I am not sure how many people have seen this article since it hasn't received alot of coverage here in the U.S.

Just something to ponder.

Pirates die strangely after taking Iranian ship
Andrew Donaldson Published:Sep 28, 2008

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: The Russian frigate Neustrashimy, which was sent to the coast of Somalia this week after a Ukrainian ship carrying arms, including 33 T-72 tanks, was also hijacked by Somali pirates Picture: AP

‘Our sources say it contains chemicals, dangerous chemicals’

A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates.

Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died.

Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.”

The vessel’s declared cargo consists of “minerals” and “industrial products”. But officials involved in negotiations over the ship are convinced that it was sailing for Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia’s Islamist rebels.

The drama over the Iran Deyanat comes as speculation grew this week about whether the South African Navy would send a vessel to join the growing multinational force in the region.

A naval spokesman, Lieutenant-Commander Greyling van den Berg, told the Sunday Times that the navy had not been ordered by the government to become involved in “the Somali pirate issue”.

About 22000 ships a year pass through the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aden, where regional instability and “no-questions-asked” ransom payments have led to a dramatic rise in attacks on vessels by heavily armed Somali raiders in speedboats.

The Iran Deyanat was sailing in those waters on August 21, past the Horn of Africa and about 80 nautical miles southeast of Yemen, when it was boarded by about 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. They were alleged members of a crime syndicate said to be based at Eyl, a small fishing village in northern Somalia.

The ship is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, a state-owned company run by the Iranian military.

According to the US Treasury Department, the IRISL regularly falsifies shipping documents to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments and operates under various covers to circumvent United Nations sanctions.

The ship set sail from Nanjing, China, at the end of July. According to its manifest, it was heading for Rotterdam where it would unload 42500 tons of iron ore and “industrial products” purchased by a German client.

At Eyl, the ship was secured by more pirates — about 50 on board, and another 50 on shore.

But within days those who had boarded the ship developed mysterious health trouble.

This was also confirmed by Hassan Allore Osman, minister of minerals and oil in Puntland, an autonomous region of Somalia.

He headed a delegation sent to Eyl when news of the toxic cargo and illnesses surfaced.

He told one news publication, The Long War Journal, that during the six days he had negotiated with the pirates, a number of them had become sick and died.

“That ship is unusual,” he was quoted as saying. “It is not carrying a normal shipment.”

The pirates did reveal that they had tried to inspect the ship’s cargo containers when some of them fell sick — but the containers were locked.

Osman’s delegation spoke to the ship’s captain and its engineer by cellphone, demanding to know more about the cargo.

Initially it was claimed the cargo contained “crude oil”; later it was said to be “minerals”.

And Mwangura has added: “Our sources say it contains chemicals, dangerous chemicals.”

But IRISL has denied that — and threatened legal action against Mwangura. The company has reportedly paid the pirates 200000 — the first of several “ransom instalments”, but that, too, has been denied.

wonder why the Russians care about an Iranian ship taken by pirates?

It makes me think a bit about the massive amounts of cargo that come into American ports daily. Little of it is inspected.

kinda makes me think the Russians and the Iranians are in colussion and that they would rather we didn't find out what is on that ship


* It makes me think a bit about the massive amounts of cargo that come into American ports daily. Little of it is inspected.

I'm too lazy for the quote tags haha

there is SO much freight coming in every day it would be a nightmare to inspect it. and that stuff is on the road and into our stores within hours of arrival. if we slowed it down by even an hour or two it would cost billions and the stores would be bare

uuuhhhhhh

cause they are soviet built tanks

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/t72tank.htm

haha We will be lucky if they are just tanks.

If I am in charge in Iran or any other country in the region you can bet I will be buying ammunition.

Gees, how many posters in another thread, U.S. citizens, have talked about buying or having guns to protect themselves in the event of governmental aggression?

The administration is *ss deep in it in the middle east so of course the leaders of those countries are arming themselves.

Sometimes it's good to put yourself in anther's shoes and think from their perspective.

we've always been ass deep in the middle east

Stalin and Churchill divied up Iran and at the time Iran was the border of the USSR. we and they (the Russians) have been knee deep in their business ever since

well tanks need ammo and there was probably ammo there as well and hey looks like some of them may have been bio weapons imagine that

sounds like a job for Scully and Moulder....

HA HA HA

the middle east has been attacking the united states for as long as the united states has been a country and britain b4

Random Observation Time!

Funny isn't it that the expression ass deep goes right through on these forums.

However **** Cheney is edited.

Telling?

You decide haha

that sounds interesting

do tell

http://www.mariner.org/usnavy/06/06a.htm

I hate it when ya'll do that

just tell me

I'll believe you

Hmmm... when you take what the pirates died of and you couple that with the fact that Russian scientists have been assisting the Iranians with their Nuclear Energy program...

Sounds like Ole Jack Sparrow met Uncle Radiation.

back when jefferson became president beruit was attacking united states shipping and expected a tribute to be paid to protect the shipping

jefferson refused to pay and they declared war on the united states

from the halls of trippolee

Interesting. Yesterday I heard one man had died of "hypertension". Tday on NPR there was a brief blurb about the pirates reducing the requested ransom. Nothing about a mysterious illness. I thought the story was being way underreported.

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;