Africa: Pirates hijack tanker with American crew. Crew fights back, retakes vessel

by Kal El on April 8, 2009 · Comments

America!! F**K YEAH! Notice it was an AMERICAN crew that did it.

Cowboy Culture – 1

Jihadi Pirate Scum – 0

American Crew Regains Control of Hijacked Ship, One Pirate in Custody

American crew members aboard a U.S.-flagged ship 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 20-member 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.”

Read the full article.

Note that nearly every other country caves in and pays the ransom. Personally, if I was on a ship that was hi-jacked, they would not take me hostage.

Related posts:

  1. U.S. Navy Sends Warship to Protect Ukrainian Vessel From Somali Pirates
  2. Somali Pirates attempt to hijack American Cruise ship
  3. Somalia: Pirates release Saudi super tanker
  4. Somali pirates starving Russian hostages
  5. Somali pirates target foreign cruise ship
  6. Somali pirates hi-jack Saudi oiltanker
  7. Somali pirates (jihadis, really) promise to kill future French, American hostages
  8. Indian Navy Destroys Pirate ‘Mother Ship’ in Battle
  9. Report: Hijacked Russian vessel was transporting arms to Iran
  10. French Navy detains 11 suspected of being pirates
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  • it wont be no problem, if u right wing crackers would stop dumping ur toxic shit in somalian waters . if u continue
    to dump ur topic shit in somalian waters the somalians will put ur ships in the bottom of the ocean.
  • Beejj
    Gosh, is THAT why all that piracy is happening? It's an environmental protest and nothing more? Well, blow me down! I love learning things. Thank you so much.
  • JEWHAWK
    Beejj,the pirates are worried with the GLOBAL WARMING,therefore
    stopping the ships will HELP THE ENVIRONMENT!! How clever...in the
    process,they get their hands full of money,that will be used to prevent the OZONE LAYER to augment...
    Sure.

    And I'm the next Liverpool goalie,because Pepe Reina isn't in a good shape!!
  • Necrowulf
    I was checking the BBC comments about it, and the great majority know what needs to be done, but sadly they had quite a few saying the same thing as hdoog said.

    haha, they even said that westerners are the great evil satan fishing on the somali waters, so they have no fish! I couldnt stop laughing. No wonder Yemen, Kenya and others have pirates, right? hahahaha I wonder what happens to paraguay, since it doesnt have an exit to the sea... how can they fish!


    Jewhawk, can I get an autograph? :P
  • Shukri
    These pirates are the same men who were funded by the US.

    http://tinyurl.com/qebro
  • Kal_El
    Much like we funded the mujahideen in Trashcanistan in the 80's, so they
    could fend of the Soviets. They thanked us for that on 9/11. Which, AGAIN,
    is why I say money given to any muslim country is money wasted.
  • Shukri
    Don't forget, the US flooded Afghanistan with weapons purely to get the Soviets pinned down. After using the Afghans in this manner, they simply walked away, living Afghanistan a devastated country preyed over by warlords. This is the situation that led to the beginnings of the Taliban.

    Whenever we don't take responsiblity as human beings, it will always come back to hit us, even after a while.
  • Kal_El
    Oh so in Afghan, the US should have stayed, but not in Iraq?
  • Shukri
    The US flooded Afghanistan with weapons in the 1980's. Subsequently abandoning the country to the rule of warlords was the wrong choice, because it led to a situation where only people like the Taliban could restore order.

    This is just in retrospect, though.

    As for Iraq, the US had no authority to invade the country under false pretexts.
  • Kal_El
    Hindsight is always 20/20, re: Afghan.

    Re: Iraq, we had EVERY RIGHT to depose Saddam. He violated over a dozen UN
    resolutions,and the WHOLE WORLD BELIEVED HE WAS SEEKING WMD'S. Just because
    they were not found does not mean they did not exist. (Using that logic, I
    can easily tell you allah does not exist, since he has never been found.)
    During WWII do you know who we attacked first when the Japanazi alliance
    sucker punched us at Pearl Harbor? It was not Germany, nor was it Japan. It
    is common knowledge among Iraqis that Saddam harbored and used terrorists,
    mainly for assassinating dissidents abroad.
  • Shukri
    I guess, in that case we should also invade Israel which has violated 65 UN resolutions.

