Rick Raw: Pirates of The Gulf of Aden Wreak Havoc on Shipping

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Like the infamous pirates of yesteryear, modern-day rag-tag pirates from Somali carrying AK47s and RPGs have been roaming the waters of the Gulf of Aden seizing foreign vessels by force and holding them for ransom. These brazen attacks have outraged the nations involved and resulted in the United States and Russia sending in warships to deal with these bands of sea raiders.

Somalian thugs dressed in pieced together clothes such as women’s blouses, sunglasses, and scarfs roam near the shore. They wear dread-locks and work for warlords who run Somalia. This is a scurvy crew of crazed killers high on methamphetamine and hell bent for blood and money. In a recent attack in the Gulf of Aden, pirates attempted four attacks in 24 hours. Three attacks failed but a contingent of vicious marauders managed to board a cargo ship carrying 33 modern Russian tanks.

This new escalation of piracy got the attention of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thus, a United States Navy destroyer has surrounded the ship and a Russian cruiser is seaming to the Gulf of Aden. Attacking cargo vessels is one thing, but blitzing a vessel carrying Russian tanks is suicide. The prevailing wisdom of today’s pirates is: Don’t mess with the Russians. They will send elite commandos to storm the ship and wipe-out these warloard scum.

This new breed of Buccaneers has nothing to lose and everything to gain by hopping in fast rubber boats, armed to the teeth. They come in fast and fire on the crews of large ships, throwing ropes onto the deck and boarding by force. Some big cargo container companies have hired armed mercenaries to travel aboard their container ships to battle these seafaring terrorists.

Incredibly, piracy on the high seas has burgeoned in recent years with attacks in the Caribbean, off Africa, Asia, and South America. Well armed bands of rebels, insurgents, and drugged-up gangs living on the fringe of their societies now see piracy as a new way to raise vast amounts of cash for their cause.

These armed miscreants have graduated from kidnaping tourists or aid workers to attacking large commercial ships carrying valuable cargo. Sometimes crew members or the Captains of the seized ships are tortured or murdered to show the companies they mean business. In most cases, the companies pay them off and don’t report the attack which could affect business.

In 2005, a famous pirate attack happened involving a cruise ship, the Seabourn Spirit, that was sailing near the coast of Samalia. It was attacked by two boatloads of armed pirates. As they neared the vessel, the seaborne punks fired RPGs and AK-47s at the Seabourn Spirit, exploding through the side of the ship. The passengers were terrified. The captain ordered all the passengers to gather in the main ball room away from the windows.

It just so happened that the ship was carrying a security officer Michael Groves who was trained to use a high tech sonic weapon carefully hidden on the deck. Groves activated the sound weapon and aimed it at each of the two boatloads of pirates while receiving fire on his position. The weapon concentrates a blast of sound so loud and piercing, it disables anyone in its path. The weapon did the trick and the pirates cut and ran.

Since then, many cruise lines are carrying security officers with a caches of weapons locked in the ships’ armories. The sonic weapon has also caught on as a deterrent to pirate attacks on the high seas. The last thing a cruise ship Captain wants is a shoot out on board his vessel. The United States Navy is monitoring the incidents of piracy in hot-spots around the globe and is sending warships to shadow commercial vessels. The pirate creed has inspired bold new robbers on the high seas to terrorize the vessel’ crews with brutal force and win a large ransoms.