Somali pirates have collected more than $150 million in ransoms over the past year, Kenya's foreign affairs minister said Friday, calling on ship owners not to pay when their vessels are hijacked.
In the past two weeks Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates have seized eight vessels including a huge Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. Several hundred crew are now in the hands of Somali pirates.
"We are advised that in the last 12 months, ransom to the excess of $150 million has been paid to these criminals and that is why they are becoming more and more audacious in their activities," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Friday that the Saudi government was not and would not negotiate with pirates, but what the ship's owners did was up to them.
Meanwhile, the world's largest oil tanker company warned that it may divert cargo shipments, which would boost costs up to 40 percent. Frontline Ltd., which ferries five to 10 tankers of crude a month through the treacherous Gulf of Aden, said it was negotiating a change of shipping routes with some of its customers, including oil giants Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Chevron.
Martin Jensen, Frontline's acting chief executive, said that sending tankers around South Africa instead would extend the trip by 40 percent. Bermuda-based Frontline plans to make a decision whether to change shipping routes within a week, Jensen said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 10:38 ||
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#1
Ya know.. the market has been bad lately...
What's their stock symbol?
YAR?
Tanker lease rates had plunged up until a few weeks ago. They are doubtless soaring again on the prospect of routing them around the Cape. It's an ill wind that doesn't blow well for someone.
You have to get that up there a bit higher to afford the lobbyists and the lawyers to get a Federal Judge to issue a restraining order on anything less than full Maranda, probable cause requirements, and complete due process that any American would be entitled to. You might be able to get a injunction against using helicopters and craft moving more than 10 knots because of the hypothetical detrimental effect upon some rare and unusual Red Sea critter. Check the Washington yellow pages or Google on line for lobbyist/lawyer near you.
As Russia and France announced they would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, Arab Red Sea states were holding an emergency meeting in Cairo to discuss the threat, with Egypt saying all options were on the table to deal with the growing crisis.
Senior officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen met for the talks amid growing international frustration over a situation described by the International Maritime Bureau as "out of control."
The hijackers are demanding $25 million in ransom for the largest ship yet taken and its cargo of $100 million of oil, one of the pirates told AFP on Thursday. They have set a 10-day deadline. With three more ships captured since the Sirius Star was taken, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said Egypt would consider all possibilities in dealing with the crisis.
"The Egyptian national security establishment works intensively on all options, examines what measures could be taken in this regard, and decides whether a diplomatic and political solution will be preferred."
"All options are open," Egypt's official MENA news agency quoted him as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
If this gets the Saudis and Egyptians and Yemenis to invade and occupy Somalia's Aden coast... well, I don't know.
It might be a disaster. But it sure sounds entertaining.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/21/2008 12:22 Comments ||
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Russia and France announced they would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Thursday. As the Somali pirates, who hijacked Saudi oil super-tanker Sirius Star, demanded $25 million in ransom and have set a 10-day deadline,
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
and what's wrong with afixing each transport vessel with pigs?
(SomaliNet) Somali businessmen are sending food, cigarettes and drinks to a hijacked Saudi supertanker anchored off the coast of Somalia, a local elder says.
Dahir Mohamud Abdulle says businessmen in the central Somalia coastal town of Haradhere took supplies to the shore Wednesday for collection by pirates holding the MV Sirius Star. Somali pirates seized the Saudi supertanker with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members on Saturday in their most audacious hijacking to date.
Fisherman Abdullahi Hussein Hurdaye says the supertanker could still be seen Wednesday anchored about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the coast. Fisherman Hassan Jimale says he saw three boats make return trips to the supertanker overnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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Pirate Nation
Posted by: Albert Spusotch7979 ||
11/21/2008 11:54 Comments ||
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ARCLIGHT the crap out of the shore billits of the pirates, and the piracy would totally disappear from the Gulf of Aden. It might take more than one strike, but the message would eventually seep through the four inches of solid bone that is a Somali skull and link cause (piracy) with effect (ARCLIGHT strike). Who knows, it might even have SOME effect on the terrorists residing in Somalia.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/21/2008 14:32 Comments ||
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#11
To ask them to do again (quantity) what they did 40 years ago might be too much - and there are a lot fewer of them - no matter how many knee replacements and facelifts they've had. But it paints quite a mind picture.
