Pirates: Coming Home to Roost

U.S. Navy Seizes Pirate Ship Off Somalia

Finally!

The Marines haven't landed -- yet -- but the Navy is here and has the situation well in hand. Along with a handful of Somalian Pirates.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The U.S. Navy boarded an apparent pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said Sunday.

The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, said Lt. Leslie Hull-Ryde of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

The dhow stopped fleeing after the Churchill twice fired warning shots during the chase, which ended 54 miles off the coast of Somalia, the Navy said. U.S. sailors boarded the dhow and seized a cache of small arms.

The dhow's crew and passengers were being questioned Sunday aboard the Churchill to determine which were pirates and which were legitimate crew members, Hull-Ryde said.

By now (24+ hours later, the Navy should have been able to sort out the crew and the pirates should be firmly escounced in the brig.

I have been ranting about pirates for eight months. Last May I reported on a pair of yachts which combined forces to drive off a pirate attack off the coast of Yemen during the month of March, 2005.

Two weeks ago, I suggested that the U.S. Navy should begin actively following up reports of piracy, hunt them down, and capture or kill them.

Apparently, somebody else had the same idea.

Sailors aboard the dhow told Navy investigators that pirates hijacked the vessel six days ago near Mogadishu and thereafter used it to stage pirate attacks on merchant ships.

The Churchill is part of a multinational task force patrolling the western Indian Ocean and Horn of Africa region to thwart terrorist activity and other lawlessness during the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The Navy said it captured the dhow in response to a report from the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur on Friday that said pirates had fired on the MV Delta Ranger, a Bahamian-flagged bulk carrier that was passing some 200 miles off the central eastern coast of Somalia.

<>Yes, that's just the way to do it. Way to go, Navy!

The only obstacle to final justice can be abridged by the shipwrights on the Churchill. Unlike Navy ships of previous centuries, a Guided Missile Destroyer is lacking a necessary accoutrement in The War Against Piracy;

A yardarm.

Those Somalian pigeons need a place to roost.

Extended Reportage:
Quotes are from MY WAY news.
The U.S. Navy website has a similar report.
The "Globe & Mail" has a more detailed report. Proud that the action was taken by "... the only U.S. warship named for a foreigner ...", this Canadian newspaper notes that the Churchill is a sister ship to the U.S. Cole, which was attacked by terrorists and nearly sunk in a Yemen port in 2000.