Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Pirates have taken control of a Saudi-owned oil tanker in the Arabian Sea, the US Navy says.

The tanker was seized 450 nautical miles south-east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa, a US Navy spokesman told Reuters news agency.

The vessel has 25 crew with members from Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

The ship was the largest vessel so far to come under attack by pirates in the area, the US Navy spokesman said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7733482.stm

[notadmblnd]

1. I really don't know what to think of this pirates stuff

Who are these pirates? Do they have a leader, does he have a name? Ok, so they are hijacking boats. What is their goal. Are they wanting to sell the captured booty? Who do they do business with? Or are they just a bunch of guys who never grew up, living out their Captain Jack Sparrow fantasies? Just how tough is it for the global community to go after them?

[DRoseDARs]

5. In the order you asked:

1) Somalians, wretchedly poor and desperate.
2) Somalia has a government, and then it has warlords plural. Guess which controls the greater portion of the country...
3) Their goal is to extort money.
4) See above.
5) Anyone who'll give in to their extortion.
6) Sort of an ethnocentric question even though you didn't mean it to be. Again, desperate poverty and warlords are a bad mix.
7) These attacks occur both in Somali waters as well as international waters. Jurisdiction gets blurry when it comes time to deciding how to deal with this. No one wants to do anything substantive.

[texanshatingbush]

8. I had insight on this from a friend in East Cameroon years ago.....

We both worked for a multi-national corporation, and were in a company technical training course. He was very new at speaking English (in which the class was taught), but he spoke French well, and I had rusty French skills, so we helped each other out and became friends.

This was during the time of the Somali warlord who was keeping all the UN food aid for his own followers while letting the rest of the country starve. "Blackhawk Down" was the culmination.

My husband and I took our new friend out for dinner before he returned to East Cameroon. During a wide-ranging dinner conversation, I asked him how someone who considered himself a leader of his country could let his own people die of starvation. His answer opened my eyes.

He said that what most Americans don't understand is that, in his country, it's all about power--getting it, having it, keeping it. Stockpiling food to keep his own minions loyal was just part of the game and the others were expendable.

In my naivete, I was stunned. Now, of course, I've seen our own country live according to that same philosophy for the last eight years. I'm older and wiser. And the Somali warlords are still in power.

[ohio2007]

26. Thats the Kim Jong ill formula for success

Accept western aid and reward your loyal inner circle. Nobody gives a rats ass about the peasants but those in the naive west like to pretend the aid is getting out into the country.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6e3_1226613958

feeding these power broker warlords keep them in power

[Hannah Bell]

34. I doubt the "poor starving somalians" answer. my question would be, if they're poor & starving, how

did they get their ships, gasoline, & guns in the first place? you need equipment starting out to take over modern ships, unless people think they swam out with handmade knives in their teeth & ninja'ed their way into the big ships.

historically, pirates were often funded by governments (privateers) or "silent partners" who were usually rich, respectable folk - either for the booty or to harrass enemies.


so i suggest the real question is: who are their investors, & what's their aim?

the location is interesting, geopolitically.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Run up the Skull & Boner flag. Smirk." - Commander AWOL Bush (R)

[tanyev]

3. They'd better get ready for a courtesy call from Dred Pirate Blackwater.

[fasttense]

4. I wonder if those pirates would sell us some of that oil for cheap? n/t

[ohio2007]

45. What ? oil is like $48 bbl........ That tanker could fuel the US for only two minutes or so

[boobooday]

6. And yet another band of pirates will bring it to our gas stations

And then yet another band of Pirates issues us credit cards to buy it.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Such pirates didn't pull these stunts when Errol was about.

[rcrush]

9. I always wanted to be a pirate

When I was a kid. I loved the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It looks like so much fun.

[Mike Daniels]

40. POTC was a false representation of piracy

So, after you captured a ship you'd like to offer your captives two choices? Join us or be killed. That's basically what piracy came down to. So much for democracy on the high seas.

[soothsayer]

10. Past tense, actually. They already let it go.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Source? The BBC story was last updated at 2235 GMT, and still says it is 'captured'

Pirates have seized a giant Saudi-owned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coast and are steering it towards Somalia, the US Navy reports.
...
According to the Navy, the ship is "nearing an anchorage point" at Eyl, a port often used by pirates based in Somalia's Puntland region.

[Eryemil]

11. A ship carrying weapons into sovereign waters might not be welcomed but there must be something...

that can be done. It's pathetic that these scum can get away with intimidating powerful organizations/countries with just a couple of tiny ships.

Sink them and let them drown like rats.

