HEAVILY armed Somali pirates are holding hostage a US ship's captain on a lifeboat after storming his cargo vessel off the African coast.
A United States warship was last night pushing towards the hijack scene, a lawless shipping channel off Somalia, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack, the first on a US merchant ship in 200 years.
Damn Pirates!
She demanded world action.
"We are deeply concerned and we are following it very closely," Mrs Clinton said.
"Specifically, we are now focused on this particular act of piracy and the seizure of a ship that carries 21 American citizens," she said.
"More generally, we think the world must come together to end the scourge of piracy," she said.
One of the family ships...The Fox
How about some proper deterrent in the future? This is a riot...and a hotmess. My family were in shipping a few hundred years ago. We lost some of our ships, but I cannot imagine for a moment any of my Grandfathers sitting around waiting for some one to do something for them about 'the scourge of piracy.'
The US-flagged, Danish-owned ship, the Maersk Alabama, had been delivering food to refugees via Mombasa, Kenya. So it was out on a mission of mercy, and this is the parting thanks it gets. The US State Department said the ship had been carrying vegetable oil, corn soy blend and other basic food commodities as part of a UN food program.
Pirates firing AK47s commandeered the ship, but the unarmed crew overpowered them to win bank control of the vessel.
Good sailors. Extra grog!
This is where it the owners in my opinion of this transport and oil ships need to hire on board security. I understand Blackwater, remember them? They have received many requests for services.
If you are going to have to pay 3.2 million say on a 'bounty' to some pirates, I think you should invest in some fire power.
Even the pirates and transport ships in days of old had the resources to protect themselves. Although some better than others.
Seriously...
These are small boats that are taking on these big transport and oil tankers. For Gawd sake, get some water cannons. You could blow right them right off their ships and right out of the water. Call me old fashion but drop a dep charge.
I know it is their policy to be unarmed but hire a sniper!
Right now these entrepreneur pirates are holding the Captain for ransom and I hope for his safe return.
2 comments:
This has been the question naggging at me since the first ransom was paid! Wouldn't it be far cheaper to put say ten well trained and heavily armed men on each of these ships in the first place now that we know the pirates are out there?
By the way it's not Blackwater anymore. They changed their name to something far less conspicuous.
Xe
(pronounced zee)
Me too! They have paid quite a few out. When I did the research on this I found that the reason to date we and other countries have not put ships in the water to patrol is because of the vast distance they would have to patrol. It is the same problem police have in squad cars. They can't be everywhere at one time,
or get where they need to be at the right time to stop a crime from taking place.
Right now, no one country wants to step up to pay for cost of patroling the South Asian Sea where all this action is taking place.
Until now, when they hit a ship carrying Americans. We of course are going to send ships out to help recover the Captain, who I understand traded his life for his men. He is floating on one of his life boats. The life boat is out of gas and the pirates are growing a little anxious.
See Joe, the way I see it. The owners need to provide for the proper security of their ships. It is their investments floating out there. They have insurance. If they are going to pay ransoms like the Russians did just recently to recover their tanker......3.2 million, then they can hire security. I would have to look up maritime law to see what could be done.
BTW...
The French sunk a couple of our ships...before the American Revolution. The United States eventually received $4 million dollars back then from the French Government...which by the way they never paid to the family. Bastards! LOL! What can I say...except there has to be a rational way to stop this...and I am not too happy always having to send our Navy after these guys...let some of the other countries pitch in.
P.S. I know about Blackwater's name change from a family member. I didn't use it because no one recognizes it....yet!
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