“Pirate” Attack On U.S. Ship May Have Been Terror Plot
Hmm…
(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.”
I’d been sort of thinking along these lines myself. If you’re looking at this crime from the perspective of motive, just how profitable is an act of piracy aimed at a modern cruise ship? One would have to assume that the ship was in communication with the mainland and called for help the moment the attack started. Further, the ship was probably also outfitted with some sort of GPS tracking device that would have told any help coming exactly where the ship was.
And the attack itself doesn’t sound like it was just slapped together. These guys were organized and had some financial backing. After all, speed boats and RPG’s don’t come cheap.
Would “pirates” have gotten enough..ahem…booty out of this attack to make it worth their while? I don’t think so, though I’m not all that knowledgeable about modern piracy. But my common sense is telling me that this attack had more to it than simple larceny.
Update:
Related:
MIAMI – The crew of a luxury cruise ship used a sonic weapon that blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam while being attacked by a gang of pirates off Africa this weekend, the cruise line said Monday.
The Seabourn Spirit had a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, installed as a part of its defense systems, said Bruce Good, a spokesman for Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line. The Spirit was about 100 miles off Somalia when pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns as they tried to get onboard.
The subsidiary of Carnival Corp. was investigating whether the weapon was successful in warding off the pirates, he said. The ship’s captain also changed its course, shifted into high speed and headed out into the open sea to elude the pirates, who were in two small boats, he said. He had no further details.
Device maker American Technology Corp. said earsplitting “bangs” were directed by trained security personnel toward the pirates. That, combined with ship maneuvers, caused the attackers to leave the area, the company said.
Cool…
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