Iran Caught Smuggling Chem Weapons to Africa?

Flopping Aces ^ | Sep 24 , 2008 | Scott

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This is a strange and scary story. It’d be a thriller of a Tom Clancy novel or a Hollywood movie, but it’s real. Take a deep breath, then check it out…

A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a suspicious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection.

The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of pirates - 50 onboard and 50 onshore. Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair.

It gets freakier. Iran has offered to pay a ransom, but withdrew the offer because they couldn’t come get the ship since the US Navy is in the way (along with MANY other nations) patrolling the area in search of Al Queda, illegal arms shipments, WMD, stuff like that. THEN, reportedly, the U.S. offered to pay just to be allowed to check out the ship! Now, supposedly it’s carrying minerals and such, but the pirates admitted to trying to open some sealed containers in question, and couldn’t because “they didn’t have the access codes.”

QUESTION:
What kind of minerals etc are shipped to Islamic terrorists in Eritrea and has to be locked in containers that require access codes?

Mystery surrounds hijacked Iranian ship

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[catchem]

Well, wait ‘til that little gem ties up in port, call out a predator, and drop a ‘big ‘ol good ‘un right in the middle of it. Problem solved.....

[Bigh4u2]

“What kind of minerals etc are shipped to Islamic terrorists in Eritrea and has to be locked in containers that require access codes?”

It’s all those HoHo’s and twinkies....

[agere_contra]

Well, wait ‘til that little gem ties up in port, call out a predator, and drop a ‘big ‘ol good ‘un right in the middle of it. Problem solved...

That would be a disaster. We need to find out what Iran was trying to move: ergo we need to stop anyone else from sinking it. The cargo already has zero chance of getting to its destination.

[RC2]

An un-marked sub would do the job right.

[Dark Wing]

What the heck?

[AFreeBird]

Oh sure, lets blow up a ship that is reported to be causing skin burns and hair loss, and release whatever is causing same into the atmo.

Makes a lot of snese to me.

[davidlachnicht]

Wouldn’t it be a hoot if it was full of Iraqi WMDs?

[Kenton]

Makes a lot of snese to me.

Bless you! :)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Why is the solution always to blow something up?....

Seems we might prefer that the bad stuff not escape from the containers...

[G8 Diplomat]

Older, similar article

[G8 Diplomat]

This is a strange and scary story. It’d be a thriller of a Tom Clancy novel or a Hollywood movie, but it’s real

Well, as Tom Clancy himself says, "The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense."

[happygrl]

The MV Iran Deyanat set sail from Nanjing, China, at the end of July and, according to its manifest, planned to travel to Rotterdam, where it would unload 42,500 tons of iron ore and "industrial products" purchased by a German client. Its arrival in the Gulf of Aden, Somali officials tell The Long War Journal, was suspiciously early. According to a publicly available status report on the IRISL Web site, the ship reached the Gulf on August 20 and was scheduled to reach the Suez Canal on August 27 - a seven day journey. "Depending on the speed of the ship," Puntland Minister of Ports Ahmed Siad Nur said in a phone interview on Saturday, "it should take between 4 and 5 days to reach Suez."

Suspicion has also been cast on the ship's crew, half of which is almost entirely staffed by Iranians - a large percentage of Iranian nationals for a standard merchant vessel. Somali officials say that the ship has a crew of 29 men, including a Pakistani captain, an Iranian engineer, 13 other Iranians, 3 Indians, 2 Filipinos, and 10 Eastern Europeans, possibly Croatian.

Undeclared radioactive material headed for a European Port.

[AFreeBird]

Oh geez.. that's what I can't for trying to type fast with a wrist brace on.

For the record: snese = sense

Of course my dyslexia might be acting up again.

[DustyMoment]

Wha . . . . !!??

Oh, say it ain’t SO!!!!

/sarc

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Old articles not accessible at the moment....apparently.

[Salvation]

Iran IS in Africa.

Short distance?

[Salvation]

Short distance?

[G8 Diplomat]

Iran is in Asia....