Thagarr's Pirate News!

[Thagarr]

Peruvian Amazon cruise to have police escort after raids by bandits

By Sarah Gordon
Last updated at 1:46 PM on 10th August 2009

River cruise ships in the Peruvian Amazon are being given police escorts after a luxury vessel was attacked by bandits twice in just over a week.

Aqua Expeditions, which is used by UK holiday companies Bales Worldwide and Journey Latin America, was struck twice within just nine days by bandits armed with guns and grenades.

Two police were stationed on the ship after the first raid but they were overpowered during the second attack by nine armed bandits.

The raiders then reportedly bound the hands and feet of 20 tourists, including some Britons, before fleeing amid a shoot-out with police reinforcements.
Boat in the the sunset on Amazon river

To ensure security on the popular cruises, coast guard and national police boats will now escort every ship in the area, and officers will also be stationed on board. A mobile patrol station will also be set up halfway through the itinerary.

Francesco Galli Zugaro, the general manager of Aqua Expeditions in Peru, said: 'It's a shame for our country, for the passengers and crew. This has never happened in any other tourist trip and is a complete surprise for the whole travel sector.'

Rest of the story here :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/a...ruise-ship-police-escort-attacks-bandits.html

 

[Thagarr]

Turkish frigate captures five pirates off Somalia: army

ANKARA — A Turkish frigate intercepted a skiff off Somalia and captured five pirates Tuesday on suspicion that they were preparing for attacks, the Turkish military said.

The Gaziantep, operating with NATO forces in the region, seized the skiff in the Gulf of Aden with the help of a helicopter and amphibian commandos, the statement said.

The operation was launched after intelligence that the boat was moving close to two ships, sailing under the British and Marshall Islands flags, within a "safe corridor" guarded by the multi-national naval force to ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels.

"A possible ship hijacking has been prevented," the statement said, adding that instruments used in piracy were found on the skiff.

The Turkish force captured 12 pirates in two similar operation last month.

The world's naval powers have deployed dozens of warships to the lawless waters off Somalia over the past year to curb attacks by pirates threatening one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.

Pirates attacked more than 130 merchant ships last year, a rise of more than 200 percent over 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

A Turkish bulk carrier with a 23-strong crew remains captive in the region since July 8.

Original story here :
http://www.google.co...kSVMT-65Z6p2m8w

 

[Thagarr]

Russian navy joins hunt for ship

The Arctic Sea was reportedly boarded by up to 10 gunmen

Russia's navy has been deployed to find a ship reportedly hijacked three weeks ago in the Baltic Sea.

Upto five vessels - reported to include nuclear submarines - will beinvolved in the search for the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, the navyconfirmed.

It has a 15-strong Russian crew and was reportedlytaking timber worth $1.5m (£900,000) from Finland to Algeria when itwas boarded by gunmen on 24 July.

The Arctic Sea was last sighted off the north coast of France on 30 July.

Britishauthorities say the 4,000-tonne vessel may have been spottedsubsequently by a Portuguese coastal patrol aircraft, but its currentlocation remains unknown.

Maltese authorities have said it is unlikely to be in the Mediterranean.

"It would appear that the ship has not approached the Straits ofGibraltar, which indicates that the ship is headed out into theAtlantic Ocean," the Malta Maritime Authority said in a statement.

The Portuguese Navy too has said that the missing cargo ship has not passed through Portuguese waters.

Massive search

Russiannaval commander Adm Vladimir Vysotsky told Itar-Tass news agency thatall Russian navy ships in the Atlantic had joined the search for thevessel.


Operations will be centred on the patrol ship Ladny, which is part of Russia's Black Sea fleet.

UKauthorities, which made contact with the Arctic Sea before it enteredthe busy shipping waters of the English channel, described thesituation as "bizarre".

"Who would think that a hijacked shipcould pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters inthe world?" said Mark Clark of the UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency(MCA).

"There didn't seem anything suspicious when contact wasmade," he added. "It could well be that a crew member had a gun put tohis head by a hijacker when contact was made."

The Finnishshipping line operating the ship reportedly said it was boarded by upto 10 armed men claiming to be anti-drugs police as it sailed throughthe Baltic Sea on 24 July.

But the intruders are reported tohave left the vessel 12 hours later on an inflatable boat, and it isunclear who is in current command of the ship.

