Attack on Cruise Ship Terrorism or Piracy??

I know a way to find out...

Published on November 7, 2005 By ShadowWar In Current Events

Attack on Cruise Liner: Piracy or Terror?
(CNSNews.com) - Gunmen who attacked a luxury cruise liner off the east coast of Africa may have been terrorists targeting Americans and other Westerners rather than pirates, the Australian government said Monday.An armed gang on two speedboats fired machine guns and a rocket-propelled grenade at the Seabourn Spirit as the Bahamas-registered ship sailed about 100 miles off the Somali coast in the early hours of Saturday morning.More than 300 passengers and crew -- mostly Americans, but also Britons, Australians and others -- were on the vessel, one of three ships comprising the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, when the attack occurred. One crew member sustained a shrapnel injury.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it was possible the attackers were terrorists rather than pirates.Pointing out the size of the 10,000-ton liner and the fact the heavily-armed attackers had fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at it, he suggested that they may have intended to damage the vessel and hurt people onboard rather than seize the ship -- the usual goal of modern-day pirates."Attacking it -- even if you've got a rocket-propelled grenade -- and taking the ship over, that seems to me to be a little improbable," he said in one of several broadcast interviews.

"But damaging the ship and killing people, which might have been their motive, that's something they could have easily done if the rocket-propelled grenades had worked properly."

Noting that the ship was based in Miami and had many Americans onboard, Downer said the assailants may have seen it as a U.S. target."Somalia is a country which harbors a number of terrorists, we believe, so it's conceivable these people were terrorists," he said, but added that "we really can't draw any hard and fast conclusions at this stage."
The Seabourn Spirit left Istanbul on Oct. 9 on a 47-day cruise that ends in Singapore late this month. It had been heading for Mombassa in Kenya but after the attack it changed course and sailed for the Seychelles.It would anchor off the island nation and, according to Downer, U.S. experts were on Monday expected to go onboard to disarm unexploded ordnance that had been left embedded in a suite on the vessel.

The last known incident in which a passenger cruise liner was attacked was the hijacking by Palestinian terrorists of the Achille Lauro in 1985.

With all that said I have an idea. I know how we find out if its a terror attack or piracy.

We take a cruise liner. One that looks like a really easy target. Big, slow and lots of Americans reported on board. Fly the American flag, have people walking around on deck where they can be seen. Make it really hard for them to resist the target.

And when they attack, have all the US Military that were below decks come out and return fire. Conceal a few 90 mm cannons on the deck, or a few shoulder fired dragons or such. Launch the fast attack boats and chase them down and capture them, and if they won't surrender, kill them all.

Then I think we could kill two birds with one stone (pun intended), we would find out if its really terrorist or pirates. And we would put a damper if not an end to that type of problem. Simple, effective, and decisive. Now I am willing to bet there is someone out there that thinks we should open a dialogue with these animals, negotiate with them, give them aid to make them like us, and hope they don't attack. Oh no, I know who that would be, the Lefties! Ya thats the ticket.

Comments

kingbee

on Nov 07, 2005

all pirates are terrorists. even such venerable ol rogues as blackbeard, sir francis drake, cap'n hook, etc. as are all armies engaged in combat, islamic jihadists or revolutionaries in arms.

not all armies engaged in combat, islamic jihadists or revolutionaries in arms are pirates. some may be.

anyone who does bodily harm or issues a threat of bodily harm is using terror to achieve a goal and is, therefore, a terrorist.

UBoB

on Nov 07, 2005

arrrrr, I loiks bein' a poirit.

latour999

on Nov 07, 2005

With all that said I have an idea. I know how we find out if its a terror attack or piracy.

We take a cruise liner. One that looks like a really easy target. Big, slow and lots of Americans reported on board. Fly the American flag, have people walking around on deck where they can be seen. Make it really hard for them to resist the target.

And when they attack, have all the US Military that were below decks come out and return fire. Conceal a few 90 mm cannons on the deck, or a few shoulder fired dragons or such. Launch the fast attack boats and chase them down and capture them, and if they won't surrender, kill them all.

Then I think we could kill two birds with one stone (pun intended), we would find out if its really terrorist or pirates. And we would put a damper if not an end to that type of problem. Simple, effective, and decisive. Now I am willing to bet there is someone out there that thinks we should open a dialogue with these animals, negotiate with them, give them aid to make them like us, and hope they don't attack. Oh no, I know who that would be, the Lefties! Ya thats the ticket.

Are you serious about this? Cause right now we're at about once every 20 years, so I have a feeling it's gonna be a long wait...then when it finally happens it's gonna be some other ship.

kingbee

on Nov 07, 2005

Cause right now we're at about once every 20 years, so I have a feeling it's gonna be a long wait...then when it finally happens it's gonna be some other ship

pirates were holding three ships hostage at the beginning of september. last month they apparently grabbed 5 ships including a bulk carrier, a tanker and a freighter. two dhows were grabbed the same day as the cruise ship attack.

as far as weapons go tho, i'm a lil confused. i saw a headline that read 'pirates beaten off with sound'. some kinda weird phonesex?

ShadowWar

on Nov 08, 2005

Are you serious about this? Cause right now we're at about once every 20 years, so I have a feeling it's gonna be a long wait...then when it finally happens it's gonna be some other ship.

Ahhh you failed to check the facts.. there had been 23 reported attacks off the Somali coast since March, including attacks on two UN ships carrying relief supplies.

"We believe there should be a naval task force, particularly off Somalia, to try and stop the attacks. In the last 10 years hundreds of seamen have been killed and thousands injured in pirate attacks across the world," Linnington said.(Andrew Linnington, of the National Union of Marine Aviation and Shipping Transport (Numast))

"It's got to the stage where it's anarchy on the sea waves and this latest incident shows it's time governments got their acts together."

So its not an isolated incident. You just havent heard of it, as it doesn't normally make the MSM. Here try these:

Link

Link

Link

Its a bigger problem tahn you think. I think my idea would be a big help. But hey, we live in a pacifist world, with bleeding hearts that want to make friends with the animals, so it will never happen, but I can dream.

bakerstreet

on Nov 08, 2005

I agree with Kingbee, and would take it a step further and say that 99% of terrorists in the world right now are criminal organizations as well. Terrorism is a billion dollar industry with attacks and politics as an excuse. They deal in weapons, drugs, people, etc, and it is a career for the people in charge who make themselves wealthy.

If the cruise ship attack had been a success, someone would have made money off of it, whether they were al qaeda terrorists or pirates out for personal gain. Hell, if they were pirates terrorist organizations get a spike in the arm every time their is a successful attack that is percieved to be terrorism.

latour999

on Nov 08, 2005

Ahhh you failed to check the facts.. there had been 23 reported attacks off the Somali coast since March, including attacks on two UN ships carrying relief supplies.

Sorry, I was going by what it said in the original post, where they said the last attack on a cruise ship was in 1985

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