20 Americans Held Hostage By Somali Pirates

[HiredGoon]

Now they have seized a U.S.-flagged ship. They can't get away with this shit. If they succeed in getting away with attacking a US ship, they'll be no stopping them. We need to stop these bastards in their tracks now, with extreme prejudice. HG

20 Americans Held Hostage By Somali Pirates
U.S. Mulls Response As Pirates Seize 17,000-Ton Ship

NAIROBI, Kenya (CBS) ― The U.S. government is working to respond to the first pirate attack against American citizens in recent memory - an American-flag ship hijacked off the coast of Somalia.

A senior Navy official in Washington says the Obama administration is talking to the shipping company to learn "the who, what, why, where and when" of the incident in which the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama and a crew of some 20 people was taken over by pirates.

Officials are refusing to say what, if any, plans the U.S. has for trying to free the ship and its crew.

The 17,000-ton Maersk 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 within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

In a statement, the company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.

CBS News correspondent Richard Roth reports that, according to the Seafarers.org Web site, run by a global shipping union, all the crew members were reportedly safe onboard the massive vessel. CBS News could not confirm that information and the Web site did not say how it was obtained.

It is not clear whether the pirates knew they were hijacking a ship with American crew members.

"It's a very significant foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration," said Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of the British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd. "Their citizens are in the hands of criminals and people are waiting to see what happens."

Brooks and other analysts interviewed by The Associated Press declined to speculate on whether American military forces might attempt a rescue operation.

When asked how the U.S. Navy plans to deal with the hijacking, Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said: "It's fair to say we are closely monitoring the situation, but we will not discuss nor speculate on current and future military operations."

Somalia's notorious pirates faded from the headlines for the first three months of 2009 as a massive international naval force moved in. But the pirates have begun operating further away from warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden. And they no longer have to contend with the choppy waters that always plague the seas off Somalia in the early part of the year.

The U.S. Navy confirmed that the ship was hijacked early Wednesday about 280 miles southeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia.

U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the closest U.S. ship at the time of the hijacking was 345 miles away.

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

"The area we're patrolling is more than a million miles in size. Our ships cannot be everywhere at every time," Christensen said.

Somali pirates are trained fighters who frequently dress in military fatigues and use speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and various types of grenades. Far out to sea, their speedboats operate from larger mother ships.

Most hijackings end with million-dollar payouts. Piracy is considered the biggest moneymaker in Somalia, a country that has had no stable government for decades. Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think-tank Chatham House, said pirates took up to $80 million in ransoms last year.

This is the second time that Somali pirates have seized a ship belonging to the privately held shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. In February 2008, the towing vessel Svitzer Korsakov from the A.P. Moller-Maersk company Svitzer was briefly seized by pirates.

Before this latest hijacking, Somali pirates were holding 14 vessels and about 200 crew members, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

[tes151]

I just cannot understand how these pirates continue to be able to do this stuff. Unless you have been under a rock, or in Obamas inner circle for the last several months or so, every ship owner knows this crap is going on. Can anyone tell me why these ships are still passing through these areas unarmed? Would it be so hard to hire a security team to stand watch while passing through known pirate operating areas? They are coming at these ships in small boats. Would it be so hard to just blow them out of the water before they get to the ship? What am I missing here?

[HiredGoon]

I just cannot understand how these pirates continue to be able to do this stuff. Unless you have been under a rock, or in Obamas inner circle for the last several months or so, every ship owner knows this crap is going on. Can anyone tell me why these ships are still passing through these areas unarmed? Would it be so hard to hire a security team to stand watch while passing through known pirate operating areas? They are coming at these ships in small boats. Would it be so hard to just blow them out of the water before they get to the ship? What am I missing here?

I dunno, it is somewhat baffling. Well now that it is a US ship, maybe something will be done (other than paying these sons of bitches the ransom they want)...hopefully soon.
Doesn't this just burn you up?

[NineseveN]

I just cannot understand how these pirates continue to be able to do this stuff. Unless you have been under a rock, or in Obamas inner circle for the last several months or so, every ship owner knows this crap is going on. Can anyone tell me why these ships are still passing through these areas unarmed? Would it be so hard to hire a security team to stand watch while passing through known pirate operating areas? They are coming at these ships in small boats. Would it be so hard to just blow them out of the water before they get to the ship? What am I missing here?

