Why hijack a plane when you can seize a supertanker?

Yahoo! News ^ | 25 NOV 2008 | Andrew Marshall

[LuxMaker]

>snip<

Geoffrey Cheng, analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research, said insurance companies had raised premiums by 12-15 percent this year. With many shipping firms already operating at a loss, he said "they are actually burning money now."

A terrorist attack on shipping would further raise insurance premiums. The impact of Somali piracy on premiums shows the extent to which costs can suddenly spike -- corporate security firm BGN Risk estimates the special risks insurance levy for crossing the Gulf of Aden has leapt to $20,000 per vessel per transit from $500.

And an attack aimed at shutting down a major port such as Singapore or disrupting a key shipping lane like the Strait of Hormuz, through which as much as 40 percent of the world's traded oil passes, could do real economic damage.

>snip<

[LuxMaker]

Seems like the terrorists keep going for the low hanging fruit. It also appears that our supply lines are about to get a whole lot more expensive, brought and paid for you by acts of high sea piracy.

[cripplecreek]

One more good reason to develop domestic oil supplies. The world is counting on us to protect them but if they see that we have no incentive, they just might step up to the plate.

Further, domestic manufacturing of other products wouldn’t be subject to this crap.

[keats5]

Good point.

[FrankR]

How to deal with terrorists:

Send them a message that "either we get our tanker back by noon tomorrow, along with the pirates who took it, or we send in some F-15's and blow it to smithereens...and a lot of people along with it.

While we await your prompt response, we are uploading the missiles on the planes now."

[CodeToad]

Rescue the hostages, take back the tanker, then bomb the Hell out of the homeland of the pirates. Waste it. Smoke it. Leave nothing alive. Make them fear seeing a tanker.

[thefactor]

these pirates have nothing to lose. and that makes them dangerous. they will not be deterred, only emboldened. it’s gonna be a long struggle.

[FrankR]

"Rescue the hostages, take back the tanker, then bomb the Hell out of the homeland of the pirates. Waste it. Smoke it. Leave nothing alive. Make them fear seeing a tanker. "

Oops, my bad....forgot about the hostages. Your plan is probably the better one. My thought was, it is not their tanker so it wouldn't start an international incident...bombing cities and such would.

Kill'em all and let God sort them out.

[antiRepublicrat]

Civilized nations have wiped out piracy before, such as in the Carribean. All it takes is some determination.

[CodeToad]

“so it wouldn’t start an international incident...bombing cities and such would”

Anyone who sits around and lets pirates operate isn’t anyone I could care less about nor will they do anything but bitch anyway. “international incident”? That is assuming I care about such people. If they don’t want an “international incident” they had best participate is curbing the pirate trades.

[El Gato]

Of course the tanker operators want the Navies of the rest of the world to protect them, but are even willing to consider arming their ships. “It might escalate the violence”, “It might put the crewmen at risk”, as if sinking the SOBs, like the Indian Navy recently did, isn't escalating the violence. In reality they want it escalated, they just want to risk the lives of a bunch of other peoples kids not their own sorry asses.

[El Gato]

Kill'em all and let God sort them out.

The original venison of that was more like "Kill them all, God will know His own". There are none of "His own" in those Muslim pirate ports. But Beelzebub will also know his own, and what to with them.