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Reply With QuoteSo, the pirates are too dumb to throw a grenade into the middle of that school.
pril 15, 2009, 4:01 pm
China Reports Dolphins Foiled Pirate Attack
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/200...ack/?ref=world
By Robert Mackey
INSERT DESCRIPTIONChina Radio International China Radio International reported that this group of dolphins blocked Somali pirates who were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden.
According to a report from China’s official news agency Xinhua, “thousands of dolphins” recently prevented an attack on Chinese merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Xinhua’s Web site published the photograph above, and three others, which first appeared on the Web site of China Radio International on Monday.
It has to be said that none of the photographs actually shows the boats said to contain Somali pirates being blocked by the dolphins, but Xinhua reported news of the dolphin intervention as fact. Xinhua’s English-language report, about a group of merchant ships escorted through the dangerous waters by vessels from the Chinese navy, contains some translation errors, but describes the efforts of the newest members of the anti-piracy coalition in glowing, even poetic, detail:
The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China’s fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China’s.
The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.
Xinhua does not suggest that the cetacean force may have been part of a classified military program, but given that we know that the United States military has at least tried to train dolphins to work for the government, The Lede is not yet willing to rule out the possibility.
In 1989 Timothy Egan, who now blogs for The Times, reported in the newspaper that the United States Navy was working on a plan to use dolphins to guard a nuclear submarine base and had already spent millions of dollars on training, though there had been some problems:
As part of a top-secret program expanded in the Reagan administration, the Navy has spent nearly $30 million in the last four years trying to put the highly intelligent marine mammals to military use. [...]
Critics question the ethics of using what is seen as a benign creature for military tasks and charge that dolphins, known to be independent and unpredictable, are not reliable guardians. [...]
Navy officials admit that dolphins and sea lions, which are also being trained for military use, have occasionally been absent without leave or have refused to obey orders.
While that Dr. Evil-like plan was officially abandoned in 1991 because of budget cuts after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and former dolphin members of the Soviet Navy were reportedly finding new lines of work in 1997, there were reports in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that, as the Guardian suggested in 2005: “Armed dolphins, trained by the U.S. military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.” The Guardian report cited concerns that the dolphins may have been trained “to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises,” and added, not so reassuringly, that “the U.S. navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.”
So, the pirates are too dumb to throw a grenade into the middle of that school.
Chimo
Maybe they are members of the greenpeace, Somalia regional chapter. you are talking about the same gang who believed they can win against a USN Seal team?
Last edited by xinhui; 16 Apr 09, at 06:39.
They haven't been getting much love from media recently (except PLA Daily ofc but it doesn't count as 'media'). The 3rd taskforce should have set off by now.
(And they've adjusted the word 'taskforce'. I still hold that the whole 'fleet' thing before was a problem in journalist professionalism)
China Military Online English Edition
Third Chinese naval escort taskforce holds mobilization meeting
english.chinamil.com.cn 2009-07-16
At 8:30 a.m. on the morning of July 15, an expedition mobilization meeting was held in an auditorium in a military port in Zhoushan, east China's Zhejiang Province. All officers and men of the 3rd Chinese naval escort taskforce attended the meeting.
The naval escort taskforce dispatched by the East China Sea Fleet (ECSF ) of the Chinese PLA Navy, which has been well-prepared for setting out on an ocean-going voyage, is composed of two guided-missile frigates, "Zhoushan" and "Xuzhou", and a comprehensive supply ship "Qiandaohu", as well as 2 ship-based helicopters and dozens of naval special operation members. The whole taskforce has 800-plus people and will set out from a military port in Zhoushan on July 16.
Ding Yiping, deputy commander of the PLA Navy and Ceng Xu, political commissar of the ECSF, were present at the mobilization meeting.
