Pirates, Reaction, World Navy/LOST/New Wars in Africa [OBAMA DECEPTION]

[Avers]

As expected, here it is. For now it is 'combating pirates', in a year it will be 'patrolling international waters'.
=====================


US to lead new anti-pirate force
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7817611.stm)

A new international force to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia is being formed and will be headed by an American admiral, the US navy says.

More than 20 nations are expected to contribute to the force, due to be fully operational later in January.

After more than 100 attacks last year, the International Maritime Bureau said increased naval patrols had reduced hijackings in December last year.

The EU formed an anti-piracy task force in December.

Ships from other navies, including Canada, Iran, India and China, have also been patrolling one of the world's busiest sea lanes - the waters of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean leading to and from the Suez Canal.


Security measures

US Navy Rear Admiral Terence McKnight has been named the commander of the new force, called Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151), the US Fifth Fleet said in a statement from its headquarters in Bahrain.

A spokeswoman for the force, Commander Jane Campbell, told the BBC that France, the Netherlands, the UK, Pakistan, Canada and Denmark were among the countries participating in CTF-151.

The area the pirates operate in is larger than the Mediterranean Sea and the shipping lane the force will patrol is 480 miles (780km) long, she said.

About 60 warships would be required to effectively patrol this sea lane, she said, while about one-third of that number had been committed to the new force.

Cmdr Campbell said merchant vessels could take heightened security measures to thwart pirates, including pulling up ladders they leave hanging from their sterns to allow pilots to come aboard, travelling at high speeds to create a large wake to prevent pirates from boarding, and keeping a sharp watch and maintaining communications with other ships and the new task force.

Despite only two successful hijackings in December, Somali pirates still hold about 15 ships carrying more than 200 crew members.

One of these is the Saudi oil tanker the Sirius Star, captured in November.

[TelepesT]

WOW - We will see these 'Friendly' World Navy partners on our own shores soon. This way the Chinese can invade without firing a shot.

[Dig]

Look up "LOST - Law of Sea Treaty"

This has been planned for a century!

[Revolt426]

Sounds more like a plan to control all trade routes, not to contain pirates. Think like the free trader countries, not like the Main Stream Media. they will probably take over all the Trade Routes like the east india company did and use the navy to blow any competition out of the water and label them "pirates"

[TelepesT]

LOST was brought up last congress I believe, It was rejected by the Bushies

[TheHouseMan]

WOAH. Someone I know suggested the Somalia thing might be a problem-reaction-solution, and wow, holy cow. Just wow. This is the first global defence force. Amazing.

[Dig]

LOST was brought up last congress I believe, It was rejected by the Bushies

That was just one instance, they have been going at it for a century.

There is a whole board on the history of it:  http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?board=372.0

[OldSchool]

WOAH. Someone I know suggested the Somalia thing might be a problem-reaction-solution, and wow, holy cow. Just wow. This is the first global defence force. Amazing.

It goes hand-in-hand with their other theory... Don't destroy it! Invest in both sides and sustain it! Kill it when you're tired of it..

[Monkeypox]

Soon in will be the UN Navy.

The UN needs 3 things to take over the world:

1.  The ability to tax.
2.  A court system.
3.  It's own military force.

[TelepesT]

I just saw this one - Taiwan considering sending navy to fight piracy

 This could get messy with all these Navies and then you throw in a few from the Taiwan Navy.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/08/asia/AS-Taiwan-Piracy.php
TAIPEI, Taiwan: A senior official says Taiwan is considering sending a naval force to protect its fishing vessels against Somali pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa.

Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chao Chien-min said Thursday that the Taiwanese government is currently studying the feasibility of deploying its navy to the area.

China, Taiwan's rival, recently sent three naval ships to join an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf Aden, a key sea lane infested with pirates from impoverished Somalia.

There are now more than a dozen warships patrolling the waters, and the U.S. Navy announced Thursday one of its commanders will lead a new international force to tackle the problem.

[Revolt426]

BS this is all abour protecting trade routes for free trade agreements, cuz during a global meltdown countries will fight each other for the routes.

[donnay]

Pirates overboard as US crew seizes ship back in Indian Ocean

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6061399.ece

An American crew has seized back control of a container ship that was commandeered by pirates in the Indian Ocean today, according to the Pentagon.

The military official said the crew was holding one pirate in custody while the others were reported to “be in the water”. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm how the Somalis found their way into the ocean.

Somali pirates hijacked the US-flagged container ship off the Horn of Africa, the first such attack on American interests.

John Reinhart, the CEO of Maersk, which owned the vessel, said the company was working to contact families of the crew. “Speculation is a dangerous thing when you’re in a fluid environment. I will not confirm that the crew has overtaken this ship,” he said.

All 20 American crew members aboard the Maersk Alabama were believed to be unharmed, according to Andrew Mwangura, who monitors piracy for the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme.

The ship was travelling to the Kenyan port of Mombasa and her cargo includes 232 containers of relief food destined for United Nations feeding programmes in Somalia and Uganda.

She was snatched after a sustained assault involving several pirate skiffs about 400 nautical miles east of Mogadishu. The attack lasted five hours as the ship tried unsuccessfully to evade the assault.

American officials said their first priority was the safety of the crew.

"The White House is closely monitoring the apparent hijacking of the US-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and assessing a course of action to resolve this situation," said spokesman Robert Gibbs.

The hijacking is the sixth since Saturday, as Somalia’s pirates step up their operations.

Analysts say they have begun attacking further afield and in co-ordinated waves in order to outfox an international armada of warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

Riddled with drought, hunger and war, Somalia is awash with guns and gunmen prepared to take to the waves to earn hard cash. International navies currently have 15 vessels - including four US warships - in the region.

[donnay]

American Crew Regains Control of Hijacked Ship, One Pirate in Custody
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513238,00.html

American crew members aboard a U.S.-flagged ship have regained control of the vessel hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia Wednesday, FOX News confirms.

Defense Department officials confirmed that one pirate is in custody. A U.S. official said the status of the other pirates is unknown but they were reported to "be in the water."

"All the crew members are trained in security detail in how to deal with piracy," Maersk CEO John Reinhart told reporters. "As merchant vessels we do not carry arms. We have ways to push back, but we do not carry arms."

John Harris, CEO of HollowPoint Security Services, which specializes in maritime security, said that the crew's overtaking the pirates could help prevent future hijackings, especially since the military can't be protect the entire high seas.

"Any time you can get intel from them, they can give you any kind of significant information, they more than likely will not, but anything we can get will always help us in the future," Harris told FOX News.

"Naval vessels ... can't be everywhere at one time, just like law enforcement," he said, noting that the U.S. Navy has been protecting the most vulnerable shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean.

"If you saturate an area long enough in the shipping lanes, if you saturate it with war ships long enough, they venture out. In this case that's what they did. They want 350 miles out of the coast where no Naval vessels were present," he said.

Click here for photos.

As for the boldness of the pirates taking a ship operating under a U.S. flag, Harris said pirates don't care which ship they grab.

"We have not seen it matters at all. This is a business to them. They are not intended on carrying what cargo we're carrying. All they want to do is see a dollar figure. They know if they catch a big ship, they get big money. All they want is ransom out of this. They are not worried about crew or cargo," Harris said.

Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman said earlier Wednesday he has "no information to suggest the 20 crew members of the Maersk Alabama have been harmed by the pirates."
Photo Essays

    * Somali Pirates Seize 20 Americans

During its one communication with the ship, Maersk was told the crew was safe, Reinhart said. He would not release the names of the crew members.

Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said that it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory."

Wednesday's incident was the first such hostage-taking involving U.S. citizens in 200 years. In December 2008, Somali pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel.

The top two commanders of the ship graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the Cape Cod Times reported Wednesday.

Andrea Phillips, the wife of Capt. Richard Phillips of Underhill, Vermont., said her husband has sailed in those waters "for quite some time" and a hijacking was perhaps "inevitable."

The Cape Cod Times reported his second in command, Capt. Shane Murphy, was also among the 20 Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama.

Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, says his son is a 2001 graduate who recently talked to a class about the dangers of pirates.

The newspaper reported the 33-year-old Murphy had phoned his mother to say he was safe.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said earlier Wednesday the White House is "closely monitoring the apparent hijacking of the U.S.-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and assessing a course of action to resolve this situation."

"Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board," Gibbs said in a written statement.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, at the time it was hijacked, for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

Robert A. Wood, Deputy State Department Spokesman, told reporters the ship was carrying "vegetable oil, corn soy blend and other basic food commodities bound for Africa."

Just last week, A. P. Moller-Mærsk Group sold eight containerships to Maersk Line Limited to be run under a U.S. flag. The U.S. company also recently replaced eight older units flying U.S. flags, including the Maersk Alabama.

Flying under a U.S. flag means the ships are bound by U.S. law maritime regulations and can travel directly from U.S. port to U.S. port.

Just a day earlier, the Navy's 5th fleet warned "merchant mariners should be increasingly vigilant" when operating off the coast of Somalia.

"The area the ship was taken in, is not where the focus of our ships has been," Christensen told The Associated Press in a phone call from the 5th Fleet's Mideast headquarters in Bahrain.

Maersk does business with the U.S. Department of Defense, but Christensen said the vessel was not working under a Pentagon contract when hijacked.

The vessel is the sixth to be seized within a week and the first with an all-American crew.

At least 12 of the Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama are members of the Seafarers International Union, spokesman Jordan Biscardo said.

FOX News' Justin Fishel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Dok]

I just love a good pirate story. I bet they made them walk the plank. 

[donnay]

I just love a good pirate story. I bet they made them walk the plank. 

Me too!  I have a vested interest in this because my husband is a Merchant Mariner.  God Bless these guys for having the fortitude to stand up to these pirates.  They men are unarmed so they are like sitting ducks out there--freaking UN!

[donnay]

Hijacked US crew 'retake vessel'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7990566.stm

The US crew of a ship hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia has retaken control of the vessel, according to Pentagon sources.

Unnamed US defence officials said one pirate had been captured by the 20-strong crew of the Maersk Alabama, seized earlier in the Indian Ocean.

But the vessel's Danish owners, Maersk, said they could not confirm that the vessel had been retaken.

It was the sixth ship seized off Somalia in recent days.

It is reportedly the first time in 200 years that a US-flagged vessel has been seized by pirates.

The Associated Press quoted a defence official as saying: "The crew is back in control of the ship.

"It's reported that one pirate is on board under crew control - the other three were trying to flee."

Reports suggest the other three pirates jumped overboard.

Crew 'is safe'

Maersk's chief executive, John Reinhart, said he could not confirm that the ship had been retaken but said contact had been made with the crew.

"We have a crisis centre and we have vessel managers and superintendents that are working with the vessel at all times," he told a news conference.



"We had a cell-phone call from a member of the crew that said the crew is safe."

The ship was attacked by several small boats in the early hours of Wednesday in an incident apparently lasting for about five hours.

Maritime officials said the vessel took all possible evasive action before it reported that the pirates had boarded.

More than 130 pirate attacks were reported in 2008, including almost 50 successful hijacks.

Pirates typically hold the ships and crews until large ransoms are paid by the shipping companies - last year the firms handed over about £80m (£54m).

The huge increase in frequency of attacks has forced several navies to deploy warships in the Gulf of Aden to protect one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

[donnay]

Report: Captain Still Being Held By Pirates
Mass. Maritime Grads, Crew Overtake Pirates, Regain Control Of Vessel

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/mostpopular/19126517/detail.html

BOSTON -- The captain of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship that had been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Africa on Wednesday is still being held hostage, the Associated Press reported. The rest of the 20-member American crew was able to overpower the pirates to regain control of the vessel, the Pentagon said.

Capt. Shane Murphy, a 2001 graduate of the MMA, is second in command aboard the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama. More
Somali pirates hijacked the cargo ship Wednesday hundreds of miles from the nearest U.S. military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

Late Wednesday morning, the military confirmed that the crew had regained control of the ship by overpowering the pirates, taking one pirate into custody and throwing three overboard.

Two graduates of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy are among the 20 Americans on board the hijacked vessel.

When the AP called the ship's satellite phone, the man who answered confirmed that the crew had retaken control of the ship, but said the pirates were holding the ship's captain hostage. The man did not offer his name, the AP reported.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama's first in command, Capt. Richard Phillips, of Underhill, Vt., is a 1979 graduate of the academy. Capt. Shane Murphy, a 2001 graduate of the MMA, is second in command, according to his father, Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor at the academy.


"This is not 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' These are criminals," the elder Murphy said.

The younger Murphy, 34, is married with two sons, ages 3 years and 8 months. He lives with his family in Seekonk.

On his Facebook profile Murphy wrote that he worked in waters between Oman and Kenya.

"These waters are infested with pirates that highjack (sic) ships daily," Murphy wrote. "I feel like it's only a matter of time before my number gets called."

The Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

It was the sixth ship seized by pirates in a week.

Coincidentally, the elder Murphy helps teach a new course at the academy about combating high-seas crime.

"It's a whole different world when it becomes personal," he said.

He said he initially learned about the hijacking from his other son who is serving with the U.S. Navy in the Middle East, and was able to speak to his son after the hijacking.

[UKStewart82]

Seems the u.s. is sending a destroyer to the situation....just saw the report said 6 "others", I guess destroyer's?  Fox news

[donnay]

Officials: Warship, others headed to pirate scene

By PAULINE JELINEK and JON RESNICK – 26 minutes ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...pfvkgD97EFKNO0

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say an American warship and a half dozen others are headed to the scene where pirates captured a vessel with a U.S. crew off Somalia's coast.

One official says the destroyer USS Bainbridge is headed there. Another official says there are six or seven ships on the way.

A person aboard the Maersk Alabama, reached by The Associated Press by satellite phone, says crew members had retaken control of the ship. But pirates were holding the captain as a hostage in a lifeboat in waters nearby.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The crew of a U.S.-flag ship seized by pirates off Somalia has retaken the vessel, American officials said Wednesday, but a person contacted aboard the ship said the pirates still held the captain.

The person aboard the Maersk Alabama, reached by The Associated Press by satellite phone about 12:30 p.m. EDT, said crew members had indeed retaken control of the ship and were holding one of the pirates. But the person said the captain was being held hostage by remaining pirates in a lifeboat and negotiations were under way seeking his release.

The man did not identify himself in the brief phone conversation. The company that owns the boat says the entire 20-member crew are Americans.

U.S. officials said details were still murky and declined to confirm the report.

Earlier, Capt. Joseph Murphy, an instructor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, told The Associated Press that he was called by the Department of Defense and told the crew, including his son Shane, the second in command on the ship, had regained control.

The company that owns the ship was cautious in its comments.

"Speculation is a dangerous thing when you're in a fluid environment. I will not confirm that the crew has overtaken this ship," Maersk Line Ltd. CEO John Reinhart said at a news conference in Norfolk, Va.

"The crew member called to say, 'We are safe.' They did not say they had taken over the vessel. They did not say the pirates are off the vessel," Reinhart said.

The original taking of the cargo ship, which was captured by pirates near the coast of Somalia, apparently was the first such piracy incident involving U.S. citizens in 200 years. In December 2008, Somali pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel.

U.S. officials, citing an interagency conference call, said "multiple reliable sources" were reporting the ship was under control of the U.S. crew. One pirate was reported in custody and the others were believed to be in the water.

The incident posed troubling questions for the young Obama administration in an era of terrorist threats.

President Barack Obama's chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the White House was assessing a course of action. "Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board," he said.

Obama was notified of the situation as he was flying back to the nation's capital from Baghdad and was following it closely, said foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough.

Joseph Murphy, an instructor at a maritime academy, told the Cape Cod newspaper that his son was well aware of the threat of pirates in the area and, while home on a visit only a few weeks ago, had talked with his class about the risk. "He knows the potential danger and he talked with my students about that," Murphy said. "He connected right away with the students."

It was the sixth vessel seized within a week in the dangerous region around Africa, said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. She also said that it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory."

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who was in charge of the USS Cole destroyer when it was attacked by suicide bombers in 2000, said, "Although the United States and other nations are working in a loose coalition to prevent piracy, the dwindling number of ships in our Navy amplifies the impact of this menace."

Lippold is now a senior military fellow at Military Families United, an advocacy organization.

The crew first reported being under attack, then said that pirates had already boarded the ship, according to "talking points" prepared by the U.S. government for briefing reporters about the situation.

The hijacking came one day after international maritime officials issued a warning on the area.

Following a series of attacks off the eastern coast of Somalia, the Combined Maritime Forces issued an advisory Wednesday highlighting several recent attacks that occurred hundreds of miles off the Somali coast and stating that merchant mariners should be increasingly vigilant when operating in those waters.

"While the majority of attacks during 2008 and early 2009 took place in the Gulf of Aden, these recent attacks off the eastern coast of Somalia are not unprecedented," the advisory provided by Navy officials in Washington said. "An attack on the large crude tanker Sirius Star in November 2008 occurred more than 450 nautical miles off the southeast coast of Somalia."

The advisory said the "scope and magnitude of problem cannot be understated."

The nearest ship from the international coalition working against pirates in the region was hundreds of miles away from the Maersk Alabama.

Associated Press reporters Matthew Lee, Anne Gearan, Ben Feller and Jesse Holland contributed to this story.

[donnay]

I hope this doens't turn out to be another Gulf of Tonkin situation!!!  This is not looking good.

[Dig]

wing nuts are going crazy saying: "you cannot extort money from the American people! we should put a US Aircraft carrier off the coast and blow them all away!"

ok, let us see what happens when bullies extort money from the American people...

Somali Pirates ($3 million/$5 million): National Security Thread...Nuke if necessary

AIG ($300 Billion): PAY IT NOW, NO AUDIT, NO PAPER TRAIL! PAY PAY PAY!!!!!!

[donnay]

wing nuts are going crazy saying: "you cannot extort money from the American people! we should put a US Aircraft carrier off the coast and blow them all away!"

ok, let us see what happens when bullies extort money from the American people...

Somali Pirates ($3 million/$5 million): National Security Thread...Nuke if necessary

AIG ($300 Billion): PAY IT NOW, NO AUDIT, NO PAPER TRAIL! PAY PAY PAY!!!!!!

Abso-FREAKIN-lootly.


Somali pirates overpowered by US crew but captain still held prisoner

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/08/somalia-pirates-captain-hostage

When Somali pirates skimmed across the Indian Ocean and muscled their way aboard a US food aid ship today, it had all the hallmarks of a depressingly familiar scene: a hostage cargo ship, a vulnerable crew and a well-organised team of brigands with the firepower and knowhow to seize a ship and demand a fat ransom.

But as a dramatic tussle on the high seas played out tonight, it became clear this was a startlingly different confrontation to the regular string of hijackings and hostage-takings that have plagued the waters off the Horn of Africa in recent months.

The standoff was apparently defused when the 20-man crew turned on their captors and managed to overpower them, seizing one pirate and sending three others fleeing for their dinghy.

But the episode remained unresolved tonight: members of the crew said the pirates had escaped with the captain in tow, and the crew was negotiating for his return, offering food or anything else. The crew had held a pirate prisoner for 12 hours and released him in return for the captain, but the pirates had not kept their side of the bargain.

A US warship, the USS destroyer Bainbridge, was on its way to the area this evening. "We are trying to hold them off until the US ship arrives," said Ken Quinn, second mate on the ship.

The drama began when the Maersk Alabama, a container vessel owned by the Danish shipping giant, was hijacked 280 miles southeast of Eyl off Somalia's eastern coast this morning. It was the pirates' sixth successful strike in the past fortnight. It was also the first US ship, and crew, to be seized by Somali pirates. Although hostages are seldom hurt while ransoms are negotiated, the kidnapping of Americans would pose serious concern in the White House.

Obama and the White House team had only arrived back in Washington at about 3am (EST) after a week-long tour of Europe and Iraq, but they monitored the crisis, facing the prospect of paying millions in ransom money, as other countries have done, or ordering military action.

Captain Joe Murphy, father of the ship's second-in-command, Shane, and a lecturer at the Massacusetts Maritime Academy, said today that his son and other crew members had turned the tables on the captors. His son had recently talked to a class at the academy about the dangers of piracy.

The World Food Programme said the ship's cargo included food aid due to be unloaded in Mombasa, Kenya.

The Alabama's status is complicated by the fact that Maersk carries out contracts for the US department of defence, though the Pentagon denied it was doing so on this occasion.

Until now, only France has taken firm action against pirates that kidnapped its citizens. In April last year French commandos arrested six gunmen on Somali soil after they had released 30 French hostages aboard a luxury yacht following a ransom payment. In September, the French equivalent of the British Special Boat Services launched a nighttime raid to free a retired couple held hostage on their yacht. In both cases the pirates were reportedly tracked from Djibouti, where the US also has a large military base.

The attack came a day after the US navy issued a warning to merchant shipping companies of heightened risk of attack in the Indian Ocean. It cited the case of the Africa Star, an Israeli boat whose crew rigged barbed wire along the sides of the ship, successfully preventing a pirate gang from boarding on Saturday.

During the dramatic surge in piracy off Somalia last year most of the attacks took place in the Gulf of Aden on the country's northern coast, a vital waterway linking the Mediterranean with the Arabian Sea.

Global concern over the damage to international shipping saw the deployment in the Gulf of Aden of more than 20 international warships in three separate forces led by the US, Nato and EU. This significantly dented the pirates' effectiveness, with only two successful hijackings reported in January and February, and more than 100 gunmen arrested.

But the slump in attacks was also due to the rough seas brought by the winter monsoon. As soon as the waters became calmer in March – a situation expected to persist until October – the hijackings resumed, with the pirates switching their focus to the Indian Ocean, where there are few warships.

Using previously captured mother ships as bases, and sophisticated GPS systems, the pirates can attack up to 500 miles out to sea, and are now striking unchallenged as far south as the top of the Mozambique channel, near the Seychelles.

At the time of the attack on the Alabama the closest American warship was 345 miles away. "The area we're patrolling is more than a million miles in size. Our ships cannot be everywhere at every time," said a US navy spokesman .

