Report: Somali pirates want U.S. Navy to back off

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/11/02/somalia.pirates.japan.ap/index.html

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Pirates who hijacked a Japanese tanker off Somalia earlier this week are demanding a U.S. warship shadowing the vessel back off, the wife of the tanker's foreman said Friday.

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"Apparently the navy ship was getting closer to them," Tess Villanueva, wife of the crew's foreman, Laureano, told The Associated Press in the Philippines. "The good news would be if they (pirates) leave the ship."

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The U.S. Navy's guided missile destroyer USS Porter came to the aid of the Japanese chemical tanker this week, at one point opening fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to it.

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There has been no direct contact between the Philippine government and the pirates, he added.
Earlier this week, a North Korean tanker overrun by pirates was taken back after crew members overpowered the hijackers in a bloody fight. The hijackers were being held aboard the ship until they can be handed over for prosecution at a port.

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Piracy is "is a very serious security problem on the African coast. These are not pirates who will remind you of Johnny Depp. These are quite different kinds of pirates," Hill told reporters in Seoul, South Korea.







NY Vet comment- The headline of the article sounds like some people I know who get upset when cops have to get physical with someone who is resisting arrest.

But I don't get how protesters get equated to pirates. What a stretch. :rofl: