Piracy

[WindupAtheist]

No, not illegal downloading. Fucking piracy. Somalian pirates snagged a Saudi supertanker. This shit is getting out of hand. The USN needs to start patrolling and stomping ass around there.

[Teleku]

We are, along with every other navy in the world.  Problem is we are bound by international agreements, like everybody else.

Personally though, I think before to long we are going to just have to say fuck it and Napalm Eyl and all its inhabitants until there isn't anything left standing.  Hard to do that while they are holding so many hostages though.  Would probably need an OK to "send in the Marines" to physically capture the town, try to rescure hostages, and destroy anything of use in the town before pulling out.  But in the current international environment, I'm not seeing this happen any time soon.

Also, HOW THE FUCK did they capture that fucking super tanker?  I mean seriously, its fucking massive, and I know they mainly run around on small boats.  Its boggling my mind as to how they could even board it..

[SnakeCharmer]

Higher gas prices just in time for the travel season!

[Sir T]

That's been building up for a while. Somalis have been snagging and ransoming vessels there for months. Sadly the US so too focused on the Persian gulf to want to admit that there is a FAR more serious problem that REALLY threatens world peace and trade not that far away. It would be a distraction for the really important crude. And the media has been playing right along as they didn't know how to spin this.

But yeah, it needs a forge of frigates and destroyers constantly patrolling that area. The Suez canal is vital, and the last thing the world needs right now is a disruption in trade.

And this probably might be better off in politics.

[Engels]

Also, HOW THE FUCK did they capture that fucking super tanker?  I mean seriously, its fucking massive, and I know they mainly run around on small boats.  Its boggling my mind as to how they could even board it..

The tanker in question has a crew of 25. That's pretty standard from a report I heard on NPR this morning.

Also, according to the same report pirate attacks are intercepted day in and day out. This one slipped through the cracks.

[Teleku]

Also, HOW THE FUCK did they capture that fucking super tanker?  I mean seriously, its fucking massive, and I know they mainly run around on small boats.  Its boggling my mind as to how they could even board it..

The tanker in question has a crew of 25. That's pretty standard from a report I heard on NPR this morning.

Also, according to the same report pirate attacks are intercepted day in and day out. This one slipped through the cracks.

Yeah, I'm not talking about crew size.  I'm more talking about what could any number of somolies in tiny motor boats possibly do to that ship.  All the tanker had to do was keep going.  Not like they could stop it from the sea.  How did they even get on board?  Firing grappling hook guns and climbing up, all the while the crew doesn't notice?

[SnakeCharmer]

How did they get on board?
Depending on how long it had been since the pilot (the person hired from shore to navigate the vessel out of port/channel) disembarked, the pilot ladder could have still been in place.

Keep going?
Slow moving object (12.5 knots is about average).

Why did they stop?
Perhaps they were threatened via radio that if they didn't stop, they (the pirates) would use explosives in the boat (regardless if they actually had explosives in the boat) to blow a huge freakin' hole in the ship causing the loss of $100 million dollars worth of crude, the loss of the tanker itself, and an unmeasurable cost to the environment.  And that doesn't count the effect the loss of the crude in terms of world wide supply, albiet it would be recoverable over time.  (Edit) School of thought is to preserve the ships crew, the ship itself, and it's cargo through negotiation with the pirates IF the pirates manage to overtake the ship.

Another edit:  From a Fairplay article on the subject (requries account to view):

PIRATES have opened fire at the single-hulled Suezmax Frontline Voyager in a hijacking attempt, a spokesman for the International Maritime Bureau confirmed today to Fairplay.

The gunmen approached the tanker in a small speedboat that had been lowered from a blue-hulled mother ship on Saturday and began firing at the crude carrier when in range. But the speedy arrival of a Western coalition warship that was nearby and a helicopter chased them away, added the spokesman.

None of the 23 crew members were hurt, but the IMB reported that the vessel sustained some damage. The 155,127dwt, Bahamas-flagged Front Voyager is owned by Independent Tankers Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Frontline. It had been chartered by Unipec to carry a cargo of crude from Libya to China, according to Sea-web.

News sources have reported that an unidentified warship later picked up and detained 14 pirates suspected of having been involved in the attack.