[onager]

12. Here's a story I heard in Egypt

The guy who told me was a British marine engineer in a position to know. And I think a version of it was in the local media. (I've lived in Egypt for 3 years, formerly lived in Saudi Arabia for 2 years. My Saudi assignment was over 10 years ago and Red Sea pirates were very active even then.)

According to this story, a cruise ship in the Red Sea put out a Mayday call that it was under attack.

A Royal Navy ship in the vicinity launched its onboard helicopter. When the helicoper arrived, it saw the cruise ship flanked by two smaller vessels, both with heavily armed people on deck pointing their weapons at the cruise ship.

The two pirate ships mysteriously disappeared. Very suddenly. The helicopter returned to its ship without 2 missiles.

[ladjf]

19. A well armed Black Hawk type helicopter with air to ground missiles

would ruin their party.

[bushmeister0]

13. Ukrainian weapons shipments, UN food shipments, all fairly run of the mill

but a Saudi oil tanker! That's quit another matter!

This will W & Co. come out of their lame-duck stupor.

Expect the USN to begin pursuing these "pirates" with terminal intensity.

Indeed, note this story from Nov. 12:

"The Russian navy says Russian and British ships have repelled a pirate attack off Somalia in the Gulf of Aden.

The navy press service says the Russian frigate Neustrashimy and the British frigate Cumberland foiled pirates who fired automatic weapons toward a Danish ship and twice tried to seize it.

A spokesman says both ships sent up helicopters. He provided few other details about the confrontation, including the day it occurred."

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/133127/Russian-British-ships-repel-Somali-pirate-attack

These pirates have been able to unite the Brits and the Russians in common purpose, which is pretty amazing when you consider all the crap that's been going on with the Putin's gov. and the UK's ambassador to Russia, Anthony Brenton, and also the whole investigation into the death of Alexander V. Litvinenko, etc.

One thing all the big pirates can agree on; don't allow the little pirates to horn in on their turf.

[Posteritatis]

14. Whatever happened to that Ukrainian arms shipment? (nt)

[bushmeister0]

16. They've still got it, according to Ukrainian media.

"The crew of a Ukrainian cargo ship seized by pirates off the Somali coast almost seven weeks ago have circulated an email saying they have run out of fresh water, food and fuel, a Russian online maritime bulletin said on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.

The Faina, carrying tanks and other heavy weaponry, was seized by Somali pirates on September 25. The email stated there are 18 Ukrainians and three Russians on board.

'We have been here for 47 days already. Provisions, fresh water, fuel have finished,' the editor of the Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin, Mikhail Voitenko, quoted the crew as saying in the letter."

http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-284106.html

No word, though, on the USN and Russian warships keeping an eye on it.

[kwassa]

15. like the Barbary Pirates attacking American shipping in 1799

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/barbary.htm

American merchant ships, no longer covered by British protection, were seized by Barbary pirates in the years after United States independence, and American crews were enslaved. In 1799 the United States agreed to pay $18,000 a year in return for a promise that Tripoli-based corsairs would not molest American ships. Similar agreements were made at the time with the rulers of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis.

In May, 1801, the United States refused to succumb to the increasing demands of the Pacha of Tripoli; in return, the Pacha declared war against the States. While Tripoli was not a strong power and little effort was necessary to watch and blockade it, the fear was that the other Barbary powers would join against the United States. The United States sent naval squadrons into the Mediterranean under the slogan of "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!" Under the leadership of Commodores Richard Dale and Edward Preble, the Navy blockaded the enemy coast, bombarded his shore fortresses, and engaged in close, bitterly contested gunboat actions.

[bushmeister0]

17. Don't forget Caesar.

He was kidnapped by Cicilian pirates when he was in his twenties.

According to Plutarch, when he was able to be ransomed out he raised a fleet and went after his kidnappers.

He found them under arrest in Pergamum, Asia Minor, and not satisfied with the sentences handed down by that province's governor, "Caesar . . . took the robbers out of prison, and crucified them all, just as he had often warned them on the island that he would do, when they thought he was joking."

Ouch!

[kwassa]

18. Don't get mad, get even

[fedsron2us]

20. Apart from looting the ship and robbing the crew it is a useless prize

It is so massive they can not take it to port and the cargo is impossible to unload unless you have huge oil storage facilities. Due to the economic crisis there is not even a shortage of vessels for hire so even the ship may be of limited value. They chose unwisely.

[dysfunctional press]

21. insurance money.

pay up, or we'll scuttle your tanker.

that's how they make their money- holding the ships for ransom.

[sofa king]

22. Perhaps to the pirates.

But underneath it all there is still the same old game, and it's changed little. After the decline of ransom on land, a prize at sea was the only way for a run-of-the-mill soldier, sailor, or Marine to strike it rich, and while the opportunities for white-collar crimes in the American armed forces now abound, the real money is still in piracy.

