Friday - June 05, 2009

Good News, Bad News

The Royal Navy overpowered ten pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns in the Gulf of Aden but was later forced to set the men free because of rules of engagement.

The HMS Portland detected two skiffs by radar and, suspecting that they were not merely fishing vessels, the frigate approached the skiffs and spied weapons and ammunition.

In a daring raid, Royal Navy teams approached the skiffs in inflatable boats, boarded the boats and disarmed the pirates as helicopters hovered above with snipers.

But because of rules of engagement, which stipulate that pirates can only be arrested if they are caught in the act of attacking a vessel, the men were eventually set free. The Royal Navy confiscated the men’s weapons, destroyed their smaller, faster skiff, and gave the men enough fuel to carry them back to Somalia in the larger boat.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/05/2009 at 10:55 AM   
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   Friday - May 22, 2009

Hero cruise ship Britons fight off armed Somali pirates with deckchairs and tables.

Well done OAPs.  (Old Age Pensioners)

But I do have a huge problem with this BS re. “warning shots” What the hell is that all about?
As long as those vermin don’t believe you’re “DEADLY” serious, look for more of the same, and maybe with not so nice an ending.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:01 AM on 22nd May 2009

British pensioners on a cruise ship bravely fought off machine gun-armed Somali pirates by hurling deckchairs and tables at them.

The holidaymakers were enjoying a midnight Mozart concert onboard MSC Melody when pirates armed with Kalashnikovs attempted to board it using grappling hooks and ladders.

But passengers forced them back to their boats by throwing chairs and tables over the stern of the ship as Israeli security guards onboard the cruise liner fired warning shots.

The ship was a week into a 22-day cruise in the Indian Ocean, 180 miles north of the Seychelles, when it came under attack from pirates in speedboats.

Maureen Gawthrop, 66, from Barnsley, said: ‘We were enjoying a classical concerto on the pool deck when everyone heard a cracking sound.

‘The applause for the musicians died down suddenly and someone came running in from the open deck and shouted “pirates”.

‘Crew members acted quickly to evacuate passengers into their cabins and told them to lock their doors.

‘We went to our cabin and we could hear bullets whizzing and clanging as they hit the ship.

‘I saw a white speed boat riding alongside on the wake of the ship about 15 yards away. There were eight men dressed in green camouflage who turned and fired at us.

Husband Roy, 66, added: ‘We later learned what we witnessed was the aftermath of the incident. The pirates had tried to get on board the ship with short rope ladders and failed.’

Ian Moakes, 62, from Forest Town, Mansfield, said passengers were terrified as the hijackers began shooting at the ship.

He said: ‘We were told to go to our cabins, lock the doors and not to answer the door to anyone and they would let us know what was happening.

‘A lot of the crew were elderly and very frightened because they didn’t know what was going on.

‘I was very frustrated because there was no news coming through and I was stuck in the cabin.’

The ship’s captain ordered security guards to fire two warning shots to scare off the attackers, but many of the passengers did not know the full extent of the attack until 36 hours later.

‘There were a lot of angry people on board as a lot of misinformation was given out.

‘Only when we got off the boat at Aqaba did I realise that it could have been a lot nastier - there were bullet holes in the side of the ship from their Kalashnikov rifles.’

Wife Jessie, 61, said the ordeal had no put her off travelling abroad.

‘It was not until after the incident that I realised how serious it was,’ she said.

‘It ruined our holiday but we will go again - just not to the Indian Ocean, it is far too dangerous.’

Owner of MSC Cruises, Gianluigi Aponte, said the ship’s crew took all necessary precautions to avoid the attack, which happened in April.

He said: ‘We are very proud that our crew proved to be able to promptly tackle the emergency.

‘At the moment of the attack, the ship was 600 nautical miles from Somalian coast, in an area that is not considered dangerous, and 180 nautical miles from Seychelles.

‘All security measures adopted worked perfectly. Captain Ciro Pinto followed all security protocols provided, guiding the ship out of danger with a sequence of evasive manoeuvres.’

Pirate attacks on ships passing through the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean have soared this year, with attacks nearly doubling between January and March.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 05/22/2009 at 01:28 PM   
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   Tuesday - April 28, 2009

Yemeni forces free oil tanker, arrest 11 pirates, kill two. But …

The Telegraph says three died but if only two ok. I’m happy with that. Sorry it wasn’t all of the filthy vermin but hey. A gift is a gift.

Yemeni forces free oil tanker, arrest 11 pirates
By AHMED AL-HAJ –

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni coast guard forces have freed a hijacked Yemeni oil tanker and arrested 11 Somali pirates, the first time the country has successfully retaken a seized vessel, officials said Monday.

The coast guard exchanged gunfire with the pirates and took control of the oil tanker Qana on Sunday, a security official said.

The vessel had been hijacked earlier in the day while heading between the two southern Yemeni ports of Mukalla and Aden. The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Yemen, an impoverished country on the southwestern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, is across the treacherous Gulf of Aden from Somalia, on the Horn of Africa. It’s the first time Yemen’s forces have successfully battled a hijacking since piracy began to surge in the Gulf of Aden a year ago.

A strengthened international naval force has been patrolling the waters since the beginning of this year

Pirates have hijacked more than 100 ships off the Somali coast over the last year, including one in a dramatic standoff between pirates and the U.S. Navy earlier this month. The Gulf of Aden is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The Yemeni oil tanker seized Sunday was not carrying any crude at the time of the attack, said the head of the company that owns the vessel, Mohammed Abdul-Rahman.

The ship was among four vessels under escort by a Yemeni coast guard boat at the time. The three other vessels escaped the attack.

Elsewhere in the region, Somali pirates on Sunday released an oil tanker seized four months ago and allowed it to sail to a Somali port.

The 16-man crew is safe, said Deepak Bhandari, chief executive of Seaprime Marine Management in Mumbai, India, which manages the vessel.

The Sea Princess II is now docked in the port of Bosasso, he said. It was hijacked on Jan. 2 as it was sailing through the Gulf of Aden.

It’s unclear when the vessel will be allowed to leave Somalia. Bhandari says he does not know whether the ship’s Yemen-based owner agreed to pay a ransom for the release of the tanker.

Source is AP.

AP

Posted by peiper     on 04/28/2009 at 10:37 AM   
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   Monday - April 27, 2009

PIRATE UPDATE ……..  just time for a very quick post here.

I posted that yesterday ....

An Italian cruise ship used guns and a firehose to beat off an attack by pirates off the east African coast, the vessel’s captain said on Sunday. Skip related content

Well ... just seen this morning’s news London time.

THE GUARDS THAT USED WEAPONS ON PIRATES ARE AN ISRAELI SECURITY FIRM.

Shouldda known!

Later ..
Cheers

Posted by peiper     on 04/27/2009 at 03:47 AM   
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   Sunday - April 26, 2009

Italian cruise ship fends off pirate attack .  BRAVO ITALY

Here’s a story just received to gladden the heart.

Just ignore the wimps and doom sayers who say weapons should not be used.  Repel em with water and, loud music (?).

Yeah well .... screw that.  Real guns beat water and kind words every time.

1 hour 3 mins ago
Reuters: Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

An Italian cruise ship used guns and a firehose to beat off an attack by pirates off the east African coast, the vessel’s captain said on Sunday. Skip related content

Commander Ciro Pinto of the MSC Melody, which has a capacity of 1,500 passengers and crew, said the ship was slightly damaged by firing from the pirates.

The ship came under attack when it was 200 miles (320 km) north of the Seychelles and 600 miles (960 km) off the Somali coast. “They started firing like crazy at the ship,” he told Italian television Skytg24.

Pinto said pistols were handed out to security staff and they opened fire on the pirates when they tried to clamber up the sides of the ship.

“They tried to put up a ladder with hooks. They were climbing up, so we reacted. We started firing. When they saw us firing—we even sprayed them with water with the firehose—they gave up and went off,” Pinto said.

The sea gang followed the Melody for another 20 minutes, firing at it all the while, Pinto said.

“The passengers meanwhile were inside the cabin. There are no injuries. Only two people with scrapes,” the captain said. “Someone slipped, fell. Just a few light scrapes.”

Although the ship’s action may have saved the Melody from capture, a Kenyan maritime official that monitors the growing piracy off Somalia said it only endangered the lives of passengers.

“Having weapons on a passenger or merchant ship is dangerous. They should have used other means to shake off the pirates, like a loud acoustic device,” said Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa-based East African Sea Farers Assistance Programme.

He was referring to a device that can produce a deafening sound to deter pirates when directed towards their vessel.

“Only military ships should have weapons on board.”

Sea gangs have increased raids on ships passing through the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean since February when better weather allowed them to hijack more vessels and take more hostages despite foreign navies patrolling off Somalia.

It is not the first time that pirates have tried to seize a cruise ship, but they have always been fended off.

The London-based IMB watchdog said piracy incidents nearly doubled in the first quarter of 2009 almost entirely due to Somalia. There were 18 attacks off the Somali coast in March alone.

They have made millions of dollars from seizing ships and taking crews hostage. Pirates freed a Greek ship on Saturday after they received a $1.9 million (1.3 million pounds) ransom just hours after another ship, a German grain carrier, was grabbed in the Guld of Aden.

(Additional reporting by Antonella Ciancio in Milan; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

REUTERS

Posted by peiper     on 04/26/2009 at 06:40 AM   
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   Sunday - April 19, 2009

Mercy,mercy. Here we go again.  DUTCH COMMANDOS FREE PIRATES. Yeah. Really.

What else might you expect from a country where a judge once ruled .... oh hell I’ve told that one at least 2wice. And not a joke.
Neither is this.

Double Dutch: Commandos capture Somali pirates and free 20 hostages ... but release the bandits because they’re not from the Netherlands

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:28 AM on 19th April 2009

Dutch forces have freed 20 hostages whose vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates and used to launch an attack against a tanker in the Gulf of Aden.

The commandos briefly detained and questioned seven gunmen, but were forced to let them go because they had no legal power to arrest them under Dutch law.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that a Belgian ship has been hijacked by Somali gunmen today.

The Dutch commandos on the HNLMS De Zeven Provincien rescued the captives after chasing the pirates back to the fishing dhow by following the smaller craft used in the attack.

The traditional Arab sailing vessel was being used by the pirates as a ‘mother ship’ from which to launch armed attacks on commercial shipping.

Its 20 captives were Yemeni fishermen, who had been held hostage since Sunday.

Nato Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes said: ‘We have freed the hostages, we have freed the dhow and we have seized the weapons.’

He explained the pirates were set free because under Dutch law they could not be held at sea under the circumstances in which they were captured.

Speaking from on board a Portuguese warship further north in the Gulf of Aden, Fernandes said: ‘They can only arrest them if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from the Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands waters.’

Nato forces in the Indian Ocean confirmed that a Belgian ship with 10 crew members on board, including seven Europeans, was hijacked by Somali gunmen today.

Fernandes said: ‘A helicopter from EU naval force Operation Atalanta flew over and confirmed the hijacking visually.’

He said the Belgian ship, the Pompei, was carrying two Belgian, four Croatian, one Danish and three Filipino crew.
Enlarge Captain Richard Phillips

Reunion: Captain Richard Phillips is hugged by his daughter today after being held hostage by pirates

Reports say there has been no communication with the dredging vessel, the Pompei, since it sent two alarm signals early on Saturday.