[donnay]

 U.S. crew retakes hijacked ship, captain held hostage
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-09 05:06:24         Print

    WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The crew of a U.S.-flagged container ship has retaken control of the ship from Somali pirates, but its captain is being held hostage, the freighter's second officer said Wednesday.

    Richard Phillips, the captain, is being held captive by pirates, Ken Quinn, one of the some 20 crew members onboard, told CNN in a ship-to-shore phone interview..

    "There's four Somali pirates, and they've got our captain," he said.

    Phillips is being held in the U.S.-flagged ship Maersk Alabama's 8.4-meter lifeboat, Quinn said.

    The crew had a plan to make an exchange for their captain.

    "We had a pirate we took and kept him for 12 hours," Quinn told CNN.

    "We tied him up and he was our prisoner," he said.

    The crew gave back their prisoner but the pirates reneged on the plan and are continuing to hold Phillips captive.

    "So now we're just trying to offer them whatever we can, food, but it's not working too good," he said.

    Quinn said the crew is trying to hold off the pirates for three more hours until a coalition warship is expected to arrive.

    The Maersk Alabama was carrying food aid bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa when it was seized. Twenty American crew members were on board.

    Quinn said the pirates were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, but the freighter's crew carried no weapons.

    The Americans locked themselves in the compartment that contains the ship's steering gear, where they remained for about 12 hours.

    The pirates "got frustrated because they couldn't find us," he said.

    The pirates sank the small boat they used once they climbed aboard the freighter, Quinn said, so Phillips offered them the lifeboat and some money.

    Four hijackers boarded the Maersk Alabama earlier in the day and one is in custody, according to Pentagon officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    The three others tried to escape, and their status is unknown, they said.

    Earlier Wednesday, the chief executive officer of the company that owns the Maersk Alabama played down the report that the vessel has been retaken by U.S. crew members, who are unarmed.

    "We have no facts that confirm the ship has been retaken," John Reinhart, CEO and president of Norfolk, Virginia-based Maersk Line Ltd., said at a news conference 12 hours after the hijacking.

    The ship was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 500 kilometers off Somalia's coast, he said.

    The Maersk Line is one of the U.S. Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors, but the Maersk Alabama is not under a Pentagon contract, according to the U.S. military.

    The attack was the sixth off Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden within a week, but hijacking of a U.S.-operated ship in Africa is rare.

    According to experts, the last pirate attack of an American vessel by African pirates was reported in 1804, off Libya.

[donnay]

How to Fend Off a Somali Pirate Attack
Maritime Academies Teach Students Tactics to Defend Against Pirate Attacks
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=7294147&page=1

Graduates of maritime academies often end up in some of the most dangerous waters in the world -- moving aid, goods, and oil. But, with the threats from pirates, who are armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and even grenades, maritime academies across the country are teaching students what to do in case their ship is hijacked.

Despite international efforts to step up security, pirates have been operating with near impunity off the Horn of Africa. This year, there have been more than 50 pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia -- six of them in the past week alone. Today, a cargo ship with a crew of 20 Americans sailing off the coast of Somalia was commandeered by pirates, who eventually were repelled but then took its captain hostage.

Students at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy are learning for the first time ever this year how to defend themselves and their ships with deadly force.

"It's not like calling 911 and somebody's going to be right there on your doorstep," said Brad Lima, academic dean at the academy. "So you have to take in -- and make quick decisions, defend your own actions and defend yourself."

Academies have ramped up training, using simulators to teach students how to react and how to defend their virtual ship in real-time as it is overrun by pirates.

On board the Maersk Alabama, a 17,000-ton container ship, crew members took the advice of the British Maritime Trade Organization, which advised the crew to take proactive measures and spray powerful firehoses to keep pirates away.

Though, in this case, the Somali pirates were armed and the Alabama crew was unarmed, instructors say that reactive measures like firearms are always the final resort. Students are taught steps, such as negotiating for hostages first.

"We teach maritime security here, we teach weapons for safety, but when it moves from an academic exercise to real life, all of a sudden it becomes a bit scary," said Adm. Rick Gurnon, president of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. "We know that it's a dangerous job, we just didn't anticipate that it would be this dangerous."

Somali Pirates Pose Security Threat

Pirates, who use high powered speed boats equipped with GPS and satellite phones, are not just looking for loot.

"They not only steal the money," said Capt. Thomas Bushy. "They steal the whole ship and the crew, and they hold them for ransom. So it has escalated."

For Capt. Joseph Murphy, an instructor at the maritime academy on Cape Cod who teaches anti-piracy techniques to students -- including the use of firehoses and firearms -- the hijacking incident brings months of rigorous training and drills to life.

"It is a very high risk, but these young men and women have been trained to deal with this, they know what to anticipate, and I think they're prepared to deal with it," Murphy said. "The problem is, once they get on the deck of the ship, there's really nothing a crew can do because they're unarmed."

But for Murphy, today's events are also deeply personal. The ship's chief officer, 34-year-old Capt. Shane Murphy, who sources tell ABC News has temporarily taken charge while the captain is held hostage, is his son.

"This is Murphy's law. I teach the course and my son gets captured by pirates, you know?" he told ABC News.

In an industry that always promised adventure, changing course to assure the crew's survival is the bottom line.

"With today's events, you can see how dangerous it is out on high seas," said regimental Cmdr. Matthew Duggan, a student at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. "And I think the training here that we get here is certainly necessary and will keep us vigilant and aware of what goes on at all times out there on the seas."

[donnay]

A letter of Marque from Congress would help the Merchant Mariners to be armed.

Nevertheless, our Congresscritters bow down to the UN.


International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee MSC/Circ. 623/Rev. 2; 20 June 2001 Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships: Guidance to Shipowners and Ship Operators, Shipmasters and Crews on Preventing Acts of Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships, page 8, paragraphs 44 and 45:

44. The carrying and use of firearms for personal protection or protection of a ship is strongly discouraged.

45. Carriage of arms on board ship may encourage attackers to carry firearms thereby escalating an already dangerous situation, and any firearms on board may themselves become an attractive target for an attacker. The use of firearms requires special training and aptitudes and the risk of accidents with firearms carried on board ship is great. In some jurisdiction, killing a national my have unforeseen consequences even for a person who believes he has acted in self defence.”


UN's twisted logic that you have no right to self-defense.
http://americancommondefencereview.blogspot.com/

I truly believe a lot of the piracy are provocateur acts to get the US on board with UN's the Law Of The Sea Treaty

This will end economic liberty and free enterprising for the U.S.

[Monkeypox]

A letter of Marque from Congress would help the Merchant Mariners to be armed.

Nevertheless, our Congresscritters bow down to the UN.


International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee MSC/Circ. 623/Rev. 2; 20 June 2001 Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships: Guidance to Shipowners and Ship Operators, Shipmasters and Crews on Preventing Acts of Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships, page 8, paragraphs 44 and 45:

44. The carrying and use of firearms for personal protection or protection of a ship is strongly discouraged.

45. Carriage of arms on board ship may encourage attackers to carry firearms thereby escalating an already dangerous situation, and any firearms on board may themselves become an attractive target for an attacker. The use of firearms requires special training and aptitudes and the risk of accidents with firearms carried on board ship is great. In some jurisdiction, killing a national my have unforeseen consequences even for a person who believes he has acted in self defence.”


UN's twisted logic that you have no right to self-defense.
http://americancommondefencereview.blogspot.com/

I truly believe a lot of the piracy are provocateur acts to get the US on board with UN's the Law Of The Sea Treaty

This will end economic liberty and free enterprising for the U.S.

Fvck the UN!

[Avers]

Somali pirates overpowered by US crew but captain still held prisoner

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/08/somalia-pirates-captain-hostage

When I heard about the retaking of the ship I thought I was wrong in my assessment that this hijacking was staged in order for the PTB to get their plans for a global navy fulfilled in overdrive, until I read about the captain that is. I sincerely hope it will not be the case, but I would not be surprised when it turns out that the captain has been killed (most likely by some special forces on that US navy ship that has now arrived in the area). It would be just the dramatic effect the US public needs to stay blind about any of the new measures that will be pushed through as a result to this staged event.

But again, I sincerely hope that the captain will stay save and sound.

[ElbertK]

Very interesting and thrilling stories, thanks for posting them. The pirat attacks at the coast of Somalia seem to become a regular event and something has to be done to stop this. The Navy has to find the right measures to prevent ships from being hijacked and make the Indian ocean more safe. Who would have thought a few years ago that piracy would become a big problem again ... Probably the Somalian pirates were inspired by the "Pirates of the Carribean" movie ...

[bigron]

'Pirates' Strike a U.S. Ship Owned by a Pentagon Contractor, But Is the Media Telling the Whole Story?

Reports say the crew of a U.S. cargo vessel seized early today has retaken the ship, but there's more to the story of rising "pirate" attacks.


By Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports
Posted on April 8, 2009, Printed on April 9, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/135716/

UPDATE: At least one nuclear-powered U.S. warship is reportedly on its way to the scene of the hijacking off the coast of Somalia of a vessel owned by a major Pentagon contractor. A U.S. official told the Associated Press the destroyer USS Bainbridge is en route while another official said six or seven ships are responding to the takeover of the “Maersk Alabama,” which is part of a fleet of ships owned by Maersk Ltd., a U.S. subsidiary of a Denmark firm, which does about a half-billion dollars in business with the U.S. government a year.

The Somali pirates who took control of the 17,000-ton "Maersk Alabama" cargo-ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning probably were unaware that the ship they were boarding belonged to a U.S. Department of Defense contractor with "top security clearance," which does a half-billion dollars in annual business with the Pentagon, primarily the Navy. The ship was being operated by an "all-American" crew -- there were 20 U.S. nationals on the ship. "Every indication is that this is the first time a U.S.-flagged ship has been successfully seized by pirates," said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesperson for for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. The last documented pirate attack of a U.S. vessel by African pirates was reported in 1804, off Libya, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The company, A.P. Moller-Maersk, is a Denmark-based company with a large U.S. subsidiary, Maersk Line, Ltd, that serves U.S. government agencies and contractors. The company, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, runs the world's largest fleet of U.S.-flag vessels. The "Alabama" was about 300 miles off the coast of the Puntland region of northern Somalia when it was taken. The U.S. military says the Alabama was not operating on a DoD contract at the time and was said to be delivering food aid.

The closest U.S. warship to the "Alabama" at the time of the seizure was 300 miles away. The U.S. Navy did not say how or if it would respond, but seemed not to rule out intervention. "It's fair to say we are closely monitoring the situation, but we will not discuss nor speculate on current and future military operations," said Navy Cmdr. Jane Campbell.

The seizure of the ship seemed to have been short-lived. At the time of this writing, the Pentagon was reporting that the U.S. crew retook the ship and was holding one of the pirates in custody. At this point, it is unclear if the crew acted alone or had assistance from the military or another security force.

Over the past year, there has been a dramatic uptick in media coverage of the "pirates," particularly in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates reportedly took in upwards of $150 million in ransoms last year alone.  In fact, at the moment the Alabama's seizure, pirates were already holding 14 other vessels with about 200 crew members, according to the International Maritime Bureau. There have been seven hijackings in the past month alone.

Often, the reporting on pirates centers around the gangsterism of the pirates and the seemingly huge ransoms they demand. Indeed, piracy can be a very profitable business, as the following report from Reuters suggests:

A rough back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the operation to hijack the Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, cost no more than $25,000, assuming that the pirates bought new equipment and weapons ($450 apiece for an AK-47 Kalashnikov, $5,000 for an RPG-7 grenade launcher, $15,000 for a speedboat). That contrasts with an initial ransom demand to the tanker's owner, Saudi Aramco, of $25 million.

"Piracy is an excellent business model if you operate from an impoverished, lawless place like Somalia," says Patrick Cullen, a security expert at the London School of Economics who has been researching piracy. "The risk-reward ratio is just huge."

But this type of coverage of the pirates is similar to the false narrative about "tribalism" being the cause of all of Africa's problems. Of course, there are straight-up gangsters and criminals engaged in these hijackings. Perhaps the pirates who hijacked the Alabama on Wednesday fall into that category. We do not yet know. But that is hardly the whole "pirate" story. Consider what one pirate told The New York Times after he and his men seized a Ukrainian freighter  "loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition" last year. "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits," said Sugule Ali:. "We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard." Now, that "coast guard" analogy is a stretch, but his point is an important and widely omitted part of this story. Indeed the Times article was titled, "Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money." Yet, The New York Times acknowledged, "the piracy industry started about 10 to 15 years ago… as a response to illegal fishing."

Take this fact: Over $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are "being stolen every year by illegal trawlers" off Somalia's coast, forcing the fishing industry there into a state of virtual non-existence.

But it isn't just the theft of seafood. Nuclear dumping has polluted the environment. "In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed," wrote Johann Hari in The Independent. "Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since -- and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas."

According to Hari:

As soon as the [Somali] government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
…

This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia -- and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence."


As the media coverage of the pirates has increased, private security companies like Xe/Blackwater have stepped in, seeing profits. A few months ago, Blackwater executives flew to London to meet with shipping company executives about protecting their ships from pirate attacks. In October, the company deployed the MacArthur, its "private sector warship equipped with helicopters" to the Gulf of Aden. "We have been contacted by shipowners who say they need our help in making sure goods get to their destination," said the company's executive vice-president, Bill Matthews. "The McArthur can help us accomplish that."

According to an engineer aboard the MacArthur, the ship, whose crew includes former Navy SEALS, was at one point stationed in an area several hundred miles off the coast of Yemen. "Security teams will escort ships around both horns of Africa, Somalia and Yemen as they head to the Suez Canal… The McArthur will serve as a staging point for the SEALs and their smaller boats."

All of this is important to keep in context any time you see a short blurb pop up about pirates attacking ships. "Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome?" Hari asked. "We won't act on those crimes -- the only sane solution to this problem -- but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world's oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats."

***

Just as it seemed that this drama was coming to an end, the story has taken a very bizarre turn. It seems as though the pirates essentially tricked the ship’s “all-American” crew into handing over the Alabama’s captain, Capt. Richard Phillips.

After reports, based on Pentagon sources, emerged that the ship had been retaken by the US crew, word came from the ship that the captain of the “Alabama” had been taken by the pirates onto a lifeboat. The details of how exactly the four pirates managed to get the captain onto a lifeboat are still sketchy, but it seems a little bit like a scene out of a Marx brothers movie. The ship’s second mate Kenn Quinn was interviewed on CNN and described how the crew was essentially tricked into handing the captain over to the pirates. Quinn spoke to CNN’s Kyra Phillips:

Quinn: When they board, they sank their boats so the captain talked them into getting off the ship with the lifeboat. But we took one of their pirates hostage and did an exchange. What? Huh? Okay. I’ve got to go.

Phillips: Ken, can you stay with me for just two more seconds?

Quinn: What?

Phillips: Can you tell me about the negotiations, what you’ve offered these pirates in exchange for your captain?

Quinn: We had one of their hostages. We had a pirate we took and kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up and he was our prisoner.

Phillips: Did you return him?

Quinn: Yeah, we did. But we returned him but they didn’t return the captain. So now we’re just trying to offer them whatever we can. Food. But it’s not working too good.”

As TV Newser pointed out, “Later Phillips gave what may be the understatement of the day: ‘It sounds like the pirates did not keep their end of the deal.’”


Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. His writing and reporting is available at RebelReports.com.

© 2009 Rebel Reports All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/135716/

[bigron]

Published on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 by RebelReports


Putting the 'Pirate' Attack in Context


A US ship, owned by a Pentagon contractor with ‘Top Security’ Clearance, was seized off the Somali coast. Reports say the US crew has retaken the ship. But the question remains: Why are the pirates attacking?


by Jeremy Scahill

UPDATE: US Crew Tricked Into Giving Over Captain to the Pirates? Meanwhile US Warships head to Scene
Just as it seemed that this drama was coming to an end, the story has taken a very bizarre turn.

The Maersk Alabama container ship which was hijacked by Somali pirates. (AFP/HO)At least one nuclear-powered US warship is reportedly [1] on its way to the scene of the hijacking off the coast of Somalia of a vessel owned by a major Pentagon contractor. A US official told the Associated Press the destroyer USS Bainbridge is en route while another official said six or seven ships are responding to the takeover of the "Maersk Alabama," which is part of a fleet of ships owned by Maersk Ltd., a US subsidiary of a Denmark firm, which does about a half-billion dollars [2] in business with the US government a year.

Just as it seemed that this drama was coming to an end, the story has taken a very bizarre turn. It seems as though the pirates essentially tricked the ship's "all-American" crew into handing over the Alabama's captain, Capt. Richard Phillips.

After reports, based on Pentagon sources, emerged that the ship had been retaken by the US crew, word came from the ship that the captain of the "Alabama" had been taken by the pirates onto a lifeboat. The details of how exactly the four pirates managed to get the captain onto a lifeboat are still sketchy, but it seems a little bit like a scene out of a Marx brothers movie. The ship's second mate Kenn Quinn was interviewed on CNN and described how the crew was essentially tricked into handing the captain over to the pirates. Quinn spoke [3] to CNN's Kyra Phillips:

Quinn: When they board, they sank their boats so the captain talked them into getting off the ship with the lifeboat. But we took one of their pirates hostage and did an exchange. What? Huh? Okay. I've got to go.
Phillips: Ken, can you stay with me for just two more seconds?

Quinn: What?

Phillips: Can you tell me about the negotiations, what you've offered these pirates in exchange for your captain?

Quinn: We had one of their hostages. We had a pirate we took and kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up and he was our prisoner.

Phillips: Did you return him?

Quinn: Yeah, we did. But we returned him but they didn't return the captain. So now we're just trying to offer them whatever we can. Food. But it's not working too good."

As TV Newser [3] pointed out, "Later Phillips gave what may be the understatement of the day: ‘It sounds like the pirates did not keep their end of the deal.'"

 * * * *

The Somali pirates who took [4] control of the 17,000-ton “Maersk Alabama” cargo-ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning probably were unaware that the ship they were boarding belonged to a US Department of Defense contractor with “top security clearance,” which does a half-billion dollars in annual business with the Pentagon, primarily the Navy. What’s more, the ship was being operated by an “all-American” crew—there were 20 US nationals on the ship. “Every indication is that this is the first time a U.S.-flagged ship has been successfully seized by pirates,” said [5] Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesperson for for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. The last documented pirate attack of a US vessel by African pirates was reported in 1804, off Libya, according to The Los Angeles Times [5].

The company, A.P. Moller-Maersk [6], is a Denmark-based company with a large US subsidiary, Maersk Line, Ltd, that serves US government agencies and contractors. The company, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, runs the world’s largest fleet of US-flag vessels. The “Alabama” was about 300 miles off the coast of the Puntland region of northern Somalia when it was taken. The US military says the Alabama was not operating on a DoD contract at the time and was said to be delivering food aid.

The closest US warship to the “Alabama” at the time of the seizure was 300 miles away. The US Navy did not say how or if it would respond, but seemed not to rule out intervention. ”It’s fair to say we are closely monitoring the situation, but we will not discuss nor speculate on current and future military operations,” said [7] Navy Cmdr. Jane Campbell.

The seizure of the ship seemed to have been short-lived. At the time of this writing, the Pentagon was reporting that the US crew retook the ship and was holding one of the pirates in custody. At this point, it is unclear if the crew acted alone or had assistance from the military or another security force.

Over the past year, there has been a dramatic uptick in media coverage of the “pirates,” particularly in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates reportedly [7] took in upwards of $150 million in ransoms last year alone.  In fact, at the moment the Alabama’s seizure, pirates were already holding 14 other vessels with about 200 crew members, according to the International Maritime Bureau. There have been seven hijackings in the past month alone.

Often, the reporting on pirates centers around the gangsterism of the pirates and the seemingly huge ransoms they demand. Indeed, piracy can be a very profitable business, as the following report from Reuters [8] suggests:

A rough back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the operation to hijack the Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, cost no more than $25,000, assuming that the pirates bought new equipment and weapons ($450 apiece for an AK-47 Kalashnikov, $5,000 for an RPG-7 grenade launcher, $15,000 for a speedboat). That contrasts with an initial ransom demand to the tanker’s owner, Saudi Aramco, of $25 million.

“Piracy is an excellent business model if you operate from an impoverished, lawless place like Somalia,” says Patrick Cullen, a security expert at the London School of Economics who has been researching piracy. “The risk-reward ratio is just huge.”

But this type of coverage of the pirates is similar to the false narrative about “tribalism” being the cause of all of Africa’s problems. Of course, there are straight-up gangsters and criminals engaged in these hijackings. Perhaps the pirates who hijacked the Alabama on Wednesday fall into that category. We do not yet know. But that is hardly the whole “pirate” story. Consider what one pirate told [9] The New York Times after he and his men seized a Ukrainian freighter  “loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition” last year. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” said Sugule Ali:. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.” Now, that “coast guard” analogy is a stretch, but his point is an important and widely omitted part of this story. Indeed the Times article was titled, “Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money.” Yet, The New York Times acknowledged, “the piracy industry started about 10 to 15 years ago… as a response to illegal fishing.”

Take this fact [10]: Over $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are “being stolen every year by illegal trawlers” off Somalia’s coast, forcing the fishing industry there into a state of virtual non-existence.

But it isn’t just the theft of seafood. Nuclear dumping has polluted the environment. “In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed,” wrote Johann Hari in The Independent [10]. “Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.”

According to Hari:

As soon as the [Somali] government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
…

This is the context in which the “pirates” have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a “tax” on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence.”


As the media coverage of the pirates has increased, private security companies like Xe/Blackwater have stepped in, seeing profits. A few months ago, Blackwater executives flew to London to meet with shipping company executives about protecting their ships from pirate attacks. In October, the company deployed [11] the MacArthur, its “private sector warship equipped with helicopters” to the Gulf of Aden. “We have been contacted by shipowners who say they need our help in making sure goods get to their destination,” said the company’s executive vice-president, Bill Matthews. “The McArthur can help us accomplish that.”

According to an engineer [12] aboard the MacArthur, the ship, whose crew includes former Navy SEALS, was at one point stationed in an area several hundred miles off the coast of Yemen. “Security teams will escort ships around both horns of Africa, Somalia and Yemen as they head to the Suez Canal… The McArthur will serve as a staging point for the SEALs and their smaller boats.”

All of this is important to keep in context any time you see a short blurb pop up about pirates attacking ships. “Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome?” Hari asked. “We won’t act on those crimes – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats.”

© 2009 Jeremy Scahill

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/04/08-5

[IridiumKEPfactor]

One more bit of info. I was watching CNN this morning and before the hijacking they sent a reporter Jason Carrol to interview the head of the company that was training ship crewmen how to defend themselves against pirates and also did weapons training. Within hours of the interview a ship gets hijacked and the guy that is being held hostage is the son the of the owner of the company that they were interviewing.

Then CNN does a psyop and brings on a guy that was hijacked but only had food and cigarettes on his boat. He said that guns whould only make things worse. He was the only person on his boat, ignored the signals from other ships that pirates were in the area. He came up with a machette but they had weapons. Him and the host Karen Chettrey, keeped on enphasizing that guns would only make things worse. MASSIVE PSYOP.    

[jadem]

Within hours of the interview a ship gets hijacked and the guy that is being held hostage is the son the of the owner of the company that they were interviewing.

Nice find, this definitely doesn't add up. If they were doing some sort of an exchange why would they give their CAPTAIN?

[bigron]

Cargo ship heads for Kenya; pirates still hold captain


Story Highlights :


NEW: Armed security detail aboard Maersk Alabama as it heads to port

Navy calls in FBI to negotiate with pirates who hold American captain

Pirates hold captain in one of Maersk Alabama's lifeboats

U.S. Navy warned that pirates increasing range of operations




(CNN) -- The U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama is heading to port in Mombasa, Kenya, a day after it was hijacked off Somalia's coast, the father of one of the crew members said Thursday.

An 18-man armed security detail is on board to make sure the vessel and the 20 crew members get there safely, Capt. Joe Murphy said. It is about a 50-hour journey.

FBI negotiators are trying to secure the release of the Maersk Alabama's captain, who is still being held by the Somali hijackers in a lifeboat.

Capt. Richard Phillips "remains hostage but is unharmed," Maersk spokesman Kevin Speers said Thursday morning.

"The safe return of the captain is our foremost priority," Speers said.

The U.S. Navy has called FBI negotiators to help negotiate his release, according to FBI spokesman Bill Carter.

The pirates reneged on their agreement to exchange Phillips for one pirate who had been captured by the crew members, according to the second officer of the ship, Ken Quinn. The pirate was released unharmed, according to Quinn who spoke to CNN on Wednesday via a satellite call.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday morning, Speers said the U.S. Navy "is in command of the situation."

"We are in regular contact with the Alabama," he said from Maersk Line Ltd.'s headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. "The ship remains at a safe distance as instructed by the Navy. We are coordinating with the Navy and all the governmental organizations involved in this crisis." Watch company spokesman say how captain is held »

Maersk Line Ltd. -- a subsidiary of the Danish shipping company, Maersk Line -- owns and operates the Maersk Alabama.

A U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, is now in position near the lifeboat believed to be carrying Phillips and the pirates. But there has been no official confirmation of the tiny vessel's whereabouts since early Thursday morning. Watch former Navy captain discuss options »

For its part, Maersk is doing everything it can "to increase the chance of (a) peaceful outcome," Speers said Thursday.

"We are encouraged that most of the crew is safe, they have been resilient and courageous throughout this crisis," he said. "But we will remain on watch, staffing our situation room and our family hotline until this situation is resolved and the captain is safely returned."

The Maersk Alabama was on its way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa loaded with food aid when the pirates attacked it Wednesday morning. It was the first time in recent history that pirates targeted a U.S.-flagged ship.

The ship was 350 miles off the coast of Somalia, a distance that used to be considered safe from pirate attacks.

The U.S. Navy issued a warning several days ago to ships in the area warning them that pirates were increasingly operating farther and farther offshore. See how pirate attacks have increased »

Quinn told CNN that the pirates were armed with AK-47 assault rifles. The ship's crew carried no weapons. Watch Quinn describe the hijacking to CNN »

Crew members managed to take one of the four pirates hostage, Quinn said. The crew -- apparently minus the captain -- locked themselves in the compartment that contains the ship's steering gear, where they remained for about 12 hours with their captive, whom Quinn said they had tied up.

The three other pirates "got frustrated because they couldn't find us," he said.

The pirates had scuttled the small boat they used to reach the ship, Quinn said, so Phillips offered them the Alabama's 28-foot lifeboat and some money.

Crew members agreed to exchange their captive pirate in exchange for Phillips, Quinn said, but the pirates reneged on their agreement.

"We returned him, but they didn't return the captain," Quinn said. Watch how pirates work off Somalia »

There are emergency rations to last 10 days on the lifeboat, but the conditions are most likely "uncomfortable," according to Murphy.

"There's no toilet facilities or anything like that," he said. "The captain has a VHS radio, and I'm sure that he's in voice communication with the ship itself. The problem is, of course, that ... the [radio's] battery is going to die, and I'm not really sure how they're going to continue communication after that."

It is common for the crews of merchant vessels to travel through the area unarmed, despite the risk of pirate attacks, experts have said. An armed crew could provoke a firefight that would endanger the crew's lives or its cargo, which often contains flammable or explosive material.

John Reinhart, chief executive and president of Maersk Line Ltd., said the crew can try to outrun the pirate boats or turn fire hoses on anyone trying to board the ship, "but we do not carry arms."

The vessel was carrying relief supplies for USAID, the U.N. World Food Program and the Christian charities WorldVision and Catholic Relief Services. The U.N. agency said its portion of the cargo included nearly 4,100 metric tons of corn-soya blend bound for Somalia and Uganda, and another 990 metric tons of vegetable oil for refugees in Kenya.

CNN's Jason Carroll contributed to this report.

All AboutPirates • Gulf of Aden • Somalia
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

Watch company spokesman say how captain is held »
#cnnSTCVideo
Watch former Navy captain discuss options »
#cnnSTCVideo
Somalia
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/somalia
See how pirate attacks have increased »
#cnnSTCOther2
Watch Quinn describe the hijacking to CNN »
#cnnSTCVideo
pirates
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/pirates
Watch how pirates work off Somalia »
#cnnSTCVideo
Pirates
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Pirates
Gulf of Aden
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Gulf_of_Aden
Somalia
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Somalia

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/09/ship.hijacked/index.html 
 

[Gandalf]

They men are unarmed so they are like sitting ducks out there--freaking UN!

Let me get this straight, the are not allowed to have weapons because of the UN or because the United States laws?

[JonTheSavage]

Let me get this straight, the are not allowed to have weapons because of the UN or because the United States laws?

A: The UN is an organization. Just like the ADL is an organization. They are not a "governing body".
B: They are in international waters. No law. You can do as you want. Just don't dock at a country that sees
you as a threat.
C: Thats what happens when you have a bunch of unarmed peasants running around.

[jesqueal]

lol they probably put a special forces group undercover on a juicy looking ship and wandered around Somalia pretending to be lost
The reason they'd cover it up in the press would be so that they wouldn't have to admit any kind of interrogation of the dude they captured

Don't forget that both ends of the Gulf of Aden were strategical parts of the British Empire


And as a Pirate interviewed in the Guardian said, pirates are dependant upon the big-money finaceers

When the money is delivered to our ship we count the dollars and let the hostages go.

