Somali pirates receive record ransom for ships' release

[Apocalypse]

Somali pirates receive record ransom for ships' release

Somali pirates are reported to have received a total of $12.3m (£7.6m) in ransom money to release two ships.

They are believed to have been paid a record $9.5m (£5.8m) for Samho Dream, a South Korean oil tanker, and nearly $2.8m (£1.7m) for the Golden Blessing, a Singaporean flagged ship.

"We are now counting our cash," a pirate who gave his name as Hussein told Reuters news agency. "Soon we shall get down from the ship."

All crew are believed to be unharmed.

The Samho Dream supertanker was hijacked in the Indian Ocean in April and its crew of five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos were taken hostage. It was carrying crude oil worth $170m (£105m) from Iraq to the US.

Although released it is still within Somali waters and the ship's 24 crew members are said to be in good condition.

The BBC's Kevin Mwachiro in Nairobi says the size of the payment is likely to change the rules of engagement when it comes to securing the release of ships held by Somali pirates. They are currently holding at least 25 vessels.

BBC News - Somali pirates receive record ransom for ships' release

What a waste of money. It would only motivate further kidnapping such as this.

 

[Diogenes]

Maybe the UN will decide to tax the pirates on their ill-gotten gains. Then we in the US wouldn't have to support their nonsense.

 

[Goshin]

We had this problem, once upon a time, with pirates on the Barbary Coast. We sent some warships and Marines and took care of it.


We could do so again. It wouldn't be hard to make piracy a very risky business.

Problem is, with these kind of profits even if you killed 9 pirates out of 10 each year, there would probably be Somali's still willing to risk it.

Three fold plan:

1. Allow merchant ships to carry light arms for defense, along with some trained personnel. Inactive Marines would do nicely.

2. Flotilla: one of those ground-assault carriers, a handful of modern destroyers, and a couple dozen armed patrol boats, with helicopters and a few jets, stationed off the coast of Somalia. Hit 'em when we find them, then hit wherever they launched from or the nearest town to their hideout. Yes, we'll get collateral damage.... which will make the pirates unpopular.

3. Once these measures are in place, we need to get the international community together and stop paying pirates. If they still manage to take a ship or two, we send in the SEALs instead. We might lose some hostages, but if piracy no longer pays and most pirates get killed, it will soon stop.

 

[Orion]

What a waste of money. It would only motivate further kidnapping such as this.

If there was no other way to procure the safe release of the people than to give money, then I say give money. Lives are more important than money in a hostage situation. Let the crooks walk out of the bank with the bags of loot and track them down later... as long as the hostages get freed.

SK and Singapore are hardly in a position to wage a naval battle against Somalia and suffer the political fallout. It would take at least NATO deciding to do something about it before others get involved.

 

[washunut]

Maybe the UN will decide to tax the pirates on their ill-gotten gains. Then we in the US wouldn't have to support their nonsense.

I wonder if the pirates could go public and sell shares on the NYSE. Sounds like they have a good business plan.

 

[Laila]

Good for the pirates.

 

[Laila]

We had this problem, once upon a time, with pirates on the Barbary Coast. We sent some warships and Marines and took care of it.

We could do so again. It wouldn't be hard to make piracy a very risky business.

None of that will work.
Drawing on past experiences means little because this is Somalia we are talking about. A whole new territory, none of the usual games work and lol attempting to use death/military use as a deterrent. After decades of death, it is pretty much common to the point of it isn't even noticed any more.
Targeting innocent Somali's will have the opposite affect, it will probably galvanise and radicalise the mass population and I would bet money Islamists will see an increase of soldiers and more pirates :shrug:
Besides, we all know US is too weak to do anything in Somalia considering it's unfortunate history. It can't even hold the fort in Afghanistan. It can only dream of taming Somalia - and Somalia would need to be tamed to stop piracy. Anarchy in land, piracy in sea.

I think people should just accept the fact pirates are here to say and suck it up and pay the ransoms. Not like it is unreasonable anyway and pirates so far, have held up their end of the deal. They release both the ships and hostages the second they recieve the money, that is why businesses still pay the ransoms. It's more cost effective and less risk to just pay and the majority of the time, the ransom is a very small amount of what the ship is worth.

 

[Apocalypse]

None of that will work.
Drawing on past experiences means little because this is Somalia we are talking about. A whole new territory, none of the usual games work and lol attempting to use death/military use as a deterrent. After decades of death, it is pretty much common to the point of it isn't even noticed any more.

Knowing that you are likely to end up dead if you'd kidnap a ship is always more of a deterrence than knowing that you are likely to receive some millions of dollars, IMO.

 

[Gardener]

Good for the pirates.

Yeah, cause kidnapping people is just so admirable.

 

[ecofarm]

It's expensive, but global warming must be kept in check.

Anyway, don't worry. Obama is on his way with 70 (virgin) warships (powered by blood sacrifice) and is spending 1.3 trillion dollars per day (plus strippers). He's gonna have mermaid sex (that's legal in international waters), ride a predator drone and take care of the pirates on his way to liberate Pakistan. Don't you people read the news?

 

[Harshaw]

Besides, we all know US is too weak to do anything in Somalia

We know nothing of the sort. Not too weak by any stretch. Simply unwilling.

 

[Laila]

Knowing that you are likely to end up dead if you'd kidnap a ship is always more of a deterrence than knowing that you are likely to receive some millions of dollars, IMO.

For normal people perhaps.

For individuals in a country which has seen nothing but death for a few decades and a generation who has been raised around it as a norm? I doubt it.
Piracy will not stop without the root causes solved.

 

[Laila]

We know nothing of the sort. Not too weak by any stretch. Simply unwilling.

Right. Well.

I would classify US as weak. It can't even handle Afghanistan
Look at the failure that is happening there and Somalia is 10x worse.

 

[Harshaw]

Right. Well.

I would classify US as weak. It can't even handle Afghanistan
Look at the failure that is happening there and Somalia is 10x worse.

Aside from them being two entirely different situations, Afghanistan, too, is a matter of will. You would have said (and probably did so) the same of Iraq four years ago.

 

[Laila]

Aside from them being two entirely different situations, Afghanistan, too, is a matter of will. You would have said (and probably did so) the same of Iraq four years ago.

Will has little to do with it. Some States are just ungovernable and unable to be tamed. I would put Afghanistan and Somalia on that list.
The British failed with Afghanistan, the Russians failed. Americans will fail too :shrug:

 

[Gardener]

Will has little to do with it. Some States are just ungovernable and unable to be tamed.

because some people are backwards and uncivilized.

While I am under no illusion that outside forces can ever really influence another culture, that does not mean they should stand by idly when such a culture exports it's barbarity. How best to contain the barbarity is the real question, and not whether we should abandon the responsibility to even attempt such.

 

[Laila]

Oh please. Take your invisible moral high ground elsewhere.

The sea, especially EA is too vast for any navy or even the world to patrol it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 365 a year.

Piracy won't stop. Get over it nor will it be solved without the causes dealt with.

 

[Harshaw]

It's true -- if a place is truly "ungovernable," it's because the people are wild animals. Such a place will never amount to being any more than a mud-soaked cesspool, either.

I don't happen to believe that is true of either Afghanistan OR Somalia, by the way -- but if you think they're "ungovernable," then you do.

 

[Harshaw]

Oh please. Take your invisible moral high ground elsewhere.

The sea, especially EA is too vast for any navy or even the world to patrol it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 365 a year.

Piracy won't stop. Get over it nor will it be solved without the causes dealt with.

The issue isn't the difficulty, really, so much as you praising the piracy.

 

[Laila]

The issue isn't the difficulty, really, so much as you praising the piracy.

Well then I take back my praising of Piracy and change it to quiet sniggering at the ruckus the Pirates are causing the world and the economy.
Is that an acceptable compromise?

 

[Laila]

I don't happen to believe that is true of either Afghanistan OR Somalia, by the way -- but if you think they're "ungovernable," then you do.

Somalia and it's culture is not built to have centralized authority. No idea about Afghanistan tho.

 

[Harshaw]

Well then I take back my praising of Piracy and change it to quiet sniggering at the ruckus the Pirates are causing the world and the economy.
Is that an acceptable compromise?

Not if you're going to get righteous about other stuff, no.

 

[Harshaw]

Somalia and it's culture is not built to have centralized authority. No idea about Afghanistan tho.

OK, then you consider them to be wild animals who will never amount to anything. :shrug: You can't have it both ways.

 

[Laila]

OK, then you consider them to be wild animals who will never amount to anything. :shrug: You can't have it both ways.

Attempting to twist my words. Nice try.

Somalia is not made to have a centralized authority. It has run for hundreds of years on tribal politics. Not Westernized Governance.

 

[Apocalypse]

For normal people perhaps.

For individuals in a country which has seen nothing but death for a few decades and a generation who has been raised around it as a norm? I doubt it.
Piracy will not stop without the root causes solved.

A person can only die once, and we're speaking about individuals here not a country.
To suggest that all Somalis are pirates is to generalize (to say the least), and the individuals that constitute as the Somali pirates would fear death no less than the other person, especially more than they fear a sack of gold.