Sea gangs have captured dozens of ships, taken hundreds of sailors prisoner and made off with millions of dollars in ransoms in recent months.

On Friday five gunmen in a skiff neared a Danish cargo vessel, the MV Puma, in the Gulf of Aden, prompting U.S. and South Korean warships to send aircraft to the scene.

Last week, Somali pirates captured two more ships and opened fire on two others. A French naval frigate seized 11 gunmen on Wednesday, foiling yet another attack .

DUTCH and PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 04/19/2009 at 08:52 AM   
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   Wednesday - April 15, 2009

PIRATE ATTACK AGAINST AMERICAN SHIP ….

I guess this isn’t news back home at this hour, but it just came up on my monitor a few minutes ago.
Someone IDing himself as a pirate spokesman says it was not a pirate attack to capture the ship by an attack to destroy it in revenge on Americans.
Drew needs to go to DC with a handful of BMEWS posts and comments and demand to be put in charge of the solution to the pirate problem.
And if V. went along too, we could have a whole change of administration.
BUT wait ...
O. “promised” to end the problem. Yes he did. Now we’ll wait and see if Yes He Can.

From Times Online
April 15, 2009
Somali pirates attack another US cargo ship with grenades and automatic weapons

Sophie Tedmanson and Rob Crilly

A Navy destroyer carrying Captain Richard Phillips after he was rescued from armed Somali pirates this week had to divert to rescue another ship that was under attack yesterday.

The USS Bainbridge was called on to help a US cargo ship, the MV Liberty Sun, which was under attack by Somali pirates using rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.

But by the time the destroyer reached the MV Liberty Sun the pirates had fled, giving up their attempt to hijack the ship or kidnap any of its crew.

Tuesday’s brazen midday attack on the Liberty Sun in international waters off the African coast is further evidence that Somali pirates are back to business as usual.

Pirates have seized four other ships with 60 hostages since US snipers killed three gunmen holding Captain Phillips after he was kidnapped from his container ship. A Greek-owned freighter, the MV Irene, was also taken in the Gulf of Aden with more than 20 crew yesterday. Pirates in as many as four speedboats seized the MV Sea Horse, a 5,000-tonne cargo ship flying the Togolese flag, soon afterwards.

The Liberty Sun’s American crew were not injured but the vessel sustained unspecified damage in the attack, its owner, the Liberty Maritime Corp. said in a statement last night.

Earlier, the mother of a crew member of the Liberty Sun told of e-mails her son had sent while the crew barricaded themselves in the engine room when the ship came under attack.

“We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets,” Thomas Urbik, 26, wrote in an e-mail on Tuesday. “We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. (A) rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out.”

It was not immediately clear what happened next, but Mr Urbik sent a follow-up e-mail “that said he was safe and they had a naval escort taking them in”, his mother, Katy Urbik, said.

The attack on the MV Liberty Sun occurred hours after President Obama promised to halt the rise of piracy off the Horn of Africa.

Navy Captain Jack Hanzlik said that the USS Bainbridge responded to the attack but the pirates had departed by the time it arrived some six hours later.

Bainbridge is the destroyer from which snipers killed the three pirates who held Captain Phillips aboard a drifting lifeboat for five days. The destroyer was carrying Captain Phillips, who is due to return home to the US today, to Kenya when called to help the Liberty Sun.

The Liberty Sun, with its crew of about 20 Americans, was carrying humanitarian aid to Mombassa, Kenya, Captain Hanzlik said. The ship continued on to Kenya after the attack under a Naval escort.

PIRATES AGAIN

Posted by peiper     on 04/15/2009 at 11:01 AM   
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   Monday - April 13, 2009

WELL NOW, IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU MEAN BY …. PIRATES.

Mary Beard is a wickedly subversive commentator on both the modern and the ancient world. She is a professor in classics at Cambridge and classics editor of the TLS.  (That’s what it say on the site where I found this.)

