Think about this for a minute: the world's MOST POWERFUL and SOPHISTICATED countries can get entire nations to submit to their will over sanctions, but they can't stop a few FISHERMAN PIRATES?!!!
PFFFFFFFTTTT!!!!!!
Maybe this has something to do with it: Russians send warship to Somalia
"Pirates' booty might be a little too hot; Ukrainian vessel carrying tanks" by Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times News Service | September 27, 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya - For a moment, the pirates must have thought that they had really struck gold - Somalia-style.
The gun-toting, seafaring thieves, who routinely pounce on cargo ships bobbing along on the Indian Ocean, suddenly found themselves in command of a vessel crammed with $30 million worth of grenade launchers, piles of ammunition, even battle tanks.
But this time, they may have gotten far more than they bargained for. Unlike so many other hijackings off the coast of Somalia that have gone virtually unnoticed - and unpunished - the attack on Thursday evening on the Faina, a Ukrainian vessel bringing military equipment to Kenya, has provoked the wrath of two of the most powerful militaries on the planet.
The US Navy was in hot pursuit of the ship yesterday. And the Russians were not far behind.
"This is really getting out of control," said Mohamed Osman Aden, a Somali diplomat in Kenya. "You see how many countries are involved now? These pirates aren't going to get away with this."
Somalia's 1,880-mile coastline is crawling with pirates, a serious problem given that so much of the country is dependent on emergency food aid, which comes mostly by ship.
The pirates are highly organized. They work in teams. There is even a pirate spokesman (who could not be reached for comment yesterday).
They seem to strike with increasing impunity, grabbing everything from sailing yachts to oil tankers. They then usually demand millions of dollars in ransom for the ships and their crews.
And people usually pay - a response that Somali and Western officials say is fueling the problem. This year is one of the worst on record, with more than 50 ships attacked, 25 hijacked and at least 14 currently being held by pirates. The waters off Somalia are now considered the most dangerous in the world.
As for the Faina, it may have looked like the kind of slow-moving, easy prey that pirates have hit time and time again. But its booty is not the kind that can be easily pawned off at port.
Each Soviet-designed T-72 tank weighs more than 80,000 pounds. The pirates would need special know-how, not to mention special equipment, to unload them - assuming, of course, that they could make it to port with the Navy on their tail.
Somalia's pirates are typically former fishermen who have turned to the more lucrative work of plying the seas with binoculars and rocket-propelled grenades. They travel in light speedboats, deployed from a mother ship far out at sea, and they have attacked tankers as far as 300 miles from the coast. Pirates even tried to attack an American naval supply ship this week. The ship fired warning shots at them. The pirates sped away.
"These pirates are getting bolder every day," said Andrew Mwangura, the program coordinator of the Seafarers' Assistance Program in Kenya, which tracks pirate attacks.
Somali officials say the pirates are growing in numbers, with more than 1,000 gunmen at their disposal, and they have evolved into a sophisticated organized crime ring, with their headquarters along the rocky shores of northern Somalia.
One official close to the Somali government described the pirates as an oceanic "mafia" and said they had netted millions of dollars, which they use to buy fancy cars and big houses.
"Paying the ransoms is just making this worse," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Mohamed, the Somali diplomat, said: "This is not a Somali problem. This is an international problem. Shipping across this entire region is imperiled by this."
Western countries have tried to crack down on piracy, with different navies patrolling the waters and escorting UN-chartered ships transporting much-needed food to Somalia. Twice this year, French commandos battled with pirates who hijacked French yachts.
Yesterday, Kenyan and Western officials said that an American warship was steaming toward the hijacked ship to intercept it, and the Russian Navy announced that it, too, was sending a warship, named the Dauntless.Just made it in the piece!!!
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