This is absurd

[starfish62]

Apparently they just got another big one. It's time for action.

Iranian-operated cargo ship hijacked off Somalia - Yahoo! News

[Vasco]

Governments seem very reluctant to take any action at all. They seem to sit and watch. The Saudis should hire these guys. They have the capability including the boats to do it.

Blackwater USA

[nonam]

Looks like this is the latest growth industry.Maybe we should try and get a piece of the action.Anyone else up for it?

Hong Kong grain ship hijacked

Reuters | Wednesday, 19 November 2008

A Hong Kong cargo ship loaded with wheat bound for Iran has been hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, the latest daring raid in the increasingly lawless seas near Somalia.
The Delight, with 25 crew members on board, was captured around 0600 GMT (7pm NZT) off the Yemen coast, the official Xinhua agency said, citing China's Maritime Search and Rescue Centre.
An official at the centre confirmed a ship had been seized but declined to give further details, saying the issue was being handled by Hong Kong.
Xinhua did not say if the pirates were Somali, but the raid came just days after a supertanker with a $100 million cargo was seized in the Indian Ocean and anchored off a Somali port.
Using larger "mother ships" to increase their reach, the heavily armed pirates usually pull up on either side of a target in speedboats and board, firing guns or even rocket-propelled grenades just over the bridge if the captain tries to escape.
Most of the region's piracy problems come from groups based in Somalia, which has suffered nearly two decades of conflict that have left it awash with arms and without a strong central authority to enforce the rule of law.
The Hong Kong ship was carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran's Bandar Abbas port, Xinhua said.
None of the crew members are from Hong Kong or mainland China, Xinhua added, without giving further details.

[nonam]

IMO the first thing they have to do is arrest the mother ships.Sure,they cant patrol every square mile of ocean.But finding the mother ships is doable.
I wonder if there might be some way to use the AIS technology to detect vessels that are not going about honest business?

[Pelagic]

When Iraq invaded Kuwait there was an International UN consensus to remove them.

Somalia has no working government, no national control or influence over the lawlessness that prevails in that country.

An international alliance to go into Somalia, disarm them, arrest or kill the warlords and control the ports will put a stop to this silliness and send a strong message to any other rouge country that is now considering piracy as an industry.

After that, helping the people become self sufficient in electing their leaders and developing an economy without the criminal control that presently drains it.... would be the humane thing to do.

[David Grieme]

Paul and Cheryl Shard's Cruising in the Middle East Video contains a pretty scary interview with a cruising couple describing a pirate attach that they fended off a few years ago in this general area. Just because the pirates here seem to be aiming high does not mean others just learning the craft don't look for smaller fish.

[Casco Bay]

More action:

VOA News - India's Navy Destroys Pirate Ship in Gulf of Aden

[James S]

Hmmm...that might put us at war with Somalia. Think we could win?
__________________
David

Been there, done that...remember 1993.
I wonder how much revenue the Egyptions are loosing from the canal diversion....they may have an interest in this before to long.
The guys doing the atacking, are not the guys calling the shots...killing them won't make any differance....the same can be said for the mother ship.
As much as I hate to say it..I dont see it going away anytime soon....in fact, I expect to see this problem grow.

[starfish62]

Originally Posted by Casco Bay

More action:

VOA News - India's Navy Destroys Pirate Ship in Gulf of Aden

Go India!!! I'm having Tikka Masala tonite!!!

I realize that we are talking about a massive expanse of ocean, but my God! There's something going on every day off of Somalia it seems. One article I read said that there are over 300 crew from different nations being held on Somalian soil awaiting ransom. There's going to be a significant military action about this.

More links:
Indian navy destroys pirate boat, more ships taken - Yahoo! News
Saudi FM says tanker owners in talks with pirates - Yahoo! News

[James S]

I wouldnt bet on it.
They dont like risking the lifes of the hosteges.

[David M]

You can bet the US is gathering intelligence on where the hostages are being held and other related things. My guess is that there will be a carrier battle group cruising off Somalia pretty soon.

Good for India!

[James S]

I don’t know how many of these hostages are American...but unless they're a lot, I wouldn’t expect to see the US do anything aggressive...We've had some dealings in the past with some of these situations...................they prefer to pay!!

[David M]

Well, the US does tend to get involved in situations where it does not have much to do with US citizens. This situation does involve any country in the world with a merchant marine. Something needs to change and historically its the US that tends to get involved in things like this. I'm not saying its right or wrong for the US to get involved.

[James S]

That’s true...I just think if it’ll require much more than can be achieved with a drone, or Tomahawk the US isn’t going to take the chance of getting stung.
Also, I have serious questions around the US’s intelligence capabilities in that area. I don’t think its been a priority.

[Microship]

Good grief... quite a trickle-down economy over there:

Somali pirates transform villages into boomtowns - Salon.com

Steve