Help me here guys.  Is she being “wickedly funny” or just plain dumb? 

Am I not reading her correctly?  But then, she’s a professor. So that could explain it. 

Pirates? Try the Pompey-the-Great solution?
By, Mary Beard
Times Literary Supplement

Exactly who is to count as a “pirate” as such will always remain a matter of opinion and dispute. for ‘pirates’ are no more objectively defined than ‘terrorists’. To most of the world, after all, Sir Francis Drake was a dreadful pirate, to the British he still somehow manages to qualify as an ‘explorer’.

But however you define them, the Romans had plenty of trouble with criminals sailing around the Mediterranean. It must sometimes have seemed hard to decide which was the greater danger of a sea voyage in antiquity: shipwreck or kidnapping by one of the many gangs of thugs looking to make quick money by getting ransom for the wealthy individuals they captured (or alternatively by selling them into slavery).

The most famous victim of this was the young Julius Caesar, who fell into pirate hands in the 70s BC. The story of this crime was almost certainly later embellished to make it a nice prequel of Caesar’s later character and career. It is said that when the pirates told him that they were going to demand 20 talents ransom money (a hefty sum), Caesar replied that he was worth much more than that —and insisted that they double it.

Some of his party went off to get the cash, leaving Caesar to live for a month or so with this captors. He is supposed to have treated them as servants, telling them not to make too much noise when he wanted to rest, making them listen to him practising his oratory, and threatening that when he was released he would have them crucified. When the ransom arrived, he was set free—and indeed, in due course, he did crucify the lot of them.

But it was Caesar’s great rival Pompey the Great who had greatest success against the pirates, with a rather more liberal approach.

By the early 60s BC, pirates had become such a menace to Mediterranean shipping that in 67 Rome gave Pompey a “special command” and vast resources to try to get rid of them. It was great opportunity for this general ‘on the make’ to demonstrate his military genius. So he divided the sea into separate operational regions and, using loyal subordinate officers, he swept the pirates off the waters in just a few months.

But Pompey was smart enough to realise that, unless they were given some other form of livelihood, they would soon be back. (This is basically the Afghanistan problem: if they don’t make their money out of the poppy crop how ARE they going to survive.) So in a wonderful, early ‘resettlement of offenders’ initiative he offered the pirates small-holdings near the coast, where they could make an honest living for themselves.

In fact Servius, the late Roman commentator on the works of Virgil, was convinced that his poet had given one of these reformed characters a walk-on part in the Georgics (4, 125ff): a old man, living near Tarentum in South Italy, peacefully keeping bees, his days of piracy long behind him.

Might this not be a better solution than a shoot out for the Somali pirates?

TIMES

Posted by peiper     on 04/13/2009 at 11:59 AM   
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Dear DoD Wonk: You’re Fired

Defense officials said the U.S. military is considering attacks on Somali pirate bases on land and aid for the people there to help stop the hijacking of ships off Africa’s coast, Bloomberg.com reported.

The plan would include helping Somalia create their own coast guard and train security forces, the officials, who requested anonymity, told Bloomberg.com.

Officials said the plan would be submitted to the Obama administration as they decide how best to tackle the increase in pirate attacks off the Somali coast.

The only way to make shipping routes safe from pirates would be to disrupt their support network on land, security analysts have said.

Any actions against the pirates, defense officials said, would require the support of the Somali people, who are usually not in favor of foreign intervention.

First up, ass biscuit, the Somali government, or whatever passes for it these days, said months ago that anybody in the world could do whatever they wanted to the pirates. So, you are fired because you have ZERO awareness of what’s going on.

Next, when the ships of one nation attack and hijack the ships of another nation, it is an act of war. Go back and read your books; I think this one is on page 2. Do you have the slightest idea what a proxy is? Or a cut-out? Since the “official” Somali navy consists of 3 hungry kids with slingshots floating on a log, and Somali forces have done EXACTLY NOTHING to stem these pirates for several years, then they are actually, de facto, supporting and encouraging the pirates.