Once a ship and its cargo is taken, its return becomes a matter of high finance, and there are competing forces out there trying to get it back. One force is the owners of the shipping companies, who are willing to quietly hire the wealthiest mercenaries in the world in order to get the missing ship back before the incident is reported to insurance companies--to avoid increases on premiums. Once reported, the insurance companies often turn to the very same mercenaries to get the ships back. Very few of the recoveries are publicly reported. One might speculate that successful pirates are operating along similar off-the-books practices to dispose of taken ships and their cargoes. Insurance companies have the opportunity to profit or at least minimize loss every step of the way, though they may not be directly involved in all of them, because they will inevitably pass any recovery costs onto someone else.

According to one person I know, the best anti-piracy teams are comprised of former SEALs and SBS types. They wait until their recovery targets are in international waters or places where few questions will be asked, and then the boats are miraculously returned without a pirate to be found aboard. Prize-crews, or whatever they are called these days, can expect to make six figures a job, and can expect to pull off three to five jobs a year--many times what an average Halliburton employee can expect to make running their own brand of piracy against the U.S. taxpayer.

With that kind of money washing around, it's no wonder that the problem persists and (reported piracy, which represents but a fraction of the problem) is even on the rise since the early 00s.

[WritersBlock]

23. Convenient how the mercenaries stand good chances of being hired no matter what.

Real convenient.

[sofa king]

24. Heh. Yep.

It's almost like a self-perpetuating industry, isn't it? The pirates provide a reason to insure ships against piracy, which makes the insurance guys money. Some successful piracy means insurance companies can make more money, by raising premiums guaranteed to pay off statistically. Successful recovery means insurance companies can defray outlay costs, which makes them more money. And a couple hundred specialist mercenaries worldwide make a mint getting 'em back.

All you need is pirates, who apparently arise out of human nature wherever misery touches the sea.

[WritersBlock]

28. A cynic would say the mercs could be doing some of the pirating, too.

Has anyone actually seen any of the "pirates" be killed by the mercs, I wonder? Or do they just conveniently disappear, along with their vessels? After all, that kind of money would buy a whole lot of boats and guns, and would pay off a whole bunch of desperate people who would be more than happy to take their share of it and lay low while the mercs "save" the ships from the "pirates."

As I said, it's very convenient that the people who seem to benefit the most out of this whole thing are the mercs. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if they were drumming up a little business for themselves, as it were - making completely sure it's self-perpetuating.

I'm probably being too suspicious, though.

[Hannah Bell]

35. I don't think so. Pirates often had silent partners lurking in the background

(e.g. Captain Kidd had Robert Livingston, patroon of New York, & Lord Bellemont, governor of NY & MA). and of course privateers were just pirates openly sponsored by governments.

IMO it's unlikely the "pirates" are just some random Somalians acting on their own.

Though that's how it's presented.

[sofa king]

42. Oh, I think the pirates are real enough.

No, what the mercenaries are doing is taking advantage of the circumstances and killing all the pirates they catch, thus further maximizing profits by removing the need to prosecute. Prosecution itself is supposedly difficult because of competing jurisdictions and the general cloud of uncertainty which surrounds sea law. Prosecution is also probably frowned upon because it might reveal details about how pirated ships are tracked and recovered.

If the mercenaries have an interest in perpetuating the business, they would probably not resort to piracy themselves, lest they invite other members of their trade to pay them a visit. They might, however, elect to let some of the pirates go rather than feed the fish with 'em. That seems to be their call to make, since nobody else wants to know how a successful recovery actually happens.

[ohio2007]

25. Oil tanker is only five months old and was going around the horn when taken off Tanzania

Saudis desperatly seeking a spike in oil prices ?



Its cargo value is sinking. Wonder what it would fetch when it would have finally reached the oil terminal?

[entanglement]

29. Some background: The Somali privateers started as a fishing protection force in the early 90s

Due to lack of coastal enforcement, Somali territorial waters were fair game for fishing fleets from everywhere and Somali fishermen were in dire straits. Initially, they banded together to collect a tax from visiting fleets. Later they realized that piracy was far more lucrative.

[Hannah Bell]

36. what kind of boats do somali fishermen have?

[Kire]

30. Hijacked oil tanker nears Somalia

Why is this being treated as a joke?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7734733.stm

Fuck Disney and Johnny Depp right now!

Pirates chopped my Aunt's friend's hand off in Hong Kong in the 1980's!

[Kire]

31. Biggest terrorist weapon ever...

possibly...

[Kire]

32. But is there any oil in it?

I can't seem to find that answer yet.

Someone PM me, please.

[Alamuti Lotus]

33. Somali pirates hijack Saudi tanker loaded with oil

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081117/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_piracy">Somali pirates hijack Saudi tanker loaded with oil

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – In a dramatic escalation of high seas crime, Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi supertanker loaded with crude hundreds of miles off the coast of East Africa — defeating the security web of warships trying to protect vital shipping lanes.

The pirates were taking the captured tanker and crew to anchor off the Somali port of Eyl, said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the Navy's 5th Fleet. The port on Somalia's northeastern coast has become a pirate haven and a number of ships are already being held there as pirates negotiate ransoms.

Christensen said the Sirius Star was carrying crude, but he could not say how much. Fully loaded, the ship's cargo would be worth about $100 million. But the pirates would have no way of selling crude and no way to refine it in Somalia. Instead, they were likely to demand a ransom, as they have in the past.

Semi-independent Puntland has elections coming up soon, this kind of attention is insane for them.. the pirates cannot operate out of Kismayo or Muqdisho because of al-Shabaab, it's almost amazing that they're making such a long trek from 450m east of Mumbasa to Eyal in the north with so much firepower out there.

[Kire]

37. thank you for this information

they are somali pirates then?

the two articles I read a few hours ago did not have enough information, I had near-apocalyptic emotions, so I just lost my ability to rationally do some research to investigate myself

thanks again

[Judi Lynn]

38. Kick. Argh.

http://www.fotosearch.com.nyud.net:8090/bthumb/CSK/CSK006/pr27227.jpg

[dipsydoodle]

39. Seized tanker anchors off Somalia

A Saudi oil tanker hijacked in the Indian Ocean is believed to have anchored off the coast of Somalia, its operators have said.

Vela International said that all 25 crew were believed to be safe.

The Sirius Star is the biggest tanker ever hijacked, with a cargo of 2m barrels - a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output - worth more than $100m.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7735507.stm

[Inchworm]

41. This story interests me

I wonder if anyone will ever try to prevent these.

:kick:

[Kire]

43. these what?

I read earlier today that the leaders of the world governments are powerless to stop these pirates.

It should more than interest you.

It should concern you.

Erik

[ohio2007]

44. Islamists on trail of Somali pirates ( taking a muslim ship is not kosher )

the whale hunters have harpooned Moby Dick.


I hope they get what they ask for

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Dozens of Somali Islamist insurgents stormed a port on Friday hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker that was the world's biggest hijack, a local elder said.

snip
The Sirius Star -- a Saudi vessel with a $100 million oil cargo and 25-man crew from the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Poland and Britain -- is believed anchored offshore near Haradheere, about half-way up Somalia's long coastline.


"Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesman, told Reuters. "Haradheere is under our control and we shall do something about that ship."

snip

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-36627420081121

hmm..
admitting that taking any ship is a crime.....


funny ...wonder how the Persians will react to this news ? The two faced abomonation that taking a Saudi owned The "Land of the PROFIT" muslim ship happpens to be more equal then an Iranian owned merchant ship ?


hmmmm. I'm sure the Iranian press will overlook that little quote to those few certified websites allowed to receive filtered news of the world.


not even the jihadis can screw up finding that big ship with such details of its whereabouts being released seeing how they already control that particlar city.;)
but you never know.

They smell pie and are ready to take a slice in the name of mohammad;

Battles over booty loom as militias and rebels drawn to pirate gold
Armed men from different Somali factions are descending on the country's pirate coast, raising fears that a battle is looming over millions of pounds in ransom cash being demanded for the captured supertanker Sirius Star.

Tribal militiamen linked to the pirates, moderate Islamist rebels fighting against the Government and militants from the Taleban-style al-Shabaab movement were among those bearing down on the coastal town of Haradhere yesterday, drawn by the lure of political capital and pirate gold.

Tribesmen in outlying villages prepared to defend the town from possible attack, raising the prospect of a clash with the hardline al-Shabaab, who claimed that they had arrived to stamp out the pirate menace.

Residents, however, said they feared that the influx was a prelude to a bloody fight over the ransom money.

snip

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5209344.ece

maybe the jihad is crumbling apart and some groups have turned a new leaf. The struggle is all about the almighty dollar.

Greed was behind the movement afterall.

[Kire]

46. Old pirates, yes, they rob I,

Old pirates, yes, they rob I,
Sold I to the merchant ships.
Minutes after they took I,
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong,
By the hand of the All Mighty.
We forward in this generation,
Triumphantly.

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom ?
'Cause all I ever had,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it's just a part of it,
We've got to fullfil the book.

So won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever had,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.
-
/Guitar break/
-
Old pirates, yes, they rob I,
Sold I to the merchant ships.
Minutes after they took I,
From the bottomless pit.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?