'Pirates' Strike a US Ship Owned by Pentagon Contractor, But Is the Media Telling the Whole Story?

'Pirates' Strike a U.S. Ship Owned by a Pentagon Contractor, But Is the Media Telling the Whole Story?

www.alternet.org

Reports say the crew of a U.S. cargo vessel seized early today has retaken the ship, but there's more to the story of rising "pirate" attacks.

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UPDATE: At least one nuclear-powered U.S. warship is reportedly on its way to the scene of the hijacking off the coast of Somalia of a vessel owned by a major Pentagon contractor. A U.S. official told the Associated Press the destroyer USS Bainbridge is en route while another official said six or seven ships are responding to the takeover of the “Maersk Alabama,” which is part of a fleet of ships owned by Maersk Ltd., a U.S. subsidiary of a Denmark firm, which does about a half-billion dollars in business with the U.S. government a year.

The Somali pirates who took control of the 17,000-ton "Maersk Alabama" cargo-ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning probably were unaware that the ship they were boarding belonged to a U.S. Department of Defense contractor with "top security clearance," which does a half-billion dollars in annual business with the Pentagon, primarily the Navy.

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[edit on 8-4-2009 by News And History]

The world-government & their shills (especially corporate-news reporters) have never told the whole truth about secret operations (a.k.a. black ops), such as what seems to be going on in that story.

Why would they want to tell us who's really attacking or setting up those crews in huge vessels with high-security? They have high-tech weapons on their side! The pirates don't even seem like they'd be able to take control of a supermarket or bank with several security guards, let alone a massive source of transportation like one in that story.

The captain & crew of that ship should have been able to spot those pirates miles before they reached their huge vessel.

www.alternet.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 8-4-2009 by News And History]

The Bambridge has arrived. They are waiting for sunrise.......which is within the hour. cnn.com

Nuclear powered warship? That's funny. The USS Bainbridge is an Arleigh Burke class destroyer. It's powered by a gas turbine engine. There hasn't been a nuclear powered destroyer EVER in the Navy, and there were only 9 nuclear powered cruisers EVER in the US Navy. The last two were the USS California and USS South Carolina, both stricken in 1999.

There WAS a CGN named USS Bainbridge, but she was decommissioned in 1996, and towed to Bremerton for recycling in 1997. They don't have a reactor small enough to fit into a destroyer yet.

As for picking them up on radar, they are using speed boats to approach the ships. Speed boats are a tiny target on radar, and they are very fast. Most of the ships that are taken are large tanker/cargo ships that can make 20+ knots. The speed boat is MUCH faster and MUCH more maneuverable. There is no way that a ship this size could avoid them. They have at BEST small arms on board, where the pirates have AK-47s. The pirates WILL take the ship until we start arming them better.

Originally posted by News And History
The captain & crew of that ship should have been able to spot those pirates miles before they reached their huge vessel.

I would seriously suggest that you, news and history, read John Burnett's Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas and Michael Richardson's A Time Bomb for Global Trade: Maritime-related Terrorism in an Age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, as well as a number of others, before making conjectural statements having little to no merit such as when you incorrectly inferred concerning "black-ops" and "such as what seems to be going on in that story." I definately would not hire you as a journalist; there is enough spin in news journalism as it is for you to be adding your own conjectural slants.

Just because you can see the a huge boulder about to fall upon your head does not infer that you can get out of the way before it crushes you, now does it?

[edit on 8-4-2009 by Seekerof]

reply to post by Zaphod58


we did extensive "fast attack" boat drills in the navy in the late 80's.
that was the new big thing back then. i remember the next big wave was "terrorism".
they taught us that in '86.

fast, small and hard to target.
we did endless drills trying to shoot them as they kept skunking our ship.
(uss jouett - cg-29 -- guided missle cruiser)

reply to post by News And History

I was really suspicious of that story earlier today. Somehow it just didn't ring true that the ship was just delivering food/humanitarian aid to a nearby country.

Originally posted by News And History

The captain & crew of that ship should have been able to spot those pirates miles before they reached their huge vessel.

[edit on 8-4-2009 by News And History]

They were chased for two hours. There comes a certain point that when you have a water hose, and your oppentent has an AK-47, well you take cover - which they did.

They also recaputured the ship

A Navy P-3 has flown over the life raft carrying the pirates and captain.

It's only a matter of time now.

Sorry, I clicked the wrong button.
[edit on 9/4/2009 by ArMaP]

Now, to try to make this a on-topic post, how many ships working for the Pentagon are crossing the seas without anyone noticing them, because they are just common transport ships?

[edit on 9/4/2009 by ArMaP]

reply to post by News And History


The last thing I heard just now on the radio that FBI negotiators have been brought in to negotiate the release of the captain whos being held captive in a life boat that has run out of fuel.

What makes me wonder, is they claim to "never negotiate with terrorists", but in surprising contrast, every single time one of these ships is taken over by these somali pirates, they negotiate every single time without fail.

The bigger question here is why does the world allow these pirates to fund terrorisim? Why haven't they been identified as islamic pirates? Why didn't an F-18 scramble from the nearest carrier?

reply to post by ArMaP


In 2003 there were 176 civilian, and 59 Navy owned vessels that are part of the US Navy maritime reserve fleet.

These ships ARE civilian owned ships, but they are under contract to haul supplies for the Pentagon AS NEEDED. When they aren't hauling supplies for the military they haul supplies as part of the fleet of whatever company owns them.

One advantage is that once the company signs a contract with the Pentagon, they're required to train the crews in ship protection. Which includes how to retake their ship if it's seized.

Never mind.

[edit on 9-4-2009 by mrwupy]