By Zhu Da and Yu Zifu
(Jul 16, PLA Daily) Editor: Ou Yang
夫唯不爭，故天下莫能與之爭。
More like being embarrassed.Originally Posted by snowhole
Chimo
Works either way. *shrugs*
夫唯不爭，故天下莫能與之爭。
TF Commanding rank going from Admiral to Naval Captain have a lot to do with it. An Admiral commands a fleet. A Captain commands a task force.
Chimo
Successfully seduced OoE into shedding some light again. *dances victory*
夫唯不爭，故天下莫能與之爭。
Chinese navy rescues two foreign ships
2009-07-15 15:31
A Chinese naval ship patrolling waters off the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, north of Somalia, successfully rescued two ships that were attacked by pirates on Monday, the Xinhua News Agency reported today.
The frigate Huangshan of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) received a call for help at 8:15 am local time on July 13 from the Liberian tanker“A．Elephant,”which said it was being attacked by pirates. The Huangshan, which was 39.8 sea miles away from the tanker, launched a helicopter immediately.
The helicopter reached the tanker at 9:43 am and fired signal flares and non-lethal shells that produce a loud noise and bright light at the pirates, scaring them off. The pirates tried to attack a second ship, the "Polyhronis" of Malta, but were again dispersed by the Huangshan.
The Huangshan is one of the PLA Navy's escort fleet assigned to anti-piracy duty near waters of Somalia in April.
Source:China Daily
China vows to save crew held by Somali pirates. But how?
Chinese officials hint that violent action may be taken to rescue the 25 Chinese crew members aboard a cargo ship seized by Somali pirates on Monday.
By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 20, 2009 edition
Beijing - Chinese officials are being tight-lipped when it comes to explaining what exactly they mean when they say Beijing will make an "all out effort" to rescue a Chinese cargo ship seized by Somali pirates on Monday.
But if it means they will take military action to rescue the crew, it would be the furthest projection of force from China for its navy in modern history.
Three Chinese military vessels are part of the international anti-piracy taskforce, but they are currently patrolling the Gulf of Aden, almost 1,000 miles from the spot where pirates seized the coal-carrying De Xin Hai and her 25 Chinese crew members.
If Beijing decides on a military rescue operation, "The Chinese could go in hard" says David Johnson, manager of Eos, a private British company specializing in maritime security. "They are renowned for aggressive tactics when they come across pirates. They open up on pirate vessels."
He theorized that the Chinese ships in the Gulf of Aden will try to intercept the hijacked cargo ship before it reaches the Somali coast and the pirate enclave around the town of Eyl.
Pirates threaten to execute Chinese crew
The pirates warned Beijing Tuesday not to try a rescue. "We tell China not to endanger the lives of their people with any rescue operation," an associate of the hostage takers who called himself Hassan told Reuters news agency by phone Tuesday. "If they try that we will execute the whole crew," he added.
The Chinese have a squad of marine special forces soldiers on maritime patrol in the Indian Ocean and they have gone through simulated hostage rescue drills. Shortly before the Chinese ships joined the anti-piracy task force last December, Chinese TV aired footage of the drills.
Chinese commandos in training video
In the video, after a failed attempt at negotiating with the "pirates," balaclava clad helicopter and small boat-borne troops storm a vessel and subdue its captors.
Should such tactics be used, the Chinese may seek to take a page out of the American Navy's book. Earlier this year sharpshooters from the US Navy SEALS killed three pirates and rescued the hostage captain of the Alabama, an oil tanker.
The De Xin Hai is the first Chinese-flagged vessel to have been captured by pirates since Beijing's ships joined the piracy patrols. The Chinese crew of another ship successfully fought off pirates with home made Molotov cocktails.
Pirate skiffs have to carry a lot of fuel to give them sufficient range for their operations, Mr. Johnson points out, which makes them vulnerable to fire-bombing.
"Paint thinner in light-bulbs with a cloth stuck in the neck is the preferred weapon, apparently," says Johnson, whose company trains crews and former servicemen how to resist pirate attacks. "It's all pretty crude."
China vows to save crew held by Somali pirates. But how? | csmonitor.com
“the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson
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