Posted on 11/07/2005 12:17:55 PM PST by jjm2111
A cruise liner that was attacked by pirates over the weekend docked safely on this Indian Ocean archipelago Monday after changing its course to escape. Passengers described their horror as pirates in speedboats chased their luxury cruise liner at sea, firing rocket- propelled grenades and assault rifles _ with smiles visible on faces otherwise hidden by ski masks.
[snip]
The Seabourn Spirit had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns on Saturday about 100 miles off Somalia's lawless coast. The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course.
The gunmen never got close enough to board the cruise ship, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, according to the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.
[SNIP]
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday that the attackers might have been terrorists. But others said the attack bore the hallmarks of pirates who have become increasingly active off Somalia, which has no navy and has not had an effective central government since 1991.
Judging by the location of the attack, the pirates likely were from the same group that hijacked a U.N.-chartered aid ship in June and held its crew and food cargo hostage for 100 days, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program.
That gang is one of three well-organized pirate groups on the 1,880- mile coast of Somalia, which has had no effective government since opposition leaders ousted a dictatorship in 1991 and then turned on each other, leaving the nation of 7 million a patchwork of warlord fiefdoms.
Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has long urged neighboring countries to send warships to patrol Somalia's coast, which is Africa's longest and lies along key shipping lanes linking the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.
U.S. and NATO warships patrol the region to protect vessels in deeper waters farther out, but they are not permitted in Somali territorial waters.
The International Maritime Bureau has for several months warned ships to stay at least 150 miles away from Somalia's coast, citing 25 pirate attacks in those waters since March 15 _ compared with just two for all of 2004.
The 440-foot-long, 10,000-ton cruise ship, which is registered in the Bahamas, sustained minor damage, the cruise company said. The liner, which had its maiden voyage in 1989, can carry 208 guests.
They are not "pirates"! They are TERRORISTS! Muslim, Al-Quaida TERRORISTS. PERIOD!
Got it?
Somalia doesn't have pirates -- but they have lots and lots of terrorists.
Q ship bump. We could shoot some white paint on an old MSTS ship if any are still around. Some of these had gun mounts already...
This works for all kinds of Islamics pirates.
Sounds like a great idea. Hope the cruise ships take the necessary precautions. I can only imagine the horror and carnage had the pirates succeeded in boarding the ship.
Nothing personal to you Jjim!
We cleared the Barbary Coast too.
Every third world country with substantial coastline(maybe excepting Vietnam) has pirates. Some have terrorists also.
Pirate = TERRORIST
This is not all that suprising. Your ship is attacked and - SUPRISE - you can still remember it two days later. Amazing!
Pirates back then were a pretty blood-thirsty and brutal lot too.
Big ping !!!
Well at least they LIKE they're jobs. I wish I could say the same for creepy kids at Starbucks who wear frowns like terrorists with faces that SHOULD be hidden by ski masks.
if they're in it for money, loot and rapine, I'd call them pirates. Funny how those are the benefits of doing battle for Islam, though, isn't it.
LOL! I thought the same thing when I saw the headline.
BTTT
Allah Arrrrr-bar matey!
Arggghh, there be no pirates offn the coasts of Sudan! They bees muslim terrorists matey!!! P)
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