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U.S. cargo ship evades Somali pirate attack

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Vilma de Guzman’s husband is one of 23 Filipino sailors held hostage since Nov. 10 "“The pirates might vent their anger on them,” she said Monday. “Those released are lucky, but what about those who remain captive?”

Yes what about them? Should the US go in a rescue them also? Maybe the French? No matter what the US does, someone will not be happy.

They had one of ours, the US went in and got him back. Have your government go in a get yours back. Pay the ransom, attack the location he is held, leave him there for another 6 months or shut the hell up. Those are your options.

Why leave them there for 5+ months and do nothing? So, sorry MRS Guzman, you should be talking to your government about something.

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Wouldn't it be great to have a business card that said:

Jackson Smith PIRATE

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Hey send a few "dummy cargo ships" into their waters filled with Navy Seals in training....when the Johnny Depps try to take over the ship...."OK Seals training begins...go get em".

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I'm glad they vowed revenge. It'll make all more aware.

There was an interview this morning by a shipping company CEO and he said that in his business he'd talked to other CEOs like himself and they didn't want to put security crews onboard ships. So it's more than they aren't allowed to arm their ships. < :-)

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How many wars does the "new guy of change" want? He is expanding Afganistan and now Pakistan, negotiating with Israel about Iran, and now Somalia. Somalia is a clan-based society with a strong system of revenge. A lot of families rely on the pirates income. Is it really worth it?

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So Den Den, what is your suggestion? Leave the pirates on free attack spree?

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Yaaarrrrrrrgh...if ye jargon not be true pirate jargon, then ye most likely not real pirates a tall...

These guys are criminals without remorse, and should be treated so. Lets not give them the romanticized title of pirates.

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still 230 hostages? what is the UN doing? having a tea-break?

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The UN and everyone else is looking the other way because nobody wants to put a stop to the "opportunity of a lifetime" to dump the world's toxic waste of the coast of Somalia. Paying the pirates is still a lot cheaper than the cost of properly disposing of the gunk being dumped.

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"urging strong U.S. action"

How about strong international action?

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The ante has been upped. What? You did not see it coming? And you have to hand it to them; this is much more clever than mistreating their hostages, like I thought they would do. Still, that might be plan B.

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My guess is that if they have the choice between a US ship and one from a fast payer, they're going to go ahead and take the fast payer.

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Like I said, train and equip a Somali Maritime Self Defense force, to prevent pirates and collect revenue to fund pirate-prone villages. And sue the britches off western firms that dump toxic waste in Somalia...

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Okinawamike: Very well said. It's not up to the United States to rescue citizens of other countries, if their own governments just sit on their dead a$$e$ and do nothing. The United States sent their military to rescue one of their own as they should have. Stop blming the United States for your goverments lack of ba11$.

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[ train and equip a Somali Maritime Self Defense force,]

yeah you try that entrepreneur. See how far you get. The country is not unified. It's a bunch of thugs out for self interests against each other. They need to be blown out of the water. Don't let intimidation make you cower in a corner. The meek will not inhierit the earth that way. They'll become extinct.

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Until the shipping companies put out some money for their protection then it's going to continue. Do you lock your doors or turn on the alarm system or let the dogs out?

Shipping companies need to put out money for barbwire, sticky foam and whatever they can do to stop the pirates. < :-)

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Either nuke this place, or mine the heck out of their beaches and adjacent sea so they will not have a direct access route. Where are the satellites to monitor movement? I suppose with all the money they extort, mine as well have each vesell escorted by a private security flotilla. This means war!

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Yeah it was a laugh when it was a few somalies in a dingy taking ships, but boy as soon as they take a US ship then its "pull out the nukes" time from the loud mouth armchair generals here.

Hows this, pull on your boots and go do something other than shooting your mouths off. Im sick of all the nuke this nuke that BS here. Thank god none of you have any power or we would be in nuclear winter by now.

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UN needs to organise an international force to invade Somalia and set up a proper governmnet for them. Do this quickly before the habit (piracy) become passion, the only way of life of its population. This country absolutely needs an foreign invasion as it has no effective government.

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tclh at 09:10 AM JST - 15th April

“UN needs to organise an international force to invade Somalia and set up a proper governmnet for them. Do this quickly before the habit (piracy) become passion, the only way of life of its population. This country absolutely needs an foreign invasion as it has no effective government.”

You are the only one giving the near enough answer, though you can leave out the UN as it is a good for nothing talking shop. Most of the pirates will retired before they can get their act together. There is also the question of the black African governments that always say that anything in Africa is for them to resolve (or corruptly profit from). What needs to be avoided is another American lead operation & in this case I am being perfectly pragmatic in that if the Americans lead then we can expect it to become yet another excuse for the nutty Muslims to have a go at them & that extra level of confusion just isn’t needed.

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Oops.

Commander in Chief Obama already declared victory.

But we'll just keep that our li'l secret.

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I think a Ghenkis Khan approach should solve the problem. Take no prisoners!

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4 more ships with 60 hostages...world’s busiest shipping lanes crossed by more than 20,000 ships each year

4x60x365 is an annual rate of 21,900 hostages.

We can either;

A) Surrender the captain of each ship that passes anywhere near Somalia to the pirates and send a thank you card with cash. OR;

B) Arm all ships with sufficient weapons to defend themselves and assume all fishing boats are pirates and blow them to hamburger.

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I have a great way for the United States to make money. We offer every nation/company that has folks being held to take care of their problem. Hell would work just fine and we could ice a few low lives.

Imagine how much we could make.....OOoooOOOooOOOoOOOoOOo

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do not waster water, (unleade fuel), on pirates, use leaded fuel as soon as you seen them coming. They need RPGs, assualt rifles, on board cannons, machine guns, and who knows, the predator.

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where is the Somali community on this? Haven't heard a peep from them.

As for having the shipping companies foot the bill, well basically you are saying is leave the poor Somali's alone and let us, the recipients of good transported on those boats, pay for it as the costs are going up. If any of you do large purchasing or any type of frieght forwarding business, you'll agree.

I would prefer the shipping companies, since they are being basically forced to fend for themselves, to organize security units to go and do some damage. The Somalis, I think, would be more afraid of a gang like that than the US gov.

I also think Obama is not going to do too much in this case. A black president having to do something in Africa would be political suicide. I can understand that. I wouldn't want to do too much harm to Latin Americans even if they are on the opposing side.

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Okay, here's the way I see it, the way these pirates in small boats take a huge cargo ship is by pulling up behind it and throwing ropes or net on the propeller to stop the ship, then they board. Shipping companies are hesitant to arm the vessels (God knows why). So why not mount high power water connons on the stern to protect the propeller and rudder? Cheap and non lethal.

@samuraiiki: Although I get the gist of your statement, in actuallity, Ghengis Khan was compassionate to any conquered people and offered every soldier who fought against him the opportunity to join him ........ history just gave him a bad rap.

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All ships passing through the region should mandatory have just a few trained anti terror operatives on board. Equipped with the necessary tools to do the job. The situation is running out of hand. The only thing that will impress the hoodlums is excessive power. Swift extermination is the only answer. And the total cost will be less than the ridiculous ransoms shipowners shell out.

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Somalia is a basket case even in backwards Africa, I feel sorry for the Kenyans etc..who must live in Alqaeda infestid Somalia, they are right next door and Alqaeda attacked Kenya's embassy etc..Somalia is a hell hole and should be used by the USA etc.. to test out our newst weapons by huntind down all potentianl Somali hijackers.

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We need a few aircraft carriers in the area to nail any little dinghies that are harrassing ships.

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In this case I must support the Somali pirates, it is their water and since there is no government who is to say who is right or wrong? No law, lawless, pirates, US military, etc...

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Deguchisan so if the ships just past outside the international line then it is OK?

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where is the Somali community on this? Haven't heard a peep from them.

Well, it does not exist. They barely have a government and you want to blame on its "community"? These are outlaws, a very visible consequence of guns commerce. Of course, it they attacked cars that go through Somalia rather than ships, nobody would be interested, but it would be much more tragic. One long term solution: agree to ban guns commerce to Africa

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DXXJP: So what are you, an arm chair pacifist? It's always so easy to blame the victims and not the perpetrators isn't it. Why don't you follow your own advice and stop running your mouth and assist the pirates that you love so much? Why shed so many tears for pirates that don't give a damn about you, and would treat you as just another cash cow had you been on any one of those ships? Invest in a lot of tissue, because it seems like you will be crying for some time to come.

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larguero: I was talking about the Somali community in the US. Perhaps playing the pirates game as they play it may worked.

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should have own armory on ships running this lane.

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skipthesong, sorry but you don't know what you are talking about . I would advise you to do a bit of some research on this subject before you post anything.

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". . . so if the ships just past outside the international line then it is OK?"

That's a big part of the problem. Ships ARE passing outside of Somali waters. WAAAAAAAY outside, by some 150 miles, in one case, and still these criminals are coming after them, under the false pretense that they are doing something noble for the people of Somalia. That alone makes this all particularly infuriating.

" . . . where is the Somali community on this?

Skip,

It seems you're suggesting that the Somali "community" take up their keyboards and blog away in outrage at the actions of their brethren, but unless you've been living under a rock for the past 20 years, Somalia is a country only in name, having been without a formal government for some years now. I think the Somali are too occupied with not getting killed within their own boarders to mount an internet protest.

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toguro at 04:19 PM JST - 15th April DXXJP: So what are you, an arm chair pacifist? It's always so easy to blame the victims and not the perpetrators isn't it. Why don't you follow your own advice and stop running your mouth and assist the pirates that you love so much? Why shed so many tears for pirates that don't give a damn about you, and would treat you as just another cash cow had you been on any one of those ships? Invest in a lot of tissue, because it seems like you will be crying for some time to come.

