21-08-2009, 05:33 PM
(This post was last modified: 21-08-2009, 05:59 PM by Peter Lemkin.)
Seems like this is akin to the Japanese caper with the U.S. Bonds....'they' no longer give us 'bread', only 'circus'!.....
August 20, 2009
Arctic Sea hijack suspects claim to be environmentalists
Eleven members of the crew of the Maltese-flag cargo ship Arctic Sea have arrived in Moscow along with eight suspected hijackers. Four members of the crew, including the captain, have remained with the ship. The Arctic sea is reportedly still some 260 miles from the Cape Verde islands, where it was intercepted by the Russian frigate Ladny following its apparent hijacking on July 24.
While the English-language RT TV channel covered the arrival of the detainees and crew members, coverage by Russia's Vesti TV of the detainees transfer from Cape Verde showed some of the suspects to have the heavy prison tattoos associated with Russian professional criminals.
Vesti reported the detainees told the Russian military that they were environmentalist and scientists who had been captured by mistake.
According to reports filed with the Finnish and Swedish police, the Arctic Sea was seized at gunpoint at 3 AM on July 24 in Swedish waters. The crew were beaten and tied up.
The Vesti report says the detainees claim they were merely taking shelter from a storm and had requested fuel from the Arctic Sea. They say they were "friends" of the crew. Vesti comments that the crew members were still bearing the marks of that friendship--bruising from plastic handcuffs and in one case a broken arm--when they boarded the plane for Russia.
Contact with the ship was lost off Portugal on July 28. Russia's Ambassador to NATO today told Echo Moskvy radio that NATO assistance significantly facilitated the search and rescue of the ship. Ambassador Rogozin said NATO started providing Russia with reliable and timely information on the Arctic Sea's whereabouts on August 12, which helped the Russian Navy to plan and coordinate the efforts in the rescue of the ship.
------------------------------------------------
Moscow
Published Date: 21 August 2009
By Mike Eckel in Moscow
RUSSIAN authorities questioned crew members from the Arctic Sea cargo ship after the seamen and eight alleged pirates were returned to Moscow yesterday, adding new details to the mystery of the ship's month-long odyssey.
Three heavy-lift air force jets, reportedly carrying 11 crew members, the alleged hijackers and other investigators, arrived at a Moscow region military base after flying from Cape Verde, the West African island nation where a Russian frigate ADVERTISEMENT
The saga of the Maltese-flagged freighter, which left Finland on 21 July carrying a load of timber to Algeria, has gripped much of Europe. The ship was found nearly two weeks after it was to have docked in Algeria, thousands of miles off course and long out of radio contact.
Speculation on what was behind the freighter's diversion was heightened by the involvement of the Russian navy. It was unclear why three planes were needed to fly such a small group of people to Moscow, nor why Il-76s – among Russia's largest planes – were used.
Federal investigators said in a statement that crew members told them that, while the Arctic Sea was in Swedish waters, the ship was boarded by eight men who wore uniforms that read "Police" on the back and who threatened the crew.
The statement did not give more details about the seizure or say if the men left the ship 12 hours later as earlier had been reported.
The Interfax news agency said the 11 crew members and hijackers were taken to Moscow's Lefortovo prison, run by the main KGB successor agency, the FSB.
State-run Vesti-24 television showed footage of what it said were air force planes arriving at the Chkalovsky base near Moscow, and men believed to be the hijackers being escorted roughly by special forces troops.
Earlier, men identified as Arctic Sea crew members told Vesti that the ship was seized in the Baltic Sea by gunmen. One unidentified man told Vesti that a crew member sent a text message saying the ship had been hijacked, but the hijackers then forced the captain at gunpoint to report that everything was normal on board.
Russia has said four of the hijackers were citizens of Estonia, and the others were from Russia and Latvia.
There were conflicting statements about the fate of the Arctic Sea and its 1.3 million cargo of timber. The Foreign Ministry said that the ship's captain and three remaining crew members had stayed behind to help return the ship to its owner.
The Kremlin said the ship was en route to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, but federal investigators said it was drifting off Cape Verde.
