Posted on 10/29/2007 8:16:36 AM PDT by blam
Japanese ship hijacked in Africa
Pirates have hijacked a Japanese ship off the East African coast - the latest in a series of similar incidents near the war-torn country of Somalia.
The vessel, thought to be a tanker with a crew of Burmese, Philippine and South Korean sailors, was seized in the Gulf of Aden early on Sunday.
Officials say they are trying to find out what the pirates' demands are.
The area is notorious for piracy - of 16 reported hijackings worldwide this year, 11 were off the Somali coast.
Lawless waters
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said they received a distress call from the vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday.
"We tried to contact the vessel, but there was absolutely no contact," the IMB's Cyrus Mody told BBC News.
He said coalition forces in the area were contacted, and they confirmed the ship had been taken into Somali territorial waters.
There are thought to be 23 crew members on board the vessel, none of whom is Japanese.
The incident comes two weeks after a cargo ship was hijacked on its way to Mombasa in Kenya.
The IMB said there was still no information on the safety of the crew.
Analysts say Somali waters are increasingly lawless, and merchant ships are advised to stay 200 miles from its shores.
The IMB rates Somalia as the second most high risk country for piracy in the world, after Indonesia.
Shot density maybe great, but you also need PUNCH to tear up the boats that are used aginst actual shipping. this is why the MARINE CORPS & the AC-130’s use them. If the sob’s are sinking they are NO threat to you & your ship.
That person would suffer a terrible fate amongst real pirates.
That pic must be rated ARRRRR!!
If you really loved me, you’d get me one for Christmas...
Enough.
A “Q” ship was a decoy sub destroyer, used by the Brit’s during WWI & WWII. they were usally effective at having the Germans staying down when they were in the area.
Dangerous Waters is a book that shows the 21st century pirate problem is increasing, not abating.
Piracy are getting worse, especially around the Muslim countries - although there is a problem in this hemisphere as well. Some parts of the global oceans and waterways are essentially lawless. Even the largest ships, such as super tankers, are habitually in danger and frequently boarded and robbed by bands of pirates. Sometimes the ships are actually hijacked, the crew murdered or put in slavery, and the ships turned into false-flagged "ghost" ships, run by criminal syndicates for stolen or dangerous cargo. They can also be used as part of an Al Qaeda Navy.
Heaven help you if you are on a private boat trying to navigate some of these waters!
So, flag them as "naval auxilliaries".
What's probably needed on the merchant vessels is an ability to remotely operate the water cannons in order to protect the crew from direct fire.
Arrrrrr! Where’s me buccaneers?!
Far more than the average population.
"You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature."
Come on, national talk like I pirate day was last month.
Not really.
The author (as well as many maritime security authorities) assumes the problem will get worse as terrorists adopt the ways of criminal pirates, despite the efforts of international law enforcement - which is woefully unmanned and unprepared for the massive task.
Part of the problem is the crews of ships being infiltrated by terrorists, who bide their time and have access to hiring organizations headquartered in third world countries. Therefore, good intelligence on backgrounding may help some but is unlikely to have much affect. Look how easy it is to cross borders or change identities to those with the resources.
It is very difficult to protect civilian ships by nonlethal means. Many of the crews are untrained and would refuse in any case to use lethal force. Many larger ships nowadays do have nonlethal defensive "weapons", such as high pressure hoses and robot dummies. But the pirates are smart and study passing ships - much like lions study passing herds - to find the weak ones they can attack.
There is little chance of civilian ships being properly armed or hiring sufficient lethal private security because of various national and international laws. In addition to the increased danger of arming a ship which may contain sleeper pirates or terrorists, there is the fear of liability on the part of the ship owners as well as the distinct possibility of more bloodshed and active revenge against the shipping company assets and personnel on the part of the pirate or terrorist organizations who could quickly wreck these shipping companies and destroy their ships.
The Coast Guard's big nightmare is a LGVV (liquid gas) tanker being high-jacked and then driven directly into a major U.S. harbor to blow it up. The results would be catastrophic.
As oil exceeds $90 a barrel, look for more of these multi-million dollar cargos to be taken down as the ships hijacked and possibly wrecked.
Harpoon his ass, close in and cover with the 5-inch on autoload. Cover the boarding party with 50's. That's IF anything is left.
Hmmm. Looks like Jimmy Buffett was wrong. There still are pirates plundering.
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