A senior Somali opposition leader has promised to sustain the 'holy war' on the country's government while refusing to compromise with rivals. "We stick to holy war, we stick to liberation," said the head of the Somali opposition group, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC)'s offshoot in Asmara, Eritrea, the Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported on Thursday.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys made the remarks taking to task UIC's Djibouti wing, lead by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, over their recent conclusion of a peace agreement with the country's transitional government. The settlement, aimed at relieving the differences between the government and the oppositionist, accounted for the bipolar division within the group.
Dahir Aweys dissociated his devotees from those of the rivaling camp's saying "these men (Sheikh Sharif's faction) have joined the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) who were fighting us. They signed an agreement with them. We still stick to our position, we stick to fighting."
He also delivered a strong warning to Kenya amid news that the country was to deploy peacekeeping forces to the Horn of Africa nation. "I understand that Kenya is planning to deploy up to Kismayu town (in southern Somalia). Kenya should not burn the thatched house that it is living in."
The shortage of a viable central administration since 1991 has contributed to unceasing confrontation between the government and the oppositionists who have recently stretched their domain in the violence-scarred country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like time for another AC-130 run from the Horn to the Kenyan border.
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 8:06 Comments ||
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Saudi Arabia is likely to use military force to rescue a giant oil tanker recently seized by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. The country might attempt at a 'military-style rescue operation' to salvage the Saudi-owned vessel, Sirius Star and its 25 crewmembers, the Saudi daily Okaz quoted an official enlisted with the country's Border Guards as saying on Thursday.
On November 15, the US Navy reported the capture of the tanker and its reportedly Saudi, Filippino, Polish, Croatian and British crew by the bandits southeast of the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. The 330-meter long tanker was sailing under a Liberian flag while possessed by the Saudi oil firm Aramco. It was heading for the United States through the Cape of Good Hope.
Alarmed by the incident, the country has begun a security study of its tankers and cargo vessels which happen to cross the trouble-ridden Gulf of Aden. No immediate plans had been devised, the official however, added.
The pirates, with their increased firepower, have become the shipping companies' nemesis prompting the international community to subject the trouble-ridden waters to strict naval surveillance. Somalia's territorial waters, posing the utmost threat, have witnessed more than 80 cases of piracy this year alone.
Protraction of the standoff would prompt the vessels crossing the area to seek protection from regional watchdogs which could "cause a large rise in transport expenses for importers," said the Transport and Marine Services Committee member Yousuf Al-Turki.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Force against a ship where one is not even allowed to smoke a cigarette on?
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 8:07 Comments ||
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#2
Correction:
'S Arabia may use OPF against pirates'
TADJOURA, Djibouti -- In hundreds of military training programs from the Sahara to the Seychelles, the U.S. is quietly bolstering Africa's ragtag armies to fight extremism so the Pentagon won't have to.
Some experts have taken to calling this strategy -- not always admiringly -- "America's African Rifles" after an indigenous African unit organized by Britain to fight its bloody colonial wars of the 19th Century.
The 'experts' are the same ones wringing their hands over the piracy problem in Somalia.
Over the past five years, 21 African countries have hosted military instructors in the biggest-ever U.S. training effort on the continent. Green Berets have taught troops from impoverished Niger how to parachute from planes. Ugandans have been shown how to patrol their lakes in speedboats. And some 39,000 African troops have cycled through U.S. peacekeeping courses.
So that perhaps they'll be a little better, when called to duty, than the mighty Uruguayans ...
Soldiers in the Djibouti branch of this vast effort speak spare, unplaceable English. They are U.S. military trainers from Guam -- Bravo Company, 1/294th Infantry Battalion. "We've worked with hundreds of Kenyans, Ethiopians and now Djiboutians," said Staff Sgt. Albert Ignacio, 44, a fireplug of a man who had spent just 45 days at home during a three-year stint in Africa. "Africans are hungry for our help. They have so little. Most of the time, they don't even have ammo to shoot. We bring it."
In fact, the Pentagon has been bringing ammo and expertise to its African allies with a single-minded purpose since 9/11. Maintaining such programs will be one of the goals of AFRICOM. Yet in the Horn of Africa, the use of such proxy forces has had alarming results.
