Pirates vs Flipper

Those crazy ol' somali pirates arrrr at it again, getting all the headlines. First there's the news that US Navy snipers took out 3 pirates simultaneously when they threatened an American ship captain. Then the pirates vowed revenge on all US and French targets (not sure the Yanks are too happy to be lugged in with the cheese-eaters), however despite their impressive gains in productivity and being able to seize ships the size of US Aircraft carriers, threats from dudes in wooden boats that are frightened off by dolphins are probably not so scary to the only country that has actually used nuclear weapons.

anti-pirate dolphins

However on that note, given the impressive militarism of Obama's administration, the pirates threats might actually work. I'll let Mark Steyn takeover on these pirate "distractions" to Obama's true goal (whatever that is):

Powerful states protect one-man psycho states. One-man psycho states provide delivery systems to apocalyptic ideological states. Apocalyptic ideological states fund nonstate actors around the world. And in Somalia and elsewhere nonstate actors are constrained only by their ever increasing capabilities.

Didn't we get rid of pirates, like 200 years ago?

Pirates 1 - Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions 0

This story won't be raising the share price of "Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions" anytime soon.

A description of the battle:

"They fired water cannon at the pirates, and zig-zagged. They also used a long range accoustic device (LRAD) which fires laser-like beams of excruciatingly-painful sound at attackers. They beat off three or four attacks but the pirates then began firing RPGs at the LRAD’s operator."

This is an LRAD.

An embarrassing description of the rescue:

“There were three members of the crew on the roof (of the ship),” said Frederic Karakaya, the helicopter pilot. “They were hiding and signalled to us. They were spotted, and jumped into the water.

“We pretended we hadn’t seen them so we didn’t alert the pirates to their position. We dropped a coloured marker, then gave their position to a German Lynx (helicopter) which winched them aboard.”

Can't say I blame them. Facing down machine guns and rocket propelled grenades with a water hose and what is essentially a large speaker, I'd probably be jumping in the water too or looking for another job.

One last thing straight out of a Hollywood movie:

"The pirates then fired on them while they were in the water, and tried to run them down in the hijacked vessel. "

Human Rights will be the death of us

This column in the Wall Street Journal (via Melanie Phillips) is an interesting look at the difficulties of prosecuting ye pirates, giving it proper historical context.

The column raises the interesting issue of extra-judicial trials, especially in the light of similar arrangements re: fighting 'unlawful' combatants (read: The Taliban, Al-Qaeda, other scary bearded groups, etc...) and the difficulties of prosecution and incarceration. With the news that President-elect Obama will probably close down Guantanemo, with the probable consequence of bringing the lovable and peaceful huggy-bears that are currently residing there into the US Civil court system.

This poses many problems, principally that of what do you do with them once they've "served their time". Deport them to their countries of origin? Western countries have a certain squeamishness about sending the bad guys back where they came from should their home countries infringe on their 'Human Rights' such as their right to keep breathing.

From the Wall Street Journal column

"Last April the British Foreign Office reportedly warned the Royal Navy not to detain pirates, since this might violate their "human rights" and could even lead to claims of asylum in Britain."

Nothing clearly shows the decline of the West more than that paragraph.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau articulated the idea of The Social Contract* in 1762, in that citizens of a nation, by virtue of being born there, entered into a social covenant (or contract) with society. The imperialism of the West, much like the imperialism of the Romans before it, understood this and promoted this. Ie that the societies held certain commnon values. The reason why they did this is that they felt their values were worthy. In the example of Britain and the West, principally it was the idea of individual human dignity.