Then our friends come to welcome us back in Eyl and we go to Garowe in Land Cruisers. We split the money. For example, if we get $1.8m, we would send $380,000 to the investment man who gives us cash to fund the missions, and then divide the rest between us.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/22/piracy-somalia

[donnay]

Let me get this straight, the are not allowed to have weapons because of the UN or because the United States laws?

It is a bit confusing. UN mandates that we (U.S.) bow down to these international laws, for a 'civilian crewed' vessel.  They classify the Merchant Mariner crew as civilians therefore, there are a lot of countries that do not allow civilians to be armed which is critiqued by UN mandates. Some companies allow armed security but there is lots of red tape.  Zim Container line (Israel-flagged) skirt around these guidelines because their mariners are considered to be 'National guard' and therefore, they are armed to the teeth!

Re-posting this again:

International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee MSC/Circ. 623/Rev. 2; 20 June 2001 Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships: Guidance to Shipowners and Ship Operators, Shipmasters and Crews on Preventing Acts of Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships, page 8, paragraphs 44 and 45:

44. The carrying and use of firearms for personal protection or protection of a ship is strongly discouraged.

45. Carriage of arms on board ship may encourage attackers to carry firearms thereby escalating an already dangerous situation, and any firearms on board may themselves become an attractive target for an attacker. The use of firearms requires special training and aptitudes and the risk of accidents with firearms carried on board ship is great. In some jurisdiction, killing a national my have unforeseen consequences even for a person who believes he has acted in self defence.”


UN's twisted logic that you have no right to self-defense.
http://americancommondefencereview.blogspot.com/

[donnay]

Here is the last interview Alex had with Captain Kelley Sweeney (Decemeber 10, 2008):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LSNi4C8N54&feature=player_embedded

Alex interviewed Captain Kelley Sweeney today, I hope to get the Youtube on this as well.

I just wanted to let everyone know my husband who is a Master Mariner, currently off shore right now and has XM radio (Fox News) and my emails to keep him abreast of this incident. He has been writing me via satellite emails telling me that Fox News is going around hyping this by saying:  "Nothing like this has happened to an American sailor or crew for 200 years!" He said:  "Well, I know we don't exist to the MSM but literally hundreds of US sailors and oilfield crews have been taken hostage by pirates, in mostly Western Africa--this is NOTHING NEW!!!" 

As I said earlier it is under-reported for a reason.  I think this may turn out to be another Gulf of Tonkin-like incident and I pray for the safety of Captain Phillips.

[donnay]

Pirates hold US captain hostage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFf-KvcZtBw

[donnay]

Capt. Richard Phillips knows pirates
The Maersk Alabama's captain and his second in command, Shane Murphy, studied anti-piracy tactics at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
By Bob Drogin and Rinker Buck
April 9, 2009

Reporting from Silver Spring, Md., and Bourne, Mass. -- Capt. Richard Phillips knew the waters off the rugged Horn of Africa were dangerous. The veteran mariner said as much in an e-mail to his wife, Andrea, from the cargo ship Maersk Alabama.

"He knew the pirates were active again," said his sister-in-law, Lea Coggio.

Shane Murphy, the second in command on the huge U.S-flagged ship, also knew the perils of sailing off Somalia. He brushed off his mother's questions about pirates when home in Massachusetts, but he posted his fears online.

"These waters are infested with pirates that highjack (sic) ships daily," Murphy wrote on his Facebook page recently as he sailed between Oman and Kenya. "I feel like it's only a matter of time before my number gets called."

That time came soon after dawn Wednesday. At least four heavily armed men climbed from two speedboats onto the Maersk Alabama and took Phillips captive in a lifeboat from his ship, according to U.S. officials.

Phillips had flown from his home in rural Vermont to the United Arab Emirates about two weeks ago to take command of the 508-foot-long container ship. Once it was loaded with humanitarian aid supplies and other cargo, he charted a course to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Phillips and Murphy are both graduates of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where Murphy's father teaches a course in anti-piracy tactics. The academy has been training cadets for two years in these tactics in anticipation of the time -- almost inevitable, academy leaders said -- when a U.S. vessel would be boarded by pirates. Officials there said the incident illustrates the importance of such work.

"Today the issue of how to protect that oceangoing commerce went from the academic course we teach here to reality TV for America," said Adm. Rick Gurnon, a former Navy pilot who serves as the academy's president.

Among the mysteries of Wednesday's assault was how the crew managed to regain control of the vessel. There's only so much an unarmed commercial ship can do. Measures include forming convoys under naval escort, steaming at high speed, and stationing crew members on deck to make it appear that the vessel is ready to repel boarders.

At the academy in Bourne, crews are also taught to disable the ship to thwart pirates. Gurnon noted that, since last fall, pirates have seized 10 major flagships from around the world and that 200 seamen are being held hostage in Somalia. Gurnon said it was his understanding that the crew disabled the Maersk Alabama.

Wednesday's events apparently played out in ways emphasized in academy courses. Cadets are warned to remain vigilant even in deep water. Until about six months ago, pirates operated fairly close to shore.

But increased patrols by North Atlantic Treaty Organization, European Union and U.S. naval ships are prompting pirates to head farther out to sea, as happened Wednesday.

Reporters descended on the academy, which is distinguished by handsome old brick buildings with weathered green copper dormers. As officials discussed the Maersk Alabama, the academy went on with its regular business. Cadets marched smartly past in their black uniforms or hustled off to athletic fields.

In Vermont, at Phillips' home in Underhill, anxious family members clustered around TVs. They described Phillips, 55, as intelligent and cool and said he probably was trying to strike a deal with his captors.

"Richard is smart, easygoing, laid-back," Coggio said in a phone interview. "I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he's having a relaxed conversation right now with the pirates."

A neighbor called the family at 7 a.m. when he heard on the radio that pirates had attacked a U.S. ship. Initial reports suggested that the Americans had repelled the boarding party. But Maersk officials notified Andrea Phillips in midafternoon of the second assault.

"They told her he's being held hostage in a lifeboat," Coggio said. "The crew was holding a pirate, and they were supposed to trade. But the Somalis didn't go through with their end of the deal. They kept Richard."

With Phillips in the lifeboat, the American ship was under the command of Murphy, 33.

His mother had wanted him to be a lawyer, and he considered teaching English. But the sea seemed to be in his blood. His grandfather had worked a lobster boat. His father, Capt. Joseph S. Murphy II, spent 16 years as a merchant seaman before becoming a professor at the academy.

So Murphy got a job on the Martha's Vineyard ferry and enrolled in the academy, graduating in 2001.

His mother said Murphy took a break from his studies a few years back and auditioned for a bit part in "Thirteen Days," a film about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 that starred Kevin Costner.

Murphy landed a role as a Navy officer, but the camera caught only his hand and elbow, so he persuaded the director to recast him as a ship's radio operator. He has no lines in the film but appears in another scene, frantically tapping out a Morse code message.

"That's Shane," his mother, Marianne Murphy, 60, said from her home in Plympton, Mass. "He doesn't take no. He joked afterward that he should have played the part of President Kennedy. He said, 'I'm handsome and I'm Irish.' "

Murphy boarded the Maersk Alabama in March after three months of shore leave with his wife, Serena, and their children -- ages 3 and 3 months -- in tiny Seekonk, Mass.

While in Massachusetts, he delivered a lecture at the academy. His subject: Fighting piracy.

bob.drogin@latimes.com

rbuck@courant.com

Times staff writers Dan Weikel and Julian E. Barnes contributed to this report.