Posted on 11/18/2008 9:16:24 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Alarm grows as governments and navies are rendered legally powerless to conduct security operations on the high seas
Somali pirates struck again yesterday, seizing an Iranian cargo ship holding 30,000 tonnes of grain, as the worlds governments and navies pronounced themselves powerless against this new threat to global trade.
Admiral Michael Mullen, the US military chief, pronounced himself stunned by the pirates reach after their capture of the supertanker Sirius Star and its $100 million (£70 million) cargo. Commanders from the US Fifth Fleet and from Nato warships in the area said that they would not intervene to retake the vessel.
The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, the owner of the ship, condemned the hijacking as an outrageous act that required international action.
Piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together, Prince Saud al-Faisal said. Arab diplomats would meet in Cairo on Thursday to discuss what could be done in response, Yemeni officials said.
Analysts said, however, that the seizure of the Sirius Star exposed the use of foreign warships as a sticking plaster that would not solve the problem. Maritime security operations in that area are addressing the symptoms not the causes, said Jason Alderwick, a maritime defence analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Roger Middleton, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Chatham House think-tank, said that the capture was a crucial escalation. Now that they have shown they are able to seize an enormous ship like this, it is beyond a military solution. You wont fix this without a political solution.
Pirates pulled the 333m supertanker yesterday to a mooring point off Harardhere, on the Somali coast. Farther north, Italian, Greek, Turkish, British, American and Russian frigates and warships were patrolling the Gulf of Aden under a
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Yeah, it's weird, people don't even remember. All you have to do is watch vintage TV and movies. There's that Twilight Zone episode where the guy thinks he's in heaven but it's really hell. In the opening scene he's a burglar fleeing from the cops and he gets shot down trying to climb a fence. Also, note the beginning of Hitchcock's Veritgo, which involves a rooftop chase with the cops shooting indiscriminately at their quarry, notwithstanding that he gets away.
And from real life, I remember a LIFE magazine cover article about the Newark riots of the sixties - "Willie Jones(sic), caught in the act of stealing beer" Apparently the LIFE reporter was interviewing the guy when a cop car wheeled up and he fled, only to be cut down by a shotgun blast. The reporter duly interviewed the cop, who gave some perfunctory justification like, "he shouldn't have tried to run." This was the beginning of the end for the practice of shooting at fleeing felons.
exactly right.
I know what you mean. I live near Ricart.
I wonder how the cast of BAYWATCH would react to this
Privateers Unite!!
Now we know what happened to the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Time for the U.S Navy to go in and start shooting up somali pirates.
Big difference going after unarmed freighters and having our navy going after pirates sorry butts.
How about sending in the “Silent Service”. Those large mother ships that allow the smaller ones to operate out in the open ocean would be a good target. Also, the world would never know for sure who really sunk those ships.
Well since Egypt owns the Suez canal and now some ships are starting to go around rather than through, wouldn’t it make sence for Egypt to arm about a hundred boats and go after this slime? Sorry just trying to be rational here.
The UN could send a peacekeeper ship to the area to observe.
The problem here is that Somalia operates with the ideal Libertarian government....NONE.
No Government is the Anarchists ideal. Liberterians believe in a National force strong enough to protect property rights.
That's no problem -- neither political views, religion, race, age, morality, sex or personal hygiene habits are justication to excuse behavior deserving of destruction, nor will it keep one alive when attacked.
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
A privateer was a private warship authorized by a country's government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping.
The U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to issue letters of marque. But this Congress wouldn’t have the guts to even think about it.
Crazy, isn’t it? But, then again, a lot of crazy things have happened lately. We live in strange times.
My sister lives in Columbus. She is very liberal and probably thinks that kind of diversity is just great.
I hate the somalis with an irrational, undying, burning passion.
Ugh. That just creeps me out. And, I'm from Chicago!!! (Barack Obama creeps me out, too, just for the record.)
Hey RR, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sauuuuuudis are paying these pirates to create this circus so as to try and keep some kinda pressure upward on the oil prices without having to reduce production.
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