Posted on 09/06/2009 8:06:22 AM PDT by American Number 181269513
The Arctic Sea cargo ship that disappeared for almost a month earlier this summer, was carrying weapons to Iran and was being tracked by Mossad, the Israeli security service, according to reports.
Mystery has surrounded the ship, officially carrying a cargo of timber worth £1.3 million from Finland to Algeria, since its crew first reported a boarding in Swedish waters on July 24 after a raid by 10 armed English-speaking men posing as anti-narcotics police officers.
It was eventually recovered off the coast of west Africa on August 17. Russia has since charged eight men from Estonia, Latvia and Russia with kidnapping and piracy.
Russian officials have said the alleged pirates demanded a $1.5 million ransom but speculation has grown that the freighter was carrying contraband cargo.
Israeli and Russian security sources have questioned The Kremlin's official explanation, instead arguing that the ship was carrying S-300 missiles, Russia's most advanced anti-aircraft weapon, while undergoing repairs in the Russian port of Kaliningrad, a notorious Baltic smuggling base.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I read the article this about a week ago. One thing still puzzles me; did the Israelis get the missiles or did they make it through to their intended destination?
One might get the impression that the Russian gov’t guys didn’t know about the deal...and someone way down in the food chain was carrying out the deal. I think this is why the whole “search and find” game became such a fiasco.
“The Arctic Sea cargo ship that disappeared for almost a month...”
Maybe this has been discussed in the past, which I miss and am sorry...With all the spy stuff we have flying in space, no one could track it/find it?
Our tax money is being wasted then big time.
since the ransom demand was for more than the valuer of the declared cargo, it was problematic...
Code, for it is a slow news day so will write about other peoples reported rumors.
A: Astrakhan via the Caspian Sea to Bandar-e Anzali. They would send the missiles via the Atlantic-Mediterranean-Indian Ocean route only if they were being paid by the kilometer. What knucklehead reporter can't figure that out?
Q: Who would Russia ship to via the Atlantic-Mediterranean route with a stopover in Algeria to provide deniability?
A: Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, possibly anti-government revolutionaries in Egypt.
That is something I want to know too. If they did, great. We will probably never know.
It makes no sense to ship them via the Atlantic when a caspian sea route is readily available. There is also an easy air route. People should learn geography.
It makes sense if you know Russians.
I think we knew precisely where the ship was at all times and if we didn’t in real time then shortly after using either the Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) or other more secret surveillance systems.
There are a number of ways in which vessel tracking services may electronically track a ship at sea. The two most common are the Automatic Identification System (AIS) - which is more of a coastal-based system. And, the other is the Long Range Identification & Tracking (LRIT) system, which is a more open-water type of tracking system.
In both systems however, the shipboard equipment actually needs to be working as the tracking systems aren't passive systems, but active systems. So, if hijackers, or a complicit crew manual/physically disconnect these tracking systems, then the ship goes essentially dark. Sure, the ship would show up on maritime radar, but only as a blip. It would not have any identification associated with that blip. Also, most commercially available maritime radar has a range less than 60 miles. Military radar can be longer, but not much longer.
So, once a ship goes dark, it's fairly easy for it to slip away from routine navigation routes into more isolated waters where it becomes VERY difficult to spot with surface vessels and an airborne search is what becomes necessary. The Russians don't have any carriers, so that complicated their search in this case. Satellites aren't much use when scanning HUGE chunks of real estate for relatively small targets - a ship at sea is a small target for satellite, irrespective of the size of the ship. Satellites are most effective when scanning a relatively narrow piece of property.
My guess is the ship was spotted by surface traffic - after it's contraband cargo was either off-loaded or dumped at sea and the ship sailed back into more trafficked navigational routes - and it's position was radioed back to a national coast guard agency which subsequently alerted Russian authorities. But, it's only a guess.
Sometimes it is not the most obvious that is chosen to hide something. I’m sure the Caspian Sea is heavily monitored for any traffic to Iran espacially with all of the sanctions curently being somewhat enforced.
Would a thief use the front door to gain access to his target or prefer the back door route to obtain his goals relying more on obscurity than expedience? Add to that the risk factors of either are vastly different.
If Mossad was involved, my guess is that they transferred some of the bounty to their shores underwater by some means ;) and made sure the rest were destroyed on their way to sleep alongside Davie Jones Locker.
Plus, if Mossad was in on the gig, we will find out only months later like we did on the Syrian Reactor.
"Also, most commercially available maritime radar has a range less than 60 miles to 120 miles.
How do you know that the U.S. Navy was not tracking it. Somehow, I strongly suspect that U.S. Naval Intelligence and the SEALs, working in concert with the Israelis and even maybe even the UK Special Boat Squadron were involved.
For a really informative article about this entire sagA, look here: http://homelandsecurityus.com/?p=2994 PART ONE and then here: http://homelandsecurityus.com/?p=3008 PART TWO
Well that’s good to know, but where is that info located?
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