More than a week after the Arctic Sea's departure from Finland on 21 July, Swedish police said they had received a report that masked men had raided the ship in the Baltic Sea and beaten the crew before speeding off 12 hours later in an inflatable craft.
The freighter gave no indication of any difficulties or change in its route during radio contact while passing through the English Channel on 28 July.
Swedish authorities last had contact with the ship on 31 July in a brief telephone call with a person who identified himself as the captain, according to a police spokeswoman. "It was a very short phone call, it was cut off, but it seemed as if everything was normal," she said.
The ship had been due to dock in Algeria on 4 August. Eight days later, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Defence Ministry to take "all necessary measures" to search for the ship – raising suspicions the ship may have carried more than just timber.
Yevgeny Limarev, a former Russian security agent who is now a French-based consultant on Russian affairs, said the Arctic Sea was probably at the centre of a struggle between competing businesses and Kremlin clans in Moscow, and the Kremlin was forced to intervene to prevent an international scandal.
-------------------------------------
Speculation has grown that the freighter was carrying undeclared or even contraband cargo, possibly weapons or drugs.
Russia has said four of the detained hijackers were citizens of Estonia.
Three Russian air force planes arrived at a military airport outside Moscow from the Cape Verde islands, Interfax and ITAR-Tass said.
It was unclear why there were three planes and no other details were given.
Russian Defense Ministry officials insisted that the hijackers of the Arctic Sea had demanded a ransom and threatened to blow up the Russian-crewed freighter if their demands were not met, state news agencies reported.
Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced earlier that the Russian navy had reached the ship off West Africa on Monday and arrested eight suspected hijackers without a shot being fired.
Another official added: 'Crew members confirm that a ransom demand was made by the hijackers and if their demands were not met the hijackers threatened to blow up the vessel.'
The Russian warship carrying the crew and the suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea arrived on the Cape Verdean island of Sal amid plans to fly the ship's crew back to Moscow
Russian insurance company, Renaissance Insurance, said it received a ransom demand for $1.5million on August 3.
Company vice president Vladimir Dushin said the call came from a man speaking English who said he was an intermediary for the hijackers.
'He said if we informed the media or the authorities they would starting shooting the hostages and double the ransom,' Dushin said, adding that the man used a voice-changing technology to conceal his identity.
Sighting: The ship had been transmitting signals from the Bay of Biscay
'Of course, we didn't pay anything, and we gave all the information to the relevant authorities,' he said.
More...
Russia's 'rescue' of hijacked cargo ship Arctic Sea thrown into doubt
But some maritime and security experts said they doubted the ransom claim.
'This business about the ransom, I believe this very little,' said Mikhail Voitenko, the editor of the online Maritime Bulletin-Sovfracht.
He and others have speculated that the freighter was carrying an undeclared cargo, possibly weapons or drugs.
Voitenko said he did not suspect the Russian government of smuggling; it was more likely a well-connected business clan.
Unidentified members of the Russian crew of the Arctic Sea freighter are collected and moved to the Russian navy destroyer Ladnii
Tarmo Kouts, a former commander of the Estonian defense forces, said Russia's version of the hijacking raised many questions.
'This whole story looks so far-fetched that it would be naive to believe Russia's official version,' Kouts was quoted as saying in the Estonian newspaper Postimees.
The crew said the hijackers were armed but threw their weapons overboard when the Russian naval frigate approached.
State Vesti-24 television has interviewed crewmen who said the ship was seized in the Baltic Sea by gunmen who threatened them with weapons and forced the captain to report to authorities that everything was normal on board.
The Arctic Sea, pictured off the coast of Kotka, southern Finland, at the end of last year
The timber-loaded Arctic Sea and its 15 Russian crew members left a Finnish port on July 21.
The Maltese-flagged freighter gave no indication of any difficulties or change in its route during radio contact while passing through the English Channel on July 28.
Signals from the ship's tracking device were picked up off the French coast late the next day, but that was the last confirmed trace of it until Monday.
The ship had been due to dock in Algeria on August 4 with its cargo of timber worth more than $1.8million.
The Arctic Sea is operated by the Finnish company Solchart, which has Russian management and a sister company providing technical support in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk, the home of all 15 crew members.
