Somali pirates hijack two ships

BBC ^ | Dec 29, 2009

[rdl6989]

Somali pirates have captured two ships with 45 crew off the East African coast, officials say.

A UK-flagged chemical tanker, the St James Park, was reportedly captured in the Gulf of Aden on Monday while on its way to Thailand from Spain.

Its 26 crew hail from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Georgia, India, Turkey and the Philippines.

The Navios Apollon, a Panamanian-flagged Greek cargo ship with 19 crew, was hijacked north of the Seychelles.

The 50,000-tonne carrier - which had been sailing from the US state of Florida to India - was boarded on Monday by 10 men in speedboats, according to the Greek coastguard.

Pirate attacks have been common off the Somali coast and international navies have been deployed to counter them.

[rdl6989]

The St James Park issued a distress call on Monday night saying it had been attacked by pirates.

[Funee Kat]

Why don’t these tankers just carry heat seeking missles or something...like in the movies...

[yorkie01]

Whenever this happens, we should move unilaterally to take out a Somali port. Within a week to ten days, Somalia will come to a complete stall.

[JPG]

Stop the madness. Fully arm the crews. The old BS about not allowing weapons on board for fear of mutiny is now totally bogus. There would be 100,000 pirate attacks stopped for every one possible mutiny. Stop the nutsiness and blow their heads off if they get anywhere close to the ship. Seems the people who dictate the law of the sea rules are also in charge of airline security.

[al baby]

Whenever this happens, we should move unilaterally to take out a Somali port. Within a week to ten days, Somalia will come to a complete stall.

Not only that we should do it alone if we have to

[rdl6989]

Whenever this happens, we should move unilaterally to take out a Somali port. Within a week to ten days, Somalia will come to a complete stall.

Agreed!

[knarf]

When I was a kid, I got beat up while going through a neighborhood my parents told me to stay away from.

They were correct and I never went back.

People in boats must've nevr had wise parents.

[jessduntno]

Peace...through superior fire power...

[taillightchaser]

This is klintoon’s fault. If he had done his job he would have turned Somalia into a parking lot after Blackhawk Down instead of wimping out and ignoring it.
My question is—Why don’t the ships that sail in those waters carry armament to deter these criminals? The lack of that is sheer stupidity.

[ol' hoghead]

Good idea. Diego Garcia is 1700 n.m. from the Somali coast. A little carpet bombing might get their attention.

[vpintheak]

When is the world going to stop poo-pooing these criminals? Piracy used to be the sort of thing that would get you killed if caught.

[aruanan]

People in boats must've nevr had wise parents.

Or they're traveling in international shipping lanes in international waters and have criminals assaulting them. Sort of like you riding with your wise parents on a main thoroughfare and getting car-jacked by those people from the bad neighborhood.

[marron]

They just picked up another two or three million the other day.

With that kind of incentive plan, they’d be crazy not to seize ships. You can raise goats for a living, or you can make millions with almost no risk. Big decision.

[ASA Vet]

It's not like we don't know where they are.

Plug this into a google map, zoom in with satellite view, and see what's there.
5.341525,48.532008

[RC2]

Those ships need to just sail into Somalia and surrender the ship. Nobody is going to do anything about it anyway. Why waste everyones time?

[KoRn]

It boggles the mind that these ships aren’t armed!

Each crew member should have a sidearm and an AR type rifle, or automatic shotgun. There should be a .50 caliber machine gun or two mounted on either side of the ship. The piracy would all but end overnight.

The financial investment in the arms and some training would be nothing compared to the losses caused by this madness.

[VicVega]

The United Nations will issue a statement condemning this barbaric act in about two years.

[handy old one]

One LAW rocket would end if used on them and then wait for the next pirates to have another round of target practice! If they thought all would end this way they would think twice before attacking. If not let them think they will make it to glory and seventy virgins!!

[stephenjohnbanker]

I swear the whole world has gone nuts. Blow their F’ing heads off!!!!