Armed raiders also tried to attack a Chinese cargo ship, a Singaporean LNG carrier and a Thai bulk carrier over the weekend, according to CNN. All managed to evade hijackings.

The Chinese vessel also reported a blue-hulled mothership as the originator of the attack, suspected to be a tug captured earlier this year.

[Soln]

No, not illegal downloading. Fucking piracy. Somalian pirates snagged a Saudi supertanker. This shit is getting out of hand. The USN needs to start patrolling and stomping ass around there.

make sense given Gulf War 1 & 2.  Curious to know the logic why they haven't so far.

[Aez]

Easy solution :

[Paelos]

Ah those wacky pirates. They are gonna use that money to get more rum and wenches, no doubt. 

[Cyrrex]

On a very superficial level, pirating a $100m oil tanker sounds like amazing fun.

[Aez]

On a very superficial level, pirating a $100m oil tanker sounds like amazing fun.

Until Rambo shows up.

[K9]

On a very superficial level, pirating a $100m oil tanker sounds like amazing fun.

Indeed. Although having seen the size of a Supertanker I am amazed as to how the pirates even get aboard. It must take a minute or two just to climb up the side of one of those.



I saw a news interview a couple of months back with some Somali fishermen who had turned to piracy because

a) Fishing sucks and makes them no money
b) The Pirates kept stealing their boats.

[IainC]

I saw a news interview a couple of months back with some Somali fishermen who had turned to piracy because

a) Fishing sucks and makes them no money
b) The Pirates kept stealing their boats.

Also they live in a country that effectively has no central government at all, the average life expectancy is around 35 years and a lot of the world's money floats past every day.

[Sir T]

Yeah. the guys that do this are regarded as heroes in Somalia. They will be singing songs about their heroism and bravery in a short amount of time. And this is probably the only way they have of bringing money in the country so even if there was a real goverment they would have no interest in stopping it. Basically, the world trade dies them no goo, so let it rot.

Think is there is no one person you can turn to to stop this, so the usual "buy dictator/crime lord 5 hookers and a mercedes" angle won't work here, so they will have to find some other solution to the new situation of being vulnerable to several thousand guys sniffing for crumbs on fast moving speed boats.

[Samwise]

Holy shit, guys, I just came up with the solution to the energy crisis.  GET THE PIRATES ON THE INTERWEBS TO MAKE COPIES OF OIL OVER BITTORRENT.

[Bungee]

Holy shit, guys, I just came up with the solution to the energy crisis.  GET THE PIRATES ON THE INTERWEBS TO MAKE COPIES OF OIL OVER BITTORRENT.

Your Avatar suddenly makes sense.

[Hindenburg]

Think is there is no one person you can turn to to stop this, so the usual "buy dictator/crime lord 5 hookers and a mercedes" angle won't work here, so they will have to find some other solution to the new situation of being vulnerable to several thousand guys sniffing for crumbs on fast moving speed boats.

Hi.

[lac]

Outsourcing you say? Here come the Indians, and they aren't mucking about.

[Numtini]

I'm with India, this has gone on too long and since Somalia doesn't have a functioning government, I don't understand the international agreements stuff. It's piracy on the high seas, isn't that what navies were created for? Shores of Tripoli and all that?

Lots of stuff about failed states, knocking over anthills without a plan, and Bush's incompetence.

On the other hand, I can't understand why anyone in Somalia would do this since according to libertarian theory, it is paradise.

[Cyrrex]

I haven't really kept up much on this story, but is there really any realistic way for them to launder 100 million in crude oil?

[Sky]

Use a grease-cutting soap.

Good thing we got the evil imperialists out of Africa. They've done so much with the place. FREEDOM!!! DEMOCRACY!! 

[HaemishM]

I haven't really kept up much on this story, but is there really any realistic way for them to launder 100 million in crude oil?

You don't launder it, you sell it back to the country you stole it from via ransom and hope they don't send fighter jets out to sink the motherfucker.

I imagine with the price of oil tanking these days, the Saudis didn't mind something to restrict the flow of oil out of the Middle East. Hell, they might even have hired the pirates to do it.