Ivan Boiko, the deputy director of Solchart Arkhangelsk, said he expected the ship's timber to be delivered to the Algerian port of Bejaia by a new crew.
August 20, 2009
Arctic Sea hijack suspects claim to be environmentalists
Eleven members of the crew of the Maltese-flag cargo ship Arctic Sea have arrived in Moscow along with eight suspected hijackers. Four members of the crew, including the captain, have remained with the ship. The Arctic sea is reportedly still some 260 miles from the Cape Verde islands, where it was intercepted by the Russian frigate Ladny following its apparent hijacking on July 24.
While the English-language RT TV channel covered the arrival of the detainees and crew members, coverage by Russia's Vesti TV of the detainees transfer from Cape Verde showed some of the suspects to have the heavy prison tattoos associated with Russian professional criminals.
Vesti reported the detainees told the Russian military that they were environmentalist and scientists who had been captured by mistake.
According to reports filed with the Finnish and Swedish police, the Arctic Sea was seized at gunpoint at 3 AM on July 24 in Swedish waters. The crew were beaten and tied up.
The Vesti report says the detainees claim they were merely taking shelter from a storm and had requested fuel from the Arctic Sea. They say they were "friends" of the crew. Vesti comments that the crew members were still bearing the marks of that friendship--bruising from plastic handcuffs and in one case a broken arm--when they boarded the plane for Russia.
Contact with the ship was lost off Portugal on July 28. Russia's Ambassador to NATO today told Echo Moskvy radio that NATO assistance significantly facilitated the search and rescue of the ship. Ambassador Rogozin said NATO started providing Russia with reliable and timely information on the Arctic Sea's whereabouts on August 12, which helped the Russian Navy to plan and coordinate the efforts in the rescue of the ship.
------------------------------------------------
Moscow
Published Date: 21 August 2009
By Mike Eckel in Moscow
RUSSIAN authorities questioned crew members from the Arctic Sea cargo ship after the seamen and eight alleged pirates were returned to Moscow yesterday, adding new details to the mystery of the ship's month-long odyssey.
Three heavy-lift air force jets, reportedly carrying 11 crew members, the alleged hijackers and other investigators, arrived at a Moscow region military base after flying from Cape Verde, the West African island nation where a Russian frigate ADVERTISEMENT
The saga of the Maltese-flagged freighter, which left Finland on 21 July carrying a load of timber to Algeria, has gripped much of Europe. The ship was found nearly two weeks after it was to have docked in Algeria, thousands of miles off course and long out of radio contact.
Speculation on what was behind the freighter's diversion was heightened by the involvement of the Russian navy. It was unclear why three planes were needed to fly such a small group of people to Moscow, nor why Il-76s – among Russia's largest planes – were used.
Federal investigators said in a statement that crew members told them that, while the Arctic Sea was in Swedish waters, the ship was boarded by eight men who wore uniforms that read "Police" on the back and who threatened the crew.
The statement did not give more details about the seizure or say if the men left the ship 12 hours later as earlier had been reported.
The Interfax news agency said the 11 crew members and hijackers were taken to Moscow's Lefortovo prison, run by the main KGB successor agency, the FSB.
State-run Vesti-24 television showed footage of what it said were air force planes arriving at the Chkalovsky base near Moscow, and men believed to be the hijackers being escorted roughly by special forces troops.
Earlier, men identified as Arctic Sea crew members told Vesti that the ship was seized in the Baltic Sea by gunmen. One unidentified man told Vesti that a crew member sent a text message saying the ship had been hijacked, but the hijackers then forced the captain at gunpoint to report that everything was normal on board.
Russia has said four of the hijackers were citizens of Estonia, and the others were from Russia and Latvia.
There were conflicting statements about the fate of the Arctic Sea and its 1.3 million cargo of timber. The Foreign Ministry said that the ship's captain and three remaining crew members had stayed behind to help return the ship to its owner.
The Kremlin said the ship was en route to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, but federal investigators said it was drifting off Cape Verde.
More than a week after the Arctic Sea's departure from Finland on 21 July, Swedish police said they had received a report that masked men had raided the ship in the Baltic Sea and beaten the crew before speeding off 12 hours later in an inflatable craft.
