German warship engages Pirates

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A German warship was involved in fending off Monday's pirate attack on a Japanese tanker near the coast of Somalia, a spokesman for the German armed forces said Wednesday.

The Japanese tanker Takayama was attacked by pirates but received a helping hand from a German warship.

The German warship Emden was in the area Monday when it received a distress call from the tanker Takayama, said Frigate Captain Roland Vogler-Wander, a spokesman for the German armed forces in Potsdam, Germany.

The distress signal from the Takayama was "Tanker is being threatened by boat with weapons and being fired upon," Vogler-Wander said.

edition.cnn.com...

This pirate problem is getting rediculous. A luxury cruise and now a supertanker, what next? Kudos to the German Navy.

Ive been expecting something like this for some time now. Was wondering what took them so long.

In my opinion...they need to do a sting operation ..you know..like that car buisness...setting up a police car with armed people ..only a complete armed ship set up to look like a commercial ship or ocean liner..only armed peoples on it ..and just take them down....no survivors. It wont take long for the word to get out. When you make it more expensive to attack shipping ...they will go elsewhere. You also need to prepare for the elswhere...or risk more chaos there too. In otherwords stay a step ahead of the pirates. Just make it more expensive for them to operate. They are opportunists...predators. Most predators dont go where the risks are high..they prefer easier prey. You raise the costs to them they will think twice before making the same mistake.

Set them up for a fatal sting. It wont take long for the word to get out.
That they are not welcome.

Thanks,
Orangetom

reply to post by orangetom1999


That solution is not sustainable at all. If you protect one route, the pirates will move elsewhere, requiring that new area to be protected as well. Continue that, and you'll have every part of the world where shipping occurs spattered with warships and their crews. The money for that would have to come from somewhere, and it would be passed onto the people of the country doing the protecting, or to the people paying for the transport of the goods being protected (which would increase the cost for such goods).

It would make far more sense to figure out where these pirates come from and why they pirate vessels. Once you've got that understood, work on it. Of course providing protection from vessels until the problem is sorted goes without saying.

It's always best to fix the cause of a problem, not the symptoms.

I agree to a point..as I am not sure the methods used right now are sustaiable. Also you would not want to have to sustain this technique. Hence the stealth of it. Such that the priates never know which ship it might be.

I am wondering to myself if "where they come from and why they pirate vessels"...Working on this...is that like a Welfare subsidy...is that sustainable??

What is to be concerned with here is a changing trend..when the appetites ie..the cost of of these pirates increases...and so do the costs. doing buisness. All it would take is a more informed, educated, and capable leader amongst them.

When the costs begin to increase substantially you can bet the banks and insurance companys would be eager for something to be done. Discretely of course..so that they would have deniability between themselves and events.

Also a success or failure like this is not a thing for the news media...it should be kept in house...as are many such stealth operations. Hence you must have someone thinking ahead..several steps. Not static but dynamic.

Thanks,
Orangetom