Critics say the administration's decision to back the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in late 2006 has backfired, strengthening Somali extremist groups and damaging counterterrorism efforts.
It backfired because the usual handwringers forced the Aethiops to stop before they'd finished the job, all in the name of 'peace' ...
Today a deadly Islamist insurgency threatens to overrun the capital, Mogadishu, and topple a frail, U.S.-supported government. Inviting comparisons with Iraq, the violence has displaced roughly a million civilians.
All of whom were doing so darned well before being displaced, weren't they ...
Ignacio took a long view of U.S. involvement in Africa. "We're back in Cold War mode," he said, recalling how he trained Honduran forces during Ronald Reagan's shadow conflicts with the Soviets in Central America. "When will we be done here? Not for a long time."
#4
a good book that talks some about this is , Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts by Alan Kaplan
Posted by: Albert Spusotch7979 ||
11/21/2008 11:48 Comments ||
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#5
I am not sure if "Cold War Mode" is the correct way to describe this. We tend to put everything in terms of the last big war we fought and not address the fact that this is an entirely new form.
I have some friends who have been through these programs. One had been in the US for training for several months and all he ever would tell me about was how the Americans really really know how to do breakfast right.
So they are learning something, even if it is to love pancakes with all their heart. :)
#6
How could taking down the Islamic Courts operation, or weakening it, "backfire"? Don't get it.
Somalia is the All-Time Galactic Class S**thole, so even doing nothing more than roughing up our enemies, grabbing intel and people there, and using it as a training ground for us and others seems like a sure-win to me.
Alaska Paul, I'm fairly sure our guys, and some of our true allies' best guys, have been doing all sorts of very interesting things out of Djibouti for several years now. More than a hunch, and of course not hard to guess.
#7
Decades now Verlaine and more of late, in the region at least. But like the French, Belgi's, Portugese, and Brits before us it's been little more than pissing in a gale. Difficult to bridge a thousand years of advanced civilization with a people and culture in denial. All should be very concerned about this AFRICOM experiment I assure you. Bloody Zulu Isihlangu heraldic symbol be damned. Bring an entirely new meaning and definition to the word quagmire.
Zia Ul Haq, who was involved in the 'Gas Limos Project' to bomb London, was reportedly enrolled on an eight-day comedy workshop at HMP Whitemoor. He was among 18 prisoners, including murderers, who were given lessons in stand-up, comic drama, improvisation and scriptwriting.
Having completed the £8,000 course they were to have received a certificate and staged a performance for fellow inmates and guards at the Category A prison in Cambridgeshire.
However, justice secretary Jack Straw stepped in and closed the course after three days, The Sun reported. "As soon as I heard about it, I instructed it must be immediately cancelled," he said. "It is totally unacceptable. Senior managers in the Prison Service, who were also unaware of it, take the same view.
"Prisons should be places of punishment and reform. Providing educational and constructive pursuits is essential but the types of courses and the manner in which they are delivered must be appropriate."
Ul Haq, 29, of Paddington, in west London, was jailed for 18 years last year for his part in a plot led by Dhiren Barot, who planned to set off a dirty bomb using limousines packed with explosives. Ul Haq's role was use his background in architecture to advise on where bombs should be placed to cause buildings to collapse.
An inquiry has now been launched by the director of high security prisons to consider whether further action was needed, the Ministry of Justice said. A spokeswoman added: "The director general of the National Offender Management Service is personally briefing governors from all prisons on the need to take account of the public acceptability test [in relation to prison classes]."
#2
I have difficulty imagining an AQ terrorist being funny despite any amount of training as a stand up comic. "Clap and laugh or I will cut off your head.?"
Posted by: ed ||
11/21/2008 20:07 Comments ||
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#4
Lemme guess - courses in Koranic interpretation are fine, but comedy classes are out. It seems to me that these terrorists need to work on their under-developed sense of humor. Trust Jack Straw to put the kibosh on something that might be genuinely therapeutic.
