Damn Stupid Porch Pirates

Well had my first porch pirate experience yesterday.

Had a delivery form Amazon, which included a nice picture of a small Amazon box and an Amazon box nicely located on my front landing.

Got home, the box was gone and the envelope was still there, along with some fresh footprints in the snow leading to the front landing that showed where the bugger came from and the direction he left in.

Interestingly, the jerk grabbed the box only, and they grabbed the wrong item.

The box had a 4-pack of lithium AAA batteries that I needed but has a value of about $12.

The envelope had some supplies in it that was worth more than that.

I'm rather curious as to why the scumbag decided to just take the box and leave the envelope behind. I expect the lithium battery warning label on the box probabl;y made them think they were getting something valuable.

First porch pirate experience, cannot recommend.

Talk Like A Pirate Day: What's A Pirate's Favorite Letter?

I know, I know, you all immediately say Arrrr!

You're close but you'd be wrong.

A Pirate's favorite letter isn't R.

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A Pirate's favorite letter be the C.

Merchantmen Unveil New Anti-Piracy Measure

Yes, the best anti-piracy measure they can come up with is this, via the Global Times:

Britney Spears’ most thought to be ‘hated’ songs are blasted out to scare off pirates in Somalia

It's a sad state of affairs that merchant ships these days unable to carry firearms for protection are now forced to rely on spears.

US Citizens Slain By Pirates, Perhaps Its Well Past Time To Take Somali Piracy Seriously?

The Detroit Free Press: U.S. says pirates kill 4 Americans on yacht off Somalia

The U.S. military says pirates killed four American hostages they were holding on a yacht off Somalia’s coast.

While yeachting unescorted in pirate-infested waters is probably not the safest way to spend a vactation and it was not the safest choise to make, these are US Citizens and there certainly needs to be a response that killing US Citizens will have a cost and will not be unanswered.

It is certainly time to take a hard stand against the pirates including revising the rules of engagement to allow for appropriate interdiction of this threat. Far too many ships have been held for ransom with their passengers and crew harmed and far too much ransom has been paid to encoyurage mnore acts of piracy.

After the yacht passengers had died, the Navy boarded the vessel:

...Two pirates died during the ensuing confrontation, and 13 were captured and detained. The remains of two other pirates who were already dead also were found. In total the U.S. said that 19 pirates were involved in the hijacking of the Quest.

13 captured? Sheesh, the US Navy is either losing its touch, hamstrung by ROE, or suffering from having lousy aim. Now we face the prospect of 13 trials with appointed public defensers and nice housing is US jail cells for an extended period of time. That's no way to fight piracy, as it certainly does not deter the pirates form siezing vesels for ransom or simple murder and plunder if all they face is a warm cell at the end of their exploits rather than a long drop with a short rope.

Perhaps it is time to expand the Marines' record of anti-piracy operations from the shores of Tripoli to the shores of Somalia?

Stopping Pirates East-Asian Style

The Detroit News: Two raids stop Somali pirates

In a example of how it should be done, both the South Koreans and Malaysians showed how to effectively deal with pirates that attack ships sailing under their nation's flags:

South Korean commandos raided a cargo ship in the Arabian Sea before dawn Friday, killing eight Somali pirates and capturing five as they rescued all 21 crew members.

Their success came on the same day that Malaysia's navy rescued a chemical tanker and its 23 crew members from Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. No one in the rescue team or the ship's crew was injured and seven pirates were apprehended.

The EU of course wouldn't dream of doing such a thing, its so un-European, after all somebody could get a boo-boo:

The European Union's naval force refuses to raid hijacked ships out of concern for safety of hostages

Expect to see fewer piracy incidents involving South Korean and Malaysian shipping and more directed toward the EUnuchs.

Some Ships Stop Pirates The Old Fashioned Way

Rather than meekly submitting to ransom, some ships crews are fighting back:
Israeli security guards foil pirates

Israeli security guards drove off two boats of pirates who opened fire on a ship belonging to ZIM, the Israeli shipping company, on Saturday.

The Africa Star was en route from Mombasa, Kenya to Djibouti when pirates attacked as it sailed close to the Somali coast. Two boats approached the ship and opened fire but were driven off following a gun battle with the Israel security guards.

It was the second attack on the Africa Star in a week. Three days earlier the ship was attacked in the same area, but the crew prevented the pirates from boarding the vessel.

Like the pirates who stupidly attacked a US Navy guided missile frigate, with expected crushing defeat as a result, these pirates got a bit more than they bargained for.

Armed Maersk Alabama Repels Pirates, International Community Appalled

An interesting example of the ideological fallacy of those who believe that "you don't need a gun the police will save you" on the high seas.

Maersk Alabama repels 2nd pirate attack with guns

Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months and were thwarted by private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship who fired off guns and a high-decibel noise device.

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Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April and took ship captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days. Navy SEAL sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

Four suspected pirates in a skiff attacked the ship again on Wednesday around 6:30 a.m. local time, firing on the ship with automatic weapons from about 300 yards (meters) away, a statement from the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said.

An on-board security team repelled the attack by using evasive maneuvers, small-arms fire and a Long Range Acoustic Device, which can beam earsplitting alarm tones, the fleet said.

The difference in reaction to this successful repelling of pirates by force of arms certainly highlights the tension between the let the navy/police handle it folks and the self-reliant types:

Vice Adm. Bill Gortney of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said the Maersk Alabama had followed the maritime industry's "best practices" in having a security team on board.

