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| Africa Horn |
| Somali pirates 'release' oil tanker |
| 2009-01-09 |
| Somali pirates say they have released a Saudi-owned tanker carrying two million barrels of crude oil that they hijacked in the Indian Ocean. "All our people have now left the Sirius Star. The ship is free, the crew is free," Mohamed Said, the leader of the pirate group, told the AFP news agency on Friday. Farah Osman, an purported associate of the pirates, told the Reuters news agency that a $3m ransom had been paid for the 330-metre tanker owned by the shipping arm of oil giant Aramco. "Pirates holding the Saudi ship took $3 million yesterday evening and then released the ship this morning," he said. The pirates, who boarded the tanker on November 15, had demanded at least $15m to release the vessel. Saudi's hoping the price of oil was gonna go up in two months? Andrew Mwangura, of the maritime group the East African Seafarers Assistance, confirmed that the vessel was on the move. "The last batch of gunmen have disembarked from the Sirius Star. She is now steaming out to safe waters," he said. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #3 "Pirates holding the Saudi ship took $3 million yesterday evening and then released the ship this morning," You think they flew in a bag man? There's a lot of money being made on 'processing' the transfer. I'd guess that the "Pirate" don't see more than third if that much of the real amount. It's the process and those doing the processing who are making the money and keeping the game going. Why shouldn't they act like most third world governments [which may in fact be one and the same here]? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-01-09 15:05 |
| #2 ...and disappear as if they were never there. |
| Posted by: imoyaro 2009-01-09 12:26 |
| #1 Now carpet bomb the entire village where the pirate live. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2009-01-09 10:23 |