We offer this advice as a public service to those noble pirates plying their trade off the Somali coast: Don’t screw with the Russians.
Cleveland.com reports the details:
Following high level complaints about “imperfections” in international law, Russia announced Tuesday that captured Somali pirates “have all died.” A Russian official claimed that 10 pirates seized by Russian special forces aboard an oil tanker last week were quickly freed but then died on their way back to the Somali coast.
The unidentified high-ranking Defense Ministry official did not elaborate on how the pirates died, deepening a mystery that has prompted speculation the pirates were executed by commandos who had freed a Russian oil tanker seized in waters 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of Somalia’s coast.
The official told Russian news agencies the pirates’ boat disappeared from Russian radar about an hour after their release.
“They could not reach the coast and, apparently, have all died,” the official said.
The Defense Ministry could not be reached despite repeated phone calls Tuesday to the press office and the cell phones of spokesmen.
Russian officials have said one of the 11 pirates was killed during a gunbattle when the Russian special forces stormed the tanker on Thursday. The others, some said to have been wounded, were brought aboard a Russian destroyer.
Officials initially said they would be taken to Russia for trial, but the Defense Ministry said Friday they’d been released because of “imperfections” in international law. The statement was met with skepticism, especially in light of a comment made by the Russian president.
“We’ll have to do what our forefathers did when they met the pirates” until the international community comes up with a legal way of prosecuting them, Dmitry Medvedev said on the day the ship was stormed.
Think of the Russian commandos as a Muslim dating service: a direct link to 99 beautiful virgins.
Source: Cleveland.com
This post was last modified on May 13, 2010
View Comments (52)
While secretly cheering, America would never react the way the Russians did. We want everyone to love us, including pirates.
It is probably this accident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TruV3sxS9Zw
Someone made a remark about the French vs Russians re pirates.
Check this -
List of attacked ships
The French are far from being the weak link. Other countries have paid ransoms, the French have not.
I don't like Russia. It is a horrible country, however it is their right to defend their property. If I want my integral property and someone doesn't want me to have it, there is a problem. I don't have to agree with Russia or like them to understand that their space was violated and it is their prerogative to restore their space back to themselves. That doesn't diminish the fact that I disagree with Russia's politics and the way they deal with their citizens. I just cannot blame them for taking back something that was theirs to begin with.
Yeah, so true. It bothers me when people say that we would be better off if Obama felt free to respond in the same way the Russians did. Because if he honestly felt free to make pirates who everyone knew we had captured disappear and appear to die, he might feel a little freer to do the same thing with Americans whom he didn't like. You know, the way Putin does. So I'm glad we live in a relatively wishy washy feel good country because while I don't think Obama, or Bush, or Clinton (the presidents I remember) would do something like that; I wouldn't put it past future president Tipper Gore.
If Russia where to do the same with American sailors/soldiers/etc who ILLEGALLY took over her vessels she has the right to defend her vessels. It would be to the US' shame that such a thing happened. It shouldn't happened and unless those sailors are rat bat crazy or high or something it wouldn't happened. If the shoe was on the other foot and Russians overtook illegally US vessels, the US has the right to take the vessel back and shoot as many Russians in sight. If we are LEGALLY (for whatever reason) at war with Russia and as a country through the sailors we take over her vessels, it is still Russia's right to defend its vessels. That is called being at war. Casulties will happen but that is how it is.
There is no reason why Americans would overtake a Russian vessel outside of warfare. If Russia were to just go about and willy nilly shoot down American sailors just because; that is an act of war and it would be our right to hunt them down. So I don't really think your point is well made. Overall they (the pirates) came into their vessels without permission and without reason with the idea to steal, they infringed on Russian sovereignty, it was an illegal act of aggression it is and was their right to defend their vessels.
Overall on general levels if Putin and the like were the gun down Americans for no reason at all or because they were "accused" of being spies that would be a serious breach of diplomacy and again considered an act of aggression and war and again it would be our right to step in. The Russians can be bloodthirsty but they are not stupid.
Though I must point out that I still find Putin to be one bad ex-KGB tiger-shooting stomach-kissing mofo.
From what I'd guess about th politics of people who frequent this site... many Russians who happen to agree with Medvedev and (ok, this is the one that really matters) Putin have disappeared and, apparently, have all died. Read that sentence again and replace 'Russians' with 'Americans', 'Putin' with 'Obama' and 'Medvedev' with, I dunno, Dr. Phil or whoever. Russians and Somalis are bad mofos who live in a cruel world that a lot of Americans might not like as much as they think they would.
