well under European human rights and the rest of that BS.
Drew also posted something on the subject and made the very accurate observation that the Chandler couple were selling their story, “a bit at a time.”
Oh boy are they ever. It’s been in every paper every day for the last week. And the Mail has been laying out their saga not just full page but double pages open center. I was getting bored with it to be honest. But something in today’s version really caught my attention, and I suspect BMEWS regulars and others may be surprised by this as well.
According to the couple, the people that the pirates feared most if they can be believed, are the French and their Navy. They say in their latest installment, that when captured the pirates kept shouting, what nationality? What nationality? It transpires, according to them, that the pirate worry was that they had captured a French couple. That’s the claim anyway. Apparently the French have shown themselves only too happy to engage the enemy and haven’t the health and safety concerns of others. If that is true, then Bravo France!
Why didn’t the navy save us? The Chandlers reveal how they were captured by pirates under the gaze of British patrol
By David JonesMoments after storming aboard Paul and Rachel Chandler’s yacht, the pirates’ leader began haranguing them with one question that was clearly of vital importance to him.
‘Nationality? Nationality?’ he shouted repeatedly in thickly-accented English, as the couple were taken below decks at gunpoint.
Amid the chaos of the assault, the British red ensign that had fluttered proudly from the Lynn Rival’s stern had been torn down, and they quickly realised that the gang chief, Bugas, was terrified that they might be French.
Six months before their kidnap, when another band of Somali pirates hijacked a yacht from Brittany cruising in the same stretch of ocean, French commandos had staged a ruthless rescue operation.
Sanctioned by the French Defence Minister, Herve Morin, it was a show of force designed to send out a message to the pirates — that one nation, at least, was no longer prepared to stand by and let them plunder the seas with impunity.
So when the Chandlers assured Bugas they were British, his relief was immediately obvious.
‘The pirates don’t mess with the French any more,’ says 60-year-old Paul. ‘Their forces are too gung-ho.
‘But I think they see the other Western navies who patrol the area as a bit of laughing stock.
‘They know that if they have just one hostage at gunpoint, then these navies — with all their might — are impotent.’
Since we now know that the Chandlers were kidnapped under the compliant gaze of the Wave Knight, a Royal Navy supply ship armed with cannon and machine guns and carrying 25 Royal Marines, the pirates’ contempt is all too understandable.
But two crucial questions have lingered since the supply ship’s inglorious role in this nightmarish saga was first revealed.
Should the Admiralty have adopted the same tough stance as the French and ordered the Wave Knight to attack?
And if they had, would the Chandlers have been spared a 13-month ordeal which saw them flogged, mentally tortured and threatened with death?
Told today for the first time, the Kent couple’s gripping, first-hand account of their capture on October 23 last year finally provides the answers to these questions — questions which have cast a long shadow over the Royal Navy’s proud reputation.
If you’re interested in the entire, tiresome story here’s the link. However ..... here’s the part I think you should see the link for. I’ve edited for space.
Isn’t it interesting? Empty threat after empty threat.
At this point, Bugas (the pirate leader) seized the radio and ordered the couple to pack their bags ready to decamp to the Kota Wajar. (pirate mother ship)
As they did so, the radio crackled to life again and they heard the British ship threaten the pirates aboard the captured cargo vessel.
WK: Kota Wajar. You are in my security area. Alter course to the north please.
[There was no reply to this warning, and indeed the Kota Wajar failed to respond to any of Wave Knight’s entreaties. This was because, the Chandlers later learned, the pirates on board were beating the container ship’s skipper — one of 21 crew members being held hostage — over the head with a water bottle].
WK: Kota Wajar, you are threatening my security. Alter course to the north. Please acknowledge.
Once again, Bugas forced Paul back on to the radio to tell the British ship to stop its threats.
LR: EU warship, this is sailing yacht Lynn Rival.
WK: Lynn Rival, I am under attack from a previously pirated ship. I will come back to you
[From his position below deck, Paul could not see or hear gunfire, but the Ministry of Defence told the Daily Mail the pirates onboard the Kota Wajar opened fire on the Wave Knight with their machine guns.
Under the military Rules of Engagement, the British vessel could now have launched a deadly assault against them, but did not do so because of the 21 crew held hostage on the cargo ship.]
WK: Kota Wajar, you are threatening my security. Alter course towards north immediately or I may take action.
