Somali Pirates Take Iranian Ship and Die, What Killed Them?

[Kathianne]

Hmmm?

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/09/mystery_surrounds_hi.php




Written by Nick Grace & Abdiweli Ali, Ph.D.

A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a suspicious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection. Its declared cargo consists of minerals and industrial products, however, Somali and regional officials directly involved in the negotiations over the ship and who spoke to The Long War Journal are convinced that it was heading to Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia's Islamist insurgents.

It was business as usual when speedboats surrounded the MV Iran Deyanat on August 21. The 44468 dead weight tonnage bulk carrier was pushing towards the Suez and had just entered the Gulf of Aden - dangerous waters where instability, greed and no-questions-asked ransom payments have led to a recent surge in piracy. Steaming past the Horn of Africa, 82 nautical miles southeast of al-Makalla in Yemen, the ship was a prize for the taking. It would bring hundreds of thousands of dollars - possibly millions - to the Somalia-based crime syndicate. The captain was defenseless against the 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades blocking his passage. He had little choice other than to turn his ship over to them. What the pirates were not banking on, however, was that this was no ordinary ship.

The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship's hijacking. According to the U.S. Government, the company regularly falsifies shipping documents in order to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments to avoid the attention of shipping authorities, and employs the use of cover entities to circumvent United Nations sanctions to facilitate weapons proliferation for the Iranian Ministry of Defense...

[mundame]

I don't know about all that, but I'm interested in the piracy of a vessel carrying a lot of tanks for Kenya working now. Apparently Somalian pirates boarded it and are holding the crew and captain and want $20 million.

But SEVERAL American Navy ships now surround it, and a Russian navy ship is coming, and ships from several other nations.

Somebody needs to get the piracy cleaned up outside Somalia. They've been taking ship after ship, lots of them; the French navy wiped out two pirate attacks earlier this summer.

It shows what a disorderly state the world is in, that real piracy has made such a comeback.

[avatar4321]

I don't know about all that, but I'm interested in the piracy of a vessel carrying a lot of tanks for Kenya working now. Apparently Somalian pirates boarded it and are holding the crew and captain and want $20 million.

But SEVERAL American Navy ships now surround it, and a Russian navy ship is coming, and ships from several other nations.

Somebody needs to get the piracy cleaned up outside Somalia. They've been taking ship after ship, lots of them; the French navy wiped out two pirate attacks earlier this summer.

It shows what a disorderly state the world is in, that real piracy has made such a comeback.

The world was never in a state of order. Chaos is the natural order of life. we impose our views on the world and create order. But we are imperfect. So any order we impose has flaws.

[mundame]

The world was never in a state of order. Chaos is the natural order of life. we impose our views on the world and create order. But we are imperfect. So any order we impose has flaws.


I'm sure you are right, avatar, but there used to be less piracy up to quite recently.

[avatar4321]

I'm sure you are right, avatar, but there used to be less piracy up to quite recently.

Id like to say thats true but im not sure if it is. i mean its nothing like back a few hundred years ago but ive always thought there was a piracy problem, even now. we just dont hear about it because shipping isnt the only way to travel anymore so its problems arent as publicized.

[darin]

Bush is responsible for greater instances of Sea-faring pirates I assume?

[mundame]

Bush is responsible for greater instances of Sea-faring pirates I assume?

No, of course not, but I am glad to see the consortium of navies that has started dealing with it. Because off Somalia is not the only place in the world that pirates are infesting more than they used to.

[Immanuel]

I'm just tossing out my first reaction to reading this thread. I read it a while ago and then had to think about it. I'm telling myself this is impossible, but is it really?

Is it possible that one of the governments involved set a trap for the pirates? A trap such as a chemical agent that could be released if the ship was seized?

Immie

[tranquill]

Somali pirates hijacked an*Iranian vessel with enriched*uranium from China! See here: samsonblinded.org/news/somali-pirates-hijack-iranian-ship-with-chemical-or-radiological-cargo-3525

[Kathianne]

Well seems several governments still trying to decide what to do with that ship:

More background, not too much speculation:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,430681,00.html


FOXNews.com
Mysterious Cargo Aboard Iranian Ship Seized by Pirates Raises WMD Concerns

Tuesday , September 30, 2008
By Joseph Abrams

FC1
ADVERTISEMENT

As Somali pirates brazenly maintain their standoff with American warships off the coast of Africa, the cargo aboard one Iranian ship they commandeered is raising concerns that it may contain materials that can be used for chemical or biological weapons.

