Posted on 08/22/2009 3:37:02 PM PDT by drzz
Moscow, Aug 21 (DPA) A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it from smuggling arms into Iran.
According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber.
Men acting on behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said.
Citing Moscow publicist Yulia Latynina, the daily pointed to the surprise visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres Aug 18, a day after the Arctic Sea, which had been missing for three weeks, had been tracked down and liberated by Russian forces off West Africa.
During his visit, Peres, who according to Latynina had no other business in Russia, requested Moscow refrain from supplying weapons or missile defence systems to Iran.
Russian authorities denied that the Arctic Sea had been smuggling weapons.
Russian ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Dmitri Rogozin, said earlier Friday that such allegations were a 'fantasy' and 'ridiculous'.
The deployment at great expense of Russian Black Sea fleet to liberate the hijacked ship was undertaken for the sake of the 15 Russian seamen on board and not supposed weapons, Rogozin said.
Russian authorities in Moscow late Friday formally charged the eight alleged hijackers with kidnapping and piracy, the Interfax news agency reported.
The suspects include a Lithuanian, a Russian, three stateless people, and a Spaniard, the report said, adding that the citizenship of the two remaining suspects had yet to be clarified.
According to official reports, the Arctic Sea was liberated from pirates Monday off the coast of West Africa. According to the Russian sources, pirates seized the freighter July 24 off the coast of Sweden.
Victor Matveev, director of Solchart Management, the shipping company that owns the Arctic Sea freighter stated Friday that his company 'still has not received any official information' about the ship or its crew.
I know one for sure Russia and Iran have in common.
It is called the “Caspian Sea.” It’s got ships and ports and stuff.
This story is ridiculous.
“Oy-oy, oy-oy, a pirate’s life for me!”
Oyveh, Matey. Them that dies will be the lucky ones.
They could have done what they did to build the Mirage III. Bribe someone.
What's the difference between a stateless person and a person whose citizenship isn't clarified?
Or is that just code for three Palestinian terrorists?
Blame the Joooooooooooz!
Damn, that was awesome. I love freeper wit.
Thx.
In a hurry.
What was on the ship?
cruise missiles from Russia, so claim the article.
Once again, its the JJJJOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssssssss
Indeed. With a small submarine you can do that completely invisibly to the ship's crew. This bizarre attack, however, started in Swedish waters, then the ship travelled through a highly visible route when everyone was looking for it already, and only then it changed course only to be found soon. This incoherent plan is much easier to attribute to a gang of drug addicts than to any intelligence service, especially because whatever they wanted to do they failed miserably.
As other people noted already, if Russia wanted to send some missiles to Iran it could have shipped them through the Caspian sea, safely away from curious eyes. Russia sent so much stuff to Iran for Bushehr, a few more or a few less containers would make no difference.
On top of that, if indeed someone wanted to ship something illegal using Arctic Sea those materials first must be delivered to the loading port, namely Jakobstad, Finland. How do you covertly send a few tons of missiles across a Finnish state border? How do you ensure that dock workers will not ask any questions and Finnish customs will not find anything wrong with the cargo? And why in the world you'd want to use a foreign-owned ship for all that? And why, if you were insane enough to still go through with this harebrained plan, would you attract a world-wide attention to your act by changing the course of the ship and in the end *not* delivering the cargo?
According to Mr. Occam and his razor, Arctic Sea was hijacked by a bunch of locals who saw themselves as better pirates than Somalis.
Da Jooz
I was gonna post that.
A Lithuanian, a Russian, three stateless people, and a Spaniard walk into a bar...
Should have sunk it... errrr, had an accidental grounding or possibly a collision of an indeterminate order.
Headed for the Mooselymbs?
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