The freighter gave no indication of any difficulties or change in its route during radio contact while passing through the English Channel on 28 July.
Swedish authorities last had contact with the ship on 31 July in a brief telephone call with a person who identified himself as the captain, according to a police spokeswoman. "It was a very short phone call, it was cut off, but it seemed as if everything was normal," she said.
The ship had been due to dock in Algeria on 4 August. Eight days later, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Defence Ministry to take "all necessary measures" to search for the ship – raising suspicions the ship may have carried more than just timber.
Yevgeny Limarev, a former Russian security agent who is now a French-based consultant on Russian affairs, said the Arctic Sea was probably at the centre of a struggle between competing businesses and Kremlin clans in Moscow, and the Kremlin was forced to intervene to prevent an international scandal.
-------------------------------------
Speculation has grown that the freighter was carrying undeclared or even contraband cargo, possibly weapons or drugs.
Russia has said four of the detained hijackers were citizens of Estonia.
Three Russian air force planes arrived at a military airport outside Moscow from the Cape Verde islands, Interfax and ITAR-Tass said.
It was unclear why there were three planes and no other details were given.
Russian Defense Ministry officials insisted that the hijackers of the Arctic Sea had demanded a ransom and threatened to blow up the Russian-crewed freighter if their demands were not met, state news agencies reported.
Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced earlier that the Russian navy had reached the ship off West Africa on Monday and arrested eight suspected hijackers without a shot being fired.
Another official added: 'Crew members confirm that a ransom demand was made by the hijackers and if their demands were not met the hijackers threatened to blow up the vessel.'
The Russian warship carrying the crew and the suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea arrived on the Cape Verdean island of Sal amid plans to fly the ship's crew back to Moscow
Russian insurance company, Renaissance Insurance, said it received a ransom demand for $1.5million on August 3.
Company vice president Vladimir Dushin said the call came from a man speaking English who said he was an intermediary for the hijackers.
'He said if we informed the media or the authorities they would starting shooting the hostages and double the ransom,' Dushin said, adding that the man used a voice-changing technology to conceal his identity.
Sighting: The ship had been transmitting signals from the Bay of Biscay
'Of course, we didn't pay anything, and we gave all the information to the relevant authorities,' he said.
More...
Russia's 'rescue' of hijacked cargo ship Arctic Sea thrown into doubt
But some maritime and security experts said they doubted the ransom claim.
'This business about the ransom, I believe this very little,' said Mikhail Voitenko, the editor of the online Maritime Bulletin-Sovfracht.
He and others have speculated that the freighter was carrying an undeclared cargo, possibly weapons or drugs.
Voitenko said he did not suspect the Russian government of smuggling; it was more likely a well-connected business clan.
Unidentified members of the Russian crew of the Arctic Sea freighter are collected and moved to the Russian navy destroyer Ladnii
Tarmo Kouts, a former commander of the Estonian defense forces, said Russia's version of the hijacking raised many questions.
'This whole story looks so far-fetched that it would be naive to believe Russia's official version,' Kouts was quoted as saying in the Estonian newspaper Postimees.
The crew said the hijackers were armed but threw their weapons overboard when the Russian naval frigate approached.
State Vesti-24 television has interviewed crewmen who said the ship was seized in the Baltic Sea by gunmen who threatened them with weapons and forced the captain to report to authorities that everything was normal on board.
The Arctic Sea, pictured off the coast of Kotka, southern Finland, at the end of last year
The timber-loaded Arctic Sea and its 15 Russian crew members left a Finnish port on July 21.
The Maltese-flagged freighter gave no indication of any difficulties or change in its route during radio contact while passing through the English Channel on July 28.
Signals from the ship's tracking device were picked up off the French coast late the next day, but that was the last confirmed trace of it until Monday.
The ship had been due to dock in Algeria on August 4 with its cargo of timber worth more than $1.8million.
The Arctic Sea is operated by the Finnish company Solchart, which has Russian management and a sister company providing technical support in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk, the home of all 15 crew members.
Ivan Boiko, the deputy director of Solchart Arkhangelsk, said he expected the ship's timber to be delivered to the Algerian port of Bejaia by a new crew.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass