Somalia Pirates strike again

[Ozoned]

Hijacked oil tanker nears Somalia

Another way to manipulate crude oil prices? It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.
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The Sirius Star's cargo has an estimated value of $200m


A giant Saudi oil tanker seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean is nearing the coast of Somalia, the US Navy says.

The Sirius Star is the biggest tanker ever to be hijacked, with a cargo of 2m barrels - a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output - worth more than $200m.

The vessel was captured in what the navy called an "unprecedented" attack 450 nautical miles (830km) off the Kenyan coast on Sunday.

Its international crew of 25, including two Britons, is said to be safe.

The hijacking was highly unusual both in terms of the size of the ship and the fact it was attacked so far from the African coast, says BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.

The seizure points to the inability of a multi-national naval task force sent to the region earlier this year to stop Somali piracy, he says.

'Holding hostages'

The US Fifth Fleet said the supertanker was "nearing an anchorage point" at Eyl, a port often used by pirates based in Somalia's Puntland region.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the pirates involved were well trained.
"Once they get to a point where they can board, it becomes very difficult to get them off, because, clearly, now they hold hostages," he told a Pentagon briefing in Washington.

Hijackings off the coast of East Africa and the Gulf of Aden - an area of more than 1m square miles - make up one-third of all global piracy incidents this year, according the International Maritime Bureau.

They are usually resolved peacefully through negotiations for ransom but, given the value of the cargo in this instance, a military response has not been ruled out, our correspondent says.

At least 12 vessels - including the Ukrainian freighter MV Faina, which was seized in September - remain captive and under negotiation with around 250 crew being held hostage.

This month alone, pirates have seized a Japanese cargo ship off Somalia, a Chinese fishing boat off Kenya and a Turkish ship transporting chemicals off Yemen.

War-torn Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991.


The South Korean-built Sirius Star was seized as it headed for the US via the southern tip of Africa, prompting a rise in crude oil prices on global markets.

THE SIRIUS STAR

Length of a US aircraft carrier
Can carry 2m barrels of oil
Biggest vessel to be hijacked




The route around the Cape of Good Hope is a main thoroughfare for fully-laden supertankers from the Gulf.

With a capacity of 318,000 dead weight tonnes, the ship is 330m (1,080ft) long - about the length of a US aircraft carrier.

Owned by the Saudi company Aramco, it made its maiden voyage in March.

The ship's operator, Vela International, said all of the crew were reported to be safe and that response teams had been mobilised to ensure their safe release.

As well as the two Britons, the ship's crew members are said to be from Croatia, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

 

[pm]

Here's a question that I've been wondering for a while - this piracy is happening in international waters... why don't we set up some kind of "bait" ship, hide a submarine or two nearby and then blow these guys up?

I don't understand why the US and Russia have put up with these guys for years. We could take them out without much effort without an international incident ("we were acting in self-defense"). Or am I missing something obvious here?

 

[theflyingpig]

They've fucked with the oil flow, now they are going to die. Trust me on this.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: pm
Here's a question that I've been wondering for a while - this piracy is happening in international waters... why don't we set up some kind of "bait" ship, hide a submarine or two nearby and then blow these guys up?

I don't understand why the US and Russia have put up with these guys for years. We could take them out without much effort without an international incident ("we were acting in self-defense"). Or am I missing something obvious here?

I don't know how centralized the pirates are. The impression that I have gotten from news reports is that these are small bands of pirates who are raiding from stolen fishing vessels and such. There are probably a large number of pirates and given the current turmoil in Somalia, there are more than enough people willing to fill in empty spots. So I don't know how effective trying to bait and trap the pirates would be. This probably is not going to be solved until Somalia can effectively control its own territorial waters.

 

[pm]

What ever happened to the "Faina" anyway? (Ukranian vessel taken in Sept. filled with tanks and weapons) I heard NATO and EU warships were guarding the ship to prevent it from being unloaded... is that standoff still going on? It dropped off the news radar in early Oct. - at least in US news media.

I don't know how centralized the pirates are. The impression that I have gotten from news reports is that these are small bands of pirates who are raiding from stolen fishing vessels and such. There are probably a large number of pirates and given the current turmoil in Somalia, there are more than enough people willing to fill in empty spots. So I don't know how effective trying to bait and trap the pirates would be. This probably is not going to be solved until Somalia can effectively control its own territorial waters.

You may be right - but you'd think a couple of heavy losses on the pirate's side would instill some fear in them. Somalia's been in anarchy for a long time - I wouldn't think they will be controlling their own land borders any time soon... let alone it's territorial waters.

 

[dsity]

WOW, so is it possible to sail into buildings with these ships?

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: dsity
WOW, so is it possible to sail into buildings with these ships?

They should make a movie out of that idea.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: pm
What ever happened to the "Faina" anyway? (Ukranian vessel taken in Sept. filled with tanks and weapons) I heard NATO and EU warships were guarding the ship to prevent it from being unloaded... is that standoff still going on? It dropped off the news radar in early Oct. - at least in US news media.

I don't know how centralized the pirates are. The impression that I have gotten from news reports is that these are small bands of pirates who are raiding from stolen fishing vessels and such. There are probably a large number of pirates and given the current turmoil in Somalia, there are more than enough people willing to fill in empty spots. So I don't know how effective trying to bait and trap the pirates would be. This probably is not going to be solved until Somalia can effectively control its own territorial waters.

You may be right - but you'd think a couple of heavy losses on the pirate's side would instill some fear in them. Somalia's been in anarchy for a long time - I wouldn't think they will be controlling their own land borders any time soon... let alone it's territorial waters.

I think it would be more fruitful, if it was possible, to go after the organizers and negotiators of the pirates. The guys going out in rafts and taking over the ships are not the ones who are collecting the millions of dollars in ransom or the ones working with foreign governments to obtain said ransom. There are probably many people in Somalia who are willing to resort to piracy, but they cannot replace the upper echelons of the organization that make the capture of large commercial trade ships viable.

 

[pm]

I can't disagree with you. You are probably right - what I'm proposing is chopping the heads off a hydra. Except that what you are proposing - going after the organizers - would require either assassination, or direct military intervention in Somolia. I was thinking that if it happens in international waters, it's merely self-defense.

 

[Ozoned]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: pm
What ever happened to the "Faina" anyway? (Ukranian vessel taken in Sept. filled with tanks and weapons) I heard NATO and EU warships were guarding the ship to prevent it from being unloaded... is that standoff still going on? It dropped off the news radar in early Oct. - at least in US news media.

I don't know how centralized the pirates are. The impression that I have gotten from news reports is that these are small bands of pirates who are raiding from stolen fishing vessels and such. There are probably a large number of pirates and given the current turmoil in Somalia, there are more than enough people willing to fill in empty spots. So I don't know how effective trying to bait and trap the pirates would be. This probably is not going to be solved until Somalia can effectively control its own territorial waters.

You may be right - but you'd think a couple of heavy losses on the pirate's side would instill some fear in them. Somalia's been in anarchy for a long time - I wouldn't think they will be controlling their own land borders any time soon... let alone it's territorial waters.

I think it would be more fruitful, if it was possible, to go after the organizers and negotiators of the pirates. The guys going out in rafts and taking over the ships are not the ones who are collecting the millions of dollars in ransom or the ones working with foreign governments to obtain said ransom. There are probably many people in Somalia who are willing to resort to piracy, but they cannot replace the upper echelons of the organization that make the capture of large commercial trade ships viable.

They seem to be quite good at what they do. How about just pay them for protection services?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: dsity
WOW, so is it possible to sail into buildings with these ships?

They should make a movie out of that idea.

:laugh: That was a terrible movie.

 

[Throckmorton]

Why aren't the crews of these ships armed? They know they are going through pirate infested waters, but they say to themselves "let's not carry any weapons, luck will keep us safe". Is this a fucking joke?

 

[Mean MrMustard]

Originally posted by: theflyingpig
They've fucked with the oil flow, now they are going to die. Trust me on this.

This.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Why aren't the crews of these ships armed? They know they are going through pirate infested waters, but they say to themselves "let's not carry any weapons, luck will keep us safe". Is this a fucking joke?

Mentioned in another thread. Arms are expensive and also would be an issue at various ports, although apparently some ships including this size one do normally have armed guards.

Really, though, if you have pirates with machine guns and RPGs, you need more than a crew with a few shotguns. You need either escort ships or some true soldiers on board. Apparently Blackwater (the big private contractors) have quite recently bought a ship, the Mcarthur and upgraded it and the CEO has mentioned that he'd be willing to escort in this area of the world, but it's not cheap.