Rest of the story here :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8197248.stm

 

[Fred Bob]

Yarr, Thagarr! 2 Here be ye annuder arc'tical 'bout de missin' Rooski ship! :hmm

Piracy feared as mystery of missing ship deepens

 

[Thagarr]

Nice find Fred Bob!

"I think there was probably some sort of secret cargo on this vessel,not criminal but secret, and a third party of some sort did not want the cargo to get to another party so this highly sophisticated operation was cooked up," he told Reuters.

With some of the tough talk Russia has been using with the US lately, this statement indeed opens up some interesting speculation. I ran across this article the other day and found it fascinating reading, it's beginning to look like there may be a new cold war on the horizon!

http://thebulletin.u...40019569884.txt

 

[Thagarr]

Egyptian fishermen escape Somali pirates: officials(AFP)–7 hours ago

MOGADISHU — Fishermen on two Egyptian boats seized by Somali piratesfour months ago overpowered their captors and broke free Thursday,officials and pirate sources said.

"We are getting informationfrom the police indicating that the two Egyptian fishing boats thatpirates were holding off Lasqorey coast managed to escape afteroverpowering the pirates," said Muse Gele Yusuf, a governor inSomalia's breakaway Puntland region.

Local residents also reported seeing the boats leaving the coast.

Ali Guled, a pirate in Lasqorey village, said he had heard reports of fighting on the boats before the escape.

"Ithink some of the pirates are dead because one of them told me that thecrews fought them and managed to get away with the boats," he said.

Authoritiesin Puntland had claimed that the fishermen and their boats, alongsidean Italian tug boat also captured in April, had been arrested by localsecurity forces for illegal offshore activities.

Puntlandofficials meanwhile met with military officials from NATO's anti-piracyforce off the Somali coast amid concern about a rise in attacks as thestrong monsoon winds eased.

"We had talks with the NATO militaryofficials onboard one of their ships... in order to prevent the piratesfrom carrying out attacks after the monsoon winds end," Gele said.

Original story here :
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ipFlRNUM1ez6c-I555xgJe5Fz1UA

 

[Thagarr]

Pirate ship 'loaded with terror cache'

Weapons fear ... Arctic Sea


The ship sailed through the English Channel by pirates was last nightfeared to be carrying a secret cargo of arms for terrorists.Maritime authorities have dismissed theories that the Arctic Sea was snatched for its £1 million cargo of timber.

Experts now believe it has been loaded with a secret cache of weapons.

The Arctic Sea spent two weeks at a shipyard in Kaliningrad - a Russian enclave notorious for smuggling - before loading timber in Finland.Russian maritime expert Mikhail Voitenko said: "The only sensible answer is that the ship was loaded secretly with something we don't know about.

"It cannot be drugs or illegal cargo, it is something much more dangerous."

Russia's entire Atlantic fleet has been scrambled to track down the Maltese-flagged vessel and its 15 Russian crew. Its last radio message,received two weeks ago, was to the UK Coastguard in the Channel.

The ship had been boarded days earlier in the Baltic Sea by a gang posing as cops in the first piracy in European waters for hundreds of years.

The ship was due to arrive in Algeria on August 4, but is now thought to be somewhere in the Atlantic.

Original story here :
http://www.thesun.co...rror-cache.html

 

[Thagarr]

Pirates' attack on Turkish ship foiled in Gulf of Aden

A German military helicopter helped the Turkish navy foil an attempt by pirates to hijack a Turkish cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden early Friday, local media the Hurriyet Daily News reported on its website.

The German helicopter received an alert by the Turkish navy frigate TGC Gediz operating in the region and thwarted the attack on the Turkish-flagged "Elgiznur Cebi", which was en route to Saudi Arabia's Ad Damman Port from the Yuzhny Port in Ukraine, said the report, citing a statement by Turkey's Undersecretariat for Maritime Affairs.

Nineteen crew members, all of them Turks, were safe and unhurt, said the report.

Somali pirates seized a Turkish bulk carrier "Horizon-1" with 23 Turkish crew on board on July 8, negotiations for a ransom settlement are under way, added the report.

Turkey currently has two frigates in the Gulf of Aden as part of international naval forces to fight pirates and Somali arms traffickers.

Last year, three Turkish vessels were hijacked in the region with the last one being released in February.

Piracy has become rampant off the coast of Africa, especially in the waters near Somalia, which has been without an effective government since 1991. Ransoms started out in tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into millions.

An estimated total of 25,000 ships annually cruise the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's northern coast.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2009)

Original story here :
http://www.china.org.cn/2009-08/14/content_18338805.htm

 

[Fred Bob]

Missing cargo ship found near Cape Verde

Harr, will folks e'er know, Thagarr, what really be a goin' on here!

 

[marbatico]

thats weird, mostly the first news you get about something like this is about the condition of the crew

 

[Thagarr]

I am very curious to hear this whole story, I was beginning to think we had the beginnings of another ghost ship, it sure seemed she had just disappeared.

In other news, I think this is the first case of hostages escaping Somali pirates without any outside assistance :

Egyptian fishermen escape Somali pirates: officials

MOGADISHU — Fishermen on two Egyptian boats seized by Somali piratesfour months ago overpowered their captors and broke free Thursday,officials and pirate sources said.

"We are getting information from the police indicating that the two Egyptian fishing boats that pirates were holding off Lasqorey coast managed to escape after overpowering the pirates," said Muse Gele Yusuf, a governor in Somalia's breakaway Puntland region.

Local residents also reported seeing the boats leaving the coast.

Ali Guled, a pirate in Lasqorey village, said he had heard reports of fighting on the boats before the escape.

"I think some of the pirates are dead because one of them told me that the crews fought them and managed to get away with the boats," he said.

Authorities in Puntland had claimed that the fishermen and their boats, alongside an Italian tug boat also captured in April, had been arrested by local security forces for illegal offshore activities.

Puntlandofficials meanwhile met with military officials from NATO's anti-piracy force off the Somali coast amid concern about a rise in attacks as the strong monsoon winds eased.

"We had talks with the NATO military officials onboard one of their ships... in order to prevent the piratesfrom carrying out attacks after the monsoon winds end," Gele said.

Original story here :
http://www.google.co...-I555xgJe5Fz1UA

Update :

Egyptian Crews Overpower Somali Pirates, Kill 2 By VOA News
14 August 2009

Map of Las Qorey in SomaliaA Somali pirate says the kidnapped crews of two Egyptian fishingvessels have won their freedom after attacking their pirate captors.

Oneof the pirates on board, who called himself Miraa, says the hostagesoverpowered them with machetes Thursday. He said the Egyptian crewsthen seized guns from the pirates, killing two of his colleagues.

Shipping officials say the Egyptians are now in control of their ships and are heading home.

The pirates had held the Egyptian crews hostage since mid-April.

Thecase marks a rare instance of crewmen fighting back against Somalipirates who usually hold their hostages for months seeking large ransompayments.

In another development, a Turkish cargo ship evaded an attack by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden Friday.

Turkey'smilitary says pirates had been following the cargo ship Elgiznur Cebibut gave up trying to capture it when a German helicopter led by NATOforces in the region reached the scene.

A flotilla of foreign naval vessels off Somalia has failed to slow the rampant piracy.

Original story here :
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-14-voa21.cfm

 

[Thagarr]

This is not exactly pirate news ...but it's tough to pass up a story about unrest in the Caribbean!

UK imposes Turks and Caicos rule

The UK has imposed direct rule on the Turks and Caicos Islands after an inquiry found evidence of government corruption and incompetence.

The administration of the UK territory in the Caribbean has been suspended for up to two years andpower transferred to the UK-appointed governor.

Politicians are accused of selling crown land for personal gain.

Former premier Galmo Williams said he believed he could have worked with the UK government to resolve the problems.

The UK government has been threatening action for several months after an inquiry commissioned by the Foreign Office returned a damning verdict.

Itexamined the actions of the Turks' Cabinet and Assembly and found"information in abundance pointing to a high probability of systematic corruption or serious dishonesty".

It also concluded there were "clear signs of political amorality and immaturity and of a general administrative incompetence".

'Essential step'

The former premier, Michael Misick, is alleged to have built up a multi-million dollar fortune since coming to power in 2003.


He resigned in March, but has denied the allegations and says he attracted valuable foreign investment to the islands.

The imposition of rule went ahead after a legal challenge by Mr Misick failed at the UK Court of Appeal earlier this week.

Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant said the decision to impose direct rule had not been taken lightly, but he described the measures as"essential" to restore "good governance and sound financial management".

"It remains our intentions that elections should be held by July 2011, if not sooner," he said.

"The governor and his advisers have much to do, but I know that many people in Turks and Caicos Islands will welcome this move and have high expectations for the end outcome.

"I encourage them to work with the governor to rebuild stability and confidence in their territory."

Rest of the story here :
http://news.bbc.co.u...ics/8202339.stm

 

[Thagarr]

Somali pirates find 7 bodies, blame Egyptians


Reuters
Saturday, August 15, 2009; 3:57 PM

BOSSASO, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali pirates found seven dead colleagues floating in the ocean on Saturday and vowed to take revenge against Egyptian fishermen they say killed them during an escape, an associate of the pirates said.

The 34 fishermen had been held hostage by the pirates since April,but they managed to overpower their guards on Thursday and fled intheir two fishing vessels after a gun battle.

Two of their captors were killed during that shoot-out, and the pirates said the Egyptians took several others with them.

"We have found seven of our dead colleagues floating in the sea,"said the associate, who gave his name as Farah, by telephone from one of the gangs' strongholds, Las Qoray.

"The Egyptian crew members killed them ... we used to welcome them and treat the Egyptians better than other hostages, but if we capturemore of them we shall get our revenge."

Sea gangs from the failed Horn of Africa state have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms targeting shipping using the strategic Gulf of Aden that links Europe to Asia.

Original story here :
http://www.washingto...9081501981.html

we used to welcome them and treat the Egyptians better than other hostages

Gee ...that just sounds so welcoming... how could the Egyptian fisherman possibly refuse such hospitality so brutally??

 

[Thagarr]

The mystery of the Arctic Sea deepens....

From The Sunday Times
August 16, 2009

£1m ‘pirate ransom' for missing ship

THE Finnish owners of a cargo ship that disappeared after passing through the English Channel have received a ransom demand for the vessel’s safe return, provoking an international investigation into its authenticity.

The demand, which unconfirmed reports put at $1.5m (£910,000), added another twist to the mystery of the Arctic Sea, a Maltese-registered merchant vessel, which went missing two weeks ago. It was purportedly carrying an innocuous consignment of lumber from Finland to Algeria.

“A ransom demand has been made. Let’s say it’s a largish amount of money,” said Markku Ranta-Aho of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation. It has not been established whether the demand was made by a gang who might have hijacked the ship.

More than 20 countries have been drawn into an improbable maritime saga of alleged hijackings, false sightings, possible pirates and now a ransom note that Finnish officials acknowledged may not be genuine. The $1.5m sum was reported by Russian state television.

“This is real cloak and dagger stuff, like a le Carré novel,” said Mikhail Boytenko, a Russian shipping expert who has been trying to make sense of a plot so convoluted that even the celebrated British spy novelist might have trouble following it.

In the modern shipping age of satellite tracking and radio telephones it seems almost unthinkable that a 4,000-ton cargo ship crewed by Russians and owned by Finns could go missing while sailing through the English Channel, where Somali or any other pirates have not recently been regarded as a threat.

The Arctic Sea was heading to Bejaia in northern Algeria when it last made contact with the Dover coastguard at 1.52pm on July 28. It is known to have sailed along Britain’s south coast until its tracking beacon seemed to stop working near Penzance.

The first indication that anything was amiss came in a bulletin early this month from Interpol, which declared that the ship had been hijacked in Sweden on July 24 by 10 armed men masquerading as police conducting a drugs search.

After that the plot drowns in a sea of conflicting reports. The intruders were said to have abandoned the vessel after destroying its communication equipment. Its tracking beacon may have been removed and cast adrift in a dinghy to confuse authorities.

The ship was then reported to have been attacked again, this time off the coast of Portu-gal. There was speculation that the vessel was carrying a secret cargo, in addition to its timber.

On Friday it was supposedly spotted near the Cape Verde islands off the coast of Senegal. A Russian warship was sent to the area to rescue the crew, but an official said the Cape Verde reports had not been confirmed.

A French navy spokesman tried to clear up the muddle. “We still think it is off Cape Verde, but can’t guarantee it 100%,” said Jerome Baroe in Paris. “If it is the same boat then it has been partly disguised, which would not be a surprise if it had been hijacked.”

Rest of the story here :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6797778.ece

 

[Thagarr]

'Pirated' cargo ship Arctic Sea found off Cape Verde
Russia says crew of 15 are being questioned on board navy ship after being found alive and well with vessel

The Arctic Sea, which has been found off the Cape Verde islands. Photograph: Sovfracht/Handout/EPA

A cargo ship that went missing in European waters in what was feared to be a pirate hijacking has been found 300 miles off the Cape Verde islands, the Russian defence minister said.

The15 Russian crew of the Arctic Sea were alive, Anatoly Serdyukov toldthe Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev. The ship, bound for Algeriawith £1m worth of timber from Finland, last radioed the Britishcoastguard on 29 July. Its last confirmed location according totracking systems was off northern France the following day.

Maritimeofficials feared the disappearance was the first case of piracy inEuropean waters in living memory. There were other claims of acommercial dispute, or that it was being used to smuggle arms or drugs.These claims were denied by the ship's owners.

"The Arctic Seawas discovered at 1am Moscow time today 300 miles off the Cape Verdeislands," Serdyukov told the president, according to the Interfax newsagency. "The crew have been moved to our anti-submarine warfare ship.They are answering questions. The questioning aims to clarify allcircumstances of the incident. All crew members are alive and they arefeeling well. They were not under armed control."

Serdyukov gaveno further details of what happened to the Maltese-flagged ship butsaid he hoped to be able to say more later today. On Saturday, theFinnish, Swedish and Maltese authorities said they were investigatingcrimes of aggravated extortion and alleged hijacking in relation to theArctic Sea. Markku Ranta-Aho of Finland's National Bureau ofInvestigation told a Finnish radio station that a "largish" ransomdemand had been made for its return.

Rest of the story here :
http://www.guardian....argo-ship-found

 

[Fred Bob]

Aye, Thagarr, but wait 'til ye be readin' DIS one:

Radiation tests on shipload of lumber?

 

[Meigger]

It just keeps getting more and more interesting.

 

[Thagarr]

Nice find Fred Bob! An interesting article to say the least! It would not surprise me in the least if there is at least a bit of truth to those rumors, MI6's intelligence is usually a lot more reliable than the CIA's. I'll refrain from commenting about Bin Laden as much as I would like.... I'll just say that bastard with a nuclear weapon is a terrifying thought.


In other news ...

ATTEMPTED PIRATE ATTACK OFF SINGAPORE
Tuesday, 18 August 2009

PIRATES tried to rob the Singapore-flagged tanker Kirana Tritya whileit was anchored close to Singapore in the early hours of last Saturdaymorning, 15 August

According to a report from the Regional Co-operation Agreement onCombating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships (ReCAAP) a gang ofthree tried to board the vessel at but were seen by the duty officer.The robbers fled once the alarm had been raised.

The ship is understood to have been was anchored in Singapore's easternoutside port limits anchorage. ReCAAP said it was the fourth incidenton a vessel at anchor in the area since February this year.

The eastern OPL anchorage has been one of the favoured locations overthe last nine months for owners to idle their vessels given thedownturn in the shipping market.

Original story here :
http://www.mgn.com/n...m?storyid=10173

 

[Thagarr]

A few more details about those Egyptian fisherman...

Egyptian fisherman fought pirates with Somali help

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI(AP)

CAIRO — The owner of one of two kidnapped Egyptian fishing vesselsused Somali militia men and a portion of the demanded ransom to rescuethe crews from pirates, said the owner of the second boat Tuesday.

HassanKhalil, the owner of fishing vessel Momtaz 1, persuaded the pirates tolet him on his boat after giving a down payment of $200,000 to thepirates' leaders, said Mohammad Nasr, who owns the other vessel and wasin contact with his colleague.

Khalil then signaled to thecaptive fishermen to distract the pirates while hired Somali gunmenclambered aboard and engaged the pirates, Nasr said. They succeeded inkilling two of the pirates and taking eight others hostage.

Thefisherman then sailed for Egypt with their captives so that they couldbe tried by an Egyptian court. They are expected to arrive Saturday.

Khalil, who returned by plane, was greeted at Cairo airport by dozens of reporters and cheering family and friends.

