MUSLIM PIRATES HIJACK OIL SUPERTANKER

It's at moments like these one wishes for a Thomas Jefferson (and the Marines). I have been reporting on Muslim pirate activity for years. But this is different. This is bolder, bigger, brasher. And oil prices went up on the news of it. They are testing us, we are failing .... they will push harder and take bigger risks and we will sit there texting in our favorite no talent idol pick to ABC.

Why the real threat of the Sirius Star hijacking is not rising oil prices - but Islamic terrorism Mail Online

The price of oil rose by a dollar yesterday as a direct result of the Sirius Star capture.

But the danger of these modern-day brigands goes far beyond a jump in oil prices.

The pirates are closely linked to Islamic terrorists - and this is where the real risk to the West lies.

Pirates have already seized tankers laden with benzene and could easily take a ship loaded with liquid gas.

Floating bomb: Pirates, such as the ones who hijacked the Sirius Star (above) are closely linked to Islamic terrorists

Security experts in south Asia fear that such a ship could be used as a giant floating bomb in the Malacca Straits, reducing a city such as Singapore to rubble or blocking a major shipping route carrying much of the world's trade.

How long before Al-Shabaab terrorists - the name means 'The Lads' - in Somalia countenance such an atrocity?

Everyone would feel the indirect impact as world trade ground to a halt while the price of oil went through the roof.

The Sirius Star joins at least 14 other ships which Somali pirates are currently holding to ransom, along with more than 260 crew members. They come from dozens of nations, many of them poor and Muslim.

The captive ships range from the Ukrainian Faina, laden with guns, ammunition and 32 battle tanks, to bulk carriers, tankers, ocean-going tugs and gleaming luxury yachts.

Although the lives of crew are at risk when the ships are stormed, or when commandos attempt armed rescues, the main objective of the pirates is to extort large amounts of cash from the ship owners, who are insured against this eventuality.

Payment is generally made by former special forces men who hand over the money in sacks and holdalls, since pirates don't have bank accounts.

The current going rate for release of an ordinary vessel varies between £200,000 and £1million.

The pirates are a by-product of the murderous anarchy that has enveloped Somalia for decades, reducing its capital Mogadishu to ghostly ruins from which half the population has fled.

There has been no effective government since 1991, certainly not in the coastal north where the pirates congregate.

As a UN spokesman remarked: 'If you give countries points from one to ten for anarchy and confusion, Somalia gets 20.'

Pirates are of three types: unemployed fishermen who have nautical skills; gunmen from the country's many armed militias, and technical experts who operate computerised navigation systems to track the target vessels.

Hijacking spate: The Sirius Star is one of at least 14 ships which Somali pirates are holding to ransom

International menace: These eight Somali pirates, arrested for trying to hijack a cargo ship, are the by-product of the murderous anarchy that has enveloped Somalia

The Sirius Star was seized 450 miles off Kenya, twice the range at which these pirates usually operate.

Read it all. And read this too: Hijacked supertanker anchors off Somali coast as pirates open talks over their $100m oil haul... and demand a $10m ransom (hat tip van)

RELATED:

Atlas Shrugs: MUSLIM PIRATES DIE FROM SUBSTANCE THEY HANDLED OFF ...

Atlas Shrugs: Al Qaeda PIRATES: JIHAD ON HIGH SEAS

Atlas Shrugs: Muslim "PIRATES" Declare War on Japan

Atlas Shrugs: GWOT: Navy Battles Pirates

Atlas Shrugs: Thomas Jefferson's  Quran

Atlas Shrugs: "Pirate" Hijack Points to Al-Qaeda Presence

Atlas Shrugs: YOUR FUTURE AWAITS YOU:  THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF ISLAM

UPDATE: India has it right. (hat tip Van)

Comments

[Jeremiah]

Imagine dirty nuke material on a boat that size, plowing full steam ahead into a strategic economic or military port....

[kobi]

they had the dirty nuke ship from iran and it was caught before it got close enough to israel. see blog: shirat devorah.

with this shiz happening, the companies just need to beef up proper security, nu?

but the bigger picture problem is: refineries as targets etc.

