Thursday - November 20, 2008

Passing The Buck

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – An anti-piracy watchdog group on Thursday welcomed an Indian warship’s destruction of a suspected pirate vessel in waters off Somalia, where hijackings have become increasingly violent and the hijackers increasingly bold.

In a rare victory in the sea war against the Somali pirates, the Indian navy’s INS Tabar sank a suspected pirate “mother ship” in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats on Tuesday.

Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said he was heartened by the Tabar’s success.

“It’s about time that such a forceful action is taken. It’s an action that everybody is waiting for,” Choong told The Associated Press. “If all warships do this, it will be a strong deterrent. But if it’s just a rare case, then it won’t work” to control the unprecedented level of piracy in the Gulf of Aden, he said.

The pirates have stunned the maritime community with their brazen attacks, highlighted by last week’s hijacking of a Saudi-owned supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil.

Indian forces fired back, sparking fires and a series of onboard blasts — possibly caused by exploding ammunition — which destroyed the ship.

notice that they slyly don’t say whose ammunition was doing the actual exploding. Do ya think 20 or 30 rounds from a 4” machine-gun cannon might have something to do with this? 

...
... NATO ships can intervene to prevent the seizure of ships if they are in the vicinity.

“But what they don’t have the mandate to do is to board ships that have already been hijacked to free the crew,” NATO spokesman James Appathurai told The Associated Press in Brussels. Germany does not allow its warships to intercept hijacked vessels because their civilian crews of various nationalities could be at risk in the event of a fire-fight, Choong said.

On Wednesday, Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, called on the international community to launch a joint amphibious operation against pirate strongholds in Somalia. However, any such operation would likely require the approval of the U.N. Security Council, whose resolutions on anti-piracy operations are vague, Choong said.

All well and good. So, what’s going to happen? Are the navies going to step up? Will the UN get tough and act? Stop holding your breath; you’re turning blue. No, the solution will be to let Somalia solve it’s own problem, with a little assistance from the West. Because the West actually believes the islamist-leaning anarchist shitpile called Somalia actually sees this piracy, which is that nation’s only source of income these days, as a problem! This is the nation that can’t be mentioned without saying how they have had no government at all for the past bazillion years. But they will solve the piracy problem! Or at least, the All-African transnational anti-terrorist cricket team will get the job done ...

NATO is committed to helping improve security in Africa but expects African states to take the lead in fighting piracy off the continent’s shores, said the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Reuters reported from Accra, Ghana.

De Hoop Scheffer was responding to a call by Ghana’s defense minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, for closer collaboration between African regional bodies and NATO to combat piracy and tackle other problems, including money laundering.

The NATO chief spoke during an international alert over piracy off the Horn of Africa, where Somali pirates have caused havoc.

“This continent still has many problems, but it is my strong conviction that Africans should be in the lead to find solutions for those problems, and not others,” de Hoop Scheffer said after arriving in Ghana on Wednesday.

Horry Clap, what a bunch of idiots. First off, NATO has no business there in the first place. What part of North Atlantic do you see off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean? Next, a large number of the countries yabbering away about this have instructed their ships to do essentially nothing. Gee, that helps ever so much.

And what are the Americans doing? Well, gosh, you’d think your eardrums would be breaking from the thunderous popping sound as the whole bunch of them ram their heads up their asses as fast and as hard as they can, as they set their mental clocks back to 1999 ...

There have been no reports of attacks on vessels flying the American flag, and officials have interpreted that as a sign that the pirates do not want to provoke the U.S. Navy directly.

Morrell said the piracy problem “requires a holistic approach from the international community at sea, ashore, with governance, with economic development.”

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week that there were legal and military obstacles to combating piracy.

“One of the challenges that you have in piracy, clearly, is, if you are intervening and you capture pirates, is there a path to prosecute them?” he said.

Although some analysts have warned of a link between pirates and terrorists in the region who say they are aligned with Al Qaeda, Mullen said, “I have not seen any connection to Al Qaeda or to terrorists per se.”

We are fuckin doomed. Piracy doesn’t NEED a connection to terrorists, because piracy IS terrorism. The one and only, OG, all original, first out of the gate, early bird getting the worm, ORIGINAL kind of terrorism. The ORIGINAL international capital offense. And in today’s world, if some group of thugs says they’re part of AQ, you believe them, DUH. Especially if they’re in that corner of the world that just recently had an AQ-esque government overthrown, which then vowed to go guerrilla and fight their way back to power, which is exactly what they’re doing! So our Bright Boys are looking at it as a criminal endeavor that can be solved with economic stimuli, peace, love, and granola. As we head into a depression, when there will be no money to even stimulate ourselves. “A holistic approach”. Kum-bay-friggin-yah.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/20/2008 at 10:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner