Great Somali Pirate Quote..

This had me laughing. It's a Somali Pirate swearing revenge against the U.S. and French

Somali pirates were quick to vow revenge over Sunday's shooting, as well as a French military assault to rescue a yacht on Friday.

"The French and the Americans will regret starting this killing. We do not kill, but take only ransom. We shall do something to anyone we see as French or American from now," Hussein, a pirate, told Reuters by satellite phone.

Hey Guys, we were just playing around with this hostage taking thing... but NOW IT"S ON !! Forget about being nice with just asking for ransoms and stuff... now we mean business.

ok, seriously, why aren't any of these crews armed at this point? this has been happening for 2+ years.
how much would an AK47 and training cost per crew member?

Well, they should be unless it's an oil tanker

Well it's not that simple.As much as we all think it'd be a great idea armed crews would violate other countries laws because they'd be carrying firearms in their territory.I think armed( and trained) crews or professional security guards/mercenaries is the best way to go.

Also majority of the hijacked ships involve no actual deaths or harm to crew. They just get ransom and leave. Arm the crews of the ships and your going to have lots of dead people.

Yeah but the ransoms are in the millions of dollars...it hit penalizes out pockets at the gas pumps. Give the crew an 88mm cannon to blow those little ships out of the water.

You won't have lots of dead people because pirate crews will be less likely to attack a ship with an armed crew, they may be pirates, but they're not suicidal. You'll have less hostage/ransom situations.

You realize where these pirates come from? The threat of violence will not deter them when one successful pirate job is enough to make them made men in their country for life. The problem with the region is how bad it is and any risks are worth it as they are getting filthy rich and women are flocking to them. They literally have an army of women waiting to do them as soon as they get back to shore because of the money they make.

You seriously think the threat of death is going to scare off Somalian pirates? Take a look at their history, violence is not going to scare them away. These people are in desperate situations, you may scare a few away, but many are not going to let such things stop them. If anything it will just have them targeting other ships.

Only thing thats going to stop them is if these stupid countries and companies would stop paying the fricken ransom almost every time. Lot of these pirates do one job, make a ton of money and they are done, most of these pirates are just coming in constantly with new flow of members who all are flocking to the coasts to join crews for the hopes of making it big. Sure there is going to be some pussies, but your going to have the real bad guys showing their true colors.

Armed crews would be helpful for protecting cargo though risky and theirs lots of legal issues with arming crews or cargo vessels. Too many though have simply rolled over these past years and made the situation worse when military armed responses should have been done sooner to deter the situation from getting worse. If they stop getting their money and start dying out there, then they will probably stop, but as long as these floating pots of gold are out there, the pirates will keep on going.

How much american shipping goes through that area anyways ? cant assign a Marine attachement to a ship traveling through that area ?
Dont think you can have Armed merchanmen ships, i think is against International law or something since they are constantly entering the waters of some country or another.

from a tactical standpoint defenders on a cargo ship (elevated position) would have a far greater chance than the somali attackers from skiffs or speedboats.
is there somewhere in the UN COLS that states you cannot protect your own crew, ship and cargo?
what would it take for a .50cal automatic weapon mounted to a railing to punch enough holes in an attacking boat to deter them?

of course this does not factor into account how prevalent RPGs are in the third world. nor the amount of damage an RPG could do to a cargo ship.

luis the young wrote:How much american shipping goes through that area anyways ? cant assign a Marine attachement to a ship traveling through that area ?

Lots of shipping goes through there heading to the Suez Canal. That's a *lot* of Marines. and they've already got military ships out there patrolling, but there's so much water to cover and only so many naval vessels available.

luis the young wrote:Dont think you can have Armed merchanmen ships, i think is against International law or something since they are constantly entering the waters of some country or another.

http://www.imo.org/Conventions/mainframe.asp?topic_id=259&doc_id=686

The MSC in 1986 issued a Circular (MSC/Circ.443) on Measures to prevent unlawful acts against passengers and crews on board ships - which states that Governments, port authorities, administrations, shipowners, shipmasters and crews should take appropriate measures to prevent unlawful acts which may threaten passengers and crews. The Circular gives guidelines on measures that can be taken - with application to passenger ships engaged on international voyages of 24 hours or more and port facilities which service them.

And thats the prob right there, 'RPGs' those things are a dime a dozen and pack a mean punch, 2-3 of those could seriously damage a ship, heck, they are made to crack open tanks !

true, but that would limit their ability to ransom off the ship and her crew, destroying their leverage.

dork_jedi wrote:true, but that would limit their ability to ransom off the ship and her crew, destroying their leverage.

Yes, but by damaging/sinking a couple of ships they can get their message accross that they mean bussines and use that as levearage to actually get the ransom paid. Terror has been a tactic used sine the begining of time to get results.

The freaking UN should get of their cowardly asses and do something about those damn pirates, aint their job to 'patrol' the world or some shit ?

Most of the ransomed ships though so far have not been American. Theirs lots of warships out there trying to protect these ships but theirs too many out there and to large an area to cover. The other problem that even if you were to arm the ships, the pirates still have it easy. Ships armed? Suddenly pirates are all hitting and boarding ships at night. Going to start training and arming all crew with night vision, night guards, search lights, and other tracking gear for protection? Eventually the ships are going to be war ships.

The costs for all this is probably going to be prohibitive that companies will seek other methods of shipping the goods instead of spending fortunes to create personal navies.

luis the young wrote:How much american shipping goes through that area anyways ? cant assign a Marine attachement to a ship traveling through that area ?
Dont think you can have Armed merchanmen ships, i think is against International law or something since they are constantly entering the waters of some country or another.

Change international law. Each ship should have Mercs or body guards. That would end it right there. Professional Mercs can handle some jackass pirates. Wipe them out.

Kill their fucking families...that'll deter them. Fucking animals. Those people only understand force of arms.

The cost to supply mercs to all the ships going through the region would be about same as paying the ransoms.... were talking about A LOT of shipping that goes through the region and only a portion of the ships ever get targeted by pirates. Mercs aren't cheap either and lot of other costs associated with dealing with the situation will arise.

The real solution.... nuke Somalia from Orbit. Just to be sure.

Fucken "A".

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/13/somalia.attack/

WAR!!!

Man... Africa is just not a fun place to live is it. Unless your Rich.


But seriously, the U.S coast guard and Royal Navy have basically eradicated piracy in the Carribean. Why can't they do the same over there?

Much larger area of water, international laws, better equipped pirates, and coast guard can't get to Africa to help, leaving it all in the hands of the Navy which is already spread thin around the world. The amount of shipping going through the area is huge and pretty hard to protect all those ships. The area is already full of Naval ships from various countries trying to protect the ships but it's not enough.

Pirates also easily get to take shelter back on land in Africa while in the Carribean it wasn't as easy for them to get away or get shelter on land.

Carpeting bombing the coast of Somlia works for me. This is the base of operation. Why focus on the Sea? This isn't Cpt Nemo. Spy planes could easily locate proper targets.

Jerryb

All you need is a couple of Q-ships to put a stop to all the pirating, once they sink a few pirates the raids are gonna stop cause the pirates wont know whos a real Merchant and whos not.

Blow up Africa, catch the falling diamonds, WIN!