Article

2010-05-11 Africa Horn

A GROUP of Somali pirates captured by the Russian navy in the Gulf of Aden and then set free in a boat are most probably dead after failing to reach the shore, a Russian defence source said. The 10 pirates were captured last week after seizing a Russian oil tanker but were then unexpectedly released, with Russian officials saying there was insufficient legal basis to keep them in detention.

"According to the latest information, the pirates who seized the Moscow University oil tanker failed to reach the shore. Evidently, they have all died," the high-ranking source was quoted as saying by all Russia's official news agencies.

The source said that radio signals from the boat stopped just one hour after it had been set free by the Russian navy. No details were given over the manner in which they could have lost their lives. Reports have said that after their release the Russian navy put the pirates in a boat 550km offshore, removing all weaponry and navigational equipment from the vessel.

"It would have been more humane to have hung them up from the yardarm," a rights activist, whose name was not given, told the Kommersant daily at the weekend.

Marines from the Russian destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov freed the tanker from the pirate's grasp in a dawn operation last week hailed as exemplary by Russian defence experts and officials. President Dmitry Medvedev said the raid was "sharp, professional and quick" and ordered medals for all those involved in the rescue.

The fate of the pirates had been a mystery. Media had at the weekend published a picture taken by state media showing 10 pirates lying face down, hands tied behind their back on the red deck of the Russian ship. A top naval official also told Kommersant that the Russian navy had originally planned to accompany the pirates to within 20km of the shore but the offer of escort was turned down.

But Somalia's ambassador to Moscow Mohammed Handule denied that the Russian navy had acted improperly in the affair.

"Not one Somali or the government of our country sees Russia as being guilty in this. The Russian military showed they can act effectively so that not one crew member of the captured tanker was hurt." "This is the most important thing," he said according to the ITAR-TASS news agency.

Russian shipping expert Mikhail Voitenko said reports about the pirates being set free in a boat could just be covering the possibility they had all been killed in the raid to free the Moscow University.

"I think this is linked to the fact nobody released the pirates and they were killed in the operation," Voitenko, editor of the Maritime Bulletin, told Moscow Echo radio. Then someone had the not very intelligent idea 'Let's pretend that they were released in the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles from the shore without any navigational aids'."

After the tanker was recaptured, officials had also sent conflicting signals about the future of the pirates. Russia's investigative committee of prosecutors had said steps were being taken to bring the pirates to Moscow to face charges but later backtracked, saying that this was not being discussed.

The episode is the latest high-seas intrigue involving Russia, after the disappearance last year of the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea ship which some reports said was carrying an illicit Russian arms cargo for Iran. Russia denied the charges and arrested eight "pirates" who it said had hijacked the vessel.

Posted by phil_b 2010-05-11 11:40|| || Front Page|| [14 views ] Top
File under: Pirates

#1 I must be a callus SOB, I don't feel any sympathy. Wait a minute....... no it was a fart.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2010-05-11 11:48|| 2010-05-11 11:48|| Front Page Top

#2 Lol, don't screw around with Russians ..

Lessons to be learnt by pirates and the west IMO :p

Posted by Theretch Johnson7447 2010-05-11 11:59|| 2010-05-11 11:59|| Front Page Top

#3 For once, I agree with the rights activist.

Swing em from the yardarm.

Posted by bigjim-CA 2010-05-11 11:59|| 2010-05-11 11:59|| Front Page Top

#4 As a famous Russian once said: "No man, no problem."

Posted by xbalanke 2010-05-11 12:20|| 2010-05-11 12:20|| Front Page Top

#5 "The source said that radio signals from the boat stopped just one hour after it had been set free by the Russian navy"

That's about how long water from the cleverly placed leak took to fill the dingy.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2010-05-11 12:24|| 2010-05-11 12:24|| Front Page Top

#6 OK, I just won a small bet with myself.

Posted by Grunter 2010-05-11 12:30|| 2010-05-11 12:30|| Front Page Top

#7 sometimes you hear stories like this and think: "Life is good!"