Do I need a “Thirdly”? Doctrine of hot pursuit? This is why we have Marines? Ever hear of Tripoli? Don’t Tread On Me? Being the World’s Policeman? Remember Mogadishu? Revenge? War On Terror?

You are a wiener. Go get a job with the Sierra Club. You have no business working for, or being a spokesman for, the Department of Defense. You’re fired.

The rest of the dickless dribble can be read here. Send them food! Send them aid! Send them money! Help them rebuild! Blame America! Understand their problems and provide a multi-billion dollar cure!

NO. Kill them. In quantities unseen since Dresden and Hiroshima. Without warning. Find 50 of their ships at sea and sink them. Burn everything that floats up and down their entire coast, then leave them to suffer. Scare the living hell out of the entire world. Then find another bunch and do it again. Send the message, Chicago Boy. That’s the Chicago Way.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/13/2009 at 10:38 AM   
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Three Flawless Shots

US captain freed; Somali pirates vow to retaliate

Bracing themselves on a rolling warship in choppy seas, U.S. Navy snipers fired three flawless shots to kill a trio of Somali pirates and free the American sea captain being held at gunpoint, a Navy commander said Monday.

Angry pirates vowed retaliation for the deaths, raising fears for the safety of some 230 foreign sailors still held hostage in more than a dozen ships anchored off the coast of lawless Somalia.

“From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages),” Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, told the Associated Press from one of Somalia’s piracy hubs, Eyl. “(U.S. forces have) become our No. 1 enemy.”

The nighttime operation was a victory for the world’s most powerful military, but few experts believed it would quell a rising tide of attacks in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Interviewed from Bahrain, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command chief Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said the takedown happened shortly after the hostage-takers were observed by sailors aboard the USS Bainbridge “with their heads and shoulders exposed.”

U.S. Defense officials said snipers got the go-ahead to fire after one pirate held an AK-47 so close to Capt. Richard Phillips’ back that the weapon appeared to be touching him. Two other pirates popped their heads up, giving snipers three clear targets, one official said.

Asked how the snipers could have killed each pirate with a single shot in the dark, Gortney described them as “extremely, extremely well-trained.” He told NBC’s “Today” show that the shooting was ordered by the captain of the Bainbridge.

“This could escalate violence in this part of the world, no question about it,” said Gortney, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

A Somali pirate agreed.

“Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying,” Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, told The Associated Press on Monday. “We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men.”

Posted by Drew458     on 04/13/2009 at 09:40 AM   
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   Sunday - April 12, 2009

US sea captain ‘released’ by Somali pirates.  NAVY SEALS … RESCUE .. 3 GREMLINS BYE,BYE!

The American sea captain held hostage by Somali pirates was freed unharmed last night when the US Navy mounted a rescue mission, according to news reports.

By Mike Pflanz in Mombasa
Last Updated: 7:04PM BST 12 Apr 2009

Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama, was captured last Wednesday when four Somali pirates stormed his ship in the Indian Ocean. He was held in one of the ship’s lifeboats, adrift in the Gulf of Aden, while the cargo vessel itself managed to escape. At least three American warships, including the USS Bainbridge, a guided missile destroyer from the Fifth Fleet, kept watch near the 15ft dinghy holding the American and his Somali captors.

Mr Phillips, 53, has now been released in an operation which saw three of his pirate captors killed and the fourth arrested, an American official told CNN. If so, this would be one of the few successful rescue missions mounted against Somalia’s pirates, who have captured scores of ships and hostages in recent years.

Earlier, Mr Phillips was hailed for his response to the attack on his ship. “He is a hero, he saved our lives,” said Ken Quinn, the second mate of the Maersk Alabama, which is now anchored in the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The sailors described how the pirates fired in the air and boarded the ship using “hooks and ropes”. One crew member, who gave his name as ATM Reza, said he lured one of the four armed pirates into the engine room. Then Mr Reza attacked the Somali with an ice pick, overpowering him and tying him up.