LR: We are very frightened. We have been told we will be killed if you do not stand off.
WK: Kota Wajar, you are threatening my security. Alter course towards north immediately or I may take action which may include the use of lethal force.
LR: Our captors say they will kill us if you don’t stand off. We are terrified!
At this point, apparently satisfied he had bought them enough time to evacuate, Bugas ordered Paul to turn off the radio and ram his beloved yacht into the stern of the Kota Wajar.
This was to get them close enough to climb the rope ladder that had been lowered by pirates on the high-sided container ship.
His ploy worked, and the Chandlers were transferred to Kota Wajar while the crew of the Wave Knight looked on.
It was, indeed, a fiasco. As a patriot and a seafarer, Paul is reluctant to criticise our Navy, but as he remarks — what was the point of the ship being there if it couldn’t help them?
Here’s what a few Brits have had to say on the subject.
How ridiculous - this couple took to the radio to beg the Navy not to intervene, yet now claim they wanted them to and were ‘happy to die’. And they seem to also forget that they videoed pathetic messages through the year begging for money to be raised for their release because otherwise they’d die.
Now that they’re home, they’ve suddenly transformed themselves into heroes who would have laid down their lives raither than have Britain pay one penny for their rescue.
I can understand their cowardice when captured, but to now try and spin themselves into heroes is a disgrace.
- A. Wright-Burke, London Bridge,
######################################################You can just imagine what would have happened in the Navy had helped.
* Human Rights Lawyers crawling out of the woodwork lead by Tony Blairs wife.
* Social Services saying its the Pirates that are the real victims and all should be given homes in the UK.
* Millions of £ in Compenastion for Hurt Feelings to the Chandlers had the rescue attempt failed.Don’t forget that the Afghan High-Jackers are still in the UK and we can’t deport criminals.
We real are a country lead by invertebrates
- James 001, The west coast of nowhere,
#####################################################
It’s not up to the Royal Navy, paid for the taxpayers, to rescue any idiots who chose to sail into these pirate infected waters. Since they were stupid enough to do that, then they should face the consequences of their own making. They should now be glad that they are now home and making lots of money selling their stories, instead of blaming anyone else.
- mari, london,
The Chandlers claim that they were not in fact sailing within the danger zone. ???
Posted by peiper
on 11/29/2010 at 11:51 AM
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! •
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Permalink • Saturday - November 27, 2010
This may be obscene
More than a year ago, Somali pirates captured British seniors Paul and Rachel Chandler as they sailed their boat across the Indian Ocean. The pirates demanded an outrageous ransom, under the assumption that all English people are wealthy. The Chandlers were not, nor are their relatives. So for 13 months negotiations ensued, and at every setback the Chandlers felt the wrath of the stymied pirates, being beaten, whipped, starved, and threatened all the time.
Somehow some ransom was raised, and finally the Chandlers are free. And back home in Jolly Olde, and selling their story to the papers a bit at a time.
But it turns out that several of the Somali pirates might just be nearly paying them a visit, because those pirates are planning to come to the UK to visit their relatives, who live there on the asylum dole. And they may just get away with it.
Two members of the Somali pirate gang that held Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler hostage for 388 days are believed to have family in the UK. One of the pirate leaders says he plans to travel to the UK to join his wife and two children, who have claimed political asylum and live in London.
The extraordinary revelations come as intelligence and security officials in the UK and Kenya investigate links between Britain and Somali pirates after the couple were freed from the 13-month ordeal in return for a ransom.
A second pirate involved in the seizing of the Chandlers is suspected to have lived in Britain and to have family living in London. It is unclear whether his family has also claimed asylum and whether either family receives benefits. Both men are said to have received a ‘cut’ of the estimated £625,000 ransom paid for the release of Mr Chandler, 60, and his 57-year-old wife.
Investigators say the revelations raise the possibility of pirates travelling to Britain and of part of the ransom money being transferred to family members in the UK.
Their warnings come just weeks after Home Secretary Theresa May highlighted the links between British extremists and Somalia, with some UK citizens travelling there to train alongside Al Qaeda-linked groups. Anti-terrorist investigators believe some have returned to Britain and they have been looking at associations between the UK and pirate gangs, who currently hold some 40 ships and 500 crew hostage.
Immigration investigators are now involved in the inquiry into their British links and seeking to discover whether individuals have visited the UK or have families here. ‘It is possible that some of those involved in piracy have British or other European citizenship and that is a worrying area which we are exploring,’ one investigator said.