Posted by 3dc 2010-05-11 12:31|| 2010-05-11 12:31|| Front Page Top

#8 There are times I really love the Russian callousness of life.

Posted by DarthVader 2010-05-11 12:37|| 2010-05-11 12:37|| Front Page Top

#9 Well I'll be crying myself to sleep tonight... or maybe not.

Posted by Bulldog 2010-05-11 12:40|| 2010-05-11 12:40|| Front Page Top

#10 Must be a Russian version of the Texas proverb, "Some people need killin'"

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-05-11 12:48|| 2010-05-11 12:48|| Front Page Top

#11 Your right - they were chum....

Posted by CrazyFool 2010-05-11 13:03|| 2010-05-11 13:03|| Front Page Top

#12 No details were given over the manner in which they could have lost their lives.

12.7 mm or 23 mm.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-05-11 13:03|| 2010-05-11 13:03|| Front Page Top

#13 Ah, the old "leaky boat" trick. Classic.

Posted by mojo 2010-05-11 13:05|| 2010-05-11 13:05|| Front Page Top

#14 So now we get to find out if harsh treatment of pirates makes them leave you alone or makes them seek vengeance on you. And we can then extrapolate that learning to other variations of Islamic terrorism.

Posted by Glenmore 2010-05-11 13:06|| 2010-05-11 13:06|| Front Page Top

#15 "Kill all they send. Eventually, they will stop coming."
-- Nguyen Huu An

Posted by mojo 2010-05-11 13:07|| 2010-05-11 13:07|| Front Page Top

#16 BWA HA HA HA HA!!!1!

"It would have been more humane to have hung them up from the yardarm," [sobbed] a rights activist, whose name was not given...

Send the 'rights activist' along with the next batch of pirates they 'release.'

Posted by Free Radical 2010-05-11 13:24|| 2010-05-11 13:24|| Front Page Top

#17 Thanks for posting this, Phil - I needed a lift. :-D

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2010-05-11 13:33|| 2010-05-11 13:33|| Front Page Top

#18 So who's got the femtoviolin?

Posted by Bobby 2010-05-11 13:53|| 2010-05-11 13:53|| Front Page Top

#19 I remember when Lebanese terrorists kidnapped several Americans, and got much publicity, so kidnapped some Russians.

The Russians sent some personnel to Lebanon, who promptly counter-kidnapped the "spiritual leader" of the terrorists, then "Fed-Ex'ed" a few of his parts to the terrorists, with promise to send more, soon.

The terrorists were so traumatized, they not only released the Russians, but drove them to the Russian embassy.

Posted by Anonymoose 2010-05-11 14:01|| 2010-05-11 14:01|| Front Page Top

#20 #12 No details were given over the manner in which they could have lost their lives.

12.7 mm or 23 mm.

I'm a thinkin' more like kaboom-ski....

Posted by Uncle Phester 2010-05-11 14:30|| 2010-05-11 14:30|| Front Page Top

#21 Apparently the Russian navy really knows how to press the reset button.

Posted by Matt 2010-05-11 14:37|| 2010-05-11 14:37|| Front Page Top

#22 "Very tragic. They all choked to death on beets.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-05-11 15:04|| 2010-05-11 15:04|| Front Page Top

#23 The Russian Navy, Army, Air Force and Special Purpose groups do not CARE what anyone thinks.

They just go do it.

Personally, we'd be better off in Iraq and Afghanistan if some of the bad guys we captured were "Fed Exed" in easily reassembled parts to their families and friends.

According to one of my Iraqi contacts, Saddam took displeasure at a Minister and so after he did not return from a meeting at the Presidential Palace, all of his subordinates and peers received 8 x 10 glossy photos of the missing Minister's head on a table...

Sometimes, you have to fight terror with terror. The Brits learned this and did it to good advantage when they put down the original Sepoy rebellion...burying the Sepoy dead wrapped in pig hides and pouring pig fat on captives to make them talk...personally, I think we could learn a thing or two from the Apaches who were very good at extracting valuable bits of info from captives and making everyone dread being captured.