"Welived terrible moments," Khalil told reporters at the airport. "Weexpected to die many times when gunfire was exchanged with the pirates."

Thefishermen were kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Somalia fourmonths ago who initially demanded millions of dollars to free thecaptives. They eventually lowered their ransom demand to $800,000 butallowed Khalil to board his boat for a quarter of that sum.

AmbassadorMustafa al-Guindy from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry told reportersTuesday that his government will study the case and decide on how tocharge the pirates.

The struggle took place off the coastal Somali town of Las Qorey along the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest waterways.

InApril, an American crew fought off Somali pirates until the crew'scaptain offered himself as a hostage in a bid to save their lives. Hewas held hostage in a lifeboat for five days and was freed after U.S.Navy snipers killed three of his captors.

Pirate attacksworldwide more than doubled in the first half of 2009 amid a surge inthe Gulf of Aden and the east coast of Somalia, which togetheraccounted for 130 of the cases, according to an international maritimewatchdog.

International patrols, including by U.S., European, Chinese, Russian and Indian ships, have failed to halt the pirate attacks.

Original story and a couple of pics here:
http://www.google.co...I4-H2wD9A5FU6O2

 

[Thagarr]

Canadian military at work on pirate detector

Research arm of the Department of National Defence conducting trials designed to increase early detection of the tiny,high-speed boats

There are no silver-bullet fixes for the hijacking threat that dogs 22,000 ships each year off Somalia but the Canadian military is trying to build a pirate detector of sorts that boosts the odds of thwarting these maritime marauders.

The research arm of the Department of National Defence – a division with a $300-million budget – has been conducting trials designed to increase early detection of the tiny, high-speed boats used for pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

The waters off Somalia, a failed state where desperation has fuelled the rise of gangs, have seen pirate attacks double to 140 in 2008 over2007. Projections this summer have estimated that attacks in this crucial global shipping lane could exceed 300 by the end of 2009,despite the international coalition now patrolling there.

Canada, which deployed the frigate HMCS Winnipeg to anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa earlier this year, is focusing research efforts on the white-water wake created by the speedy pirate craft with their high-powered engines.

This can succeed where conventional radar fails.

Pirates, who frequently attack under the cover of darkness,typically launch assaults against commercial ships using small boats orskiffs with low profiles that elude the sweep of a radar signal.

"These things are made out of fibreglass and wood. How does a radar detect a small fibreglass boat out on the water?" said Lieutenant Alan Garner with the military's Canadian Expeditionary Force Command.

But gear such as night-vision technology and infrared sensors cans pot the wake – the track of waves – generated by a boat in the water.

For instance, the white-water wake of a fast boat stands out more prominently than a slower craft when viewed through night-vision gear.

The holy grail of detection, however, is to figure out a rapid method of separating the high-horsepower "wake signature" of a pirate crew from the less turbulent path of a Somali fisherman's boat.

Defence Research and Development Canada, which conducted trials in May using three small boats, is trying to develop algorithms and codes that will help the military to quickly spot and categorize craft by their wake signatures.

It's a technology that can be useful to guard against a variety of attacks today, including terrorism, where small foes try to outwit larger opponents.

"In the current climate of asymmetric warfare and piracy, the capacity to detect potentially hostile small sea boat is increasing important," Defence Research and Development Canada says in a new contract it's tendered to advance this work.

Commander James Kraska, a professor of international law at the U.S.Naval War College in Newport, R.I., says the technology underdevelopment would be a great tool for intercepting bandit ships.

Identifying the wake of a high-powered pirate skiff could help forces predict where the boat was heading and its intended target, hesaid. It could also enable soldiers to backtrack and find the "mothership" from which pirates always launch their smaller assault craft.

Any advance knowledge of an attack can also help potential targets evade capture, Cdr. Kraska said. If forewarned, the intended target scan increase their speed, leaving the pirates and their skiffs unable to catch up – or carry out evasive manoeuvres that generate waves and swamp the attackers.

This spring, Canada's HMCS Winnipeg frigate thwarted a string of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia. It managed to capture some of the bandits, but the military was forced to release them because Canada can't take them into custody under international law. The Canadian shiphas been en route home and due to dock in Victoria Friday.

Original story here :
http://www.theglobea...article1259257/