Mariners are being warned of a growing threat from pirates around the world after attacks on shipping rose by 20 per cent over the last year.And unsurprisingly:
Four of the six Somali pirates arrested for kidnapping a French luxury yacht are related to Somali President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed, the French weekly Le Point reported Monday on its website.We're dealing with Barbary pirates--aided, abetted, harbored, and in many cases directed by corrupt thugocracies. Commodore Decatur showed us how to deal with that, but I guess the lesson has been forgotten.
Somalia is particularly interesting because of the pervasive and longstanding UN effort there. So what do the globalists at the International Maritime Organization suggest doing about piracy in international waters?
The following is from "A Pirate's Life for Me!," one of my GUNS & AMMO columns from 2002:
Hoses against weapons. Trembling behind hatches. Everything but standing up on your sea-legs and fighting. How about just opening fire on them?It seems to me we're missing a lemons-out-of-lemonade opportunity here, to not only take care of the problem, but to turn it into a profitable bounty-hunting/ship capturing venture. Perhaps if privateers operated under Letters of Marque and Reprisal when American interests are involved...
The IMO's Captain Hartmut Hesse says armed guards on ships "will only increase violence, it will not deter the pirates."
The IMO guide Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships, cautions "The carrying and use of firearms ... is strongly discouraged. [It] may encourage attackers to carry firearms thereby escalating an already dangerous situation, and any firearms on board may themselves become an attractive target for an attacker. The use of firearms requires special training and aptitudes and the risk of accidents... is great."
...Agreeing with Captain Hesse, and chastising Lloyd's List for editorially suggesting otherwise, is Captain John Dalby of Marine Risk Management, a "maritime asset recovery and protection" company. While admitting "It is the sailors... who are being kidnaped, beached, set adrift ... or summarily killed," he warns that "only tragedy will result from inexperienced people trying to fight fire with fire. Leave intervention and reaction to those who are best equipped and trained for it."
2 comments:
It seems many nations of our planet have become "pussified". How can you go to sea unarmed?? That seems idiotic to me. When a skiff with 10 pirates armed with RPGs can overtake a 110' yacht with a full crew, they have grossly underarmed or disarmed themselves.
I wouldn't go to sea in a 20' fishing boat unarmed.
The cops won't help you out there and nobody can hear your screams for help.
I always thought of ship's captains as a sort of tough guy...maybe bearded wearing a sailors cap and a countenance of pissedoffedness....
But it sounds like they're getting pussified with they won't arm their crew or themselves.
IF the law of the sea treaties ALLOW them to have anything more weaponly than flare guns aboard...
Aww, the rules of engagement let a rubber boat of Muslim terrorists get close enough to the navy destroyer USS Cole to blow a 25-foot hole in her hull and kill 14 sailors. And now all surviving terror suspects connected with the attack are free.
Easy money for the scum of the planet. A successful raid pumps them up for the next one.
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