Somalian Pirates: More Than Meets the Eye

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html

The Kid Rasta

 

Eye opening indeed

 

Imagine that! The "civilized" world takes a huge dump on Somalia and then cries foul when they do something about it???

INCONCEIVABLE!

There are always two sides to a story and if that source is to be believed (which woudn't surprise me) then who can blame them really? If your only source of lively-hood is being jacked by foreign powers and they use your land as a dumping ground because they see you as "people who don't matter", then what can they do? It's not like Somalia has a lot of political power. You either try to have a dialog (LOL, yeah right!), fight back or do nothing and perish! We ARE talking nuclear waste/"The Hills Have Eyes" stuff here, right???

It appears they intend to fight back. I don't condone piracy or kidnapping of any kind but if you are in their situation and NO ONE will listen to you your only option is to MAKE them listen!

ON THE OTHER HAND, if the story is bunk and they are doing this just to make a good buck (which I am sure a good many of them probably do regardless), then yeah, blow them out of the water! It's my understanding that they ask for/get MILLIONS for those captives?! After awhile, greed can corrupt even the best of intentions...

 

Look people shouldn't be attacking unarmed vessels period. If there's a beef, take it to the UN. Don't be fooled piracy is all about money. I just read a piece in Vanity Fair that talked about a French ship and crew that got captured. The French gov't and the shipping line agreed to pay 2.1 million USD to the pirates and most of them got away with the money. They are also attacking Russian, English and other ships. The USA is the only country who fought back.

That article is the kind of piece that gets conservatives riled up against liberals who want to live and let live in the face of an illegal attack on a sovereign vessel.

 

How will you feel if you were driving down the road and you stopped at a stop sign and someone jumped in your car with gun in hand and taken over your auto. Then ask you to call your family or friends and tell them they will not see you again unless they cough up, oh about 10 thousand dollars. Somehow your family and/or friends came up with the money and the person let you go once he got the money.

Are you going to shrug your shoulders and say, "It happens" and move on?

 

If you are directing this to me, then you mistook what I said. Using your analogy, IF I or my family did something terrible to that individual to drive him to take me hostage, then YES it is still wrong of that person and sucks for me to high hell but AT LEAST I could sort of understand WHY he did it. NOT SAYING THAT HE IS JUSTIFIED, just saying that I can understand it.

IF he took me hostage just to hopefully make a few bucks and I didn't personally do crap to him, then of course you don't "shrug your shoulders", you deal with the bastard harshly!

In the end, regardless of whatever the reason they claim to do this, it has more than likely become all about the benjamins by now since it has been an easy way for them to fleece money. At least until they dragged us into it...

 

Just a link?

Maybe you could post an excerpt that is pertinent to the point you want to make, and state your opinion on the subject. Then we can go to the link to read the entire article if interested.

 

Old news actually HuffPost have done better articles about this subject late last year. And of course the nternational press and the NY Times ahve touched on the roots of the problem as well. The situation does not necessarily justify piracy/robbery, but as with most things in life it tells us the issue is complicated, not black and white.

 

Not really. French commandoes took out a group of pirates two days before the USA did. Don't believe in the propaganda about America being the only country to fight back. Seriously, more folks don't keep up with news.

Next of all how absurd is it to suggest that the issue be resolved by the UN. Who is going to take the case to the UN? What clout do they have? To the citizens who are starving how long do they have to wait for SOMEONE to address it at the UN and then how much longer do they have to wait for a resolution? Come on. It doesn't work like that. Should they all just accept their fates and die off? This isn't some law television series where things are wrapped up in an hour. This is the real world.

Look we in America have no right telling peope not to resort to violence when that's all we have done for 200 plus years. Americans favor violence and we are good at using excuses such as "protecting our families", "protecting our way of life", "protecting our land", "spreading democracy", etc. Perhaps the only time Americans have resorted to non-violence to solve a major, volatile situation where lives were at stake was during the Civil Rights Movement. And to no surprise righties like to shit over all the accomplishments that came out of that movement during the 60s. That's America for you.

