Posted on 11/18/2008 9:16:24 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Alarm grows as governments and navies are rendered legally powerless to conduct security operations on the high seas
Somali pirates struck again yesterday, seizing an Iranian cargo ship holding 30,000 tonnes of grain, as the world’s governments and navies pronounced themselves powerless against this new threat to global trade.
Admiral Michael Mullen, the US military chief, pronounced himself stunned by the pirates’ reach after their capture of the supertanker Sirius Star and its $100 million (£70 million) cargo. Commanders from the US Fifth Fleet and from Nato warships in the area said that they would not intervene to retake the vessel.
The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, the owner of the ship, condemned the hijacking as an “outrageous act” that required international action.
“Piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together,” Prince Saud al-Faisal said. Arab diplomats would meet in Cairo on Thursday to discuss what could be done in response, Yemeni officials said.
Analysts said, however, that the seizure of the Sirius Star exposed the use of foreign warships as “a sticking plaster” that would not solve the problem. “Maritime security operations in that area are addressing the symptoms not the causes,” said Jason Alderwick, a maritime defence analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Roger Middleton, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Chatham House think-tank, said that the capture was a crucial escalation. “Now that they have shown they are able to seize an enormous ship like this, it is beyond a military solution. You won’t fix this without a political solution.”
Pirates pulled the 333m supertanker yesterday to a mooring point off Harardhere, on the Somali coast. Farther north, Italian, Greek, Turkish, British, American and Russian frigates and warships were patrolling the Gulf of Aden under a
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Wall Street, Banks, Paulsen, Beranke, Congress---now, these are real pirates.
Time to repeal large chunks of "International Law."
Frigates aren't warships...???
Correction: ALL ships' crews are now being held hostage thanks to spineless, balless bleeding heart politoces wh gave pirates "legal rights".
IF some crewmen end up dead, it wouldn't be the first time in the fight against piracy.
Dead pirates is the ONLY answer to that scourge.
I’m surprised that the Saudi’s haven’t put up a substantial bounty for:
1. The ship.
2. The crew.
3. The heads (or other component parts) of the pirates.
With their money, they could probably get the pirates to turn on each other.
As far as the Iranian ship goes, it might be a very inexpensive “hearts and minds” thing to get their ship back for them. Much like our own situation, not all Iranians are represented by their leaders.
I’m also surprised that the Russians haven’t helped out the Ukrainians, for the same, albeit in their case nefarious, reasons.
Who would believe that this is suddenly a problem in the 21st century?
Killing them all and burning their pirate villages and cities to the ground is a good political solution.
Kill enough of them and they will stop. Kill enough of their neighbors and their surviving neighbors will kill the pirates.
Yup. You get it. Pay the ransom, get the ship and crew released and have Blackwater ready to track down and kill everyone involved.
don't want to soil their hands with actual work.
“Maybe the U.N. should send those pirates a strongly worded letter.”
Maybe they could send a UN ship there to “observe”; the pirates might use up their ammo using those fear-inducing “blue helmets” for target practice.
I’m almost certain that a big-city street gang or civil war re-enactors with adequate ammo supplies could go up against and annihilate the entire UN force.
Egad! somebody might SHOOT at them! Can't have that!!
when they get finished there send them down to the alum creek area, they’re like fleas on a camel down there also
I say bomb the booty.
Let their coast line burn.
Then see how locals like it.
“...civil war re-enactors with adequate ammo supplies could go up against and annihilate the entire UN force.”
LOL!!!
But what about their habeas corpus rights?
It is amazing that we knew how to deal with this problem 200 years ago but we don't know. The only corpuses anyone should get out of this are dead pirates and anyone who wants to hang with them.
This is so, what, 1790s! Pirates? Pirates? Funny thing is, so far the pirates have been hitting folks I'm not feeling a load of sympathy for. But c'mon, despots of the world, unite! Strike down these miserable pirates with no remorse! Oh they're big and threaten to bomb Tel Aviv, but where's Achminijad (sic) or Lil' Kim or whoever when there are some real targets to blow off the map?
I couldn’t agree more.
Unfortunately, the international lawyers don’t agree, to the point that ‘interdicted’ pirated ships are allowed to send pirates back & forth to shore for supplies.
It all started when American looters & fleeing felons could no longer be shot on sight.
Next came Britain’s courts calling it ‘cruel’ and ‘innhumane’ to cut off water & power to hostage takers in buildings.
Next step was for American police to send pizzas to barricaded robbers.
This is the penultimate step.
The final blow will be when our police and military are not allowed to shoot at invading barbarian hordes, but can only serve cease & decease writs to pillagers.
Same way in Minnesota. And, you left out arrogant, incredibly condescending, and absolutely the most prideful people I have ever seen.
Obviously, Somalia has become a rogue nation by every definition of the word - and a whole barrel of whup ass needs to be delivered....
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