Is there a more pathetic power than our Nato ally, Germany?

Definitely not their grandfathers' navy

This news clip appears in DW, which is the German voice to the World: 

Pirates have seized a German vessel. 

No outrage, calm,  but the first sentence does say " the ship's 17 crew members are unhurt, according to a Kenyan maritime official." OK, a German ship is taken on the high seas by pirates and the Germans are relieved because a Kenyan maritime official tells them all is well. 

But the Germans are going to do something about it, right? 

We learn the vessel is sailing under the flag of Malta. OK, I guess that makes it a little less of a German problem. 

A Mombasa-based East African Seafarers Assistance Program says they heard about the taking. That was news to the Germans, because some Ministry officials in Berlin said they didn't know much about it but were investigating. WTF kind of ministry are they exactly? It gets worse.

"The attack comes just a day after NATO decided to extend its anti-piracy work off the coast of Somalia." 

Nato really scared the shit out of them didn't they, but we learn more about the Nato ops:

"Four vessels from NATO's Standing Naval Maritime Group One have been conducting anti-piracy work and escorting merchant ships, including some carrying food aid for Somalia, since last month."

War ships carrying food aid, does this war ship have any guns? WTF? It gets worse.

"The naval ships were due to make courtesy port visits to Karachi in Pakistan, Singapore and Perth in Western Australia, but the last two visits have been cancelled, the spokeswoman said.". 

The pirates are off Somalia. They are not in Singapore or Perth, Australia. How much are the Germans spending on Nato? How much are we spending on Nato? It gets worse.

"They now will break off to visit Karachi on April 26-27 but will return to continue their counter-piracy work until June 6.

"With the great increase in pirate attacks and the ensuing international attention, NATO's recent contribution to counter-piracy has been significant," the spokeswoman said.

Six weeks and they are tired. This is significant counter piracy from Nato?

Please get us out  of Nato, mach schnell.

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PIRACY | 25.04.2009
Somali pirates hijack German ship after NATO extends naval mission

The latest hijacking came after NATO extended it anti-piracy mission

Somali pirates have seized a 31,000-ton German grain carrier in the Gulf of Aden but the ship's 17 crew members are unhurt, according to a Kenyan maritime official.

The US Navy's 5th Fleet confirmed that the ship "Patriot" was seized 300 kilometers south-east of the Yemeni coastal city Muqalla. The freighter was sailing under the flag of Malta.

"I hear it was taken early this morning," said Andrew Mwangura, director of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers Assistance Program, in a statement released on Saturday.

Ministry officials in Berlin could not confirm the reports but said investigations were under way.

Piracy attacks off the eastern African coast have escalated in the past few weeks despite the presence of a flotilla of foreign navy warships in the region.

Pirates there are holding more than 250 hostages and have made millions of dollars through ransoms, driving up insurance costs. Some shipping lines now opt to use a longer and more expensive route around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid capture.

NATO extends anti-piracy mission

The attack comes just a day after NATO decided to extend its anti-piracy work off the coast of Somalia.

"NATO has decided to continue the counter-piracy activities off Somalia in the Gulf of Aden," said a spokesman for the transatlantic alliance at its Brussels headquarters.

NATO ships will continue to patrol the Gulf of Aden

Four vessels from NATO's Standing Naval Maritime Group One have been conducting anti-piracy work and escorting merchant ships, including some carrying food aid for Somalia, since last month.

The naval ships were due to make courtesy port visits to Karachi in Pakistan, Singapore and Perth in Western Australia, but the last two visits have been cancelled, the spokeswoman said.

They now will break off to visit Karachi on April 26-27 but will return to continue their counter-piracy work until June 6.

"With the great increase in pirate attacks and the ensuing international attention, NATO's recent contribution to counter-piracy has been significant," the spokeswoman said.

Pirates attacked over 130 merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden last year — more than double last year's total, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

Attacks increased tenfold in the first three months of 2009 compared to the same period last year.

