5 Somali pirates drown with ransom share

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Five of the Somali pirates who released a hijacked oil-laden Saudi supertanker drowned with their share of a reported $3 million ransom after their small boat capsized, a pirate and a relative of one of the dead men said Saturday.

Pirate Daud Nure said the boat with eight people on board overturned in a storm after dozens of pirates left the Sirius Star following a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden that ended Friday.

He said five people died and three people reached shore after swimming for several hours. Daud Nure was not part of the pirate operation but knew those involved.

Abukar Haji, the uncle of one of the dead men, said the deaths were an accident.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PIRACY?SITE=WYCHE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Richardo]

1. To which I can only say: Good.

[Turbineguy]

2. Pirates drowned

gee, that's too bad. I hope their life insurance policies were paid up!

[hobbit709]

3. The Wheels of Karmic Justice grind exceedingly slowly

But they grind all the same.

[ohio2007]

5. And the value of that oil in the ships hold was cut in half by time. That's what I call

my Karma running over your dogma

[Lucky Luciano]

9. I would not worry about that oil being cut in half...

Pretty easy to sell oil futures contracts to lock in the value of the oil.

[ohio2007]

14. from $135 bbl on capture to $40 bbl when it reaches its final destination

Yes, I'm sure its value could drop even further as those hedgers have already jumped ship weeks ago.

[thunder rising]

4. I love all the love for big oil. Pirates are keeping the dumping away from the Somali coast

Like, get close to the coast and we'll take the boat.

[Akoto]

6. I'm no friend of big oil, but ...

I think it's more like "we'll take the defenseless boat and hold it for ransom, because it's quite valuable to some very rich people."

[opihimoimoi]

7. Drowned??? Oh My...how Convinient....I wonder who got the money??

someone got more than their share...like 5x more....

[ohio2007]

10. Davy Jones got his cut

[opihimoimoi]

22. What storm?? Water looks calm to me...LOL

[hwmnbn]

8. hmmm, not to be callous and unfeeling but....

where did the money go?

The article said there was "loss of money and life"... but no details.

Eight pirates and the money in the boat that capsised, three survived. How? No details given.

[ohio2007]

12. Do you seriously think The Sirius Star plucked them out of the ocean ?

I'm sure allah was looking out for them and their ( still ) poor families back home.

Somebody should interview the pirates widows.
jmo, never hear much from the main land until a story like this breaks the wrong way.

[nyc 4 Biden]

11. I wouldn't be so quick to celebrate their deaths.

I've heard some sources (on DU too) saying this piracy has a lot to do with illegal nuclear waste dumping and over fishing by the EU and other nations. All we know is what MSM puts out there and that these pirates never killed anyone AFAIK. In the best case scenario they may be locals fed up with being the dumping/looting grounds of richer countries. This may not be true, but we shouldn't assume the worst considering the scarcity of details.

[ohio2007]

13. pirates rarely kill anyone. The crews that are taken ashore have catered meals

of western style foods brought to them.
It's a buisness decision.

I assume you know how the pirates live in on a lawless Somalia coast.

[iamjoy]

15. I Feel Bad For The Pirates

I mean, the reasons they've turned to piracy are economic. Many of them are former fisherman, but now Western industry is overfishing in their waters. There really isn't any other way for them to make a living, and conditions in their country are desperate. So, they take desperate measures.

Another reason it is easy to sort of sympathize with the pirates is that the stories I've heard of them (mostly on NPR) make it sound like these pirates do everything they can to minimize loss of life. They are not interested in killing, they are trying to make money.

Mind you, I'm not justifying what they do. In the short term, I think increased security is probably a good thing, but a long term solution involves looking at the causes that drive these men to such desperate measures.

[walldude]

17. Bingo. The ignorance here is astounding.

So much for progressive thinking. Well now Arab, Western and EU countries can continue to dump toxic waste on the shores of East Africa without worry that anyone might actually give a shit about it.

[MinM]

16. Johann Hari: You Are Being Lied to About Pirates

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html

That hijacked(?) Iranian ship, Gryphon Air, the CIA and the "Long War"

The web site carrying a story on the "hijacked" Iranian ship, the Long War Journal is mobbed up with the Weekly Standard, the National Review and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies--a Pentagon front.

Notice the name of this site, the Long War Journal?

Straight out of former Sec'y of Defense Rumsfeld's mouth.

Some of their news consists of "open source" reporting, meaning they read other's work and then put their own spin on it and print it, just like former Whte House Stenographer Judith Miller.

One of the company's that support LWJ, is Gryphon Airlines, which has a number of "former" military and intelligence types on its board and flies into Iraq and the ME.

Rendition flights?

It's weird, they list the resume of their key people, but NOT the names. Why?

The HDQ's of Gryphon Air in in Vienna, VA, less than 20 miles away from Spook Central, Langley, VA and the CIA.

Do a WHOIS search of another of their sponsors, Vigilant Strategic Services and you'll find that it's related to Gryphon Air.

Cozy as bedbugs, these front companies are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Multimedia

[walldude]

20. Was about to post this... Thanks.

There are a bunch of other articles as well. Anyone can Google "Somali Pirates and Toxic Waste" and see for themselves how these "evil pirates" are trying to save their people, their industry and their economy, and then come back here to tell us all how "Justice was done".

[MidwestTransplant]

18. Hard to swim with gold in your pockets.

[amyrose2712]

19. Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition said in an interview on Tuesday that they had no idea the ship was carrying arms when they seized it on the high seas.

“We just saw a big ship,” the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, said in a telephone interview. “So we stopped it.”

The pirates quickly learned, though, that their booty was an estimated $30 million worth of heavy weaponry, heading for Kenya or Sudan, depending on whom you ask.

In a 45-minute interview, Mr. Sugule spoke on everything from what the pirates wanted (“just money”) to why they were doing this (“to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters”) to what they had to eat on board (rice, meat, bread, spaghetti, “you know, normal human-being food”).

He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/africa/01pirates.html?_r=1&hp?_r=1

[OwnedByFerrets]

21. To everyone of you hardhearted MFs who think this is a good thing

why dont you run on over to Freeperland where you belong.:mad:

Find out who these "pirates" really are and Maybe, just maybe you might have a little more compassion in your hard hearts.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html

"In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish-stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea-life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia's unprotected seas. The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters."

[ohio2007]

25. why don't you step away from the monitor and join "the good pirate fight" keyboard commando

Find out who these "pirates" really are



I'm sure the real pirates will welcome you in thier Robin Hood romantic lifestyle of chasing down nuke waste dumpers and foreign third world fishing fleets.

But if that is your justification to give them a free pass, then you should be fine to pay them tribute weekly from your paycheck.

That should make all the difference to EU garbage disposal problem.

[OwnedByFerrets]

27. No, you don't go in and rape their country, their families and

their livelihoods and you don't have a pirate problem.

http://www.threecupsoftea.com/

[ohio2007]

36. What did you rape from that country ?

Does Somalia have oil going anywhere beside China?

Didn't they kick us out after that 'Black hawk down movie wasmade about Somalia ? How many decades ago was that ?

[Richardo]

35. And yet the pirates themselves never mention these lofty motivations

...and oil tankers are not known for transporting nuclear waste or toxic heavy metals, or conducting commercial fishing.

I have no doubt that the dumping and poaching is occurring, but I also have no doubt that the pirates are only after money and arms. Otherwise they'd be seizing fishing boats and waste-hauling breakbulk vessels.

[amyrose2712]

37. The articles I have read ...

state that the pirates themselves DO say that the main motivation is money, to use for clean-up. And, I am sure as poor and hungry as they are, they are basically just trying to survive. The need for survival could certainly be a motivation. It is too easy for us in our warm homes with full bloated bellies to judge those acts of desperation and survival. (See above for NY Times Link to article.)

[nini]

38. yep.. and the Crips and Bloods are fighting for the poor and destitute

:eyes:

[Endangered Specie]

23. Im sure they drowned, right after suffering acute lead poisoning...

if you know what I mean.

Not that it matters, but hey they did die rich!

[ohio2007]

24. Pirates say drownings delay ship's release ( all bets are off )

in allah we trust but show me the money !

Ship has been re captured

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Pirates on a seized Saudi-owned oil supertanker are delaying release of the ship despite receiving a ransom because of a fatal drowning accident that killed four of their colleagues, a journalist who spoke with one of the pirates told CNN.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/09/somalia.pirates.sirius.star/index.html?iref=hpmostpop

So much for inshalla allah ahkbar.

[Sultana]

26. WTF is ur problem?

[ohio2007]

31. SillyFlower

Ur gnu

You'll find my opinions of pirates and Hamas are much the same as those shared by top Dems believe it or not.

Obama criticizes ex-President Carter's Hamas meeting
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1636948020080416?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true

But you may have to digg deep to find the links or fall victem to "the knee jerk" media of short term memories.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3315293&mesg_id=3315833

So you admire the pirates life ?




I don't think you would like Thomas Jeffersons or John Adams opinions concerning piracy during their tenures as ambassadors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates

oh

but things were different back then ;)

k

[blendermax]

28. That's odd

the AP article above says 'the Sirius Star and its 25 crew sailed safely away at the end of a two month stand-off'

[ohio2007]

29. not really. How far can a tanker go between breaking news hours?

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/09/somalia.pirates.sirius.star/index.html?iref=hpmostpop

I'm sure the story won't end til they get around the Cape of Good Hope

[blendermax]

32. Yes, but

how safe can the hostages be when the armed Somalis are still aboard the ship holding them at gunpoint?

looks like the AP screwed up when they used the term 'safely.'

[BrightKnight]

30. Don't F*&!!< with Big Oil! - All of these idiots are getting Darwin Awards.

Big Oil makes organized crime and the drug cartels look like Campfire Girls.

[ohio2007]

33. and how many tankers have been captured as opposed to the # of "non oil tanker" crews still waiting

to be released ?


yes, If the pirates put an RPG round into the wrong place of an oil tanker,they will get a Darwin award.
But
they won't get the blame for the eco disaster they created in the ocean.
jmo

[KakistocracyHater]

34. yes but they MAY be the 'good guys'

after reading about nuclear waste being dumped off the coast of Somalia-why didn't Angelina mention THAT on 1 of her trips there? The "pirates" are functioning as the coast guard in a "failed state", with the "government" living in another country. A Neocon's wet dream, may Obama turn the wheel greatly in the opposite direction we're heading in. Just keep the Neocons at your back, you'll know it's good for us by the amount of testeria/hoopla they raise.