I can't condone all of what the pirates are doing but I imagine how they are being viewed by the media and our citizens is not much different than how Native Americans who resorted to violence and brutality and thuggery were viewed over a hundred years ago. It didn't matter that the vast majority of native Americans had been wiped out by European diseases, that they had had their land taken from them, that they had been betrayed by phony treates, that they had been violently attacked by Americans. No all that mattered was that those uppity Injuns resorted to barbaric, un-Christian behaviour and as a result they had to be stopped. Newspapers, history books, dime novels, movels would paint Native Americans as "the bad guys" for more than a century.What's the fucking difference now?

Have many if not most of the Somali pirates taken advantage of the horrible situation for their own selfish, financial gain? Yep. But this is expected in a lawless society in which even the basic needs can't be met. In such socities there is nothing more dangerous than young men without jobs, without a future and without a structure in their lives. You give them a very big target (in this case the tankers/boats of rich nations, many of whom exploit the country's resources) and of course you're asking for trouble. Obviously the big nations have to take them out if necessary. But lets keep in mind that the big nations are partially to blame in the first place.

Right wing whack jobs get upset even when they are told the truth. So who cares what they think?

 

I just went to conoco.com the american oil company's website and sent the fallowing email cuz I need to know !


Dear sir/madam


you have invested millions in Somalia and you know there is oil in that country. Only if the lawlessness would end then you'll probably go back and continue were you left off. I've just read the article below and I am just astounded by the important role you've played and how you used your political connections to see to it that you have achieved results !! ... so what are you doing these days when it comes to the political front to help end Somalia's long ongoing crisis in order for your wonderful company to go back and make billions from somalia's oil ?

here is the article please cut and paste the link:

http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/15032002/1503200246.htm

feel free to contact me XXX XXXXXX

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

If get any response [I highy doubt it] I'll let you know

 

Look...the basic issue is this: Somalia is a fucked up country. The world takes advantage of this, so there should be no surprise by the behaviour of the Somalians....they want to survive and prosper just like Americans, Europeans & Asians.

Another point: Have any of the pirates ever killed any of their hostages??? To my knowlege...No. So, it's pretty obvious their only motivation in this is money. Now, imagine if they were al-Qaida...their motivation would be to wipe out Westerners -- particularly, Americans -- and money would not even enter the picture.

The Kid Rasta

 

They have struck again 4 ships were hijacked since the american captain was rescued.




Ending Somali piracy: few options for U.S

Fixing those problems could take decades, and the U.S. already tried intervening — 17 years ago in a failed humanitarian mission that ended with helicopters shot down and dead US soldiers dragged through Mogadishu's streets."

It's understandable to find people yelling at their televisions, saying 'shoot them all or stop them,'" Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, managing director of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service in Britain, said of the pirates. "You have the might of international navies, and you can't end this?"But sending in more warships is like "sticking a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound," he said. "The fact is, what you see at sea is a manifestation of the problems ashore in Somalia."The country of 8 million people disintegrated in 1991 when warlords toppled the president. Since then, it's been ruled by heavily armed rival clans, hit by famine, and suffered relentless outbreaks of street-fighting that turned it into a no-go zone for most foreigners.

The U.S. dispatched troops in 1992 as part of a U.N. relief operation to feed hordes of hungry civilians, but the Americans became entangled in local clan warfare. Months later, militias shot down two helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers in a battle recounted in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."Images of gunmen dragging the bodies of U.S. soldiers through Mogadishu became an icon for those opposed to U.S. involvement overseas. Then-President Bill Clinton ordered a U.S. withdrawal and promised no troops would be deployed there again unless there was a clear U.S. national interest.Somalia's anarchy, though, has come back to haunt.U.S. officials believe al-Qaida has operatives there, and hit at least one suspected terror base in 2007.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday he saw no immediate need to bulk up the military response to piracy on the high seas. On Monday, the day after U.S. Navy snipers shot dead three Somali pirates holding American freighter Capt. Richard Phillips hostage, President Barack Obama vowed that Washington was newly committed to halting "the rise of piracy," though he didn't say how.It's a battle America is already involved in.In December, the U.S. pushed a resolution through the U.N. Security Council, clearing the way for international forces to conduct operations on shore in Somalia against pirate havens. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said Washington wanted to be sure forces could conduct "hot pursuit" of pirates on land if necessary.That hasn't happened.

Pirates operate openly in several towns along the coast, but attacking those sanctuaries would be problematic because intelligence is thin and there are almost no easy targets. Gunmen and guns are rampant in Somalia, and pirates like all insurgents easily meld into the civilian population."You have to be able to tell the difference between good guys and bad guys, and they all look very similar," Gibbon-Brooks said.The same holds true on the high seas.Pirates have begun to capture larger vessels for use as "mother ships," enabling their tiny skiffs to operate hundreds of miles offshore. But while U.S. Defense officials say privately they would like to focus on disabling such ships, it's difficult to distinguish pirates masquerading as fishermen from the real thing.

The international community is desperate to free the dozen or so hijacked ships moored along Somali's coast, waiting for ransoms to be paid. But attacking them would endanger the hundreds of innocents aboard, who are essentially the pirates' human shields. Gibbon-Brooks said each ship had an average of 25 kidnapped crew aboard and perhaps 30 pirates. Most nations and ship owners have been reticent to use military options because they fear civilian casualties and damage to precious cargo. Beyond that, pirates have rarely harmed hostages. While America's own rescue turned out well Sunday, a similar French-led rescue Friday left one French citizen dead. And in November, the Indian navy sunk a Thai-owned fishing trawler after coming under fire, killing 15 of the 16 sailors aboard. Perhaps the biggest obstacle facing the U.S. and its allies is the sheer size of the seas around the Gulf of Aden and Somalia's 1,900-mile coastline, the longest in Africa.

It's impossible for ships to be everywhere at once, and they can only guard a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of vessels that transit the region annually. In October, NATO sent a seven-ship naval force to the Gulf of Aden, and the European Union sent its own flotilla. The coalition has had some success: two military helicopters drove off pirates who had boarded a Chinese cargo ship as the crew hid behind locked doors. Indian sailors captured 23 pirates who had been threatening a merchant vessel and handed them over to Yemen for prosecution. But pirates countered by increasing operations outside the Gulf of Aden. "They're expanding," said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur. They're "getting bolder and more desperate to get ships." On Tuesday, pirates nabbed a Greek-managed ship with 22 Filipino seamen aboard in the Gulf of Aden, with another group of pirates in speedboats taking a Lebanese-owned cargo ship off Somalia's eastern coast. The incidents brought the total number of reported attacks this year alone to least 78. Pirates now hold at least 17 ships and 300 crew. While there have been calls for companies to place armed guards on vessels, most experts believe that would only escalate conflict and spark firefights. Gibbon-Brooks said pirates typically fired across bows to stop vessels and so far have not intentionally targeted crew. "For many people it's a mystery why we let pirates get away with it. But everyone usually comes home unharmed," Gibbon-Brooks said. "The point is, life is precious, it makes no sense to hazard it." Analysts say sailors best options may be those already have: evasive maneuvers, swamping pirate skiffs with wake, forcing them back with fire hoses. Some have suggested traveling in sea convoys yahoo news

 

Wow, this picture is pretty epic. (a grenade launcher to the face?)

 

I bet those "pirates" get their weapons from the US or Britain.

This is all being set-up so America can have an excuse to send troops to the horn of Africa and rape the shit out of it.

 

A very important point: The pirates have not killed or seriously injured any crewmembers taken as hostage. Their motivation is solely money.

The Kid Rasta

 

lol...shock value, with a bit of 'overkill'

for one, I'm not sure of the arming range of a RPG warhead, so the thing may not detonate (some explosive-type projectiles do have internal arming mechanisms, to prevent unwanted fratricide and other accidents), but simply do velocity-based damage without exploding...like a football thrown at your head really hard..

or...two...the thing is fired, arms right on the spot, and kills everyone on the boat

either way it's not a realistic scenario and is only used to frighten the guy

 

I think those are nigerians in the delta they don't look like somalians both countries have pirates


here are the somalians



frightened white ppl I feel their pain :lol: they don't get harmed cuz like kid was saying pirates won't get paid if they kill their hostages.

 

Between Somali pirates and Nigerian scam artists I'm glad I'm AMERICAN

 

these pirates are on some other shit

next time i go for a boat ride, i'm goin to make sure I got a sub with an extra clip, under the blanket

 

The French marines alreeady freed captives that had been held captive - 2 on boats(1 hostage died) and the 3rd where pirates were paid the money but weee later persued and killed back on land. We were under impression in Europe that the French were the only ones who were reacting until the latest US incident.
Shows you how distorted the news can be in each country.