An Instapundit Solution to Piracy Problem

Gun Control Works–for Pirates

A Common Sense Solution to the Piracy Problem
by Bill Levinson, Instapundit
published December 12, 2008

The recent terrorist rampage by Islamic supremacists in Mumbai shows that India’s strict gun control laws work–for vicious Islamic supremacist terrorists. Even many of India’s police were armed only with lathis, or bamboo sticks, and they learned the hard way that it is a bad idea to bring a bamboo stick to a gunfight.

The epidemic of piracy off the Somali has underscored the same lesson for the world’s merchant marines and passenger cruise lines: gun control works for pirates, corsairs, and buccaneers who freely ignore laws against the possession of destructive devices (like rocket launchers) to prey on unarmed shipping.

Piracy was apparently less of a problem during the age of traditional pirates (16th through early 19th centuries), even though merchant ships could not dial 911 or the equivalent for assistance from the nearest frigate. The reason was that dinghies, rubber boats, or their equivalent (e.g. rowboats) had no chance against even an unescorted merchant ship; the pirates needed a sloop or even a frigate to take, for example, an East Indiaman. This picture (The East Indiaman Repulse (1820) in the East India Dock Basin. Creator: Charles Henry Seaforth, October 1842) makes the reason obvious.

East Indiaman

Note the presence of at least ten gun ports (on the lower deck only), which means the ship is at least as well armed as a sloop of war. Portcities London, meanwhile, displays a picture of an East Indiaman of 1690, which carries more than sixty guns. The “weight of metal” per broadside, a typical measure of a ship’s fighting power, probably exceeded that of a contemporary frigate (counterpart of a modern heavy cruiser).

There were of course plenty of pirates during this era, but they did not operate from the equivalent of rubber dinghies or even mother ships because a merchantman of that era would have blown them to bits. A direct hit from a cannonball was not necessary, as the gun could be loaded with grapeshot to kill the exposed rowboat crew. Even if the rowboat managed to come alongside, the merchant seaman had the option of dropping cannon balls that would have gone right through the rowboat’s hull. The pirates therefore needed the counterparts of modern destroyers or cruisers to prey on merchant shipping on the high seas.

We can therefore recommend a simple, common sense solution to the epidemic of piracy off the African coast, and especially that of Somalia. It should be implemented as quickly as possible despite the bleatings of the political Left, Brady Campaign, Million Mom March, and various Kumbaya-singers. Arm merchant ships and passenger cruise ships with weapons ranging from the United States’ excellent 50 caliber machine gun to 35 or 40 millimeter (1-pounder) cannons, and train the crews to use them. (The U.S. could in fact probably earn some money by supplying the weapons and professional training from Navy instructors.)

A punk in a dinghy can menace an unarmed ship with a shoulder-fired rocket because, even though the rocket cannot possibly sink something that displaces 10,000 or more tons, he can continue to fire rockets with impunity. He won’t fire more than one rocket at someone who has a fifty-caliber machine gun, though, because the gun will blow him and his dinghy into unrecognizable fragments before he can reload. A 40-millimeter cannon could probably go further by putting down even the typical mother ship that many pirates use.

This would end the piracy problem quite quickly, because the pirates are unlikely to acquire actual warships that could take on armed merchant ships. The solution is common sense, and political correctness is the only barrier to its implementation.

Hostage dies as French attack Somali pirates. Four saved.

The Tanit in happier days. The two couples had been warned against sailing off the Somali coast.


The French military attacked pirates holding a private yacht and one of the five hostages died during the rescue. The rescue saved four others. Unfortunately the spread of the terror on the high seas has occurred because of negotiations with the terrorists and the paying of ransom. If every other nation followed the French lead, the problem would end and ultimately more lives will be saved.

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Two pirates also killed in rescue operation


(CNN) --

A French hostage and two pirates died Friday in a rescue operation off Somalia's coastline, the French president's office in Paris said Friday.


French commandos last year training for operations against pirates.

Four hostages, including a child, were freed from the hijacked yacht after almost a week of captivity, Nicolas Sarkozy's office said.

The French military decided to move in when pirates refused their offers and increased threats against the hostages, it said.

The four adults and a child had been held aboard their yacht, the Tanit, since it was seized in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, the president's statement said.

Just how much money is spent by the World's navies?

