Supertanker Loaded With Oil Hijacked- - - - - - - - -
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Somali pirates hijacked a supertanker off the Kenyan coast, seizing the Saudi-owned ship loaded with crude and its 25-member crew, the U.S. navy said Monday.
Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. navy’s 5th Fleet, said the pirates hijacked the Sirius Star -- a newly commissioned ship owned by Saudi oil company Aramco -- 830 kilometres southeast of Mombasa, Kenya.
He said the pirates were taking the ship to a Somali port of Eyl where hijacked vessels are often held.
Somali pirates have seized several ships off the Horn of Africa coast in the past week, but the latest hijacking -- of a tanker the size of an aircraft carrier -- marked a dramatic escalation.
[…]
The 330-metre tanker seized Saturday can carry about two million barrels of oil.
Christensen said the Sirius Star was carrying crude at the time of hijacking, but he did know how much. He also had no details about where the ship was sailing from and where it was headed.
The ship was sailing under a Liberian flag. The crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
[…]
Calls went unanswered at Vela International, the Dubai-based marine company that operated the ship for Aramco.
As pirates have become better armed and equipped, they have sailed farther out to sea in search of bigger targets, including oil tankers.
Previous posts about the Somali pirates:
Hat tip: JD.
11 comments:
Will ransom (tribute) be paid?
Kipling -again...
'We never pay any on Dane-geld (tribute)
No matter how trifling the cost.
For the end of the game is oppression and shame .
and the nation that pays it...
is LOST.'
C-CS
No wonder the pirates are better armed and equipped with all that ransom money that has already gone that way. They've experienced a healthy Return on Investment and is now expanding their business. As usual.
We need to bomb them out from under their beds.
Unrelated comment: GoV is playing a large part in making Charles Johnson the "Biggest Pro-Censorship Ass-Hat" of the year.
Tempers flared when he attacked The Brussels Journal, and later GoV. But now, with his whining about Robert Spencer, it's clear that he doesn't want to be a part of any solution. He just wants to complain about the problem.
Vote him up, people!
Henrik R Clausen is right on this one.
We need to burn the Somali rat's nest of piracy down to the ground.
Why haven't we done so already? The lawyers at the UN and various governments have decreed that we cannot - read the following BBC article:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7735144.stm
President Bush, already largely discredited by the conservative movement (see the latest issue of the American Conservative dated 17 November), has this one remaining chance to regain some shreds of dignity and honour for his disgraced regime: he should send the forces into Puntland with guns blazing and flatten the place. The is little question that for once, he would have 100% of the electorate behind him.
Show the thugs no mercy, and after Eyl is left for a smoking wreck, declare a unilateral 3-mile limit for the area - any unidentified boats emanating from Somalia or Puntland found outside that 3-mile limit will be blasted out of the water, with no warning shot.
No reason why American lives need be spent - naval and air bombardment could easily, in a single operation, eliminate this boil on the face of the earth. Other knaves tempted by the Somali bad example would think twice, the Republican party would gain some much-needed street cred, and - who knows? - even I might begin to look back with fondness towards the memory of the last months of Bush.
At this point, Bush could find the cure for cancer and be criticized for it, let alone another military venture.
No, let the world's choice for POTUS, the Obama messiah TALK the pirates into regretting their wicked ways and making reparations. They'll surely respect him because he's practically a brother with his Kenyan ancestry and all...
Baron;
Vedry distressing for me to read all the media broadsides aimed at the Government(s) to do something, as if the world's navies have nothing better to do than assign a frigate to convoy ships through pirate waters 24/7/365.
All they need to do is allow us to carry arms...guns...BIG guns, and the freedom to defend ourselves by shooting and sinking any pirates who try to board us.
The problem of piracy will very quickly be reduced to a manageable minimum when word spreads that those low and slow tankers and bulkers are sporting a heavy-caliber machine gun or two and have crews armed with shotguns.
International law holds pirates to be "enemies of all humanity"...government should get the heck out of the way and let us, their intended victims, start treating them as such.
Thomas Jefferson knew how to deal with these types. Search for 'barbary pirates'.
We tried negotiation and appeasement first; that didn't work. Jefferson turned to something the pirates understood: power.
Here's the Wiki article:
Barbary Priates
Scroll down to "United States and the Barbary Wars".
"The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. The ambassador's response was reported to the Continental Congress:
It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise."
Not much has changed on their side.
Bilgeman --
The problem as I understand it -- and knowledgeable readers may correct me if I'm wrong -- is that many countries have laws forbidding their vessels from arming themselves. They must rely on the navy, or be at the mercy of pirates.
I'm not sure what U.S. maritime law says, although I'm certain that some of our readers can tell me.
Baron;
This is so. Most countries are goofy about thr private ownership of firearms, and this extends to vessels making a port of call.
(Heck, the UK is now claiming it's territorial WATERS to be a "smoke-free zone",even for foreign-flag vessels, so I presume the Brit Coast Guard will be sending up FLIR-equipped patrol helicopters to catch me dragging on a Winston back on the fantail).
FFS!
US maritime law allows the Master a handgun with which to defend himself,(mostly from his own crew...a holdover from the more raucous era of seafaring), but his gatt snubbie isn't going to do much good against an experienced team of flip-flop wearers sporting AK's who have already gained the decks and the house.
The arming of merchantmen has been tried before and it was largely a success,(in addition to "armed merchantman", see also "privateers"). Perhaps TOO much of a success, since it started making the Navy and the Coast Guard nervous...why would the taxpayer pay for patrol boats when they could more cheaply and effectively protect shipping by giving a slob like me a .30 caliber machine-gun and the authority to use it?
.
These pirate monkeys may have bitten off more than they can chew by taking a Saudi ship. Hopefully the bombings of their bases will commence forthwith.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
lose control of your country
allow pirate kidnappers
to be KILLED by outsiders
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
RULE the seas you pirates
steal the infidels' BIG boats
but NOT ALLAH'S YOU FOOLS
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We the people need to get our own version of Oil Pirates, the feds are stating bs about gas prices rising because of this and that but not in the least. These Somalians are to be commended for their actions. My blog at www.neocapitalismandfreedom.com is where you can reply to.
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