If this doesn't spur on some action on the pirate problem, I don't know what will.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081117.wsauditanker117/BNStory/International/home


Pirates seize Saudi oil supertanker


RAISSA KASLOWSKY AND SIMON WEBB

Reuters

November 17, 2008 at 10:56 AM EST

DUBAU — Pirates have seized a Saudi-owned supertanker fully laden with oil off east Africa, capturing the biggest vessel yet in a shipping zone where Somali pirates strike almost daily, the U.S. navy said.

Saudi-owned television station Al Arabyia said the Sirius Star had been freed, citing an unnamed official Saudi source, but the U.S. navy and Saudi Aramco, which owns the supertanker, both said they had no knowledge of any release.

The hijacking of the vessel is certain to add to pressure for concerted international action to tackle the threat posed by pirates from anarchic Somalia to one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

“This is unprecedented. It's the largest ship that we've seen pirated,” said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet. “It's three times the size of an aircraft carrier.”


The Sirius Star held a cargo of as much as two million barrels of oil — more than one quarter of daily Saudi Arabia's daily exports. Reports of the hijacking helped trim early losses in global crude oil prices.

The hijacking, 830 kilometres southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, was in an area far beyond the Gulf of Aden, where most of the attacks on shipping have taken place and where some foreign navies have begun patrols.

The pirates have been getting bolder.

The Sirius Star had been heading for the United States via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, skirting the continent instead of heading through the Gulf of Aden and then the Suez Canal.

There were no reports of damage to the ship, Christensen said. He declined to say if the U.S. navy was considering taking action to rescue the tanker, which had 25 crew from Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

“We are evaluating the situation,” he said.

Chaos onshore in Somalia, where Islamist forces are fighting a Western-backed government, have spawned a wave of piracy. Shipowners have paid out millions of dollars in ransoms.

Well over 60 vessels have been hijacked this year, driving up shipping insurance premiums and pushing some vessels to take longer routes between Asia and Europe than passing through the Suez Canal -- potentially increasing the cost of traded goods.

Among the vessels seized is one with 33 tanks on board.

British think tank Chatham House warned in a report last month of the danger a tanker could come under attack.

“As pirates become bolder and use ever more powerful weaponry a tanker could be set on fire, sunk or forced ashore, any of which could result in an environmental catastrophe that would devastate marine and bird life for years to come,” it said.

“The pirates' aim is to extort ransom payments and to date that has been their main focus; however, the possibility that they could destroy shipping is very real.”

The NATO alliance and the European Union have scrambled to provide patrols in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waterways off Somalia. The United States and France, which have bases nearby, are also helping, while Russia has sent a warship too.

The Sirius Star is Liberian-flagged, and owned and operated by state oil giant Saudi Aramco's shipping unit Vela International. The vessel was launched in March.

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Jonathan

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That pretty bold and at the same time quite clever as well. Unlike a ship full of tanks you can't just torpedo the thing.

Which actually probably wouldn't sink it anyways....unless it was one of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_65_torpedo

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"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

Why? I would think that with enough holes it too will sink.

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US had it's own version of this once upon a time during the cold war.

Pretty much a suicide weapon. If you're close enough to get a good enough bearing on the target, even for a nuke, you're inside the blast zone as well. And with a sub launched weapon, the underwater pressure wave will travel even farther.

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Get a few jets out there, blow the house to splinters and take out anything that moves on the deck. No need to blow up the whole thing for a few worthless pirates, we need to save that oil!

The Royal Saudi Air Force has a bunch of F-15's. It's their ship. Let them handle it. That's if they have the stomach for it. Then too, they have a bunch of money, which would spare shooting up the crew in an attack. Maybe they'll just pony up.

What's in it for the US, besides the oil cargo, bound for the US according to the article?

To a certain degree yes, sometimes it isn't that easy though. Anyone remember that freighter New Carissa that gave the US Navy a headache trying to sink off the coast of Oregon?


"400 pounds (180 kg) of high explosives were attached to the bow and detonated.69 rounds of gunfire from the David R. Ray's 5-inch (127 mm) deck guns then punctured the hull, and the Bremerton fired a Mark 48 Torpedo at the underside of the ship. The bow section flooded and sank stern-first, trapping the remaining oil within"

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"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

So - what happens if the pirates threaten to use the ship to play chicken with a shoreline? Might make the Exxon Valdez spill look like a bearing seal leak on an MGB-GT.

Disable the rudder and propeller. Easy job.

Yep. Then let the Navy seals "practice" on them.

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Want to bet that the Somalis have compatriots in various ports looking for likely targets and getting info from bribed officials concerning which navy has vessels going to and fro when and where. Etc.

B

You gotta know it. Considering the outside route that tanker was taking there had to be some 'inside' to that job.

Nuke Mogadishu and carpet bomb the rest of the horn of Africa until it looks like a parking lot. It would resolve several problems at the same time. Hell, zap them all except Tanzania, the only country on the entire east side of Africa with a real government and any peace between tribes.

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I think somebody needs to go Metal Gear Solid on their @sses.

It appears that they are targeting progressively larger assets which indicates that they're quite comfortable pirating whomever they feel like.

I wonder if they're forgotten that SBS and SEAL's exist?

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The more you pay off the ransom the more they will milk it for all it is worth. Why should anyone be surprised?

But would the countries have the stones to send the SEALs and SBS to kill everyone there even if there are hostages?

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