Mahmoud Omar had endured 14 days on the witness stand at the trial of an alleged South Jersey terror cell -- explaining, defending or evading questions about his life and work as a wire-wearing, jihad-supporting informant. As his testimony came to an end today in Camden, the attorneys scrambled to leave jurors with lasting but overriding impressions:
One portrayed Omar as a lying con man, milking his assignment to get a steady FBI paycheck. The other suggested he was simply a human recorder, the tool that helped agents record incriminating conversations with five Muslim immigrants and disrupt a potentially deadly attack against Fort Dix. The prosecutors and defense attorneys didn't do this by asking Omar any new or substantive questions. Because this is what both sides call a "tapes case" -- one that will succeed or fail depending on how much the jurors absorb and believe the recordings -- they just zeroed in on the choicest cuts.
During two weeks of cross-examination, Omar repeatedly admitted he never discussed details of the alleged attack with any of the defendants other than Mohamad Shnewer, a cab driver from Cherry Hill. So Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hammer pointed to conversations in which Shnewer said he preferred one-on-one discussions to group meetings. Hammer then highlighted transcripts that suggested each of the others independently knew about and supported the plot.
The prosecutor noted Elvjir "Sulayman" Duka, a youth leader at a Palmyra mosque and one of three Cherry Hill brothers charged, told Omar he would try to find a trustworthy imam who would issue a fatwa, the Islamic approval needed before an attack on enemies. Hammer showed jurors another transcript in which Dritan Duka told Omar he played paintball almost every day because it he considered it military-like training that was "necessary" for a jihad. And one in which Shain Duka congratulated Omar after one paintball session by saying: "Good training." Then the prosecutor showed jurors conversations in which the fifth defendant, Serdar Tatar, told Omar he would need help fleeing the country after any attack. In the same conversation, Tatar told the informant: "I'm in, honestly, I'm in."
The defense attorneys have argued that much of the inflammatory talk was bluster or "fantasy" from Shnewer, 23, who they say was the butt of jokes and easily manipulated by the 39-year-old informant. Shnewer's attorney, Rocco Cipparone, pointed out that Shnewer told Omar the others were his "lifetime companions" but that he really only met them a year or two before the alleged plot began.
Michael Huff, the attorney for Dritan Duka, noted that more than once his client told Omar that he wanted the weapons so his brothers and other friends had enough guns for their group vacations to a firing range in the Pocono Mountains. And Troy Archie, the attorney for Eljvir "Sulayman" Duka, showed Omar a conversation from March 2007, about six weeks before the arrests, in which the informant acknowledged he was unsure how much, if anything, Eljvir Duka knew about the plot. "At that late date, you were still unsure whether or not Sulayman was involved, is that correct?" Archie asked. Omar said Shnewer had insisted the Dukas were involved, but that they were cautious. "Duka's family never trust me about something like that," he testified.
Hammer, the prosecutor, ended his questioning by reinforcing the heart of the government case. He said that defense attorneys had spent hours dissecting Omar's criminal history, his conviction for bank fraud, his auto parts business, his use of marijuana and other spotty chapters in his life. "With all that, Mr. Omar," the prosecutor asked, "has a single word in these transcripts changed? "No, sir," the witness replied
A de facto curfew is in place in the city of Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, ahead of the second phase of elections for a new state government. Police are restricting people's movements to prevent anti-election protests by separatists seeking an end to Indian rule.
Police opened fire in the Ganderbal constituency in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. Polling is due on Sunday in Ganderbal and five other constituencies.
Although pro-Indian political groups are feeling upbeat following a huge turnout of voters in the first phase of polling last Monday, the authorities are not taking any chances. Earlier a police official who did not want to be named said any casualties caused by police or paramilitary forces dealing with anti-election protests might prove disastrous for the electoral process.
However, trouble developed in Ganderbal when a group boycotting the poll pelted the motorcade of a candidate with stones, damaging several motorbikes and at least one car, eyewitnesses say. The police opened fire injuring one person. Later anti-election protests were held in the town and police used tear gas to break them up. Police have also used force against protesters in the town of Sopore.
The unusually strong turnout in the first phase of elections for a new state government in Indian-administered Kashmir took everyone by surprise. Queues of hundreds of voters formed from early morning, defying a boycott called by separatist groups. The turnout in Muslim-majority constituencies was just over 50%, with many Muslims voting despite not accepting Indian rule in their troubled state.
