Somali pirates hijack Saudi oil tanker

[xoxoxoBruce]

Five Indian sailors who were among the crew of a Japanese-owned cargo ship hijacked by pirates and held for two months before a ransom was paid said Monday their captivity was "total desperation."
"I wish that no one else ever has to go through this -- (hijackers) are not human but rather animals," said Alister Fernandes, one of the sailors, at a news conference in Mumbai, India.

Kenya's foreign minister said last week that more than $150 million has been paid to pirates around the Horn of Africa over the past 12 months, and the money is encouraging pirates to continue their attacks.

"That is why they are becoming more and more audacious in their activities," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said.

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Got to stop paying them.

[ZenGum]

Bit of an "oops" there, but still, they must have taken out a few pirates with it.

Here's a map of the pirate attacks, courtesy of the BBC:

[Urbane Guerrilla]

As ill-equipped as Somali pirates are, a commando raid on the Sirius Star would doubtless get it back. Once the ship has been retaken, there will be very damned little anyone in Somalia could do about it, and a marine diesel engine is quicker to start than a steam turbine powerplant. The cost of mounting such an effort and getting it on-target would probably be about what ransoming the vessel and crew would be -- with substantial added benefits. too readily imagined to need recapitulating here.

The vessel is not loaded with anything remarkably volatile: it's about half to two thirds loaded with crude oil, which is no easier to light off than diesel. The likelihood of the ship being wired for demolition charges seems to me small.

And if the Somali pirates find they can't use crewmen as human shields to any effect to keep the ship, it will discourage them. In general, the only reason the Somali pirates are having the successes they're gaining is because merchant shipping is even worse equipped, and even less trained, for fighting than the Somalis.

I think the Somalis should be discouraged.

I'm not keen on Ethiopia taking over Somalia to restore order -- but the reason Ethiopia has that big horn-shape into that general area in its southeast is because Ethiopia, of all countries, took it away from Somalia back in the day. They are, well, available, and local, and so would have a deeper local understanding. It's probably as true, though, that Ethiopia isn't all that keen on it either, having shall we say a remarkably small merchant marine and thus not being much affected by Somali depredation.

[HungLikeJesus]

UG, I wish you hadn't posted that.

All Somali pirates read the Cellar.

[ZenGum]

Yeah, dammit, the cellar hunting trip was just a cover. We were going to go in tonight to take them out, until you blew it. Good one.

Loose lips sink ... er ... fail to liberate ... ships.

[TheMercenary]

An interesting twist on things.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...to-attack.html

[TheMercenary]

Another update:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...efer=worldwide

[Elspode]

I think that its fairly remarkable that these pirates are even able to get on a gigantic ship that is underway, let alone seize it.

It seems to me that this sort of thing should be relatively easy to prevent.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The military reports said the tanker was too large and too laden to outmaneuver pirate speedboats, and was poorly defended, according to AFP.

Unarmed, untrained and probably surprised... it took 16 minutes.

[Griff]

I picked up an interesting tidbit on NPR the other day. They blamed the problem on the lack of government but the state gun control aspect of this is interesting. The pirates could easily be repelled but crews can't carry weapons if they're going through certain territorial waters. So instead of handing out 20 sidearms on a ship, taxpayers will be paying for destroyers to patrol a million square miles of ocean.

[TheMercenary]

I didn't understand the legality thing myself. Most large ships, including cruise ships have a small number of weapons on hand. I just don't see why they couldn't increase the number of weapons. There are now some ex-SBS guys who are going to offer their services in the form of a commercial organization to provide security to the shipping industry. I am sure it will be cheaper than the ransoms being paid, but costly never the less. As Iraq dries up there will be more private security available for lease.

[Pico and ME]

I like that idea. Keep the Blackwaters of the world in other countries and out of ours.

[BrianR]

I want to know, as Bullitt does, why no one has gone to China Station or anywhere else ex-Special Forces hang out and hired a few teams to repatriate their ship(s). SEALs are well-trained for this kind of thing and would have little trouble taking a bunch of untrained pirates. SAS and Spetznaz are in the same league.

Protecting the ships is easy, too. Stinger missiles, RPG-7 launchers and such are cheap, easily available and untraceable. As long as the weapons are not visible to inspectors (easy to hide), you're home free.

Were I the owner of a hijacked ship, that's what I'd do...arm the crew and salt a few Special Operators among them for good measure.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by BrianR

I want to know, as Bullitt does, why no one has gone to China Station or anywhere else ex-Special Forces hang out and hired a few teams to repatriate their ship(s). SEALs are well-trained for this kind of thing and would have little trouble taking a bunch of untrained pirates. SAS and Spetznaz are in the same league.

Protecting the ships is easy, too. Stinger missiles, RPG-7 launchers and such are cheap, easily available and untraceable. As long as the weapons are not visible to inspectors (easy to hide), you're home free.

Were I the owner of a hijacked ship, that's what I'd do...arm the crew and salt a few Special Operators among them for good measure.

Second. I am sure we are not the first to think of it. It would be a great exercise for the SSN North Carolina or a similar boat to exercise the capability of delivering a SEAL team unseen.

[Trilby]

I'd load my ship up with herpetic, gonorrheic whores. Everyone knows a pirate cannot resist a whore. In a few weeks, they'd be begging for ointments, salves, unguents, cold-compresses, Darvocet and what-not. That's where the real money will be made: treating the STD's of the pirate caste.