"This is a great example of how merchant mariners can take proactive action to prevent being attacked and why we recommend that ships follow industry best practices if they're in high-risk areas," Gortney said in a statement.

However, Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said the international maritime community was still "solidly against" armed guards aboard vessels at sea, but that American ships have taken a different line than the rest of the international community.

"Shipping companies are still pretty much overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of armed guards," Middleton said. "Lots of private security companies employee people who don't have maritime experience. Also, there's the idea that it's the responsibility of states and navies to provide security. I would think it's a step backward if we start privatizing security of the shipping trade."

An interesting parallel, after all its a big ocean out there and the Navy while it does a fantastic job (as was seen in its freeing of the Maersk Alabama in the first encounter) it can't be everywhere at once, and like in America when seconds count the police are at best minutes away - or even hours by sea to get a naval ship in position to intercept an attack.

Unless the Navy forms and orders merchantmen into convoys through the pirate infested waters they will not be able to guarantee their security and leaves the unarmed ships open to attack.

You'll note above that the American admiral on the scene gets it.

Ceratinly the deterrence effect of an armed civillian ship worked:

The owners of the Maersk Alabama have spent a considerable amount of money since the April hijacking to make the vessel pirate-proof, Murphy said, including structural features and safety equipment. The most dramatic change is what he called a security force of "highly trained ex-military personnel."

"Somali pirates understand one thing and only one thing, and that's force," said Capt. Joseph Murphy, who teaches maritime security at the school. "They analyze risk very carefully, and when the risk is too high they are going to step back. They are not going to jeopardize themselves."

The wife of the Maersk Alabama's captain, Paul Rochford, told WBZ-AM radio in Boston that she was "really happy" there were weapons on board for this attack.

"It probably surprised the pirates. They were probably shocked," Kimberly Rochford. "I'm really happy at least it didn't turn out like the last time."

A self-proclaimed pirate told The Associated Press from the Somali pirate town of Haradhere that colleagues out at sea had called around 9 a.m. — 2 1/2 hours after the attack.

"They told us that they got in trouble with an American ship, then we lost them. We have been trying to locate them since," said a self-described pirate who gave his name as Abdi Nor.

Yeah, mess with armed and prepared Americans rather than squishy others and you're probably not going to like what happens dear pirates.

Pirates Of The Situational Irony

Somali pirates hijack ship, 28 North Korean crew

Talk about a corrundrum. The crew from North Korea, the arguably most moserable place on earth being captured by pirates from Somalia, another country that while high on the sucky locale list keeps vying for the top spot but doesn't quite achieve such a dubious distinction. Is their capture a step up for the crew?

So once the matter is resolved do the North Korean crew press for asylum in Somalia or elsewhere? Did the pirates just unwittingly and unintentionally free a bunch of North Koreans from having to return to a life of misery under a super-totalitarian regime? How much can the North Koreans offer the Somalis to not be released back to North Korea? Time will tell, and hopefully they'll be released unharmed and not returned to North Korea.

An Unreasonable and Unnecessary Pirate Quandary

After the excellent rescue of Captain Phillips by the United States Navy, the government is now in a quandry over what to do with the 4th living and captured pirate involved in the incident.

Potentially they might consider this a law enforcement matter and try him in New York or Washington D.C.:
US weighing where to charge captured Somali pirate

The Justice Department was considering whether to prosecute a Somali pirate in Washington or New York, U.S. officials said following the rescue of a U.S. hostage and the apprehension of his only surviving captor.

The decision will determine where the pirate will be flown in what is shaping up as the first U.S. piracy case in recent memory.

Three pirates were killed Sunday in a military operation that rescued Capt. Richard Phillips, who had been held hostage aboard a lifeboat for days. A fourth pirate was in discussions with naval authorities about Phillips' fate when the rescue took place.

Both piracy and hostage-taking carry life sentences under U.S. law.

Great, so we'll now have the expense of a securing this guy in jail in the US pre-trial, a trial and government appointed defense counsel with all rights granted to a US Defendant, then hopefully with a conviction and then we get to keep him for life in a U.S. Prison probably with living conditions and civil rights far ahead of what he has ever had and when he gets out then what, more years of legal wranfgling to deport him, or is piracy going to be a new eventual path to citizenship?

Just grand, and ceetainly not a disencentive to commit Piracy.

How about a simpler situation and instead of mamking this international act a US domestic law enforcement issue just enforce the law of the sea in situ.

Yardarm, Rope, Pirate -- some temporary assembly required.

With security like this no wonder the Somali Pirates are having a field day

Once, Britannia ruled the waves, now British security gets rolled into the waves.

Somali pirates hijack ship, British guards escape

Somali pirates hijacked a chemical tanker with dozens of Indian crew members Friday and a helicopter rescued three British security guards who had jumped into the sea,

The British security for this chemical tanker was of course unarmed.

The company said it was aware of the incident on the chemical tanker it identified as M/V BISCAGLIA.

"We have been informed by coalition military authorities that three of our unarmed security staff were rescued from the water by a coalition helicopter and are currently on board a coalition warship in the Gulf of Aden," the company statement said.

Unarmed in pirated infested waters. That unarmed security certainly helped didn't it, must have been quite the deterrent effect eh?

What happened did they say "Stop or I'll say stop again?" and the Pirates responded by saying "Jump?".