If the pirates keep doing crazier and crazier things, the international community will get more aggressive with them, including perhaps having a go at their base of operations

 

[freegeeks]

only the French deal with this situation in a correct way, every time a French ship or crew was involved, they killed or captured the mother f*cking pirates

 

[TraumaRN]

Yea I'm not sure why the world governments are being such pussies about attacking those pirates. I mean christ, GIGN, SAS, SEALs, etc tons of special ops out there. Would be great practice for them dealing with these pirate scum. I mean who are we gonna piss off if a couple pirate terrorists die??

Then again people would be pissed if an American or Brit or whatever nationality died in a raid. Hence why they wont

 

[Mizugori]

it's really quite simple, its a saudi ship. do you really wonder why we aren't doing anything about it? If that was a UK, Korean, Japanese, Israeli, or other us-friendly country's ship, we would be going in guns blazing....

don't get me wrong im not condoning the lack of action but it's painfully obvious why nothing is being done by us

 

[Rebel44]

Originally posted by: freegeeks
only the French deal with this situation in a correct way, every time a French ship or crew was involved, they killed or captured the mother f*cking pirates

I agree - we should take those ships back and kill all those idiots. In extreme case they can setup convoys - against pirates you would need only 1 armed ship for every convoy.....

 

[beyoku]

Originally posted by: Ozoned

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: pm
What ever happened to the "Faina" anyway? (Ukranian vessel taken in Sept. filled with tanks and weapons) I heard NATO and EU warships were guarding the ship to prevent it from being unloaded... is that standoff still going on? It dropped off the news radar in early Oct. - at least in US news media.

I don't know how centralized the pirates are. The impression that I have gotten from news reports is that these are small bands of pirates who are raiding from stolen fishing vessels and such. There are probably a large number of pirates and given the current turmoil in Somalia, there are more than enough people willing to fill in empty spots. So I don't know how effective trying to bait and trap the pirates would be. This probably is not going to be solved until Somalia can effectively control its own territorial waters.

You may be right - but you'd think a couple of heavy losses on the pirate's side would instill some fear in them. Somalia's been in anarchy for a long time - I wouldn't think they will be controlling their own land borders any time soon... let alone it's territorial waters.

I think it would be more fruitful, if it was possible, to go after the organizers and negotiators of the pirates. The guys going out in rafts and taking over the ships are not the ones who are collecting the millions of dollars in ransom or the ones working with foreign governments to obtain said ransom. There are probably many people in Somalia who are willing to resort to piracy, but they cannot replace the upper echelons of the organization that make the capture of large commercial trade ships viable.

They seem to be quite good at what they do. How about just pay them for protection services?

He He hE

 

[ponyo]

Where is Steven Segal?

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Why aren't the crews of these ships armed? They know they are going through pirate infested waters, but they say to themselves "let's not carry any weapons, luck will keep us safe". Is this a fucking joke?

Here's my post in another thread. There are very very few merchant ship that carry arms. Most of them are from Israel but they will never tell you. It's an industry wide policy not to escalate any incident to provoke the pirates and risk loss of life.

And do you really want to have a gun battle while carrying a volatile cargo such as crude? Heck even cell phones are not allowed on deck on tankers. The only electronics used, such as radios, are explosion proof (or intrinsically safe). even flashlights used on deck are intrinsically safe type.

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor

A merchant ship which carries arms will face lots of delays in virtually any port she goes to. I'm not sure owners would like to pay for delays.

Also the policy on ship is not to fight any pirates or boarders. The idea is to avoid escalating the aggression and avoid loss of life. Any money/property taken can be replaced, not lives on board.

Originally posted by: Mizugori
it's really quite simple, its a saudi ship. do you really wonder why we aren't doing anything about it? If that was a UK, Korean, Japanese, Israeli, or other us-friendly country's ship, we would be going in guns blazing....

don't get me wrong im not condoning the lack of action but it's painfully obvious why nothing is being done by us

Nationality of the ship has very little to do with response to pirates. Any ship can ask for assistance from any warship in the vicinity.

The problem is the area where the pirates operate is so large it is virtually impossible to police it effectively.

While I agree the long term solution is to blast the pirates out of existence, that will have to be an international effort. No one country can eradicate the threat.

 

[Mizugori]

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor
Nationality of the ship has very little to do with response to pirates. Any ship can ask for assistance from any warship in the vicinity.

The problem is the area where the pirates operate is so large it is virtually impossible to police it effectively.