In satellite calls, the pirates have alluded to links with Britain and a man named as Hassan, 32 – said to be one of the ringleaders of the Chandler abduction – was quoted as saying he had a wife and family in the UK and was planning to join them. He claimed his family had moved to London three years ago, applying for political asylum.
‘She is putting me under pressure to join her and the children, so I will come to the UK soon,’ he said in one telephone call.
Now wait a second. Are British subjects subject to English Law regardless of where on earth they may be? So would the act of two “Englishmen” kidnapping and torturing two other Englishmen still be a crime in London, even though it happened thousands of miles away? If it is, then this could be a nice opportunity. Catch these two when they come “home”, take the money, hang them both, and then throw their families out of the country, for associating with terrorists and brigands and for attempting to receive criminally obtained money.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/27/2010 at 09:05 PM
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! • UK •
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Permalink • Islamists establish a bridgehead in Parliament.
Interesting view and another example of what this country faces daily.
At some point in time the bad guys are gonna open wide that back door which is already ajar.
Politicians of all parties and even spokesmen in the security services are mouthing the pc line about how awful torture is and is unacceptable and immoral yadda,yadda. As if the enemy will be impressed by the high moral tone of the speech in London and the US, in some quarters.
Meanwhile in the USA, I read that a Somali sub-human scum tried to set off a bomb. Was he immediately shot dead? You know he wasn’t and furthermore, he more then likely wasn’t worried about it because like all the rest, they know and they use the weak kneed legal system much to their advantage.
It will eventually be our undoing. Oh btw ... just to show you (but you know) how well others play the system both legal and social, here’s a bit of info.
Those Somali pirates who got a ton of money and finally freed that couple after a year, suggested to them that they sell their house to raise hostage money. When they asked the pirates where they would live without a house, the pirate leader told them that if they applied, then the Brit. govt. would give them a house. And that isn’t all. Turns out that two of the pirates have relatives here in England AND, one of them has a wife and kids here and wants to immigrate to England asking for asylum to be with his family. He’ll claim benefits of course, assuming he does what he says he wants to and is allowed in.
Do all these bastards know the system er what?
Islamists establish a bridgehead in ParliamentBy Andrew Gilligan
TelegraphAfter a series of reverses in the political arena, Islamist sympathisers yesterday established a key bridgehead in Parliament.
A body called iEngage (also known as Engage) states in a press release that it will be acting as the secretariat to a new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, whose inaugural meeting was held yesterday in the Commons. The group is chaired by a Tory MP, Kris Hopkins. The Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes and the Labour peer Lord Janner are vice-chairs. Sources say that the inaugural meeting was attended by the Tory MPs Angie Bray and Eric Ollerenshaw, and the Labour MP Lisa Nandy, among others.
I’m quite certain all these people are sincere individuals who would have no truck with Islamism or extremism. Indeed, at least one of them is Jewish. But they are being used. They need to look much more closely at who they are getting into bed with.
iEngage is an organisation of Islamist sympathisers which has consistently defended fundamentalist organisations such as the East London Mosque and the Islamic Forum of Europe. It routinely attacks all criticism of them as “Islamophobic.”
It attacked the BBC’s recent Panorama documentary on racist Muslim schools – showing that some children are being taught anti-Semitism and Sharia punishments – as a “witch-hunt.” Typically, it launched its attack before even seeing the programme. It was almost alone in this criticism – faced with Panorama’s clear evidence, even some of the usual Islamist suspects kept quiet.
It attacked me for writing about the East London Mosque’s hosting of the terrorist preacher, Anwar al-Awlaki, in 2009 – advertised with a poster showing New York under bombardment. It peddled the straightforward lie told by the mosque that no-one had realised Awlaki was a bad egg at that stage. In fact, Awlaki had been identified by the US government two months before as a spiritual leader of the 9/11 hijackers – and the mosque knew this.
iEngage’s chief executive, and secretary of the new parliamentary group, Mohammed Asif, wrote to the Home Secretary to protest against the ban on the extremist preacher, Zakir Naik. Mr Naik has stated that “every Muslim should be a terrorist.” But Mr Asif and iEngage said that Naik’s exclusion would “put at risk good community relations.”
iEngage publicised a grotesquely misleading report issued by another Islamist-sympathising group, iEra, purporting to show that three-quarters of non-Muslims believe Islam is negative for Britain. As I demonstrated, this result – massively more than the true figure – was only achieved by systematically twisting the data as part of iEra’s agenda to sow suspicion and discord between communities.
