CNN reports that the INS Tabar sank a trawler. 12 sailors are still missing from the freighter, which India maintains was a pirate ship. Somali pirates, motivated by profit and by chaos in their homeland, have attacked dozens of ships – including one today in the Gulf of Aden. When the new government in Somalia was declared, it was reported as a victory against the Islamic Court Union – despite wide spread doubts about the efficacy of the new government. Now that same government has stated that it is unable to stop the attacks, or find the pirate bases inside of Somalia. The most daring attack was the hijacking of the super-tanker Sirius Star, which is now off the coast of Somalia near Harardhere. It carries 25 crew members who are "prisoners of war" in the words of the pirate spokesman, and 100 million in oil. The pirates have refused negotiations with low level representatives, and are demanding that they be contacted by people with the authority to negotiate.
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A lobsterman in Maine is asked how he knows where the rocks are when he negotiates the complicated rocky waters of the region….his answer is that he doesn’t know where the rocks are…he knows where they “ain’t”. Maybe people should stop sending their ships into those dangerous waters…
http://www.webpronews.com/topn…..te-attacks
There is no other way through the Suez Canal, or the Straights of Hormuz, two of the most vital shipping lanes in the world.
What are the rules of engagement did anyone on the ship speak Somali or any of the other African languages the crew might have spoke.
Is anyone fair game if they don’t understand an order to be inspected?
abc news nov 20, 2008
Ok just read the link nobody spoke Thai or cared if civilians like might be on board (like Hostages).
Is Rummy in charge of India’s navy now?
Travelling in convoys with armed escorts might be a solution, but you then have the challenge of organizing the convoys and providing the escorts…
They don’t care about no “stinkin’” hostages…it’s about the oil…plus, if the ship is fired upon the oil could go into the water and be lost…forever…into the water.
let’s just occupy that entire coast line. i’m thinkin marines.
that oil will go somewere. maybe show up in a couple of thousand years. no problem.
What’s a little ($100 million) oil in water after all…? Cheaper than $700 billion…WTF?
Where is Borat when you need him???
here’s another suggestion. charge fer protection. then put our entire fleet on that coast to protect our oil.
exactly, it’s only money. hey, how about finding out who has a new palace with gold trimmimgs in that area.
or mebe we could get used to less oil?
i suspect osama fer this.
The fishing trawlers are pirates too. Many of the Somali pirates are fishermen whose livelihoods have been destroyed by EU and Asian overfishing. The Somalis have turned to piracy to make a living, and to combat the external pirates making off with their resources. There are a number of different Somali pirate groups. Some regard themselves as a Coast Guard, protecting their coastline from exploitation. The only time there was no piracy along that coastline was for 6 months in 2006 when the Islamic Courts Union governed Somalia. When they were overthrown by US Ethiopian proxies, with some air support from Djibouti, the piracy resumed and increased.
A read of the CNN story cited says that pirates had overtaken and boarded the Thai trawler according to a lone survivor. Then the pirates threatened the Indian gunboat and were fired upon. Sounds like a “pirate trawler” to me.
Why…torture them, of course. It’s what we do!
These pirates aren’t bothering us. Even if all the tankers have to go the long way around it adds about 1 cent per gallon of gasoline here in U.S.
And as far as Osama being behind them, nothing could be farther from the truth. These peopole have no truck with Islamic extremists.
It was a Frigate, which would provide a substantial differential in firepower. A trawler, being a civilian vessel could hardly deliver any kind of realistic threat to a man of war. It wasn’t even enough of a fight to be considered one sided. If the so called “Pirates” didn’t surrender, they were committing suicide, for under no circumstances could they have had the slightest chance of outrunning or outgunning the Frigate.