Here's the French battleship "Bouvet" being sunk by the Turkish guns in the Dardanelles, 1915.
Here's the Vichy France "Dunkerque" being sunk by the British at Oran harbor in 1940
Posted on 04/05/2008 7:39:50 AM PDT by HAL9000
The Le Ponant pleasure yacht was seized Friday in international waters opposite Somalia without passengers on route from the Seychelles to Aden Port and the Mediterranean after its first pleasure trip of the summer season in the Indian Ocean. The 32-man crew was taken hostage.Our shipping correspondent reports that the French Le Commandant Rouen warship was diverted from NATO’s Afghanistan operation to join the Yemeni coast guard in the hunt for and rescue of the captured craft. The Le Ponant caters to 64 high-profile luxury tourists, one of three owned by Le Compagnie Des Iles du Ponant, a subsidiary of the huge Lebanese-French CMA CGM.
DEBKAfile’s sources note that the Gulf of Aden and Somali shores are rife with pirates. Last year, 24 civilian craft were commandeered by pirates. In one case, the American Navy’s USS Porter opened fire on a pirate ship threatening a Japanese tanker; in another, pirates released a Danish merchant vessel with hostages against a large ransom after holding them for two months.
Thats a fine kettle of fish.. NOW the pirates can take over a French Warship.. for ransome.. if the pirates can stand the smell..
DEBKA aside, a French warship has been assigned to this task.
You had me going until I got to that.
debka has sources?
Can the pirates feed that many more hostages? Perhaps the plan is to surrender them to death.
Not to get in the way of the French Navy-bashing, but are there any squids out there who know whether the French are in command of CTF-150? Serious question, I know . . . please return to your regularly scheduled programming.
There's NO ROMANCE here folks! Call it what it is -- TERRORISM !!!
Maybe the ransom figure demanded was too high.
It's the one with the propellers in the front...aids in rapid retreat.
> I believe we need to be changing the word “Pirates”
> to “Terrorists”
Exactly.
And to what religion do you suppose these terrorists adhere?
Hope this ship’s propeller stays on - the French have such a hard time with simple things like that...
To be a pirate, the crime has to occur with a privately owned craft in international waters for “private gain”.
So, since most piracy occurs in coastal waters, and a great deal occurs under the cover of law of renegade states, and since “terrorists” can claim that they were doing it for ideological reasons rather than “private gain”, most pirates simply are defined out of existence.
The French navy doesn’t seem to have a ship of that name.
The form of the name would indicate it would be a Type A69, but here’s their list of that type:
Avisos type A69
* Aviso Lieutenant de vaisseau Le Hénaff (F 789)
* Aviso Lieutenant de vaisseau Lavallée (F 790)
* Aviso Commandant l’Herminier (F 791)
* Aviso Premier maître l’Her (F 792)
* Aviso Commandant Blaison (F 793)
* Aviso Enseigne de vaisseau Jacoubet (F 794)
* Aviso Commandant Ducuing (F 795)
* Aviso Commandant Birot (F 796)
* Aviso Commandant Bouan (F 797)
It’s possible that it’s a new ship and they haven’t updated their website yet. But we are talking a known unreliable source. A google of “Le Commandant Rouen” turns up only this story.
I consider it more ‘creative writing’ until there’s a legitimate source.
So now they are going to surrender a warship.
So I take it you’re rooting against America’s French allies and for the Islamist terorists who kidnapped 30 French citizens? Charming!
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