BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 10:37 AM

Here's an update on the Chinese Navy's effort to deal with the Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden: Click here for article

The Chinese are estimating that there are some 30 different groups of pirates with a total membership of a 1000. That's not including the pirate wantabees on Mudcat.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Dec 08 - 09:25 AM

Here's a link to where an attempt has been made to map where Somali pirates have captured ships for ransom: Click here for article!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Steve Benbows protege
Date: 29 Dec 08 - 07:32 PM

What made me laugh is that traditionally pirates always had an English "West Country" accent. - Think/Google "Yellow beard" etc

Better ring Hollywood and make sure they now have Somali accents.....

Who's up for remaking some classic pirate films and are we still allowed to shout "ahar jim lad" in our best west country pirate accents?

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 10:22 PM

Well, not a bad haul, $3 million for a Saudi oil tanker. According to the news reports the loot was parachuted to the deck of the tanker, directly accessible to the resident pirates. I do wonder how the pirates plan to escape.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 11:26 PM

Oh, here's a link to the rest of the story from an "embedded" journalist pirate: Click here for article!

It's not easy to divide $3 million.

Maybe giving them all that loot is the final solution for destroying the pirates.

Weird!

But true!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Barry Finn
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 12:59 AM

15 men on a dead man's chest

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 11:18 AM

Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of araqi (arab white lightning)!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: curmudgeon
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 11:24 AM

Easy Come, easy go!

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 05:08 PM

Tom-

Well, such piracy is a risky business.

Thanks for the update.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jan 09 - 03:12 PM

"The body of a Somali pirate who reportedly drowned soon after receiving a huge ransom has washed ashore with $153,000 in cash, his uncle says.

The man was one of a group of pirates who seized the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star in November.

They reportedly received $3m (£1.95m) for freeing the tanker but five were said to have drowned after fleeing.

A relative of the drowned pirate told the BBC the family was now trying to dry out the recovered money.

The pirates' boat capsized when they were hit by rough seas as they were heading back to their homes in central Somalia, the leader of the pirates told AFP.

'Parachute drop'

The pirates disembarked the Sirius Star on Friday, after a small plane was seen apparently dropping the ransom by parachute on to the tanker.

A negotiator for the pirates told the BBC's reporter in Mogadishu by telephone that a $3m ransom had been paid shortly after the ship was released.

The ship's owner has refused to comment.

The tanker had been held for nearly two months off the coast of Somalia, near the town of Harardhere.

Eyewitnesses in the coastal town said five of the pirates had drowned while trying to make off with the loot.

"One of them was discovered and they are still looking for the other ones," resident Omar Abdi Hassan told the BBC.

The uncle of the pirate who washed ashore, Abukar Sheikh Hassan, told the BBC that the family had found $153,000 in a plastic bag in his pocket.

He said some of the money was wet and the family was now trying to dry it out." (BBC News)

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Barry Finn
Date: 12 Jan 09 - 04:02 PM

The irony of Poetic Justice.
May they all go to their watery graves

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jan 09 - 07:50 PM

The CNN report this evening from one of the pirate survivors claimed that they had almost made it ashore when other pirates, on shore, began firing at them. It's when they tried to head back out to sea that their small boat capsized.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 12 Jan 09 - 09:51 PM

Charley is your trip still a go?

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 07:57 AM

Heric-

Yes, but only to the highlands of Ethiopia. No wqy I'm going anywhere near Somalia.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jan 09 - 09:29 PM

Not to be a bore but the Somalis have made another major capture, this time a German tanker loaded with Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). The link doesn't provide as much information as my morning newspaper: Click here for report

LNG is of course highly explosive.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Teribus
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 05:07 AM

Now that is one that warrants keeping a very close eye on and should be boarded, taken under command and carefully searched as soon as it has been "released" by those "Jolly Pirate" Chaps. Not quite as dangerous as LPG, but if a terrorist group did play their cards right with this LNG carrier it could be turned into a "Terrorist Spectacular" that would make the attacks of 9/11 look like a minor misdemeanor.

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 08:08 AM

Teribus-

My mistake. It was a LPG tanker, the MV Longehamp.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Teribus
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 04:16 AM

Yep MV Longchamp LPG Tanker, put in the "right" place with the vents open then detonated, the effect would be similar to that of a small nuclear weapon or more accurately a Massive Ordinance Air Burst bomb (MOAB).

Detonated in the "right" port this could kill about up to about 500,000 people.

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Feb 09 - 02:56 PM

Teribus-

However, it seems that the Somali pirates are more interested in ransom than terroristic acts.

Some of us have raised your question with regard to LPG tankers berthing in major populated areas in the States, and were always told that the capture of such a ship was extremely unlikely. Hah!

I'm still astounded that such ships navigate the seven seas without a security detachment.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Teribus
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 02:08 AM

So the Somali pirayes are only interested in money, so I take it they will not be too concerned about who pays it, doesn't necessarily have to be the vessel's owners does it.