    Iraq was not hindsight. It was deliberate deception.
  • JEWHAWK
    Those resolutions were FABRICATED by the 57 muslim countries that blatantly IGNORE the human rights in their own turf.
    I don't recognize the votes from such places,much more making the votes of Syria and Denmark EQUAL in valor.They're NOT.
  • Shukri
    In your world, Israel can do no wrong. However, in reality, Israel has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in its quest to grab land.

    http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/gaza.html
  • Beejj
    Of course Israel can do wrong - and it is sometimes guilty of short-sighted stupidity that harms its cause - but the reality of the world is such that I will back Israel to the hilt while it stands as the sole beacon of democracy in that region of the world. As Storm Rider said, an attack on Israel is an attack on America, so it follows that it's an attack on the entire Western notion of democracy. Israel might be naughty sometimes, but we are not going to throw out the baby with the bath water. Get that firmly into your head.
  • Kal_El
    The neighboring muslims tried that three times, in 1948, 1967, and 1973, and
    FAILED. I guess allah was not with the muslims in those endeavors.
  • Shukri
    Israel is a state created very much like America was: i.e: a bunch of [persecuted] foreigners invading the land and creating their own state, while herding the natives into concentration camps.

    It's no wonder that the two are the closest of allies.
  • Beejj
    How can one invade one's own land? The UN, by which Islamic countries set great store nowadays, decreed that Israel should exist, so it exists despite the efforts of your brethren to terminate it.

    You point the finger at America for doing that which Man has done since the beginning of time. (What you are really doing, of course, is pointing it at Britain, but no matter.) Muslims would wish to see the Jews exterminated or ejected. Should Americans and Australians and New Zealanders and the ENGLISH vacate their homelands because they displaced the original inhabitants? The world does not work this way.
  • Beejj
    But you guys HAVE tried to invade Israel on numerous occasions, remember?
  • Shukri
    That was self defense. Israel is a nation of foreign immigrants forcing themselves into Palestine.

    Look at the bios of Israeli politicians and where they originally come from.
  • Kal_El
    Look at the religious ancestry of Israeli politicians and you will see their
    roots run a bit deeper. Keep trying, your taqqiya is improving.
  • hellosnackbar
    You have a somewhat quaint dare I say somewhat partial view of what constitutes "self defence".
    That said according to your dictum Israel has every right to eliminate Iran's whole nuclear complex.
    I have some sympathy if that's your belief.
  • Necrowulf
    Not only that, the jews fled the islamic countries when Israel was being formed, many of them were "deported"

    So, why the Arabs cant take some of their "brothers" in?
  • Beejj
    Ah, self defence! Just as Germany was forced to defend itself against Poland in 1939 ....... THAT kind of self defence. Are you related to that loonie who rules North Korea - the guy who insists the Korean War was started by South Korea? Shukri, old fellow, you are decidedly odd. Is this what Islam does to the brain? So that I might better understand the workings of your mind, explain to me how the various wars between Israel and your lot were initiated by Israel.

    It matters not how many of Israel's population emigrated from other lands: Israel is a pukka nation with every right to defend its turf and people.
  • Necrowulf
    Self defence of what? Israel never intented to attack any country.
  • SirWilhelm
    Bloodless piracy, it's all about the money, it's become just another cost of doing business. It's easier than sending troops in and trying to build a regime in Somalia, that would be expensive, never mind it might be the right thing to do. Where's the UN? Shouldn't they be a good thing to step in here? But they're too busy with things like global warming, it seems.

    It's encouraging that other countries are sending ships and are working together to try and stop the piracy, but the real problem is the lawlessness in Somalia caused by the lack of a government. And it appears Al Qeada is filling at least some of the vacumn. It looks like another Afghanistan to me, the last thing the world needs, but something everyone in the world should want to do something about, I would think.

    Yes, it takes an American crew to show what might be done, but let's not arm them, it might escalate things, increase the cost of doing business. It's cheaper to pay the ransoms, for now.
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