Running my mouth well you seem real tough talking nukes. Like I said in another post lace up your boots if your so tough. I never once gave pity to the pirates but you read it how you like. You sound more like a boy playing tough in the sand box.

I think I was the first to say use dummy ships and let them board. But you and your ilk seem to think blasting anything that moves is how anything should be handled.

Hows this work for you, say someone has your kid held up in a school SHOULD WE NUKE THE SCHOOL?. Yeah your logic is abundant.

By the way this didnt just start happening last week, I have been here in the ME for 2 years now, and while you and your armchair war supporters were still yelling nuke Iraq the pirates were grabbing ships. But hey your dear leader did nothing to stop it then, why all the rush now.

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"Somali pirates... failed to hijack it"

Losers.

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The Americans need to put a couple of their Carriers on patrol and fill them with attack helicopters. According to this it took 6 hours for the destroyer to arrive which put it at the most 180 miles from it. A helo can cover that distance in about an hour perhaps less. As they are attacking the merchant ship the helos can take out the foe. The pirates deserve death if Somalia wanted aid it could be provided.

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Makes you wonder how many of these ships will be arming themselves and flying the U.S. flag, but wearing the colors and talking big is never enough.

=Pirates will go after softer flagged targets like China, Japan, Korea first.

Maybe Japan needs to send the harpoon boats into the area = at least they have the experience of keeping the terrorists at bay and the waters are warmer than the Artic. Whales and pirating ships are of similiar size also.

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If putting representatives of the US Armed Forces is inappropriate, heck, take gang-bangers out of jail, put them on the ship with guns, and let them go at it with the pirates. Done deal.

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When are the owners going to protect their assets? When will the cargo shipping companies CEOs start protecting their people? Sitting back and doing nothing but relying of unarmed crewmen to evade the pirates is assinine. Kinda like leaving your door unlocked knowing that the bad guys are sitting outside waiting to enter your house. You have to shut and lock the door. Turn on the alarm system. And protecting your property with a gun. < :-)

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A lot of the problems with piracy off the coast of Somalia will soon die down until winter. Once the SW monsoon gets in full swing, the seas will be too heavy for the pirates to do much. Hopefully this will allow the international community the time it needs to come up with a good plan (my vote would be for armored helicopter patrols of the area).

Taka

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DXXJP: First of all, congrats to you, and I sincerely wish you well. I have laced up my boots before. I got out of the Corps' in 92'. Now with all of that aside, please tell me where in any of my posts did I say nuke em'. I think what I've advocated was to shoot them on sight, and keep shooting until they are wiped out. I have no compassion for them whatsoever, and I've obviously missed your post where you suggested the dummy ships, and for that I apologize. Good luck to you in your service.

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A wholehearted thank you goes out to the U.S. Navy SEALs and all the support personnel that were involved. Those involved did a great job and should be congratulated. In my opinion successful missions like this and possibly expanded operations to avert some of the pirates in route will be the best means of ending this piracy.

If there was an easier solution the Bush administration would have already authorized its implementation. I did hear, quite a few months ago now, that a major concern was the escalation of weaponry by the pirates. If the pirates are investing their "millions" into purchasing rocket and missile technology we may have a major problem on our hand. They are currently showing us they are willing to boldly approach the face of death. Suicide missions of explosives and rockets with a greater level of sophistication then rocket-propelled grenades, I suspect, are the direction of the upcoming escalation. If Toophan or any other variation of TOW missiles are acquired by the pirates they will certainly increase their threat to the seas. Some type of surface to air missile or other highly mobile missiles far beyond the TOW technology would be very dangerous in the hands of these pirates.

Congratulations to the Navy on a successful mission.

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Here's your george bush plan for fighting piracy on the high seas. Travel at night. Stay far ... far away from the coast. But nothing was actually implemented. Obama, because we had an American ship captured, took the real first action. Besides that this country has honestly taken no action at all. < :-)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123931064271506281.html

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Let's get this right. The MSDF ships did not do squat yet but the U.S. Navy is taking action. HUA! Glad to hear the pirates are starting to get their heads blown off. Sounds good to me. I'm pro head blowing :-)

We should play hard ball and just kill em all. They are without their morals or value life so why keep em alive. I applaud the Navy. I know this is going to sound vain but hope we can kill more of them in the future.

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adaydream,

Actually, anti-piracy patrols started under the previous administration. Task Force 150 (Red Sea and Indian Ocean) was patrolling that region in addition to its counter-terrorism operations back in 2008. The force size was increased in response to piracy and there were only two ships taken in December of 2008. The only change is that Task Force 151 (Persian Gulf) is now responsible for the anti-piracy patrols in the region.

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