Those engaged in anti-piracy patrols should watch this ship very carefully and the second it is "released" it should quarantined and searched before it is allowed to proceed.

None of which alters the fact that what is happening off the shores of Somalia is unacceptable and if the rest of the world want this practice stopped they should start doing something concrete to erradicate it.

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Les from Hull
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 12:42 PM

It seems to me that the best solution against this sort of piracy would be the use of 'Q ships'. Concealing a few 30mm cannon on a tanker and sending it to sea with a navy crew shouldn't be too difficult for any of the nations whose vessels are at risk in these waters. Mind you, for all I know they may be already doing this.

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 06:24 PM

Les-

We were musing about Q-ships somewhat earlier in this thread.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Teribus
Date: 03 Feb 09 - 01:55 AM

Q ships are not the answer, they were never really that effective during time of war as the Q-ship had to stumble across the path of a submarine or surface raider. Likewise in this situation it would be hit and miss and the Q-ship would only be able to take on the small boats that the pirates are using in their attacks, the pirate's "mother-ship" would remain safe, out of sight and range.

If you want to stop the pirates you hit the bases from which they operate.

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 08:33 AM

Here's an update on the status of the Ukrainian ship the Faina, the one loaded to the gunwales with tanks and other heavy weapons: Click here for article!

Evidently the pirates have settled for $3 million as a ransom, plus the movie rights to their saga.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 07:51 PM

This evening's news had images of the ransom being parachuted to the pirates.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Feb 09 - 09:17 AM

"If you want to stop the pirates you hit the bases from which they operate."

Yes. That would be the most effective military response to the present situation. That's certainly what I would recommend if I were in command of an anti-piracy effort in those waters.

Meanwhile, however...according to a recent article someone linked to below...

"Piracy is one of the few ways to make money in Somalia. Half the population is dependent on aid and a whole generation has grown up knowing nothing but war. A recent report by London's Chatham House think-tank said pirates raked in more than $30 million in ransoms last year."

So, that desperate situation is the engine that is driving the growth of piracy in the region, and the piracy becomes inevitable under those circumstances. Smashing their coastal bases would temporarily shut them down, but the only thing that could permanently cure the problem would be to improve financial conditions for ordinary people in Somalia, to rescue a society that has fallen apart and been abandoned to fester in its own isolation and despair...

No one seems willing to take that burden on. Not surprising, when you think about it...specially in these bad economic times. Who, after all, would be the first to say "We'll do it." ?

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Feb 09 - 09:20 AM

Seems as if the pirates got away with the loot, with the naval forces judiciously watching: click here for article!

Pirate spokesman Aden Abdi Omar reported that they were all safe ashore, and having a good time painting Sailortown red.

The Navy did not take action against the pirates because they still hold many hostages from other ships, said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. "Even when you release Faina, there are still 147 mariners held hostage," Campbell told the AP. "We're concerned for their well-being."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Feb 09 - 10:17 PM

Here's some more musing about why it's gonna be difficult to eradicate piracy in the Gulf of Aden: click here!

Blackwater Security to the rescue?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Teribus
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 01:04 AM

"Recent reports indicate the North Carolina-based firm is building a small but potent flotilla to deliver maritime protection against the increased threat of international piracy.

Pirates were on the wane and marginalized to a select few global waterways only a few years ago," - From link supplied by Charley Noble

Blackwater's ships are certainly not news, they've been operating their "Q" ships for some time without any great deal of success.

As to piracy having been on the wane, I don't know so much about that, it has been steadily on the increase in far eastern waters, in the Gulf of Aden and off Nigeria since the British withdrew from east of Suez in the 1960's.

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 08:15 AM

Teribus-

If only "the British" hadn't withdrawn from east of Suez in the 1960's!

But you really weren't suggesting that as a preferred option.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Teribus
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 11:00 AM

Certainly not Charley, the current state of affairs just reminds of a converstion I remember from about that time where someone observed that it had been the presence of the Royal Navy in Aden and in Singapore that had been the force that had erradicated piracy or reduced it to a negligible level and who then went on to venture the opinion that once gone the "trade" would resume as it had done before. Events proved him to be 100% correct.

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 04:55 PM

Teribus-

Noted.

We both agree that the present situation is outrageous. And that there is no substitute for a well trained navel presence in the Gulf of Aden.

I do wish there were alternative initiatives that would address the economic and security concerns of the Somali people; they are not all practicing pirates nor practicing terrorists.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 08:19 AM

Score two for the U.S. Navy. They have captured two skiffs loaded to the gunwales with Somali pirates on two successive days. Each skiff was in the process of attacking a merchant ship.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker
From: Teribus
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 09:50 AM

Also some reports today about the Russians capturing 10 pirates in three small speed boats.

---

For later discussion, please see threads crosslinked above.
-Joe Offer-