Some local officials suspect that instead of finding riches, the pirates encountered deadly chemical agents aboard the Iranian vessel.

On Aug. 21, the pirates, armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, stole onto the decks of the merchant vessel Iran Deyanat.

They ransacked the ship and searched the containers. But in the days following the hijacking, a number of them fell ill and died, suffering skin burns and hair loss, according to reports.

The pirates were sickened because of their contact with the seized cargo, according to Hassan Osman, the Somali minister of Minerals and Oil, who met with the pirates to facilitate negotiations.

"That ship is unusual," Osman told the Long War Journal, an online news source that covers the War on Terror. "It is not carrying a normal shipment."...

More recent, like yesterday, a bit more speculation with some details thrown in:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/10/did-iran-attemp.html#comments


Did Iran Attempt a WMD Attack on Israel?
Posted By COB6

Remember that Iranian ship that the Somali pirates seized? Yeah the same one where the pirates suddenly started experiencing blisters, hair loss and even death.

I speculated earlier that the reported symptoms were dangerously close to what one would expect from severe radiation poisoning. Apparently others are thinking the same thing:

Russian sources claim she was an enormous floating dirty bomb, intended to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in proximity to the coastal cities of Israel. The entire cargo of radioactive sand, obtained by Iran from China (the latter buys desperately needed oil from the former) and sealed in containers which, when the charges on the ship are set off after the crew took to boats, will be blasted high into the air where prevailing winds will push the highly dangerous and radioactive clout ashore.

Given the large number of deaths from the questing Somali pirates, it should be obvious that when the contents of the ship's locked cargo containers finally descended onto the land, the death toll would be enormous. The ship was nothing more nor less than the long-anticipated Iranian attack on Israel.

If true, this is not just an attack, it's a damn NUCLEAR attack!....

[Gaffer]

Well seems several governments still trying to decide what to do with that ship:

More background, not too much speculation:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,430681,00.html



More recent, like yesterday, a bit more speculation with some details thrown in:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/10/did-iran-attemp.html#comments

This is new speculation to me, but makes a lot of sense. But then of all the ships going through their what are the chances the samolis would pick that particular ship. And are there more than one?

It sounds like a ship everybody is going to want to look at. If it's that hot there should be a radiation signature.

[Kathianne]

This is new speculation to me, but makes a lot of sense. But then of all the ships going through their what are the chances the samolis would pick that particular ship. And are there more than one?

It sounds like a ship everybody is going to want to look at. If it's that hot there should be a radiation signature.

There's a lot of piracy in the area, an Indian ship too is still being held. The Somalis demand tribute, well actually payment for kidnapping and pretty much they do get paid.

My guess is if there is something to this, it's doubtful we'll hear about it in MSM.

[Noir]

Bush is responsible for greater instances of Sea-faring pirates I assume?


Indeed he is part of it, I will expand later when I Can

[mundame]

There are dozens and dozens of ships taken by pirates in that area. Many are being held right now. Ransom paid has been hundreds of millions.

This is why NATO is sending a force to clean out piracy there; ships basically can't safely go through there at all anymore.

World security is certainly declining rapidly; piracy, nuclear proliferation, civil wars and constant brushfire wars, like in Georgia.

[MtnBiker]

Well seems several governments still trying to decide what to do with that ship:

More background, not too much speculation:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,430681,00.html



More recent, like yesterday, a bit more speculation with some details thrown in:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/10/did-iran-attemp.html#comments


I think Joe Wilson should go and inspect every inch of that ship and give us a report.

[mundame]

The news reports I've been reading say the ship being held (in a circle of fully six U.S. Navy ships) off Somalia is loaded with tanks ---- but there is a real question whether they are for Kenya, as Kenya claims, or whether Kenya was sending them to the South Sudan, another county with no government.

Apparently this matters to someone; I can't see quite why.

[hjmick]

I think this is a gross overreaction. Apparently you folks have not been paying attention. Obama said, "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela? These countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose any serious threat to us." Obama said it, it must be so.

So let it be written, so let it be done.