Meanwhile, Mr Phillips ordered the rest of his men to lock themselves in a cabin. He tried to ensure his colleagues’ safety by offering himself to the pirates as a prisoner.

Mr Phillips then suggested that they release him in return for their captive colleague. A deal was reached – and the American crew handed over the Somali. But the pirates reneged and bundled Mr Phillips into a lifeboat before escaping.

Before the rescue mission, the pirates were believed to have demanded their own freedom, as well as a ransom, in return for releasing Mr Phillips. This was seen as unacceptable. “The weight of American public opinion will not allow that,” said a diplomatic source in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. “It would be too much of a humiliation for four guys with a couple of rifles to outwit the combined might of the USA.”

H/T GRAYJOHN who alerted me . Thanks John.

ARTICLE APPEARS IN THE TELEGRAPH

UPDATE
BBC NEWS REPORTS,

An unnamed US official told the Associated Press news agency that Capt Phillips was freed in what appeared to be a swift firefight.
Reports say he jumped overboard for a second time, and the pirates were shot and killed before they could take action to get him back.
US forces apparently took advantage of the fact one of the pirates was negotiating on the USS Bainbridge when the incident happened.

Posted by peiper     on 04/12/2009 at 01:18 PM   
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POSSIBLE SYMPATHY FOR HIJACKING PIRATES?  YOU GOTTA BE CRAZY OR PLAIN STUPID. OR BOTH.

I am not going to post the whole article. Not that it doesn’t have some interest. If you’re interested, the link is below.

Some background.
A journalist named Colin Freeman, working for the Telegraph, was kidnapped in Nov. of last year while covering the pirate story along with his photographer.  They were held captive for six weeks.
That’s he on the left in the photo.
Now then, I have a gripe with one statement he makes in the article, and I truly believe it’s indicitive of the thinking among many hand wringers who’d rather kiss and make up.  It also appears to me, though I may be entirely mistaken, that his thinking is very much a part of Brit mindset these days.  It’s as though they feel awful when they have to hurt someone who is hurting them.  ?? I’ll never understand that sort of thinking. 

Mr. Freeman says the following, and he can not be more wrong.

“When pondered for real, the mere thought that somebody might die because of you ---

even if it’s a kidnapper ---

---- is hard to face.”

ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Photo appears to have been taken while in captivity.

Posted by peiper     on 04/12/2009 at 12:54 PM   
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FRENCH RESCUE AND PHOTOS ….

Are you folks seeing this in the states?

Rescued French yacht captain Florent Lemacon may have died in friendly fire
The Frenchman who died during a military operation to free his yacht from the clutches of a Somali pirate gang may have been a victim of friendly fire, France’s government said on Saturday.

By Colin Freeman and Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
Last Updated: 2:22PM BST 12 Apr 2009

In admission that will cast fresh doubts over the controversial decision to free Florent Lemacon and four other hostages by force, defence minister Herve Morin said he could not rule out the possibility that he had been hit by a French commando’s bullet.

Ok..take a good look at that woman’s face.  Can there be any question at all that the French authorities acted correctly?  Fresh doubts? Only among total stupid idiots!  Btw, one of the pirates was below deck shooting up through the deck.  French marine fired back. There is a report that a third pirate went into the drink but no report on anyone saving the savage.  But it hasn’t been confirmed officially that I’m aware of.  If true, I hope something with fins gets him. Stingers will do also.

An admission that will cast fresh doubts over the controversial decision to free Florent Lemacon and four other hostages by force, defence minister Herve Morin said he could not rule out the possibility that he had been hit by a French commando’s bullet.
“There will be a judicial inquiry and therefore an autopsy,” he told French radio. “One cannot exclude that during the exchange of fire between the pirates and commandos the shot was French,”

The French navy also released dramatic footage of the hostage drama aboard the Tanit, the yacht on which Mr Lemacon was travelling with his wife Chloe, three year old son Colin, and another French couple.

