Seems the risk of piracy is only during a short portion of the ship's route.

They could hire armed guards w/ weapons for just that part of the trip. Embark when approaching the danger area, disembark when through safely.

The armed guards could be 6-8 man teams of ex-military with weapons and detection equipment sufficient to defeat pirates. .50 cals, nightvision, and portable radars . . .

Change maritime rules to permit shooting on sight in piracy-afflicted regions.

Expensive, but for $100MM cargoes seems worth it.

Surely Blackwater is looking for a new growth business? Their Iraq biz will be winding down.

Arm the crews and train them. Treat the problem instead of hoping it (piracy) will go away. With today's technology, there's no way these pirates should be able to board and commandeer a vessel.

Common Art, would you keep doing your job if your boss tells you to learn how to use a gun , to defend company property from 3rd world country thugs, armed to the teeth? would you? or would you think you might want to find another job, so your wife and kids don't have to worry about you getting shot?

I don't remember hearing the resolution to that piracy episode a month or more ago with the Ukranian freighter carrying the tanks, etc. that caused the Russians to send a frigate to the scene, so I Googled "russian frigate" and found out that situation is still unresolved...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/11/news/Piracy-Danish-Ship.php

British and Russia warships repel pirates:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/12/pirates.attack.russia.britain/

IMO, it's ridiculous that a boatload of dumba$$es like this are allowed to hijack an entire ship....

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u...alipirates.jpg

I bet if you put a coupla Blackwater dudes on board a few ships in the next few months... with night vision and gatling guns, they could cut enough of these boats in half and kill enough of these bozos to discourage further attempts for quite a while.

THINK????????????????????????


I AM................................................ .................. PILGRIM!


peace thru overwhelmlng superior firepower!

MOAB 's all along the coast at each somali wally port! armed MERCS aboard ships, and problemo solved. no environmental disaster, no fuss no muss.

one pirate boat blown to smithereens...............the rest of those freekazoids will run fer mama.

starve somali to the tables and just maybe they will think again about pissing people off in the name of allah/god whatever.

the u.s. has enough on its hands with afghan and iwaq. let some other country take the heat for not following geneva convention rules. hell no one the u.s. EVER FIGHTS FOLLOWS THE RULES OF HUMANITARIAN WARFARE except us!

so let another country turn em into shark chum and get all the bad press.

or pay me the unbee-wee-vable sum of ONE MILL-ION DOLLARS and i will assure that AZMERCSFERHIRE.com will solve the problemo in no time at all!

first we will bombard them with jalepeno peppers..............then we will up the ante and send some HABENERO's over there and the next thing you know they will be pooing themselves so bad from drinking dirty filthy water cuz their mouths are on fire, they will not have the will or spirit to fight.

then we will bomb the khat factories. no khat no super human energy marching powder to steal ships. they will be at our mercy begging for momma.

so what you finally have............... no ports of any use, a country with no clean water, covered in jalapeno and habenero peppers and no freeking khat to chew.

WHO THE HELL WOULD WANT TO LIVE THERE????

what a dastardly diabolical plan huh?

I'm sure the 250 hostages they have in those ports will loooove your idea about MOAB's

Reports are that many of the Somali pirates are getting killed not by there captors but by naval ships chasing them down! These guys have nothing to loose, but the rewards from a successful ransom payment would place anyone in riches forever. They ask millions in payment! Its a risk worth taking for them.

Blowin up an oil or gas carrier guys in order to kill a dozen or so tattered Somali pirates is not worth polluting the open oceans with a million or so gallons of crude!

The concensus is to hit them at home, but we tried that when Clinton went into Somalia and what we got was "Blackhawk Down". We left with our tails between our legs and many sacrificed.

Best bet.....submarine drop off of Navy Seals for a nightime assault on the fishing villages with good intel on the targets (ships and pirates). That should give them an attitude adjustment!

yep theres an ANNAPOLIS GRAD SOMEWHERE IN THAT PIC! ADMIRAL KOOKY KHAT! LMFAO!


ADMIRAL KOOKY KHAT TAKES ON WORLD SUPERPOWERS NAVY'S!!!!!

with nothing more than.................some ak's and some RPG's despite not knowing how to read or write!

ADMIRAL KOOKY KHATS REPORT CARD:

ak weapons class-pass.

rpg class-pass

khat chewing-pass

going numbers 1 & 2 with left hand-pass

maritime piracy-pass with star next to name!
how many rpgs can that bonka boat/scow carry?

moabs or habenero peppers!!!!

somewhere in dat pic is da BRAINS BEHIND THE ENTIRE OPERATION! i think his name is.............SECRETARY OF THE SOMALI NAVY.....MR KHAT MAN DO!

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u...avor-flavx.jpg

"Admiral Kooky Kat at yo' service, DAWG."

the ones that took the tanker had more then that little boat, they had an ocean going tug and proper speed boats...they are a lot more organized then the above specimens

the Navy is behind this. With recruiting way down, what's better than joining the Navy and fighting pirates? look for an ad campaign to come out in January.

I spent a lot if time in my last job worrying about pirates and supplying the Navy with the tools to help fight them.

The pirates are very sophisticated and understand the, "big sea, little ship" equation.

We are most definitely fighting them, but our Navy was not designed for this particular threat. The Navy is adjusting.

The pirate threat is real.

ITS ADMIRAL KOOKY KHAT! khat as in the the crap they chew to stay up up for six weeks at a time!


man that was precious! LMFAO!


wow with NVG's and infra - red on we could have a real honest to god "fish in a barrel " TURKEY SHOOT!

wouldnt they poo themselves if we (yep all of us marksmen) CRANKED "YOU CANT TOUCH DAT" at mega mega VOLUME and started lighting them up with tracers!


toss a few grenades over the side for the educated juans with dive gear. a few u.s. navy trained dolphins(dolphinks) with LAZER BEAMS ON THEIR HEADS would probably deter them for quite some time. yes the u.s. navy has these trained assassin dolphinks but im not allowed to divulge any information about my meeting with them juan time diving off of the big island hawaii!!!!! all they wanted to do while training was to check out my g/friends boobs! typical sailors!

maybe the Chinese can use their forthcoming carrier to help protect the sea lanes...

it is simply cheaper for a ship owner to pay the ransom than to hire guards; big ships run with minimal crew -- you would need a LOT of add'l crew or guards - you can't do it with just a few guys per ship

nor would I want to be a person sitting at a port, trying to filter out the pirates -- they are part of the whole society now.

They have certainly gotten more bold and can expect to have a bunch of nation-states on their ass soon.

Iranian grain ship captured yesterday

-- what a great way for nation-states to patch up their differences.... a common enemy...

A good concept, Randy.

ian

Well, Maybe Obama will sent our boys into Africa to get some pay backs??? OK, I am only kidding. Really, I am sick and tired of reading and learning about low lifes having all the rights and there's nothing any one can do. Just like here at home as well.

Uhhhh, I'm fairly confident the pirate home ports & ships are no mystery. A couple "random" bombs fall during the night and in the morning bingo...no more pirates. I agree that having some sort of on board paid defense makes some sense but it's infinitely less taxing to "get err done" at their home. No?

You'd think with the Iranians and the Russians involved that these pirates will have very shortened lives.

No.

You'd blow up innocent civilians - lots and lots of them. Think about taking out a port in the US -- what surrounds it? A major city.