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Oceania cruise ship outruns pirate ship

by Annie Scott on Dec 1st 2008 at 4:30PM

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Soren Dec 1st 2008 6:11PM

It is unbelievable that the world accept this piracy to continue. Paying the ransoms and using non-lethal force in defense to combat piracy and in my opinion terrorism is complete lunacy.

India has been the only nation to use force with force, when will the rest of the nations using the seas as a transportation link wake up and sink the bastards.

The capability to do it is there, we can find a small car with terrorists driving on a mountain road in any country, but we can't find several speed boats in and around the coasts of Somalia or Yemen.

It must be another form of our foreign aid to crimals in Africa.

Zan Ozimek Dec 1st 2008 6:57PM

India has been the only nation to use force with force

Yeah, but they ended up using force against a fishing trawler, not the "pirate mother ship" they thought. Good going, India.

In any case, I have yet to see concrete proof that the pirates are "animals." The description of the hostages says they were confined and yelled at --- big freakin' deal!

Mario Dec 1st 2008 7:00PM

This looks more like terrorism than an act of piracy. Clue: Coast of Yemen.

Carole Clarke Dec 1st 2008 8:08PM

During WWII there were cargo vessels outfitted with secret defenses against enemy ships that would try to take them captive. When the enemy ship drew within range, the covers would fly off and the attacker would find itself strafed by naval guns mounted on the civilian vessel and the merchant seamen firing them trained by the Navy. These "Q Boats" were very effective for the time they were used - current cargo vessels hauling oil or containers could train their crews in the use of light arms and issue the weapons once the vessel comes under attack. You don't need to take out the pirate "mother ship", you just need to make the pirates advance thru a hail of bullets they hadn't expected. It's easy plunder they want, not an early grave. Passenger liners can train the crew in small arms tactics and train a few suitable crewmen in how to operate a RPG (rocket propelled grenade) launcher. A few unpleasant encounters like that and those pirates will be back on the beach.

John Dec 1st 2008 10:00PM

Send the UN? That's laughable. Everyone knows that until the US sends its fleet to destroy the Somali pirates, like the British did with the ones in the Caribbean, these guys are going to have a free reign. Remember the Blakans? Europe vacillated about barbarism in its own back yard until Clinton sent in the US Air Force and put a stop to it.

Will Obama do it? I'm not so sure.