[Razdan]

It's time we got serious against these dirty rotten terrorists. One piece of good news, an Indian Navy warship destroyed one of the Somali pirate ships. See:
INS Tabar sinks pirate ship in Gulf of Aden

[kaps]

"They are testing us, we are failing .... they will push harder and take bigger risks and we will sit there texting in our favorite no talent idol pick to ABC"

Yep! And when they hit our shores we will have the same clinton retreads and this thug weakling in chief in charge...sickening.

[clyde]

My son was in the Navy during the Clinton-era Somalia fiasco, and he said there was NOTHING there even then: all piping, brass, windows, doors, roofing, wiring, plumbing, flooring, ANYTHING of value EVERYWHERE had been stolen. There were only shells of buildings, and thousands of idiots with AK-47s roaming around shooting anything in sight. No government for the last twenty years, nothing but lawlessness and piracy. My son's quote after spending time there: "We're here to prevent the citizens from self-annihilation". He told me later he thought the solution was to make sure EVERYONE had a gun, so they'd finish each other off and then could start over with a clean slate.
As far as the piracy goes, it seems that all civilian shipping is going to have to begin arming themselves. Let the Saudis pick up the cost. They don't have a navy, so they can pay for everyone else's navy instead.

[Thomas Carney]

I have a question: this is a SAUDI-OWNED ship. Saudi Arabia's government has big bucks from oil, yet they have a military as useful as udders on a prize bull. Why should NATO get involved with this??? Better yet, I see NO REASON for the US to get involved. This is a tanker sailing under a Liberian flag owned by a Saudi oil company. Do you mean to tell me they don't have or won't spend the money to protect their ships???

Most commercial ships on the high seas are either Panamanian or Liberian flagged because those countries have the loosest regs when it comes to security and safety. Very few commercial ships are sailing under US flags because the US has over-regulated US shipping into oblivion (thank you Congressional Democrats, you socialist ba$+t@rds).

So you see, it's all about doing it on the cheap.

Our Navy is so pitifully under-equipped and over-worked there's no way the US could stop this and truth be told, the US should not be stopping this. It's up to shipping companies to provide more than a reasonable modicum of security on their ships.

The Sirius Star capture is a Saudi/UAE/Liberian problem. Let's see if the fatcat Saudis can or will do anything about it.

[TINBH]

What a coincidence - ?

Just last week the mid-east oil sheiks were going to cut oil production -to stop the price from falling below 50 dollars per barrel.

Now a bunch of islamic pirates just happened to have hijack a mid-east oil tanker - ?

A major reason for the drop - Americans are driving less - and buying less gas!

Keep this up USA! Cut back gas consumption any way you can. Don't send our money by the boat loads to the mid-east

BTW - such a ship will never get near any potential target before being stopped (and in environmentally friendly ways - i.e. no oil spills).

[gunner mort]

The solution to the piracy is simple. As the merchant ships and Royal Navy did in the 19th century, arm the merchant vessels to the teeth to repel pirates (there was a reason merchant vessels had cannon decks) and when a Navy warship seizes a pirate vessel, the crew is hanged for piracy. By the way, this tactic ended the middle passage slave trade as all slave ships were deemed as pirate ships by the Royal Navy.

[Yitro]

Yep, this is nothing new to the USA. One of the first foreign policy engagements of the new US Navy under Thomas Jefferson, yes TJ himself, was to put down the Barbary (Islamic Muzzy) Pirates. The pirates saw it as acting within the will of "Allah" (the moon god). Jefferson saw that ransom (appeasement) was not the answer but meeting them with force was.

[Thomas Carney]

TINBH: Who knows?? Maybe the Saudis paid the Somalis hijack the tanker to force the price of oil up a bit.

If not, if the Saudis pay the ransom, that just encourages the pirates to do it again.

Saudi Arabia has received large amounts of US military aid, plus they have the money to buy the latest equipment. Let's see if the Saudi Royals have the testicular fortitude to do something about it. I bet not.

I worked with a couple Saudi Air Force guys when I was in the US Air Force. Those jokers made over ten times what we did at the time and complained about how expensive the USA was.