Can somebody bring us up to speed on current maritime law re piracy? Are there any "international waters" left anywhere? If so, and if you caught some pirates in them, what, aside from common decency, would prevent you from icing them then and there?
Like Darth Rotor said, 12 nautical miles; but if you're known to be icing people, better have some proof that they were indeed perps. Camera evidence, so on.
The cost of a security detail is how much, in comparison? Doubtless some clever MBA sort did a cost benefit risk analysis and found it to be cheaper just to pay, rather than increase payroll.
This attitude strikes me as similar to how airline hijacking was dealt with for so long.
I'm all in favour of shoot-to-kill; but there are many practical problems.
Many flag nations (nations that "hire" their flag to merchant vessels, i.e. the countries where the merchant vessels are registered) do not allow small-arms on merchant ships registered with them.
Many ports do not allow entry by a merchant vessel that has small-arms on board.
These two details already mean a good many merchant vessels simply cannot carry armed security details, without even getting to the question of costs (not small).
Getting patrols by naval units is difficult; it's a huge stretch of sea area.
..... I think it's long overdue that the various navies in the area start boarding every fishing boat they see to search for evidence of piracy
It's a huge stretch of sea area.
My understanding is that
a corridor has been made in which no ships have been succesfully attacked. The problem is that the pirates now attack up to 450 miles from Somalia shores, basically they hit before ships reach the corridor.
Now they're up to 500 sea miles from base, and they will probably extend that.
So why can't we monitor the movements of all ships and small boats in the area, then send intercept teams to investigate suspicious behavior?
Because it's a huge area.
You can bet that the ransom money being paid now is flowing uphill to the Islamic Courts. Putting them back in power won't help things. Might even make it worse.
Very doubtful. The Islamic Courts no longer have any great power in anywhere of Somalia, and the pirates are operating out of an area where the Islamic Courts never had any but theoretical power anyway.
Don't count on that, especially if the US is involved. The UN is so stupidly anti-American anymore that they wouldn't approve of the US shooting down enemy bombers headed towards our shores.
Travis, you need the CT forum, not this one. Have fun with the tin hat.
