Americans slain by PIRATES!

You take your private yacht deliberately through a Hurricane that has been forcast for days . . . that is an avoidable prewritten tragedy.

You take a private yacht through an area that is known for *routine* organized pirate attacks . .that is an avoidable prewritten tragedy.

We should address if the U.S. government should turn that region into radioactive glass as a seperate topic.

Dude you crossed the line on this one. Nobody deserves to die at the hand of scumbag pirates....I don't care if they were in the wrong place or not. The pirates don't own those waters. That's is like saying the jet skier on the Texas border lake had it coming when he was gunned down like carnival game by the Mexican drug lords.
 
Gary (and others), I agree with you. The last time I checked, International Waters were the last bastion of a free world - there is a seperate admirality law that covers these non-jurisdictional areas. Now were these folks traveling the shoreline - maybe then I could call them reckless - but they STILL DID NOT DESERVE the hand they were dealt. I do not know what their specific course was but (from what I read) they were >200nM from shore. Again, kudo's to the US Military for their effort.
 
All the politics, philosophizing, and theorizing doesn't matter one bit.....when you're dead....

these people, "may their souls rest in peace" had been literally "living the dream" for I believe the last six years....

what could they have possibly been thinking????....an easily avoidable, "dream life" ending....tragedy....

there are some very desperate people on this planet....they're stealing tankers from Exxon....in boats none of us would take in a lake....we need to go pleasure boating there....I don't get it.. :huh:
 
Dude you crossed the line on this one. Nobody deserves to die at the hand of scumbag pirates....I don't care if they were in the wrong place or not. The pirates don't own those waters. That's is like saying the jet skier on the Texas border lake had it coming when he was gunned down like carnival game by the Mexican drug lords.


Tonka;

I read the posts over again: If I implied that they "deserved to die"; then you are correct I stepped over the line. My apologies to the forum.

However, I do stand by the statement that this was an avoidable tragedy. The person responsible for putting the boat in those waters should definately have known better than to be there.

Regarding the Texas border lake thing: That is a very different thing: That is U.S. Territory -> and it is very much the buisness of U.S. Government (Federal/state/local) to police the area. I don't know the specifics of that case to comment further.
 
"However, I do stand by the statement that this was an avoidable tragedy. The person responsible for putting the boat in those waters should definately have known better than to be there.

Regarding the Texas border lake thing: That is a very different thing: That is U.S. Territory -> and it is very much the buisness of U.S. Government (Federal/state/local) to police the area. I don't know the specifics of that case to comment further."



Actually you are wrong on this one..
They were 275km offshore in international waters..
Our government and our Navy is here ( and there) to protect the interests and citizens of the USA, and to help insure safe passage of all nations.

We stopped short of our circumnavigation... but we personally have number of friends that have taken that route... and it has always been " iffy " going up the red sea... Everybody that does that route knows it.. and accepts the risk... as much as we all accept the risk that we may drown it a boating accident. But do not belittle the memory by stating the obvious... they didn't sail down the beach in Somalia waving an American flag and try to get hijacked
EXPRESSBOY
 
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First off how many people actually travel though this area without being confronted by pirates? The chance of being captured is probably minimal.

That being said this is a huge problem, It has affected shipping traffic and is an act of war by the pirates. My biggest concern has been the growth and organization of pirates. How far will it grow to? that entire region has some of the greatest poverty levels in the world, the practice of pirating could potentially expand into nearby countries and become a large organized group.
 
Tonka;

I read the posts over again: If I implied that they "deserved to die"; then you are correct I stepped over the line. My apologies to the forum.

However, I do stand by the statement that this was an avoidable tragedy. The person responsible for putting the boat in those waters should definately have known better than to be there.

Regarding the Texas border lake thing: That is a very different thing: That is U.S. Territory -> and it is very much the buisness of U.S. Government (Federal/state/local) to police the area. I don't know the specifics of that case to comment further.
Actually it wasn't US Territory, the jet skiers crossed the border into Mexico and it happened there.
 
comsnark, I suggest you look at a map and come up with a feasible way to transit the Gulf of Aden without sailing around the world in the other direction.
 
You might like to see how the Russians handled things.


You know I thought of mentioning to just let the Russians handle,it, but then I thought some would post so much flake over the comment. :huh:

For my $0.02 I say go in and kill them all, level villages etc. :huh:
 
cornflakes is a person too, don't be so mean... bully.

Don't know no "cornflake" person, but, okay, so I am prejudice, I will not even allow cornflakes into my house, since I was a kid and had to eat cornflakes nearly ever day with powdered milk, yuuch... :smt043:smt043:smt043
 
Just curious! I have not heard anything about the Navy going after the "Mother Ship". I'm wondering if the patrols in the Gulf of Aden are just reactive and not proactive in any respect.

If the Navy does have the intelligence on the Mother Ship, it would be nice if they just passed it on to the Russians and sort of forgot that they ever had it.

Can you imagine that nitwit pirate firing an RPG at a US warship? What is that like, trying to shoot an elephant with a pea shooter?
 
I believe that all of the coalition ships share their intel on these dirt bags, but I do agree with you about the need to rotate the Russians into cleanup spot a little more often. :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
Just curious! I have not heard anything about the Navy going after the "Mother Ship". I'm wondering if the patrols in the Gulf of Aden are just reactive and not proactive in any respect.

If the Navy does have the intelligence on the Mother Ship, it would be nice if they just passed it on to the Russians and sort of forgot that they ever had it.

Can you imagine that nitwit pirate firing an RPG at a US warship? What is that like, trying to shoot an elephant with a pea shooter?

I was wondering the same thing about the mothership.

There have been incidents where nitwith pirates go after warships (generally after dark). My understanding is that things don't go well for the pirates (the elephants shoot back)
 
Part I do not understand they knew they were going in dangerous water. Would you drive you boat into a hurricane?
 
They were traveling with other boats in part for safety. They separated from the group on 2/15 and were nabbed by the pirates on 2/18. So far I haven't read an explanation for them leaving the group.

The area the Somalia pirates are working is big, 20% of world trade crosses the area, 25,000 - 40,000 ships a year. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Somalian_Piracy_Threat_Map_2010.png

Check out this IMB Live Piracy Map http://www.icc-ccs.org/home/piracy-reporting-centre/imb-live-piracy-map-2010

I doubt these attacks are entirely random events. I doubt the pirates are out cruising around hoping to cross paths with their next victim. I wonder if specially armed decoys would work. Bait the pirates in, blow up the pirate vessels and do not report it. An actual covert operation. The pirates go out to do their thing and just never are seen again by their pirate buddies. Makes me think of hunting. Easier said than done I’m sure.
 
I see why the patrol boats aren't proactive in hunting down pirates:

"Though piracy is a globally recognized crime, few governments are willing to navigate the legal and logistical barriers that impede convicting seaborn bandits.
Unless pirates are caught in the act of storming or holding a ship, authorities often can do little more than search for contraband when suspects are physically apprehended. Even with ample evidence, authorities then have to consider whether a crime can be proved in court and in what jurisdiction to try it."

Let's just contract this patrol work out to the Russians and the Chinese. No questions asked, problem solved!
 
These folks were not just floating around on vacation. Many here seem to think they were mindlessly vacationing not worried the least little bit.

This was not the case. These were missionaries with an agenda. Much like a soldier rushes into battle, a police officer steps in front of a bullet, or a fire fighter enters a burning building.

They had a reason to be there whether or not I think it was ill-fated or stupid or whatever. They had the same drive that causes people to go into Africa, South America, or the mid east to spread their faith.

If you do anything here at least recognize that they were there with a purpose.

One again we look at the victims and point fingers and are driven to defend their actions when we should be killing the perpetrators of evil.

Sorry no little funny faces. Not in that kind of mood on this one.
 
This is an interesting site. It is amazing how much information they have on each ship. While their coverage area does not pick up ships off Somalia, one would think that a ships tracking and AIS collision systems could "light them up" to the bad guys. At a minimum, a photo of the ship, its destination and when they leave a port seems to provide alot of intel.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?level0=100

-John
 
If you check out the map, it doesn't track any ships off the coast of Somalia, actually no tracking anywhere in that area. They must have done that for a reason.
 
If you check out the map, it doesn't track any ships off the coast of Somalia, actually no tracking anywhere in that area. They must have done that for a reason.

Probably a good move shutting down the AIS stations in that area so that the bandits don't know what is out there without actually going out to sea. I suppose that they can monitor the radio activity though.
 

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