"Something does not feel right about this story. Setup for a new 9-11?" -- Wake the Flock Up
"Russian navy searching for missing cargo ship; Some speculate pirates attacked in the Atlantic" by Michael Schwirtz, New York Times | August 13, 2009
MOSCOW - Late last month, a cargo ship with a load of timber and a Russian crew of 15 radioed home a location off the coast of Portugal. It has not been heard from since.
The ship, called the Arctic Sea, was due to make port in Algeria on Aug. 4 to deliver its cargo. It never arrived. All attempts to raise the ship on radio or locate its emergency beacon have failed....
Word of the missing ship has conjured images of the daring pirate raids frequent in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia’s coast. Before it disappeared, the captain radioed that unidentified men claiming to be police had raided the ship, but he said they had released it. An anchor for Russia’s NTV television called the Arctic Sea the “first ship captured by pirates in Europe.’’
This ABSOLUTELY REEKS!!!
Amid fears of a possible hijacking, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, ordered his defense minister to take charge of the search, the Kremlin website said. Warships from the Russian Black Sea Fleet have already joined the search, according to Aleksei Kuznetsov, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry. A Defense Ministry source also told the Interfax news agency the Navy had employed its satellite-based tracking systems.
So far, nothing.
“It is quite difficult to try to determine what could have happened,’’ said Cyrus Mody, a spokesman for the London-based International Maritime Bureau. “It would not go down without a trace, but in the shipping industry anything is possible.’’
While the vessel’s fate remained a mystery, shipping experts tended to discount the idea that piracy was involved, noting the ship was relatively small and carrying a low-value cargo of wood. They said it could have been hijacked by an organized criminal gang, perhaps in pursuit of drugs or some other illicit materials stashed on board or to test the security environment in preparation for future attacks.
I think WtFu may be on to something.
What is clear is that the Arctic Sea had a rough voyage from the outset. Flying a Maltese flag, it was traversing Swedish waters on July 24 when it was overtaken by a small boat and boarded by eight to 12 men carrying firearms, the Malta Maritime Authority said in a statement. The intruders were “allegedly masked and wearing uniforms’’ with “police’’ written on them, the statement said, and harshly interrogated the crew, saying they were checking the ship for illegal narcotics....
It is not clear who the men were. Officials from Sweden, which had jurisdiction over the waters where the search took place, said they were not involved, the Malta Maritime Authority said. The ship’s captain radioed authorities after the 12-hour ordeal, saying the intruders had left in their small boat, Matveyev said. The captain said he would keep the ship on course to Algeria.
Another STINKING, OUTRAGEOUS, MSM report.
A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Britain said the ship contacted it at 1:52 p.m. on July 28, when it was traveling through the Dover Strait between England and France. “The Dover Coastguard didn’t notice anything unusual,’’ the spokeswoman said. “A lot of vessels go through the strait every day, and this one made a routine report and it didn’t seem anything was wrong.’’
Then it just DISAPPEARED, huh?
Where did it go, readers?
"Investigators across Europe join search for ship" by Lynn Berry, Associated Press Writer | August 13, 2009
MOSCOW --The disappearance of a Russian-manned cargo ship in the Atlantic more than two weeks ago spawned a variety of theories and intriguing reports Thursday as the search drew in investigators from across Europe.
Russia had naval vessels and satellites scanning the ocean for the Arctic Sea -- last heard from on July 28 while sailing through the English Channel with a euro1.3 million ($1.8 million) cargo of timber. Since then there has been no confirmed sighting of the Maltese-flagged freighter, which had reported being attacked four days earlier in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish island of Oland.
I'm wondering WHY the DELAY in REPORTING!
"There are lots of theories because no one really understands what's happening," said Pavel Felgenhauer, a security analyst. "Such wild theories circulate, because no one really understands who needs a ship with timber."
The crew had said that, on July 24, up to a dozen masked men had boarded, tied up the 15 crew members, questioned them about drug trafficking and beat them before leaving 12 hours later in a high-speed inflatable boat, the Malta Maritime Authority said. The ship had been due to make port Aug. 4 in Algeria, but has not arrived and appeared to have changed course. The maritime authority said the Arctic Sea "has not approached the Straits of Gibraltar, which indicates that the ship headed out in the Atlantic Ocean."
Now I am REALLY GETTING SUSPICIOUS!
Speculation on what might have happened has ranged from theories that it might have been carrying secret cargo to the possibility that it fell victim to an almost unheard of case of sea banditry in European waters. The Swedish daily Metro said it spoke by telephone with someone who claimed to be the Arctic Sea captain on July 31 about the reported hijacking in the Baltic Sea.
"They were dressed in black uniforms," the newspaper quoted the captain as saying. "They resembled American elite soldiers and seemed very professional. They said they were looking for cocaine, which should have been loaded in Kaliningrad. They spoke English, with some kind of accent."
See: The Russian-Israeli Mafia: Off-limits to FBI, US intelligence
Boston Globe Protecting Jewish Mafia
The ship was repaired in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave and drug-trafficking hub, before picking up the timber cargo in a Finnish port. Security experts were wary of attributing the disappearance to bandits, noting that though piracy is rife in waters off lawless Somalia and in other areas of the world, European waters have been free of such attacks for centuries. Also, pirates usually seek ransom.
Don't worry; the covert operators will get around to that.
They also said terrorism appeared unlikely.
Why are they ruling that out right out-of-hand?
"There have been rumors it can be somehow connected to the smuggling of nuclear materials, but again why should it be intercepted like that?," Felgenhauer said. More likely possibilities, he said, were insurance fraud or a commercial dispute.
"A ship can be re-registered, re-painted. It can be hijacked to change its identity, like a stolen car," he said.
And THEN SAILED into NEW YORK HARBOR with a NUCLEAR BOMB on BOARD, right?
The director of the ship's Finland-based operator, Solchart, refused to speculate on what had happened.
"It's a mystery, a tragedy for all family members and the crew, and we're just praying for all of them," Viktor Matveyev said, speaking Russian. He had answered a call to his cell phone from Moscow after refusing to take calls made from Finland.
Sochart's Helsinki office is located in an exclusive residential area on the seafront. No one answered the door. The view through the front window was of a disheveled, nearly empty office.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered that "all necessary measures" be taken to find the missing ship, and the Russian navy turned all of its vessels in the Atlantic -- including three landing ships, a frigate and two nuclear-powered submarines -- to search. The Defense Ministry said Thursday it was also using satellites.
Finnish police said they were assisting in the investigation, and France said it was in "regular contact with the authorities concerned by this affair, notably the Maltese authorities."
Britain's Foreign Office said it was monitoring developments and would provide assistance if needed. Sweden continued to investigate the reported hijacking. The crew said the attackers had identified themselves as police officers, but Swedish police said they hadn't searched any ships in that area.
Nick Blackmore, editor of the magazine Safety at Sea International, said the events that precipitated the ship's disappearance have been unusual, beginning with the alleged attack off Sweden's coast. "It's an odd thing in and of itself because it happens so rarely in that area," Blackmore said. "We would have expected ... if they had been hijacked to call in to some port."
Blackmore said some vessels of similar specifications built in the same Turkish yard as Arctic Sea had capsized, foundered or suffered serious stability-related incidents. But he said timber floating on the sea somewhere would probably be evident if the ship had sunk.
Just after the Arctic Sea's July 28 contact, it passed through the busy Dover Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The ship had given what appeared to be a routine report -- identifying itself and its cargo, and saying where it had come from and where it was going, said Mark Clark of Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
--more--"
Finally, word courtesy of my Sunday local:
"Ransom delivered for Russian freighter
MOSCOW -- A ransom demand has been received for the return of a Russian-made freighter that went missing last month in the Atlantic, Finnish investigators said Saturday.
But the HIJACKERS LEFT the SHIP!!!!!!
It was not immediately clear if the ransom demand was legitimate, and the whereabouts of the Artic Sea, its 15 crew members and its euro1.3 million ($1.8 million) cargo of timber remains a mystery."
But the PRESS TALKED to the CAPTAIN?!!
What is with the LYING, MSM?
Update: Missing cargo ship found off African islands
Isn't that interesting?
I just get this put up and POOF, problem solved.
Are blogs screwing up the false-flag plans of the globalist s***ters?