Warning: Dead White Male ( picture source)

Rousseau's Contract was a notion that sought to bring together the common will, as laws were " the conditions on which civil society exist." and

"The right of laying down the rules of society belong only to those that form the society"

This is something that every individual, no matter which civilization or ethnic group they belong to understands implicitly. You could argue that International Law, if an extension of Rousseau's idea means that we are all "citizens of world" and that we are all bound by the same laws, thus everything from unrestricted immigration to tolerance of intolerable practices should prevent (mostly) Western countries from exercising their power to restrict immigration or prosecute unlawful combatants that do not follow the commonly understood laws of war (or Geneva Convention). Rousseau however has a rejoinder to this situation:

"There is undoubtedly a universal justice which springs from reason alone, but if that justice is to be acknowledge as such it must be reciprocal"

Therein lies to the answer to the hysterical lefties who protest the injustice(s) of Guantanemo, the US Army and supporters of David Hicks.

"Guantanamo is a terrible place where you get several helpings of torture a day with generous sides of beatings and it is all so injust as you are only an innocent goat-herder? How about the injustice visited of these Taliban prisoners (WARNING: Pictures of dead bodies) ? Are there reciprocal cries of injustice from the same groups?

[chirp-chirp]


To be continued....

*quoting from Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1762) "The Social Contract", published by Penguin Books, England (2004)

"Kalashnikovs, goats and khat"

These guys are exceptionally well organised, and they clearly understand the need for PR.

Here we have an in-depth interview with the "brigands" courtesy of the Daily Mail. Interesting reading.
There is one small appeal to 'root causes':

"'Before, I was an honest fisherman,' he declares as he crouches on the scalding sand. 'But since the commercial fishing boats emptied our seas, we have had to find a way to survive.'
...
'Money is no longer a problem,' he nods happily. "

And in other news, thanks to the profitable piracy season this year, the pirates are making an offer to acquire Citibank.

Pirates pirates pirates

With the news that the Saudi owned MV Sirius Star was hijacked earlier this week some 450 miles south east of Mombasas in Kenya, with a full cargo of oil worth about USD$100million, it would appear that the ol' pirates are extending their reach.

Previously, merchant ships were targeted as they entered the Gulf of Aden on their way to the Suez Canal through which 7.5% of the worlds sea trade is carried out, however this Saudi ship was hijacked over 2,000km from the Gulf of because the ship is too big for the Suez Canal, they were going to travel around Africa.

The MV Sirius Star, is a supertanker that ways approximately 390,000 tonnes and has a length of 332m and a beam (or width) of 58m and when full, carries up to a quarter of the daily oil output of Saudi Arabia. To put this into perspective, the US Navy's Nimitz class aircraft carriers have the same length and a beam of 40.84m. In other words, this class of aircraft carrier slightly smaller than the MV Sirius Star.
The fact the pirates could hijack a ship this size shows that any ship is vulnerable. Something every country with a shipping industry in the world is very concerned about. So much so that even the once proud and currently gun-shy Royal Navy is now engaging the pirates, as is the Indian Navy, French commandos have carried out two rescues this year which included some chasing down the pirates on land and giving em' what for, and the US 5th Fleet is currently patrolling the area, and the Russkies have a destroyer there too.

So all in all, might be a good time for our pirate friends to seek out other career opportunities.

A little more on that Iranian dirty-bomb-ship

Whilst I fully subscribe to the idea that the media suppresses certain stories if it does not meet the accepted narrative, I find it hard to believe that international news agencies (as opposed to US) are that in the tank for the Chosen One to not report this.

http://www.scoopthis.org/2008/10/iran-dirty-bomb-plot-thwarted-days-away-from-execution-no-media-coverage-for-2-months-and-counting/

However it is a little strange that it hasn't quite got into the mainstream media yet. I can't really say why, but hope that suddenly the "backchannels" to Mad Jad's regime are getting flooded by the international community going "tut-tut. Mahmoud, you REALLY can't do this kind of crap"

However I'm not holding my breath....

Pirates as unwilling heroes?

If you do a stupid thing for all the wrong reasons, but the consequences of your actions prevent a much greater tragedy, are you a hero?

Here I posted about the MV Iran Denayat and how the Somali pirates that had hijacked the ship were all succumbing to a 'weird' affliction that had all the symptoms of radiation poisoning.

These are the facts as we know them:

the MV Iran Denayat (source)

• The tanker MV Iran Denayat is a tanker registered with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL)
• IRISL is an Iranian state-owned company
• August 21, 2008 Somali pirate speedboats hijacked the MV Iran Denayat around the Gulf of Aden, on it's way to the Suez Canal and according to it's shipping manifest carrying a cargo of "42,500 tons of iron ore and "industrial products" purchased by a German client" to be unloaded in Rotterdam.
• "Within a period of three days, those pirates who had boarded the ship and opened the cargo container with its gritty sand-like contents, all developed strange health complications, to include serious skin burns and loss of hair. And within two weeks, sixteen of the pirates subsequently died, either on the ship or on shore." (link)
• IRISL was designated by the US Government on 10 September, 2008 for nuclear "Proliferation Activities"
  









Radioactive Tangent: The difference between a nuclear bomb and a "dirty bomb" is that the former actually creates a nuclear explosion, and the latter uses conventional explosives to spread radioactive material.



It is now alleged that the ship was never going to go to Rotterdam. Apparently it was going to moor somewhere in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Israel, and blow up as one huge, ship sized dirty bomb just in time for the jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, spreading radioactive sand all across Israel and anyhwere else the wind conditions would have carried it. The sand is clearly lethal as our pirate friends have discovered, so any doubt as to the intentions of the ship's crew should be dissolving like sand in the wind.

Otherwise, what other possible use could you have for shipping poisonous (radioactive?) sand halfway across the world?


Link:
IRGC inc

Those pesky pirates

And now they're getting mercenaries to help clean up the seas.

Arrr...T'is a hard time to be a pirate right now....

Pirates ahoy!!!

More pirate news.

These fellas just don't want to make friends with anyone. Last month some adventurous pirates hijacked an Iranian merchant vessel, the MV Iran Denayat and it's "mysterious cargo".

From the article:

"The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship's hijacking."

The "minerals and industrial" products it's carrying are apparently making the pirates who inspected the cargo develop strange health issues, such as skin burns, loss of hair and a number of them have died. It is widely believed that the ship is carrying weapons for the Islamic insurgents in Eritrea.

Question: Why isn't the mostly Iranian crew suffering from the same problems?

It looks like that the Iranian government has ponied up some money to facilitate the release of the ship and crew, however the Iranian press has claimed that the US government has offered much more for the ship. The Somali official involved in the negotiations with the pirates has said: ""I can say the ship is of interest to a lot of people, including Puntland."

The Iranians have said they can't send help as the waters are being patrolled by the multinational Combined Taskforce 150 with elements of the US Navy's Fifth fleet.

So the pirates have become victims of their own success. This year near the Gulf of Aden, there has already been two rescues undertaken by French commandos, with one of the missions chasing and shooting the pirates down on land. There are currently ships from "Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States" (source: wikipedia) and now we have a Russian missile frigate steaming her way there.

The Gulf of Aden and the pirate port (aaaar) of Eyl

It's worth noting that every country has an interest in stopping piracy. The reasons for the current surge in piracy around the Horn of Africa are many, however one critical factor is that Somalia has not had a functional government for abour 17years.

I wonder how long ye pirates will last when all countries that warships in the area decide to take the gloves off?

Maybe not so stupid?? Or maybe incredibly stupid?

So, our Somali pirates have now captured a Ukrainian ship, with 33 T-72 Russian tanks on board plus a whole bunch of ammunition.

One Russian T-72 tank

As a consequence the Russkies have ordered the missile frigate Neutrashimy to the Somali coast.

The missile frigate Neutrashimy

The Russians aren't really known for their subtlety, so it will be interesting to see what happens when they get there.

Could you be more stupid?

Re: this
a Somali pirate skiff	VS	The USNS John Lentham

.