They were all wearing these: 
Posted on 11/05/2005 9:29:46 AM PST by Pokey78
MIAMI (AP) - Pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade and machine guns Saturday in an attack on a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast, the vessel's owners said.
Two armed boats approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia and fired as the boats' occupants attempted to get onboard, said Bruce Good, a spokesman for Miami-based Seabourn Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.
The crew initiated a trained response and avoided being boarded, Good said. The ship outran them and changed its course.
"Our suspicion at this time is that the motive was theft," Good said.
One member of the 161-person crew was slightly injured before the attackers were repelled, according to a London-based Seabourn Cruises spokesman.
Press Association, the British news agency, said passengers awoke to the sound of gunfire as two 25-foot inflatable boats approached the liner. The injured crew member was reportedly hit by flying debris.
The vessel's 151 passengers, mostly Americans with some Australians and Europeans, were gathered in a lounge for their safety, Good said. None were injured.
The Spirit had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt. It was expected to reach the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean later Saturday, and then continue on its previous schedule to Singapore, Good said.
The 10,000-ton cruise ship, registered in the Bahamas, sustained minor damage, Good said. "They took some fire, but it's safe to sail," he said.
Barbary Pirates? Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute.
Somalia = Islamics
In school, on the first day of a new class, some Cambodian kids were discussing how they came to the U.S. I was all worried about the new class, and had jitters, but one of the kids behind me started talking about how hard it was for his family to get to the U.S., because they had to get past the Thai pirates.
I turned around and apologized for listening in, and laughed and said- "you guys had to fight your way past pirates?!" and the all laughed. Nice planet we have here.
Repelled with what?
Quite an undertaking for the pirates
Anybody over there on "vacation" deserves what they get.
They were all wearing these:
Probably the RPGs and Machine Guns and the attempt to board was a tipoff.
Somalia = Islamics = TERRORISTS
I'm told Mogadishu is lovely this time of year.
It is hard to imagine a cruise ship outrunning a little speedboat, but it's also hard to imagine boarding from one of those little things unless they thought the ship was French and they would just surrender and drop boarding nets.
It's time to ressurect some Q ships.
My understanding is that no crew member on that ship is allowed to carry any weapons, concealed or otherwise.
Makes them a rather soft target, no?
Someody was arguing hard for Letters of Marque a while back. Constitution allows it. I can't remember why.
guns go off. guns kill people (just takig the weenies argument)
Just how many 25-foot inflatable boats are in this coastal area?
Track the boats, find the boats..find the Pirates/Islamics
..surround & burn/destroy the village(s)/Town(s).
Probably high-pressure water from fire hoses. I doubt they are allowed to have weapons...the obvious solution to this nonsense.
Let them see why we have the stanza "From the Halls of Montezuma - to the shores of TRIPOLI" in the Marine Coprs Hymm.
The Marines used their sabers back in those days to seperate the pirates' heads from their necks!
Time to bring the Mamaluke Sword for full combat role to seperate the jihadist from humanity!
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