Somali pirates hijack Saudi oil tanker

[Undertoad]

Time to get off CompuServe, C-man.

[classicman]

I'm not on there - I have an oooooold aol address that I keep for occasional crap.

[Undertoad]

The Cellar currently can't send mail to AOLers. We're blocked for spamming.

[Trilby]

that may be the email, but Gwynne Dyer is a nationally syndicated columnist. we get him in our op-ed dayton daily news. He's a "real" guy.

[Trilby]

from his website:


GWYNNE DYER has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years, but he was originally trained as an historian. Born in Newfoundland, he received degrees from Canadian, American and British universities, finishing with a Ph.D. in Military and Middle Eastern History from the University of London. He served in three navies and held academic appointments at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Oxford University before launching his twice-weekly column on international affairs, which is published by over 175 papers in some 45 countries.

His first television series, the 7-part documentary 'War', was aired in 45 countries in the mid-80s. One episode, 'The Profession of Arms', was nominated for an Academy Award. His more recent television work includes the 1994 series 'The Human Race', and 'Protection Force', a three-part series on peacekeepers in Bosnia, both of which won Gemini awards. His award-winning radio documentaries include 'The Gorbachev Revolution', a seven-part series based on Dyer's experiences in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in 1987-90, and 'Millenium', a six-hour series on the
emerging global culture.

Dyer's major study "War", first published in the 1980s, was completely revised and re-published in 2004. During this decade he has also written a trio of more contemporary books dealing with the politics and strategy of the post-9/11 world: 'Ignorant Armies' (2003), 'Future: Tense' (2004), and 'The Mess They Made' (2006). The latter was also published as 'After Iraq' in the US and the UK and as 'Nach Iraq und Afghanistan' inGermany.

His most recent projects are a book and a radio series called 'Climate Wars', dealing with the geopolitics of climate change. They have already been published and aired in some places, and will appear in most other major markets in the course of 2009.

[classicman]

really? Thats interesting - you don't seem the sort to be a spammer. Guess you just never know about some people

[classicman]

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somalia's prime minister says his government has identified many pirate leaders but needs more resources and the help of other countries to go after them.

"We have information on who is behind this, who is involved," Sharmarke said. "There is a lot of money flowing in ... we are following very closely how money is distributed here."

Somali pirates can earn $1 million or more in ransom for each hijacked ship. Forty-two ships were hijacked by Somali pirates last year, and so far 19 have been taken this year.

He said the Somali government was presenting a plan to envoys from the European Union, the United States and a regional authority to fight pirates by building up military forces and establishing intelligence-gathering posts along its coastline.

"The best way to actually deal with this is to prevent (the pirates) from going into the waters," Sharmarke said. "We will have to do military actions ... We are planning to establish at least 10 or more observation posts on the coastline."

Still, it was not clear how this plan could cover the 1,900-mile Somali coastline, since his government controls only a few square blocks of the capital, Mogadishu, with the aid of African peacekeepers.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a new initiative Wednesday to fight the escalating scourge of piracy by freezing pirates' assets. In January, the U.S. government proposed $5 million in funding to improve the Somali security services, a request that is currently before Congress.

I wonder if our giving them $5 million is really going to make a dent. This is such a forked up situation.

The cruel fact is that even as Americans celebrated the rescue, the Somali pirates — in what is business as usual off of Somalia’s long ungoverned coast— were grabbing more ships. There are now 17 captured ships and about 260 hostages waiting to be ransomed. The short-term answer is more patrols and better cooperation with regional states; a long-term solution, alas, remains elusive.

At a million a ship/hostage - we are about $272 million behind.

[TheMercenary]

Maybe with the down turn in the personal economic situation of so many Americans we can begin to turn to piracy. Hell, we have already seen that the payoff is pretty damm good. Maybe some of these out of work forces can ban together and buy some boats.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Oh goody, we can hijack Cuban shipping and get ransom in cigars.

[Trilby]

It's always cigars with you, isn't it bruce?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Brianna

It's always cigars with you, isn't it bruce?

You didn't seem to mind.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

*skritchhh* (light) Puff puff BANG.

Dammit. Lose more cigars that way.

[piercehawkeye45]

Haha, anyone see the latest South Park?

[TheMercenary]

I missed it! I can imagine. I will have to catch the re-run.

[classicman]

Pirates mistakenly attack French naval vessel

Five Somali pirates have been captured after firing on a French naval vessel by mistake, apparently thinking it was a cargo ship, the BBC reports.

French military spokesman Admiral Christophe Prazuck says the pirates attacked at night about 300 miles off the Somalia coast.

But instead of a harmless cargo vessel, they tangled (briefly) with the Somme, a French navy command and supply ship.
Admiral Prazuck told French TV station La Chaine Info that the pirates seemed to be surprised that the navy ship fought back, the BBC reports.

"Once they realized they were facing a ship that was responding and was heading towards them, they stopped shooting and attempted to flee," he said.