Somali pirates yesterday seized a Saudi supertanker carrying up to 2m barrels of oil worth around $100m in an audacious attack several hundred miles out to sea. Two Britons are among the 25 crew of the Sirius Star, which was captured 450 miles south-east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The US navy, which has been tracking the ship, said last night it was close to anchoring in the notorious pirate haven of Eyl on Somalia’s north-eastern coast.
I won’t hide it. I’m impressed.
Can someone please come back with photos and interviews from the “notorious pirate haven of Eyl”? Is it an island in the shape of a skull? Do they have that band from the Mos Eisly Cantina? Is there an awesome unwritten code?
Well…at least this is good news in mitigating global warming, if the correlations hold true! 😛
Let me know when they hijack a space shuttle.
those pirates are so dreamy. almost as dreamy as those jamaicans who ganked that beach.
I think that gun is made here in the states. I thought we paid to send them food and medicine.
HIRE STEVE Z!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0yucFw3q…
kick ass.
The Slog needs to get an undercover investigative team into Eyl, stat. It’s a moral imperative.
Does anyone else find it weird that a pirate would stop in the middle of a raid to have his picture taken? I mean, who took it? Jeff Goldblum?
One thing I’ll say for the Somalis: they know how to steal shit.
nice try Charles. the ‘Because I Can’ post just proves slog isn’t up to your intellectual curiosity/fear/fascination. the (slog) world wants opera stars. for me, just try having a 30 minute discussion about Somalia 2008 with Dan. thanks.
Where’s Dennis Hopper during all this?
This amazes me. I saw the headline this weekend and read it aloud to everyone in the house. Pirates seized an oil tanker! We live in a wondrous world.
@ 2
THANK you. I’ve been wondering if that was a spot of good news in all this discussion about the increase in pirate attacks these days. I can’t believe it hasn’t been covered by the press.
they better sell that shit quick, it’s losing value by the day. btw, how do you fence crude oil?
@14 You don’t fence it. You black mail the region with the threat of leaking it into the ocean and creating an enviromental genocide. The Taliban were offered shit tons simply not to blow up those Buddhas in Afganistan by museums and people all over the world, though they went ahead anyways. I’m just saying, thats how I’d do it.
Torpedo it. Sink those pirates to the bottom. They aren’t to be admired because they hijacked an oil tanker. They are thugs and murderers and if there were women on board they would be raping too.
If I were a supervillian I’d want all that oil for my superweapon. What? How? You’ll see, in good time. In good time. I’m sure I’d be able to come to some sort of… arrangement with these enterprising men. Once the oil was brought to me, nothing could stop me. And then the world would see! They would doubt me no more! Yes. Yes that’s how it would be.
16, trust me, there will be a sweep by mercs on this ship. You start fucking with their oil and they will be hanging those pirates by their nuts. This will not end prettily for them. This is a Saudi ship, yeah? They won’t make it out alive.
@16, it’s an oil tanker. It’s carrying 2 million barrels of oil. Torpedoing it might not be the smartest thing to do.
elenchos, as long as you do all that wearing a powder-blue neoprene wetsuit, it’s okay by me.
@16 Why would you torpedo a boat holding 2m gallons of oil?
@20 beacuse we may never get another chance?
@21 touche.
Sorry, I wasn’t wearing my American made thinkering cap.
Seriously, all you have to do is type “Eyl” into Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ge…
Thanks John Galt. I can’t seem to remember that Wickithing website. You can type in ANY name of ANYTHING. One can become very smart in 2008 by doing this. Do you know of this website I am typing about? If you or anyone knows of it, please type in Somalia, then we will know the truth. Please provide the link as well.
If it weren’t for the fact that hostages are being held captive on-board, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that tanker go up in a massive, pirate-immolating fireball.
Certainly less environmentally damaging than letting them leak it all over the East African coast…
It’s time to see what our friends at Blackwater can really do. ARRRH!
Someone has to fight Global Warming.
If you can’t depend on pirates, who can you trust?
Well, its nice to see the Somalis defending their coastline and getting some coin out of the deal. They have had their beaches dumped on by passing boats for years. Once the federal government was wiped out the international shipping lanes used the Somali coast to dump toxic waste, sewage, oil, and all kinds of good stuff. If you ask one of these pirates what he USED TO DO, I will bet you a 2 million gallon tanker he replies: FISHERMAN.
There is one thing you can always count on ………….
Well for the one who said that it was an US made weapon- Wrong answer! It is a Russian, Romainian, or Chinese model machine gun. I think that it is high time that Saudi get off of it’s ass and take care of buisness, instead of the US having to do their dirty work for them. Or is it that they are afraid thhey will get their asses handed to them by the pirates.
We all know that they have funded terrorism throughout the World for years and still do. Looks like the buzzard has come back at their own home. The pirates are part of the same terrorist that they have supported in the past! I think they have gotten their own just desert! Have a big slice of what you have been handing out to the World for years.
Get’r Done!
Pirating is one of the earliest forms of terrorism. There is only one way to deal with that mindset. On their level. It is not “civil” by most standards but it is effective. It is very effective.
If a crewmwmber, I would rather die as the ship was blown out of the water than know this type of activity will continue without end. And there is no end as long as ransoms are paid. At least the deaths would have purpose. As much purpose to the world as joining and dying for any armed force.
The crude will burn, and damage the country worse than any other nation has. The pirates will soon disband the lost and costly cause.
As far as the shipping industry losses. Well it is international waters and when sailing such there are NO gaurentees. Thye could hire small armies for EVERY ship. How costly would that be?
@28
I guarantee he wasn’t a fisherman. Somalis are champion goat herders but have historically never been big fans (in large numbers) of the ocean, especially 300 some miles offshore where this happened. It’s pretty strange, and the fact that they’re ranging further offshore should make for some interesting future events.