In recent months, there have been a series of pro-independence demonstrations in Kashmir. These have frequently been met with force by the security services, resulting in several deaths. Dozens of separatist leaders have also been detained to prevent them leading demonstrations against the election.
Voting in the state is being held in seven phrases, lasting until 24 December. The counting of ballots will begin on 28 December.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday condemned US airstrikes inside Pakistan as 'intolerable', and hoped the incursions would stop with the change in command at the White House.
It's 'intolerable' but he'll tolerate it until at least January 20th ...
Following the opposition's criticism of the government over a suspected US drone attack in Bannu, Gilani said in his policy statement that his government had no tacit understanding with the US on such strikes. He said even if "former president Pervez Musharraf had reached such an understanding", there were no Foreign Ministry records showing that. He claimed that unlike the past, "Pakistan is no longer an isolated nation, as it has the support of the entire world over violations of its sovereignty". He said a number of Western leaders he had met supported the government's stance that the US should change its policy towards Pakistan.
"Once the transition period in the US comes to an end and Barack Obama's government is in place, these attacks will come to an end," he added. Gilani also hoped the issue could be tackled through diplomatic efforts and international lobbying. The national security adviser was in constant touch with his US counterpart, and Pakistani concerns were being conveyed to the Americans, he added.
"You should not doubt that the army would not support the government or its policies ... the army will take steps with the consent of the administration," he said.
Earlier, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) asked the government to take up its concerns over the drone attacks with the United Nations. Opposition Leader in the House Nisar Ali Khan said the US incursions were not coming to an end despite Pakistan's stance that there would be no compromise on the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The opposition leader said the government should adopt "a graceful way of protesting and convey to the US ambassador that Pakistan would raise the issue at the UN". Online quoted Nisar as saying that the parliamentary resolution on national security had become a 'joke'.
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said the continuing US attacks "apparently confirm a Washington Post report on a tacit understanding between the two sides". However, Raza Rabbani defended the government and categorically rejected the Washington Post report.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Pakistan is crumbling to the ground, the stock market is broken, their bond rating is BBB, they are surrounded by militants and Islamists. Don't they have anything better to worry about than the U.S. bombing a couple of their worst barbarians?
The PLO took the unprecedented step of placing advertisements in Israeli newspapers on Thursday to promote a six-year-old Arab peace plan for the region.
Yediot Aharonot, Maariv and Haaretz, the three leading Israeli dailies, printed the advertisement, which is headed by the Palestinian and Israeli flags. "Fifty-seven Arab and Islamic countries will establish diplomatic ties and normal relations with Israel in return for a full peace agreement and an end to the occupation," the text of the add read, under Palestinian and Israel flags set side by side.
According to Haaretz, the direct appeal by the Palestinian Authority to the Israeli public, over the heads of the Israeli leadership, is being seen by observers as an extraordinary event.
Senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said the campaign was meant to inform Israelis about the peace initiative, which until now has been "misinterpreted by the extreme Israeli right wing as an Arab conspiracy against Israel and its future".
The advertisement, bordered by the flags of dozens of Arab and other Muslim states, also ran in Arabic in three Palestinian papers. Similar ads were published in Palestinian media and, according to Rabbo, in some European newspapers.
The Arab League proposal offers Israel peace and normal relations with all Arab countries in return for its withdrawal from all territory the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war -- the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The Saudi-inspired peace plan was presented at an Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 and re-launched at a Riyadh summit in 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
As Russia and France announced they would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, Arab Red Sea states were holding an emergency meeting in Cairo to discuss the threat, with Egypt saying all options were on the table to deal with the growing crisis. 
(SomaliNet) Somali businessmen are sending food, cigarettes and drinks to a hijacked Saudi supertanker anchored off the coast of Somalia, a local elder says. 
Islamic Courts (UIC)'s offshoot in Asmara, Eritrea, the Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported on Thursday. 
Saudi Arabia is likely to use military force to rescue a giant oil tanker recently seized by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. The country might attempt at a 'military-style rescue operation' to salvage the Saudi-owned vessel, Sirius Star and its 25 crewmembers, the Saudi daily Okaz quoted an official enlisted with the country's Border Guards as saying on Thursday. 
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday condemned US airstrikes inside Pakistan as 'intolerable', and hoped the incursions would stop with the change in command at the White House. 