While I agree the long term solution is to blast the pirates out of existence, that will have to be an international effort. No one country can eradicate the threat.

you missed my point. sure if a US ship was nearby they probably would have helped. but the nationality absolutely has bearing on whether we would decide to take action after the fact (ie go slaughter the pirates and take back what was stolen)

 

[StageLeft]

No one country can eradicate the threat.

Canada can.

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

No one country can eradicate the threat.

Canada can.

With this?

 

[Baked]

Pirates seize 7 ships in 12 days, latest from Iran

By MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR and BARBARA SURK, Associated Press Writers

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

(11-18) 09:56 PST MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) --

Somali pirates hijacked their seventh ship in 12 days on Tuesday, as the U.S. Navy reported that pirates had seized an Iranian cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden.

U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said the bulk cargo carrier was flying a Hong Kong flag but was operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. The status of the crew or the cargo was not known, she said.

Elsewhere, pirates anchored a hijacked Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million in crude oil off the Somali coast on Tuesday, causing residents in impoverished fishing villages to gawk in amazement at the size of the 1,080 foot (329 meter) tanker.

Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia have surged recently, despite the presence of NATO ships, U.S. warships and a Russian frigate all working to prevent piracy in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

International Maritime Bureau on Sunday reported five hijackings since Nov. 7, before the hijackings of the Saudi ship or the Iranian ship were announced.

With few other options, shipowners in past piracy cases have ended up paying ransoms for their ships, cargos and crew.

The U.S. and other naval forces decided against intervention for now. NATO said it would not divert any of its three warships from the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet also said it did not expect to send ships to try to intercept the Saudi supertanker, the MV Sirius Star. The tanker was seized over the weekend about 450 nautical miles off the Kenyan coast.

Never before have Somali pirates seized such a giant ship so far out to sea ? and never a vessel so large. The captors of the Sirius Star anchored the ship, with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members, close to a main pirate den on the Somali coast, Harardhere.

"As usual, I woke up at 3 a.m. and headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles off the shore," said Abdinur beloved patriot, a fisherman in Harardhere.

"I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship."

He said two small boats floated out to the ship and 18 men ? presumably other pirates ? climbed aboard with a rope ladder. Spectators watched as a small boat carried food and qat, a narcotic leaf popular in Somalia, to the supertanker.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called the hijacking "an outrageous act" and said "piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together."

Speaking during a visit to Athens on Tuesday, he said Saudi Arabia would join an international initiative against piracy in the Red Sea area, where more than 80 pirate attacks have taken place this year.

He did not elaborate on what steps the kingdom would take to better protect its vital oil tankers. Saudi Arabia's French-equipped navy has 18,000-20,000 personnel, but has never taken part in any high-seas fighting.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian shipping group Odjell SE said it ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail all the way around Africa to avoid the risk of attack by Somali pirates. That means ships will go past South Africa's Cape of Good Hope instead of taking the Suez Canal shortcut through the Gulf of Aden.

"We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," said Terje Storeng, Odjell's president and chief executive.

Experts say the much longer journey adds 12 to 15 days to a tanker's trip, at a cost of between $20,000-$30,000 a day.

Abdullkadir Musa, the deputy sea port minister in northern Somalia's breakaway Puntland region, said if the ship tries to anchor anywhere near Eyl ? where the U.S. earlier said it was heading ? then his forces will try to rescue it.

Forces from Puntland have sometimes confronted pirates, though Somalia's weak central government, which is fighting Islamic insurgents, has been unable to mount a response to increasing piracy.

Puntland forces, their guns blazing, freed a Panama-flagged cargo ship from pirates on Oct. 14.

The Dubai-based owner of the Saudi tanker, Vela International Marine Ltd., said the oil tanker's 25 crew members "are believed to be safe." The statement made no mention of a ransom or contacts with the bandits.

The Sirius Star's cargo is worth about $100 million at current prices, but the pirates have no known way to unload it from the tanker.

In Vienna, Ehsan Ul-Haq, chief analyst at JBC Energy, said the seizure was not affecting oil prices, since traders were focused instead on "the overall economy."

The U.S. Navy is still surrounding a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and other weaponry that was seized by pirates Sept. 25 off the Somali coast.

Link

They had a story on NPR earlier today about Somalia. Women are attracted to pirates and children want to grow up to be pirates. This is like 18th century pirates revival.