IIRC, most ports in the world do not allow weapons, so where does your security team make port? If you just hire them for that stretch, where are they going to come from? If you have them on your ship, do you put them on a small craft and unmount the guns (also stowing them on that craft) and leave it at sea while you make port? Do you hide them and risk being caught? There are exceptions made for military/naval vessels, but those exceptions aren't made for private security firms to my knowledge. That would take a change in port policy and the laws of various countries where these ports are located.

[Swarner793]

Being armed and moving into the territorial waters of sovereign nations is tricky. That is why, right now, it is viewed as a military problem. Plenty of treaties in place to address the issue.

That said, I have been researching the issue in an attempt to possibly provide services of this nature. I operate a "high incident" Security Agency and would love to get into this field. So far, I have a better chance of seeing God. If it is going to happen, the shipping companies providing their own protection, I think you will see it done on the lines of a DoD contractor, think Blackwater. I would prefer it to be dealing directly with the Client, the shipping company. However, everybody has this thought that it is the .gov job.

Be safe (and anchors away).

Scott

[Virtus985]

Remember the MV Faina? They sat on that for 5 months before someone finally paid the ransom. That one was full of tanks and serious military hardware. Mohammed Jammer Ali (don't laugh, that's actually his name), foreign minister from the Somali government even made a statement saying PLEASE kick their asses, the international community has permission to act against them militarily. Everyone sat around twiddling their thumbs, and eventually someone paid the ransom.

I'd tell the people on the US ship to grab a snickers, because they're not going anywhere for a while.

[Seventy4Blazer]

Prez obama's cousins?!?

[knight0334]

I'm having a hard time understanding why anyone in a 17000 ton ship would even stop for a frigging speedboat or lessor ship to let them board. Its not like the small arms that they could be using could do much. Old battlecruisers were in the 17000 ton range, now compare that to the dingies and fishing boats that pirates use of a couple hundred pounds to a handful of tons...

I dont car if they are using anti-tank rounds or not, they wont do much versus a ship of that size.

Even if the cargo ships are unarmed due to local and world laws, they can spray them down with gasoline as they board and light them up with a flare.

[HiredGoon]

UPDATE:


White House Monitors Somali Pirate Attack on U.S.-Flagged Ship, American Crew

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

The U.S. Navy ordered its ships to the scene of a hijacking off the coast of Somalia Wednesday after pirates commandeered a U.S.-flagged cargo ship crewed by 20 U.S. citizens.

Officials would not say how many Navy ships are on the scene nor would it confirm the nationality of the crew members, but sources told FOX News the Danish-owned ship is operated by U.S. shipping company, Maersk Line Limited.

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

The Department of Defense has taken the lead on information-gathering. Whitman declined to comment when asked if military action would be taken.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said 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, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. A Kenya-based diplomat identified the crew as American, but Navy Spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen declined to release details until family members of the crew are notified.

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.

Christensen said the attack happened in the early hours of the morning, about 280 miles northeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia. Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program said the ship was taken about 400 miles from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

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.

"The area we're patrolling is more than a million miles in size. Our ships cannot be everywhere at every time," Christensen said.

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

"Our initial concern is to ensure proper support of the crew and assistance to their families," Maersk said in a statement.

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. The union is trying to get as much information on the situation as it can, he said.

"It goes without saying we're deeply concerned and we're closely monitoring the story," Biscardo said.

Biscardo would not immediately release the names of the union members aboard the vessel. The Seafarers International Union represents unlicensed United States merchant mariners sailing aboard U.S.-flag vessels.

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

[HiredGoon]

I'm having a hard time understanding why anyone in a 17000 ton ship would even stop for a frigging speedboat or lessor ship to let them board. Its not like the small arms that they could be using could do much. Old battlecruisers were in the 17000 ton range, now compare that to the dingies and fishing boats that pirates use of a couple hundred pounds to a handful of tons...

I dont car if they are using anti-tank rounds or not, they wont do much versus a ship of that size.

Even if the cargo ships are unarmed due to local and world laws, they can spray them down with gasoline as they board and light them up with a flare.

There is also an ultrasonic (I think) device that I saw on a TV show that the ships aim at the hijackers and it wreaks havoc with their nervous system. Seem to work well.