[IainC]

I haven't really kept up much on this story, but is there really any realistic way for them to launder 100 million in crude oil?

You don't scoop $100million worth of oil out in buckets. Without some pretty impressive equipment it's not really feasible for anyone to empty a supertanker let alone deal with the onshore logistics of moving that much oil. As I understand it, they have no heavy port equipment at all meaning that any bulky cargo (such as those Sudanese Kenyan tanks that were seized recently) can't realistically be unloaded. Ransoming the ship back or somehow selling the whole vessel along with the cargo is pretty much their only option for disposing of the goods.

[Teleku]

I'm with India, this has gone on too long and since Somalia doesn't have a functioning government, I don't understand the international agreements stuff. It's piracy on the high seas, isn't that what navies were created for? Shores of Tripoli and all that?

Lots of stuff about failed states, knocking over anthills without a plan, and Bush's incompetence.

On the other hand, I can't understand why anyone in Somalia would do this since according to libertarian theory, it is paradise.

It isn't a problem with agreements with Somalia, it has to do with stuff like the Law of the Sea which everybody signed on to.  Things like, you can't open up on a ship even if they look like pirates, you either have to send a boarding party to verify, or catch them in the act.  So basically, you have to catch them in the act, which is tricky, as they launch lighting attacks and there's only a small window for a (hopefully) nearby naval ship to intervene and stop them from boarding.  Once they are on board, theres nothing the navy can do.

Anyways, BBC wrote up a decent article on the problems:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7735144.stm

[Grimwell]

This shit is getting out of hand. The USN needs to start patrolling and stomping ass around there.

Aren't we already in trouble for sending the military out there to whip ass on people fairly close to Somalia? Why does the USN have to be the one? We are kicked in the nuts over trying to be the "World Police" on a daily basis, and this is a world problem and not specific to the US...

India stepping up today is some great news. There are times when someone has to do the job, no question, but perhaps it shouldn't always be Uncle Sam? Let someone soak up the bad PR for doing the job.

[Sky]

INDIA, FUCK YEAH!

[DraconianOne]

Solution's easy:



Send for Ninjas!

[SnakeCharmer]

Outsourcing you say? Here come the Indians, and they aren't mucking about.

Good for India.

If it had been the USN, the world leaders and media would be blasting us for acting like the police of the world and condemning our actions.

Anyway, the best thing to do to curtail piracy in these areas is give the crews a means to defend themselves.  Small arms training, hand to hand combat training, and that sort of thing, along with a small cache of weapons.  The problem is that port authorities pretty much forbid firearms from being on merchant vessels.  Pirates know this, and view merchants as easy prey - which they are.

[IainC]

The crazy thread is thataway.

[WindupAtheist]

Aren't we already in trouble for sending the military out there to whip ass on people fairly close to Somalia? Why does the USN have to be the one? We are kicked in the nuts over trying to be the "World Police" on a daily basis, and this is a world problem and not specific to the US...

We're the world's foremost naval power and the need to curbstomp honest-to-god high seas pirates is about as clear cut as it's ever going to get. And yes, good on India for sinking the shit out of that mothership.

[FatuousTwat]

I recently read The Years Best SF 13, and it had a short story in it (Pirates of the Somali Coast) about the Hollywood glamorization of pirates.

Was actually pretty good.

[Xuri]

I might just go out of the game development business and become a professional pirate-hunter if this keeps up. I have, after all, several years of experience hunting pirates in the West Indies in realistic pirate and pirate-hunting simulators such as the original Sid Meier's Pirates!, Sea Dogs, etc.

[Tale]

INDIA, FUCK YEAH!

Today I was talking to an American who lives in India, who says Indians still have British colonial attitudes ingrained in their culture. I am picturing the Indian navy ...

"What ho, Rajiv, pirate mothership off the starboard bow!"
"Shall I send him two pounds of Hindustani hell?"
"Jolly good show. How about some tea and dhal?"

[Big Gulp]

Good thing we got the evil imperialists out of Africa. They've done so much with the place. FREEDOM!!! DEMOCRACY!! 

That's why I'm skeptical in the extreme about any peace keeping operations there.  Crazy shit is just bound to happen in Africa.  I think you come out of the womb wielding a rusty machete there.