The images, shot from a French military craft, show them sitting down in the yatch surrounded by Kalashnikov-wielding pirates on all sides. In one shot, a female hostage - looking visibly frightened - stared out to sea as a gunman pointed his assault rifle right at her head.

Other footage showed Friday’s ill-fated rescue mission itself, with a boatful of black-clad French commandos speeding toward the stricken yacht and clambering aboard. Mr Lemacon is believed to have died in an exchange of fire as he tried to duck down the yacht’s hatch. Two pirates also died in the operation, while another three were caught and are expected to be taken to France for trial.

The French government, which prides itself on taking a tough line on piracy, claimed that it launched the military operation after negotiations with the pirates broke down.

Officials said the gang had refused a ransom offer, and were intent on taking the hostages back to the mainland, where it would have been far harder for them to have been rescued. That Mr Lemacon, 28, ended up dead illustrates how potentially risky such operations are, even for special forces troops trained in hostage release. Supporters of such tactics argue, however, that the alternative tactic of paying ransoms simply encourages pirates further.

“The French assault does illustrate the real risks that are faced by ship owners, and explains why most of them agree to pay ransoms,” said Leslie Edwards, a British-based negotiations advisor with Clayton Consultants, who has handled numerous Somali hijack cases. “Their first duty is to the safety of their ship. As we say in most of the kidnaps that we deal with, it is better to be ransomed alive than rescued dead.”

The four remaining ex-hostages from the Tanit were due to arrive home in Paris today aboard a French-chartered plane. The death of the boat’s idealistic young captain, who was from Vannes, Brittany, brought to a tragic end what should have been the journey of a lifetime.
Mr Lemacon, an engineer, and Mrs Lemaçon, a sales engineer, had given up their jobs to restore the 33-year-old Tanit before setting sail last year, saying that they wanted to flee “the consumer soceity and its routine”.

But as they sailed into the Indian Ocean, the dangers of the wilder, more lawless world they were entering into were spelt out to them in no uncertain terms. Last month, when they crossed paths with a French frigate participating in a European Union anti-piracy operation, they were “strongly advised” against continuing their intended voyage to Zanzibar.

The couple carried on however. In a blog of their journey, they said that they had merely been told to keep away from commercial shipping routes - although they also indicated a laissez-faire attitude to the risk of being hijacked.

“The danger is there and has indeed become greater over the past months, but the ocean is vast,” they wrote. “The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream.” In the end, that was exactly what happened.

The pirates claimed a fresh victim yesterday after hijacking an Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew - including 10 Italians - off Somalia’s northern coast. A Panama flagged bulk carrier that was also attacked yesterday managed to drive the pirates away by spraying them with waterhoses, although not before an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade landed in the commanding officers’ cabin.

RESCUE

Posted by peiper     on 04/12/2009 at 12:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! • Terrorists •  
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FROM AN ARTICLE BY WELL KNOWN NATIONAL DJ (PRESENTER) ON PIRATES.

There’s a very well known radio personality here named Terry Wogan, who also has a newspaper column.
It called, WOGAN’S WORLD.

From the one today I lifted this part of it and thought it deserved it’s own post.

Sorry, no link. It came from The Telegraph.

From Wogan’s World
Sunday, April 12
Terry Wogan

A listener queries the supposed technical omniscience of superpowers who claim that they can

spot a car number - plate from an orbiting satellite, and that their submarines can detect a sea-

horse breaking wind from a mile away.  How then, prey, can scruffy pirates, in large rowing boats,

continue to hijack the same superpowers’ shipping?  We even know who these pirates are, and where they live.  What’s the problem?

Don’t tell me it’s a tax dodge.

Posted by peiper     on 04/12/2009 at 11:18 AM   
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
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