Indian warship destroys pirate ship

MOGADISHU (AFP) — An Indian warship destroyed a pirate "mother vessel" in the Gulf of Aden, the navy said Wednesday, as bandits demanded a ransom for a Saudi super-tanker seized in the most daring sea raid yet.

The Indian frigate INS Tabar, one of dozens of warships from several countries protecting shipping lanes in the area, attacked the Somali pirate ship late Tuesday after coming under fire, navy spokesman Nirad Sinha said.

The incident came as shipping groups reported a new surge in hijackings off Somalia and the International Maritime Bureau said pirates based in the lawless African nation were now "out of control".

"The INS Tabar closed in on the mother vessel and asked her to stop for investigation," the New Delhi navy spokesman said.

"But on repeated calls, the vessel's threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship if it approached," he added.

An exchange of fire ensued, causing explosions and the Indian navy ship then used heavy guns. "From what we see in photographs the pirate vessel is completely destroyed," a senior officer said on condition he not be named.

It was the first time a mother ship had been destroyed, in the most significant blow to pirates to date.

The piracy crisis has grown since the capture of the super-tanker Sirius Star on Saturday. The huge vessel was carrying a full load of two million barrels of oil worth an estimated 100 million dollars.

Al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television channel, broadcast an audio tape that it said was of one of the pirates making a ransom demand.

"Negotiators are located on board the ship and on land. Once they have agreed on the ransom, it will be taken in cash to the oil tanker," said the man identified as Farah Abd Jameh, who did not indicate the amount to be paid.

"We assure the safety of the ship that carries the ransom. We will mechanically count the money and we have machines that can detect fake money," the man said.

Vela International, owners of the ship, refused to comment on the report. "We hope there will be a quick solution," a spokesman in Dubai told AFP.

Seized in the Indian Ocean some 500 miles (800 kilometres) off the east African coast, the Sirius Star is now anchored at the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere, according to local officials.

The super-tanker has 25 crew -- 19 from the Philippines, two from Britain, two from Poland, one Croatian and one Saudi. It was the largest ship yet taken by Somali pirates and the attack furthest away from Somalia.

Pirates have hijacked three ships since capturing the Sirius Star.

Andrew Mwangura, from the East African Seafarers Association, said a Thai fishing boat, a Hong Kong-registered freighter, the Delight, and a Greek bulk carrier were seized on Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden.

The Greek merchant marine ministry said it had no word of a Greek-flagged or Greek-owned vessel being seized but the other hijackings were confirmed.

The Delight, chartered by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, was carrying 25 crew members and 36,000 tonnes of wheat when it was seized on its way to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

"So far no contact has been made with the ship and the hijackers," Majid Ensan Najib, a senior official with the shipping line, told the IRNA news agency.

On Wednesday, the pirates released another Hong Kong-flagged ship, MV Great Creation, and its 25 crew -- 24 Chinese and one Sri Lankan crew -- seized on September 18.

"The pirates released the Great Creation this morning and it is currently sailing to Abu Dhabi," Mwangura told AFP, adding that it was unclear whether a ransom was paid.

Pirates use mother ships, generally hijacked trawlers or deep-sea dhows, to tow speedboats from which they launch their attacks with grapnel hooks tied to rope ladders before neutralising the crews at gunpoint.

The Indian navy action could hamper the pirates in the Gulf of Aden in the near future but the group holding the Sirius Star operates from other mother ships further south.

The Gulf of Aden controls access to the Suez Canal, which allows trade between Europe and Asia without taking the longer and more expensive route around the southern tip of Africa.

NATO, the United States and a number of European nations have all sent ships to the region to try to stop the piracy, which has only increased instead.

The German navy said Tuesday one of its frigates had foiled attacks on two ships in the Gulf of Aden, using a helicopter to chase off pirates who fled in their speedboats.

The International Maritime Bureau has called on the United Nations to act over the piracy.

"The situation is already out of control," said Noel Choong, head of the piracy reporting centre at the IMB in Kuala Lumpur.

"The United Nations and the international community must find ways to stop this menace," Choong said. "With no strong deterrent, low risk to the pirates and high returns, the attacks will continue."