And replace 'agree' with 'disagree'. Though maybe if Vlad thinks you are a suckup planning his downfall agreeing will yield the same results.
the Russians are particularly good (and ruthless) at hunting down the bad guys. Take the gloves off and let our troops do the same. Go after the bases where these pirates originate their missions and stop the problem at the source.
They sure are. Problem for us is, they think we Americans are the bad guys too.
We should take a lesson from the Russians ourselves and release them, they can swim home from 500 miles out. Inperfection in international law fixed, we let them go!
I know people who came from abject poverty even if there were temptations to de-evolve into criminality they never did. They saw that the future would be bleak and in many cases lead to an early horrible death if they went down that path. Being poor and in poor circumstances is not an excuse nor reason to do what they do. Some ppl do not want to be saved no matter how much help you give them. If they have the ingenuity, time and energy to get on boats and play gun bangers they can use those same skills, time and energy to create community farms or fishing. As far as I am concerned the same energy spent being bad can be spent being good. The thing is that even though hard doing the right thing actually yields good things not just for oneself either. I have no pity. If they really wanted to do the right thing they would. I am not a Russian fan, but showing weakness to an enemy is not a good strategy and that is something the Russian know very well.
Being poor and in poor circumstances is a little different from being really, really poor and in a failed anarchic state being taken over by Islamic extremists. Maybe community farms would be a good idea. Or maybe roving bandits with automatic weapons and bazookas will come and eat all your food. I don't really have any pity, either, to be honest; I'm actually not really a good person when it comes down to it. I'm just glad I am in America and not in Somalia, or Russia.
Being poor in any circumstance (socio-political) doesn't diminish the fact that people still get to make their own choices and be participant of the consequences of those choices. The poor people in anarchic states still have a choice to make as to how they want to live their lives.
Not all people from Somalia are pirates, there are those who still choose to live a life that is essentially pirate/criminal free. They Even without govt support they choose to do something with their lives and earn their food and livelihood. They are to be commended and it shows that these pirates can do the same if they weren't so evil minded. The same energy they put into evil they could put into making a sound government or at least take care of their communities and DEFEND it from other evil people.
Poor people in these countries may have to deal with evil and injustice and they may fail to repress it completely, it is unfortunate of course, however a lot of people feel that living right, even in dire circumstances and facing persecution and evil, is intrinsically valuable in the end. Those people are in many ways heroic and a showcase for inner strenght.
It is far more heroic than some pirate who rather use violence to get material things at the expense of his soul and the lives of others. That to me is true weakness and they deserve what they get in the end.
Yeah, pirates are jerks. But it takes more to be a good Somali (cause you don't have a government to stop people from killing you) or a good Russian (because you don't have people to stop your government from killing you) than it does to be a good American, even a poor one. As a matter of fact I am pretty sure many "good" Americans would not be so good if they were from Somalia or Russia. And honestly, all the people involved in the disappearing pirate incident were probably to hardcore to care about who deserved what. It would actually surprise me to find out that none of the pirates or Russian military personal had committed heinous massacres, or to find out that none of them had seen their own families murdered. Me, personally, I'm kind of a prick. I can't tell you what I would be if I was a Somali or a Russian, but I can tell you that as an American I spend to much time writing blocks of text for stupid internet debates when I could be using my position in a better way.
Also, I've never understood why death is seen as something bad people deserve. Everyone is going to die. Everyone. And once it happens, well either you are just dead (and don't know and could care less that you got what you deserve), or else something awaits you after that. Most Somalis and Russians, if they follow the religions that I've been told they do, should believe that THAT thing is what they really deserve. And they will get it, whatever it is, regardless of how long it occurs after they were a hostage-taking pirate or a "disappearer" of pirates/Georgians/Chechens/dissenters/whatever. If you believe that sort of thing. But if I was going to try to kill a Somali pirate, I'd probably do it because I have a suspicion that Somali pirates aren't very safe things to have around and not because I know what a Somali pirate deserves.
I don't really give a shit what thier living conditions are , that 's thier problem and thier fault, we tried to help them out and they murdered our guys and U.N. soldiers, they're scum. And deserve what the Russians gave them and worse.
id like to point out something here
i know that the situation these guys live in is horrible, i cant imagine that too many of these pirates dont spend every day of their life wishing they had other way to make their living.
but the single fact that they willingly, for any reason, attack, murder, and steal from people, makes them an enemy to peace, and if the majority of the world continues to treat the pirates with compassion, we will never see the end of it, and we will never see somalia recover.
oh, and the fact that obama ordering a few pirates to be killed was big news kinda goes to show you how sad we are, and why we are part of the problem.