Category: Pirates

A federal judge in Norfolk, VA handed a pirate chief 12 life sentences in the piracy case of a German merchant vessel and US yacht in 2010 during which four Americans were murdered and the crew of the German vessel were tortured to up the ransom, according to the Associated Press;

“I think this case explodes the myth, if still it exists out there, that pirates are some kind of romantic swashbuckling characters from Hollywood summer movies. This case showed that pirates are brutal, greedy, reckless, desperate criminals who will kidnap, torture and ultimately kill hostages in pursuit of their financial greed,” U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said after sentencing.

The yacht owners, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were the first U.S. citizens killed in a wave of pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean despite a regular patrol of international warships. Negotiations with a U.S. Navy ship that was shadowing the Quest were underway when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at it and shots aboard the yacht rang out. By the time Navy SEALs scrambled onboard the boat, the Americans had already been shot.

Ten of the life sentences will run concurrently and two consecutively and Mohammad Saaili Shibin, the pirate, was also ordered to pay $5.4 million in restitution. Prosecutors are saving the death sentence for three others who actually pulled the triggers.

Four Americans and a briton are being held by mozambique authorities on weapons charges while they were attempting to free a pirated ship according to BBC.

Nampula provincial police spokesperson Inacio Dina told the BBC that the weapons include an FN 5.5mm rifle, as well as ammunition and communications equipment.

The police have named the leader of the group as 42-year-old US citizen Michael Ferguson. He has not commented to the press.

The group had reportedly flown from the United States via Ethiopia and Kenya, where they picked up the weapons.

Mr Ferguson reportedly said their plan was to catch small boats in the northern Mozambican coastal city of Pemba before joining a larger vessel and trying to free the boat from pirates – it is not clear which ship they were allegedly trying to rescue.

Ferguson is reportedly a former Navy SEAL and a Vice President of the security company Greyside Group which purports to provide “risk management” services for commercial and government clients.

From the Navy Times, a tale of woe with a happy ending;

[USS] Bulkeley responded to the mayday call, first heard by a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship and relayed to Combined Maritime Forces, by launching an SH-60B Seahawk helicopter assigned to Helicopter Squadron Light 48, Detachment 4, to investigate. When it arrived on station — a command spokesman could not provide the distance or transit time — the crew saw four individuals in a skiff firing at Artemis Glory, using small arms.

The helicopter crew opened fire on the skiff under what command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Sam Hearn of the Royal Navy said was the principle of “extended unit self-defense” on behalf of the crude carrier. All four pirates are believed to have been killed, Hearn said. Hearn said he did not know which weapon system was employed but noted that the SH-60B is equipped with a single M-240 machine gun.

Officials do not believe the helicopter was fired upon by the pirates, Hearn said.

Hearn said Bulkeley did not pick up the bodies…

…and the helicopter crew lived happily ever after. Osama bin Squarepants isn’t lonely any more – four more virgins join him in his pineapple under the sea.

Associated Press reports that the Indian Navy has captured more than 60 pirates after setting their “mother ship” afire;

When the Indian ships closed in Sunday night, the pirates fired on them. The hijacked vessel caught fire when the Indian navy returned fire, the navy said.

The pirates as well as the crew members jumped into the sea from the burning vessel, but were taken out by Indian sailors, the statement said.

That saved lives and millions of dollars.

Jerry920 sends us a link to the report that Navy SEALs (I’m guessin’) took back an American oil tanker with no shots fired from four pirates off the coast of Oman yesterday;

Twenty-four crew members on the MV Guanabara took refuge in a protected part of the vessel after reporting they were under attack Saturday, roughly 328 nautical miles southeast of Duqm in southern Oman.

A special unit from the destroyer USS Bulkeley boarded the oil tanker Sunday and detained the suspected pirates, according to a news release from the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). No shots were fired and no injuries were reported.

I’m beginning to think that Somalis are using piracy as the new way to sidestep US immigration policy.

Tman sends us a link to the Reuters article which announces that the four Americans kidnapped by Somali pirates were murdered by those same pirates;

The sequence of events was not immediately clear, but the U.S. military’s Central Command said the dead hostages were only discovered after U.S. forces responded to gunfire and boarded the pirated yacht, known as the Quest.

“As they responded to the gunfire, reaching and boarding the Quest, the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement.

“Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds.”

Central Command says that it captured 13 pirates while 2 others cast off their mortal coils. The pirates claimed that the US fired first causing them to react by killing the hostages.

Everybody will react if his life is in danger. We should not agree to be killed and let the hostages be freed.

Um, it was the pirates who hijacked the yacht, right? Silly pirate.

ADDED: Mr Wolf writes to tell us that one of those pirates was “done” up close, SEAL-to-pirate.