SS GLOBAL PATROIT
Posted on 03/24/2008 4:15:49 PM PDT by HAL9000
One Egyptian was killed and two wounded when a US military ship about to cross the Suez Canal opened fire on barges of hawkers that approached their boat on Monday, a security source told AFP.The ship, Global Patriot, was preparing to travel from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean when a group of Egyptians seeking to sell merchandise approached the boat on small barges, the source said.
Americans on board told the barges to stop and opened fire when they continued to approach.
After the U.S.S. Cole, this is perfectly justified.
When you're told to stop, by a clearly marked U.S. ship, you'd damn well better listen, or you may end up down in Davy Jones' Locker.
That headline is intentionally defamatory. It was not a US warship. It was not even a Military Sealift Command ship.
SS GLOBAL PATROIT
SS GLOBAL PATROIT PATRIOT
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Interocean American Shipping Corp. now operating the MV Global Patriot Former Buffalo Soldier provides employment for AMO members The Interocean American Shipping Corp. fleet is one ship larger.
The company, formerly Interocean Ugland Management Corp., now operates the U.S.-flagged multi-purpose cargo ship Global Patriot, formerly the Buffalo Soldier. The New York-based Global Container Line owns the ship.
Manned in all licensed positions by American Maritime Officers, the Global Patriot carries vehicles, containers, project cargo, heavy-lift cargo and break-bulk and bulk commodities between the U.S. and the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and East Africa.
The ship also carries U.S. food aid exports financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Under a 1985 cargo preference law, up to 75 percent of such shipments are reserved for U.S.-flagged merchant vessels.
Interocean American Shipping also operates the new U.S.-flagged car carrier Jean Anne for Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines. The ship, manned in all licensed positions by AMO, operates between the U.S. mainland West Coast and Hawaii. (snip)
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This company also is involved in maintaining the Navy's "ready reserve" sealift ships. I think those are different than the USN fast sealift vessels, but I can't be sure. Anyone??
That must be its french cousin.
Nothing wrong with shooting...as long as the right people get shot.
Clint Eastwood
Dirty Harry
Hopefully this can be resolved without being used as political ammunition by Islamists in a moderately secular country. The last thing we need is to have tensions with Egypt. It would hurt them more than us, but it would cause headaches for everyone.
I think Bush will stand firm.
Hillary!™ and Obamanation fold instantly fold.
McCainiac? Anyone's guess, probably make a minor appeasing change to avoid torturing anyone.
Unless we start taking the threat seriously, we're doomed.
It’s complicated.
The main US USN logistic support ships, and transports, are operated by the MSC (Military Sealift Command). They go by “USNS” rather than “USS” - they’re manned by civilians, but many of them have military gray hulls, etc.
There’s also a force called the “Ready Reserve Force” operated by the Maritime Administration (part of the Department of Transportation.) Those ships are usually at a lower state of readiness, or in port, except in a crisis.
The ship in this incident appears to simply be a US-flagged vessel. I was unaware any of those ships were even inherently armed.
What I suspect is that they may have had a Maritime Expeditionary Security Force detachment on-board for the Suez transit, which would be armed. We’ll see.
My bet is that there was a threat bulletin giving to the ship and they were spooked. If they didnt stop after getting the command to halt their greed killed them.
“But we have trinkets! We have spices! We have cotton threads to sell!”
Greed? How so? For trying to do their job? You clearly never been to Egypt, but I would have thought experienced sailors would know better.
This is Egypt’s home turf. I cannot believe the idiocy of the merchantmen in question, blowing a trader out of the water while guests in country.
The world isn’t the US’s own little playground, where it sets its own rules and expects everyone else to play along. At the very least, this is manslaughter, and the culprits should be charged as such.
In a comparison, it would be akin to the British shooting dead any Irishman that walked into a pub in the 70’s and 80’s.
‘Global Patriot’ indeed, how original. SS ‘Global democratic patriot freedom USofA’, sounds much more complete.
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