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2009-04-26 Africa Horn
Italian cruise ship beats off pirate attack
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Posted by Fred 2009-04-26 09:41|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ]  Top
 File under: Pirates 

#1 Can I nominate Mwangura for "Idiot of the Day"?
Posted by Parabellum 2009-04-26 10:47||   2009-04-26 10:47|| Front Page Top

#2 Sure. But put him on the sympathizer-list as well.
Posted by Pappy 2009-04-26 11:48||   2009-04-26 11:48|| Front Page Top

#3 A lot of countries have severe penalties for ships with firearms onboard entering their ports. I'm really surprised a cruise would have weapons.
Posted by phil_b 2009-04-26 11:54||   2009-04-26 11:54|| Front Page Top

#4 It was an "our thing" cruise, phil_b.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2009-04-26 12:07||   2009-04-26 12:07|| Front Page Top

#5 They tried to put up a ladder with hooks. They were climbing up, so we reacted.

Oil from the kitchens' deep friers would have been appropriate as well. Would leave nice 'markers' as well for any future pick ups.
Posted by Procopius2k 2009-04-26 12:24||   2009-04-26 12:24|| Front Page Top

#6 phil_b - how 'bout cruise ships providing skeet shooting facilities for passengers. Of course if someone accidently confused boarding pirates and skeet targets ...
Posted by DMFD 2009-04-26 12:27||   2009-04-26 12:27|| Front Page Top

#7 "Having weapons on a passenger or merchant ship is dangerous. They should have used other means to shake off the pirates, like a loud acoustic device," said Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa-based East African Sea Farers Assistance Program.

...and life member of the Police Chiefs Fraternal Order whose position on private ownership of firearms matches the Program's.
Posted by Procopius2k 2009-04-26 12:27||   2009-04-26 12:27|| Front Page Top

#8 When they saw us firing they gave up and went off

Oh, you mean they gave up when the situation became hazardous? You mean the whole reason they've been pirates in the first place are that we've been being huge pussies who refuse to defend ourselves?
Posted by gromky 2009-04-26 12:38||   2009-04-26 12:38|| Front Page Top

#9 A very reasonable summation, gromky. And as for Idiot of the Day Candidate Mwangura, I'd say a pistol qualifies as a "loud acoustic device".
Posted by SteveS 2009-04-26 12:45||   2009-04-26 12:45|| Front Page Top

#10 Italian ship captain: Israeli security officers drove Somali pirates away
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2009-04-26 12:50||   2009-04-26 12:50|| Front Page Top

#11 Loud acoustic device ...

Posted by Zorba Craising6734 2009-04-26 12:50||   2009-04-26 12:50|| Front Page Top

#12 Still, from a purely spectator point of view, it would have been awesomely cool if the Somali pirates had taken a cruise ship with 1,500 passengers. There would have been much excitement and it would have probably been a breaking point, hopefully resulting in raids on pirate bases.
Posted by gromky 2009-04-26 12:58||   2009-04-26 12:58|| Front Page Top

#13 Ok, the cruise ship's security personnel were Israelis, hired specifically to provide security to the cruise ship. I'm surprised there aren't some dead pirates, but maybe they were just trying to scare them off, not kill them. Also note that the pistols were handed out ONLY after the ship had come under attack, and were probably turned in when the danger was over. I can see a HUGE business for security personnel going aboard ships at Suez, getting off in the Seychelles or Maldives, then getting picked up in the Seychelles or Maldives for the trip back to Suez. As long as the security personnel aren't Arabs, it'll work.
Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot  2009-04-26 13:56|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]  2009-04-26 13:56|| Front Page Top

#14  The ship came under attack when it was 200 miles (320 km) north of the Seychelles and 600 miles (960 km) off the Somali coast.

Wow - is this as far off the coast as any attack has been to date? The next step may simply be to come ashore as a raiding party in some unsuspecting port - it will be interesting if that is called an "invasion" or simply a "Somali voluntary coast guard land action".
Posted by Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division 2009-04-26 14:06||   2009-04-26 14:06|| Front Page Top

#15 The ship came under attack when it was 200 miles (320 km) north of the Seychelles and 600 miles (960 km) off the Somali coast.

This is far from the Somali coast but the piracy map someone posted weveral weeks ago showed incidents I have never heard reported off both coasts of South America, the western side of Africa, Indonesia, and even the Mediterranean, if I remember correctly. I consider pirates terrorists and these should alert us to burgeoning hot spots.
Posted by Thealing Borgia 122 2009-04-26 14:22||   2009-04-26 14:22|| Front Page Top

#16 Pirates aren't terrorists, because they don't have any ideology other than "money money money". Terrorists use violence against civilians as a way to remove governments.
Posted by gromky 2009-04-26 15:40||   2009-04-26 15:40|| Front Page Top

#17 Only military ships should have weapons on board, all others pay cash.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418  2009-04-26 15:54||   2009-04-26 15:54|| Front Page Top

#18 A sub-editor at the Australian Daily Telegraph, Tim Blair's paper, was on the ship.

When my comment there gets out of moderation, you'll see that I was expressing the faint hope that the crew returned fire. I didn't know they had. Awesomely awesome. I still would have preferred they use grape shot, though.
Posted by Angie Schultz 2009-04-26 19:00||   2009-04-26 19:00|| Front Page Top

#19 Hey! They're shooting at us! They can't do that!
Posted by tu3031 2009-04-26 19:21||   2009-04-26 19:21|| Front Page Top

#20 Maybe a fire hose that actually shoots fire would work too.
Posted by Rambler in Virginia">Rambler in Virginia  2009-04-26 20:50||   2009-04-26 20:50|| Front Page Top

23:26 Zorba Craising6734
23:25 Zorba Craising6734
23:21 Zorba Craising6734
23:13 Seafarious
23:08 phil_b
22:58 phil_b
22:50 Frank G
22:22 trailing wife
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22:19 Zorba Craising6734
22:18 trailing wife
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