Posted by Griger Hatfield6021 2010-05-11 15:10|| 2010-05-11 15:10|| Front Page Top

#24 You got to admit the Russians aren't pussies about such things. There are now 10 fewer pirates to do any plundering. I suppose the human rights organizations will have something to say about this---or not.

Posted by JohnQC 2010-05-11 15:12|| 2010-05-11 15:12|| Front Page Top

#25 Didn't someone post here a few days ago that the Russians had put them off on a boat 200nm off shore with just oars?

Posted by No I am the other Beldar 2010-05-11 15:12|| 2010-05-11 15:12|| Front Page Top

#26 The only thing that could make me happier is for UN to take umbrage and send Gallstone to investigate.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2010-05-11 15:27|| 2010-05-11 15:27|| Front Page Top

#27 Didn't someone post here a few days ago that the Russians had put them off on a boat 200nm off shore with just oars?

Apparently the Russians are now saying the radio signal from the boat stopped an hour after the pirates were released, Other Beldar.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-05-11 16:00|| 2010-05-11 16:00|| Front Page Top

#28 "It would have been more humane to have hung them up from the yardarm," a rights activist, whose name was not given, told the Kommersant daily at the weekend.

Jeeze Louise! Some people you can never please. Let them go and they get upset. Kill the pirates and they get upset. I guess that the only thing that would make them happy is to let the pirates take over any ship they please.

Posted by Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, Alaska 2010-05-11 16:12|| 2010-05-11 16:12|| Front Page Top

#29 Xbalanke: KOBA smiles from his grave...

Posted by borgboy 2010-05-11 16:39|| 2010-05-11 16:39|| Front Page Top

#30 I'm guessing that the safest way to cruise past the Horn of Africa TFN will be on a Russian flagged ship.

Posted by Cornsilk Blondie 2010-05-11 16:52|| 2010-05-11 16:52|| Front Page Top

#31 Brings to mind a diplomatic incident involving the Russians in Beirut Lebanon a number of years ago.

Posted by Besoeker 2010-05-11 16:56|| 2010-05-11 16:56|| Front Page Top

#32 What was that B?

Posted by JohnQC 2010-05-11 18:19|| 2010-05-11 18:19|| Front Page Top

#33 Looks like the Russians found a solution despite all the Holy International Law. I wonder how they did it. If they would only share with us.

Posted by gorb 2010-05-11 18:22|| 2010-05-11 18:22|| Front Page Top

#34 In 1985, terrorists stormed the Soviet Embassy in Beirut and abducted several Russian officials, demanding that the Soviets force Syria to stop its efforts to drive Palestinians supporting Arafat out of Lebanon.

Then Soviet president Gorbachev was quickly able to get Syria to stop its operation, but the kidnappers were slow in releasing the hostages. The SPETSNAZ quickly went into action, rushing to Beirut and giving the extremists 48 hours to free their people. When the terrorists let the deadline pass, the SPETSNAZ actually kidnapped four of them and sent one of their decapitated heads in a bag to the terrorist chief, promising further unrestrained action. The captives were quickly freed.

Attitude remains much the same today.

From RU with Love

Posted by Besoeker 2010-05-11 18:43|| 2010-05-11 18:43|| Front Page Top

#35 Thanks! :)

Posted by JohnQC 2010-05-11 19:48|| 2010-05-11 19:48|| Front Page Top

#36 Note to mods you might ask Lileks for this graphic.
See: http://www.lileks.com/institute/funny/07/39.html

Posted by Throper Forkbeard7372 2010-05-11 19:59|| 2010-05-11 19:59|| Front Page Top

#37 Is Somali cuisine spicy? 'Cuz I really don't want the sharks to have suffered from heartburn....

Posted by Cornsilk Blondie 2010-05-11 21:20|| 2010-05-11 21:20|| Front Page Top

#38 Some spice, Cornfield Blondie. I believe they use harissa, like much of the Maghreb.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-05-11 23:26|| 2010-05-11 23:26|| Front Page Top

#39 So I suppose Sharks only extend professional courtesy to lawyers after all.

Posted by CrazyFool 2010-05-11 23:51|| 2010-05-11 23:51|| Front Page Top

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