Posted on 11/20/2008 5:24:17 AM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
WASHINGTON: Citing the Indian Navy's sinking of a pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden, the US has said action is taking place to deal with the problem of piracy in the international system.
"The issue of piracy is a concern to us as well as others in the international system," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday, noting: "The issue of piracy has been with us, as an international system, unfortunately, for quite some time."
Asked about reports that the owners of a hijacked Saudi supertanker were in talks over a possible ransom, he said: "I'm going to decline to offer any advice to the Saudis on this matter." The State Department is "trying to come at it from the diplomatic and political angle", McCormack said.
"We're working in the Security Council to try to pass a resolution that could perhaps help deal with some of the limitations that currently exist in dealing with vessels on the high seas," he added. McCormack noted that "the Indian Navy engaged with some pirates off the Horn of Africa as I understand it, the Indian Navy vessel was fired upon. They fired back, sank one of the vessels, and captured some of these pirates as well".
"So there is action that is taking place. But you are also talking about a very, very large surface area in the Indian Ocean just off the Red Sea, off the coast of Somalia. "It's an international problem. You're not going to solve this - the United States is not going to solve this alone. No one country is going to solve it alone," McCormack said.
"You can see, in very practical terms, the fact that this is an international problem by the fact that you have Indian naval vessels, you have Russian naval vessels, you have NATO vessels in the area. "You have US vessels that are in the area that are involved in counter-terrorism operations. And again, they have certain obligations under certain circumstances involving piracy. So things are being done," he said.
"We are taking a look internally here at the State Department to make sure that we are doing everything we possibly can to work with others to address what is an international problem," he added.
At the White House, spokesperson Dana Perino said President George W Bush had been briefed about the Somali pirates, and ensuring the safety and well being of the crew was of paramount importance in preventing or dealing with issues of piracy.
"We're working with other members of the Security Council right now to see if there are actions that we can do to more effectively fight against piracy and prevent it," she said.
"The goal would be to try to help get this ship to safety, secure the crew, and then work with our international partners to try to alleviate the piracy problem full stop," Perino added.
Please Mr Nutting sell the Pirates....he is choking the life blood out of our beloved Pirates!!!!!!!!
Pirates do not obey UN resolutions.
Exactly. Seems to me they had it right in the Barbary Coast days: sail with a pirate, you sign your own death warrant. No quarter, no mercy.
Colonel, USAFR
Exactly. You leave no survivors.
That is a language they understand.
“Honestly, why wouldnt a Saudi supertanker have its own security force onboard? Why is their only emergency plan to call 911 and ask for the USA?”
Because most ports of call don’t allow any sort of weapons on board. If you dock in Mexico, for example, and they inspect your boat (this goes for any size boat, including personal sailboats and such) and find a weapon, or even a single round of ammunition, they will put you in jail for something like 5 years. Many ports of call have these sort of laws, so it makes self-defense while on the open ocean nearly impossible.
there was a news article not too long ago that they had purchased a NOAA ship and converted it for escort duty.
Why is there any hesitancy about pirates? The historical solution has been to engage the navies of the world in pursuit of pirates. Blackbeard was killed in a naval battle and the captain of the British ship, Robert Maynard, cut Blackbeard’s head off and hung it in the ship’s rigging for the trip home. The threat of the Barbary pirates was ended through military action. The Marine Corp hymn refers to it: “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli.” So, the solution to the problem of piracy in international waters is well known. Only political correctness stands in the way of applying it.
......Why is their only emergency plan to call 911 and ask for the USA?.....
What makes you think they made such a call?
“Why is their only emergency plan to call 911 and ask for the USA?”
Because everybody else does it!
We’ve spent much blood and fortune protecting other countries.
Let the rich Saudis us their own damn military.
U.S. ships haven’t been attacked (or at least a very few) because there aren’t any U.S. ships left. Most ships in the world fly flags of convenience from places such as Panama and are constructed either in Europe, China, Japan, or South Korea, and are pretty much owned by shipping lines from the same places. The U.S. commercial shipbuilding sector essentially no longer exists and it is only a rapidly shrinking number of DoD contracts that keeps the few remaining ones afloat.
Piracy is a major problem but the U.S. navy feels that the responsibility belongs to the insurance companies and vessel operators themselves to work it out. To paraphrase a U.S admiral, hire your own security you cheap bastards
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