Because too often, the charge of “Islamophobia” has been used by Islamists to stifle and deter examination of their own actions. They deliberately conflate Islamism (followed by a tiny minority of British Muslims) with the entire faith of Islam, and accuse anyone who scrutinises or attacks their minority brand of fundamentalism of being “anti-Muslim.” That is basically iEngage’s entire purpose.
It is a deeply dangerous game and not one, I’m sure, which any MP would want to be involved in.
Posted by peiper
on 11/27/2010 at 09:14 AM
Filed Under: • muslims • Pirates, aarrgh! •
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Permalink • Monday - November 22, 2010
Why Did This Take 4 Months?
Gee, thanks for telling us what we all figured out that very same day.
The United States has issued a new warning to ships passing through critical shipping lanes in the Middle East and along the African coast after confirming a terror attack took place there this year.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a group based in southern Lebanon that is linked to al Qaeda, claimed in August that a suicide bomber had attacked the Japanese tanker the M. Star on July 28.
The United States has now determined that the claim is valid, according to a statement from the U.S. Maritime Administration.
It warned ships that the group “can conduct further attacks on vessels in areas of/in the Strait of Hormuz, southern Arabian Gulf and western Gulf of Oman.”
The explosion on the [ VLCC ] M. Star injured one crew member but did not cause a spill or halt shipping traffic.
-- The group is named after Palestinian Abdullah Azzam, who led Islamic militants in Afghanistan and was killed in 1989 by a roadside bomb. Azzam is regarded as the one-time spiritual mentor of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
-- The Brigades have generally operated from the Sinai Peninsula, and have carried out attacks primarily on targets in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. The latest claim could suggest they also have ties with the Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda.
Back then it was a different story:
A Japanese shipping line raised alarm Wednesday that one of its supertankers was damaged by an explosion in a possible attack in the Persian Gulf, but authorities on both sides of the tense waterway denied that any strike occurred.
Details of what happened as the hulking M. Star tanker steered its way through the strategically sensitive Strait of Hormuz remain murky. The U.S. Navy fleet that patrols the region acknowledged reports of an explosion aboard the ship but said the cause of the blast is unclear.
Local officials cited natural causes, such as an unusually strong wave that slammed into the side of the ship.
Here’s a funny thing: the Japanese knew within a week that it had been a suicide bombing, similar to the one that damaged the USS Cole back in 2000. And it takes the US government until Thanksgiving to agree? WTFF?
Experts investigating damage to a Japanese supertanker that was shaken by an apparent explosion near the Gulf last month believe the ship was the target of a terrorist attack.
Inspectors at the port of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates, found traces of explosives on the oil tanker, the official UAE news agency said today.
The explosion occurred just after midnight on 28 July as the vessel, the M Star, headed through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway acting as a gateway to the oil-rich Gulf, separating part of Oman from Iran to the north.
The explosion left a large dent in the hull of the 260,000-ton vessel and damaged corridors and sleeping quarters. One crew member was slightly injured.
“An examination carried out by specialised teams has confirmed that the tanker has been the subject of a terrorist attack,” the official WAM news agency said, quoting a UAE coastguard. “UAE explosives experts who collected and examined samples found a dent on the starboard side above the waterline and remains of homemade explosives on the hull. Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat laden with explosives.”
So now we’ve got terrorists and pirates operating in the same waters. The very same waters patrolled by half the navies of the world. The same waters through which passes at least a quarter of the world’s crude oil on a daily basis.
I’d say it’s time for open season on all small boats in the area. Any and every one of them. Approach a large ship within a mile and the assumption has to be that you are a belligerent. Open fire.
Right of Way of smaller vessels? Sure, sure. Just make sure your little skiff is pointing away from the big boys until they’re out of sight. Otherwise you are a valid target. Bofors Gun beats Right of Way every time. So paddle faster Achmed.
On the third hand, it’s so cool that ships exist that are so damn large that a boatload of splodeydopes splats themselves against the side and the reaction is “Oh I say, did you hear something?”
Posted by Drew458
on 11/22/2010 at 02:59 PM
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! • War On Terror •
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