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Somali pirates make off with $3.2 million ransom

Click Here For Somali Piracy Yearbook for 2008

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Click Here For Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas

Somali pirates freed a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and other heavy weapons Thursday after receiving a $3.2 million ransom. The U.S. Navy watched the pirates go but didn’t act because the pirates still hold almost 150 people from other crews hostage.

The seizure of the MV Faina was one of the most brazen in a surge of pirate attacks on shipping off the Somali coast. Vessels from the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet quickly surrounded it after it was seized in September, to make sure the cargo did not get into the hands of Somali insurgent groups believed to have links to al-Qaida.

U.S. seamen were inspecting the pirates’ departing boats to make sure they weren’t taking weapons from the Faina’s cargo, Mikhail Voitenko, a spokesman for the ship’s owners, said Thursday.

But the Navy was not taking action against the pirates because it did not want members of other crews still in captivity to be harmed, said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

“Even when you release Faina, there are still 147 mariners held hostage by armed pirates,” Campbell told The Associated Press. “We’re concerned for their well-being.”

The captain of the MV Faina, Viktor Nikolsky, said later Thursday the ship was under the protection of the U.S. Navy and will head to Mombasa, Kenya.

He said all crew members need medical attention.

Pirate spokesman Sugule Ali told the AP by satellite phone that the pirates were leaving the ship slowly because the waters are “a bit turbulent.” He spoke from the central Somali coastal town of Harardhere, near where the MV Faina had been anchored.

Ali said his group was paid a ransom of $3.2 million, which he said was dropped by plane.

Source

Somali Pirates on a roll.

Click Here For Somali Piracy Yearbook for 2008

Click Here For Violence at Sea: Piracy in the Age of Global Terrorism

Click Here For Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas

The Rest is Up to You…

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK
The Guide to Getting More Out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com

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