Why is the UN-sponsored NATO Horn of Africa patrol not taking over the escort of these shipments? Last I checked it was a full strength Surface Action Group on station there. . .Originally Posted by davidbfpo
Regards,
Matt
Why is the UN-sponsored NATO Horn of Africa patrol not taking over the escort of these shipments? Last I checked it was a full strength Surface Action Group on station there. . .
Regards,
Matt
"Give a good leader very little and he will succeed. Give a mediocrity a great deal and he will fail." - General George C. Marshall
10 ships, lotta ocean?
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimesc...5-53d5c289f765
To deter such crimes, Task Force 150, led by Commodore Bob Davidson, who uses the Iroquois as his flagship, includes a changing cast of warships from the United States, five European countries and Pakistan.
It now maintains a more-or-less permanent naval presence between the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden.
But this is only a small part of the Task Force's area, which covers 2.5 million square miles of ocean from the southern end of the Suez Canal to Kenya's border with Tanzania, east to the Seychelles and then north to Pakistan..
Regarding this ongoing and escalating situation, I'm going to cut-n-paste a comment of mine from Bill Roggio's Long War Journal...
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv...rrounds_hi.php
Something I was wondering back when the Russian tug was hijacked...
What are the odds that the MV Iran Deyanat wasn't really hijacked?
It's international crewmembers would have to be kept in the dark or otherwise be part of the operation, but that's not beyond the realm of possibility. The "chemical weapons" story serves as a good cover for keeping less well equipped investigaters from close inspection while the actual cargo, (in this hypothosis light infantry arms and ammo), is unloaded.
Is there any known connection between the group of pirates that took MV Iran Deyanat and the Somali militia that sent 300 to 700 some odd volunteers to Lebanon in 2006?
Is there any known connection between MV Iran Deyanat and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard?
Are these pirates just dumber then the usual 21st century pirate types? Like the taking of the Russian tug, this particular act of piracy just smells odd...
PRIVATEER,
R
While I know "information" to this effect is reported in the October 2006 UN Monitoring Group report on Somalia, I'm aware of no credible evidence that it took place. Largely numbers of armed Somalis operating in Lebanon would have stuck out like a sore thumb (in fact, for those who know Lebanon its a rather comical image), and done Hizbullah far more harm than good.
Rex:
Good point, but...
Wouldn't that depend on how and where those Somalians where used/located (assuming they existed)?
If all they did was briefly rotate through a Hiz training camp in the northern Bekaa without ever seeing any action on the border, then the thumb never got sore enough to stick out.
Do the Ethiopian refugees serving in the IDF stick out like a sore thumb? Did they have a deterent morale value on the Somali Hiz volunteers, (assuming they existed)?
I tend to believe that they did exist in small numbers, but that their numbers were inflated by both sides for propaganda purposes.
MORE THAN
MEETS THE EYE,
R
BBC, 26 Sep 08: Somali Pirates 'Seize 30 Tanks'
Pirates off the coast of Somalia have seized a Ukrainian ship carrying T-72 tanks, an official has said.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said the ship had a crew of 21 and was sailing under a Belize flag to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
A report from Russia's Interfax news agency said earlier that the ship had a cargo of about 30 tanks, as well as spare parts for armoured vehicles......
I'm SO looking on e-bay.
"But the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet withstanding, go out to meet it."
-Thucydides
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