Yo, Ho, Ho, and a Bottle of Rum

As you might have guessed from my heading, today's subject is piracy.

"Piracy on the High Seas" - pirates, it is said in this Wikipedia article, are considered to be enemies of humanity by many sovereign states; I agree.

Since the explosion of piracy around the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf, many states have comitted naval units to the area in order to defend shipping.  However I would like to see a more robust attitude taken where possible.  

The Wikipedia article also points out:

In 2008 the British Foreign Office advised the Royal Navy not to detain pirates of certain nationalities as they might be able to claim asylum in Britain under British human rights legislation, if their national laws included execution, or mutilation as a judicial punishment for crimes committed as pirates.

What "human rights?"  Why have pirates got "human rights?"  They have the right to walk the plank and that's it as far as this writer is concerned.

On Christmas day, it was reported by the BBC that six pirates had been captured by the crew of the German frigate, Karlsruhe.  On the orders of the German government, they were immediately released.  Why?  I should like to point out that these pirates are not jolly "Long John Silver" types "Ah Jim lad etc." They are a bunch of ruthless bandits, armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.  They should be blown out of the water.

This all brings me to the curious case of the Sirius Star.  This you might remember, is the enormous oil tanker, full of crude oil, that was hi-jacked a couple of months ago.  It was announced yesterday that the owners had paid a $3 million ransom which was delivered by parachute to the pirates on board.

The Sirius Star.  Image source

Now here's the funny bit reported today by the Daily Telegraph: whilst the eight pirates were making off across the sea, their boat capsized.  Five of the them were drowned and somewhere under the ocean lie $3 million in greenbacks in their waterproof case.  The remaining three swam to shore, rather less rich in cash and friends than they were a short while previously.

Probably no party tonight then.

Until the next time

More on the Sirius Star

The Sirius Star is the Saudi-Arabian tanker which, with its $100,000,000-worth of oil has been hijacked by pirates from the Republic - sorry bordel - of Somalia.

Another fat-headed islamist sheikh has now stuck his oar in, as this extract from the Daily Telegraph article describes:

"If the pirates want peace, they had better release the tanker," said Sheikh Ahmed, a spokesman for the Shebab militant group in the coastal region of Harardhere, where the Sirus Star is anchored.

Yeah - and my dad's bigger 'n yours...

Over to the pirates:

"We are the Shebab of the sea and we can't be scared by the Shebab of the land," Mohamed Said said. "If anybody attempts to attack, that would be suicide."

Hmm, "Mohamed Said"; fine Irish name...

The pirate expands a little:

"Every Somali has great respect for the holy kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We have nothing against them but unfortunately what happened was just business for us and I hope the Saudis will understand,"

Personally, I am absolutely certain that the Saudis will see the joke.  "What happened" - ho ho...

Dear God!  What a farce.

Until the next time.

An Islamic Twerp Raises his Profile

A short while ago I mentioned in a post about various Islamic brutalities and nonsense, one repulsive individual who rejoices in the name "Sheikh" Abdirahim Isse Adow.

Mmm, nice!

"Mr Whippy"  Image source: here

Yes this is Somalia's "Mr Whippy", if this does not seem too light-hearted for a bigoted, misguided, anachronistic, misanthropic, muslim barbarian.  Well, he has raised his head - and beard - once again.

Adow is very upset that the pirates who seem to have an easy time in hopeless Somalia, have hijacked what the cretin calls a "muslim" ship.  I wouldn't want a "muslim" ship to carry my $100,000,000-worth of oil: not much use to have a ship that turns around and faces Mecca three times a day!

Anyway he is referring to the Saudi-Arabian oil-tanker, hi-jacked last week by the pirates.  He says that the hi-jacking of a muslim ship (sic) is much more serious than the hi-jacking of any other ship, and in consequence says that his revolting followers will deal with the pirates.

With whips perhaps?  I should like to know if the Koran, as interpreted by Adow, deems that hi-jacking a "muslim" ship is naughtier than ladies and gentlemen dancing together.

It seems that this may be more complex than the "sheikh" imagines, since it is said that some of the worthy, god-fearing, upright islamites are sharing the spoils with the pirates (as are, by some accounts certain elements of what passes for the Somali government).

Quel bordel!

For some reason, this reminds me of a recent item in Private Eye, which reported how a police chief in Ghana was unable to explain how 2 tonnes of cocaine "disappeared" from his police headquarters...

Quel bordel!

Until the next time