Pirates (modern day)

If find this rather baffling, some pirates steal a massive Supertanker full of oil, and instead of sending in some spec ops or ex spec ops mercenaries to kick some butt, they are negotiating with these people.

With todays technology, ie the ships positioning beacon or Satellite photography its not going to be difficult to find is it.

Its not as if its the first time this has happened either, so am I missing something or are the owners, or governments no doing enough to protect their goods.

If I was an owner I´d employ a bunch of ex military folk with the necassary hardware to protect my vessel.

Originally posted by Bicnarok
If find this rather baffling, some pirates steal a massive Supertanker full of oil, and instead of sending in some spec ops or ex spec ops mercenaries to kick some butt, they are negotiating with these people.

With todays technology, ie the ships positioning beacon or Satellite photography its not going to be difficult to find is it.

Its not as if its the first time this has happened either, so am I missing something or are the owners, or governments no doing enough to protect their goods.

If I was an owner I´d employ a bunch of ex military folk with the necassary hardware to protect my vessel.

Yeah, what possible problem could there be with a having heavy artillery on a ship full of oil?

The UN is sending battleships to help some shipping lanes but I think it's mainly a problem of the sheer number of ships on the sea at once. There's no way to know where pirates are going to attack.

the official line is negotiating..wouldn't be surprised if there was a seals or sbs team about to bullet rape some 1 legged parrot fiddlers right now

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Yeah, what possible problem could there be with a having heavy artillery on a ship full of oil?

Oh dear what a silly comment, there are various other military options which can guard any sort of ship.

I think the "too many ships" problem is the main obstacle, too many to secure and too many who could be pirates.

nevertheless an odd situation to have in this day.

yes, slaughtering poor people using the most advanced modern military weapons!

that has never had negative repercussions.

I'll say it, I'm ****in happy they are negotiating and not killing.

I suppose helping the area around Somalia to be more livable, ie stop poverty, starving & general anarchy would also help the situation.

Originally posted by Bicnarok
I suppose helping the area around Somalia to be more livable, ie stop poverty, starving & general anarchy would also help the situation.

yeah...uuuhh...we tried that already...didn't work out too well though

Originally posted by inimalist
yes, slaughtering poor people using the most advanced modern military weapons!

that has never had negative repercussions.

I'll say it, I'm ****in happy they are negotiating and not killing.

poor people?...hardly...they've pirated $75,000,000 in the last 3 years...and they've just got a quarter of a days production of oil for the whole of Saudi Arabia

Originally posted by jaden101
yeah...uuuhh...we tried that already...didn't work out too well though

you mean stationing military units there to destabilize local militia leaders?

Originally posted by jaden101
poor people?...hardly...they've pirated $75,000,000 in the last 3 years...and they've just got a quarter of a days production of oil for the whole of Saudi Arabia

and you think it is the pirates who see 75m for that oil?

I'm sure someone is getting rich, I'd put money on it not being the people in the fishing boats going after tankers

Originally posted by inimalist

and you think it is the pirates who see 75m for that oil?

I'm sure someone is getting rich, I'd put money on it not being the people in the fishing boats going after tankers

they've already made the 75mill....minus the oil

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7623329.stm

have a read about so called pirate town...Puntland and Eyl in Somalia

you mean stationing military units there to destabilize local militia leaders?

no...i mean the west's arrogant notion of "nation building"...which is what was tried in Somalia...the military aspect that led to the black hawk down incident was a relatively small part of a very large failure

Originally posted by jaden101
they've already made the 75mill....minus the oil

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7623329.stm

have a read about so called pirate town...Puntland and Eyl in Somalia

I have. Al Jazeera sent a crew to interview some "pirates" (the boat they were on did get busted by the coast guard). Neither they or the town they came from seemed to have much money.

I'm sure, much like all organized crime, the people doing the heavy lifting are likely not making more than subsistence.

It would be like saying Opium farmers are rich. Of course they aren't

Originally posted by jaden101
no...i mean the west's arrogant notion of "nation building"...which is what was tried in Somalia...the military aspect that led to the black hawk down incident was a relatively small part of a very large failure

on this we agree, though I might say that the idea that "nation building" and military force can be so separated is illusory. Nation building, imho, is an extension of or excuse for military policy.

Doesn't this stem from Somalia's horrendous living conditions and the state of near anarchy? I'd love to have some concrete facts- this is a topic I pulled for extemp and I had no idea what to say. I talked about Obama's 1st 100 days in office instead.

interesting fact: It is arguable that living conditions in Somalia were better before the Islamic Courts took some degree of power.

The destabilized anarchy was better than stabilized international conflict, lol 🙂

Originally posted by inimalist
I have. Al Jazeera sent a crew to interview some "pirates" (the boat they were on did get busted by the coast guard). Neither they or the town they came from seemed to have much money.

I'm sure, much like all organized crime, the people doing the heavy lifting are likely not making more than subsistence.

It would be like saying Opium farmers are rich. Of course they aren't

well the BBC seem to disagree...as does the president of Puntland

as does Reuters

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE4AM003.html

on this we agree, though I might say that the idea that "nation building" and military force can be so separated is illusory. Nation building, imho, is an extension of or excuse for military policy

i'm not saying they are seperate but nation building is an entirely different policy than military intervention...and i'm not even saying nation building is always bad...because south korean after the korean war is a great example of what it can achieve (read the Gregg Brazinsky if you can get a hold of it)

Originally posted by Bicnarok
Oh dear what a silly comment, there are various other military options which can guard any sort of ship.

I think the "too many ships" problem is the main obstacle, too many to secure and too many who could be pirates.

nevertheless an odd situation to have in this day.

Such as? Because last time I checked, a water cannon or bright lights aren't a match for an AK-47 or an RPG.

Some shipping lines do employ security, but that is expensive, so many can't afford it or are willing to spend the expense on something they most likely will not need.

It's also the policy of most shipping lines to not fight back, as the pirates are more likely to kill/harm the crew while looting.

Originally posted by jaden101
well the BBC seem to disagree...as does the president of Puntland

as does Reuters

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE4AM003.html

ya, well, i totally put my foot in my mouth there, lol

The article is really interesting, and I found a couple more Al Jazeera shorts that were saying largely what you were. I think I saw the rag tag looking pirates and assumed they were the bottom in some hierarchical criminal organization, much like how opium farming works.

To be honest, I actually didn't realize they were ransoming the oil back, I thought they were going to either ship it out through Nigeria, or like the article said, Yemen. Again, this is because I thought they were part of a typical criminal organization.

My fascination in this phenomena has skyrocketed, thank you 🙂 lol

Originally posted by jaden101
i'm not saying they are seperate but nation building is an entirely different policy than military intervention...and i'm not even saying nation building is always bad...because south korean after the korean war is a great example of what it can achieve (read the Gregg Brazinsky if you can get a hold of it)

Unfortunately I am not familiar with Korea at all, but imho nation building is a really illusory term. Governments get to build a single nation, the presumption that any nation has the right to build another seems like the initiation of aggression to me. Again, I'm not familiar with Korea, so ya, if I'm missing something, please tell.

do you think they still search for buried treasures?

No, they steal the buried treasure some other people have already dug up, oil.

having a team of Mercs with some M16 and Missile Launchers wouln´t be a problem & woulnd´t endanger the oil onboard. Seeing as the Saudi´s own the ship they wouldn´t have problems getting the hardware either. Putting a destroyer type massive gattling gun visible on deck could also prove as a deterrent.

Originally posted by Bicnarok
Oh dear what a silly comment, there are various other military options which can guard any sort of ship.

I think the "too many ships" problem is the main obstacle, too many to secure and too many who could be pirates.

nevertheless an odd situation to have in this day.

I would have to say the major problem is the routes. The simple solution is that we can just blow them to kindom come. It's like this, once a thief always a thief. They do not need second chances, because they made their choice. Sure I'm harsh, but stealing a ship full of oil. I might as well steal an unsharpened pencil from someone.

Originally posted by Bicnarok

If I was an owner I´d employ a bunch of ex military folk with the necassary hardware to protect my vessel.

Problem with that is, what country will let a boat filled with armed foreign mercenaries into their port?