This next story is a little more interesting than most. It illustrates the fog of war surrounding most of these piracy stories, and the politics going on in the background. Let’s start with the story as it’s generally reported:

• Somali pirates free Greek ship with Ukrainian crew
• Somali pirates holding 12-year-old hostage: Spanish skipper

A Spanish trawler captain released by Somali pirates said he is haunted by his failure to save a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl held captive for more than six months, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Ricardo Blach, skipper of the Alakrana, which was freed Tuesday after being held by pirates for some six weeks, told how he saw the young girl aboard another hijacked ship, in logbook extracts published in El Mundo.

A little strange that the BBC story never mentions the kidnapped girl, but not too unusual for someone to miss part of the story, especially if they have to read another language to source it. If you don’t want to read both of those, here’s what the wikipedia has to say about it:

Somali pirates captured the Ariana on May 2 with its 24 Ukrainian crew in the Indian Ocean on route from Brazil to the Middle East.[204] In November, with the release of Spanish ship Alakrana, that was in contact during captivity with the Ariana to give fuel, was known that within this vessel are kidnapped two women and a girl of 12 years old. One of the abducted women, Larisa Salinska, 39 years old ship’s cook, was raped by pirates. Then she had a miscarriage (it is unknown if she became pregnant as a result of the rape or not) with a large hemorrhage, heavy infection, and serious health problems. The Alakrana’s skipper tried to convey to the Ariana medicines to help Salinska, but Adan Jama, one of the pirates who had hijacked the Spanish ship, threw overboard those medicines. Also, according to the testimony from the driver’s Alakrana, on board were two women, one of whom had given birth during the hijacking of the ship, having the baby about four months; also said the girl wich twelve years old was raped by a pirate very young. The ship was released on 10 December 2009 after a ransom of almost $3,000,000 was paid.

This already has a few elements that are unique to this particular story. Now along comes this article in an online paper from Salem, OR:

• Pirate Update: Ariana Crew Abandoned Again

tl;dr version: the miscarriage resulted when the woman was beaten by a fellow crew member, the captain refused to let her be evacuated although the pirates agreed,  the crew of the Alakrana “invented” the story of visiting the Ariana, the 12-year old girl is implied to have been invented as well, and the Ariana’s owner has cut the ship loose and doesn’t want the cargo inspected.

This article’s conclusion:

All this is believed now to be part of spin-doctoring between Ukrainian, Spanish and Greek politicians of ministerial level to distract from their own failures and to aid a stronger European military approach for which the misled public outcry over these atrocities was seen as necessary to be approved by the European ministerial conference.

And to obscure matters even more, the author of this article relies on an interview in the Kyiv Post, a couple of quotes from Ecoterra International, and a number of unattributed statements such as the one above:  “all this is now believed to be….”

The author herself has a name that sounds a lot like a pseudonym to me, and the google has never heard of her outside of reporting on this ship. The Salem News looks like an interesting paper to check out, but it all seems to be filtered pretty strongly through the publisher’s personality and opinions.

Now, I don’t trust the official press to get a story right, but that doesn’t mean I have to trust any alternate version of the story either. I’m drawing no conclusions and taking no sides, just demonstrating an excellent case of how we really don’t know anything that’s going on out there. I don’t know if we’ll ever get answers about this one, or how many other stories really turn out to be more or less than they seem.

More pictures here:

• The Green Picture: Iceberg Cat And Mouse

There was a new confrontation between the Shonan Maru and the Steve Irwin on Tuesday. Here’s two sides of the story:

• Water Cannon Battle In Frigid Seas: Report from Captain Paul Watson
• Dutch vessel attacks again Japanese ship Shonan Maru No. 2 (pdf)

The Ady Gil finally caught up with the Steve Irwin just after midnight Wednesday morning (yes, it’s still Tuesday night here.) Looks like they switched the green laser thing to the Ady Gil, or else each ship is equipped with one. It’s apparently a handheld device of some sort. I suppose it explains what they mean by “The Ady Gil crew defended their ship utilizing photonic disrupters in an effort to get the Shonan Maru No. 2 to back off to a safe distance.”

• Ady Gil Arrives in Antarctica
• New Zealand watercraft attacks Japanese ship Shonan Maru No. 2

I do appreciate, by the way, how many of my best pictures are coming from the whalers.

And here’s another take on the Sea Shepherd visit to French researchers at Commonwealth Bay, from the researchers’ side. Sounds like they’re a bunch of enviros, as you’d have to be to work there, but also like they’re happy to see almost anyone visit. No one else was expected there until sometime next month.

• Unexpected guests for dinner

• Indian navy thwarts pirates attempt on foreign vessel
• Somali pirates release Greek-owned ship, 21 crew
• Somali pirates released from Dutch frigate
• 56 Filipino seafarers still in Somali pirates’ custody

Meanwhile, a funny thing happened on the way to Antarctica…. tl;dr the Steve Irwin visited some nice Frenchies for a couple of days while they tried to shake the Japanese whalers off their tail, and the Ady Gil is underway after its third try.

• Sea Shepherd Receives French Support
• Finally: Stealth Boat Ady Gil En Route To Join Sea Shepherd

And since we’re on naval matters:

• India-flagged cargo ship adrift in North Pacific

• SUV arsonist Jeffrey “Free” Luers released from prison

Radical environmentalist Jeffrey “Free” Luers has been released from prison after spending more than nine years behind bars for setting three SUVs on fire at a Eugene dealership.

I went to Green Is The New Red to find out more about that, and came across this instead:

• My Student is a Sociologist, Not a Terrorist

On November 17, 2009, Scott DeMuth was jailed for contempt of court, since he refused to answer questions posed to him by a federal grand jury in Davenport, Iowa. They were interested in questioning him about his knowledge of an unsolved Animal Liberation Front action in 2004 at the University of Iowa. Scott is a University of Minnesota graduate student and Dakota language student. Scott took a principled stand against the grand jury and paid for it with a contempt charge and, two days later, a charge of conspiracy to commit “animal enterprise terrorism.”

All of which reminded me of this, which is a couple of weeks old by now but still of interest:

• China Jails Environmentalist Wanted in U.S.

• Sea Shepherd crew logs season’s first clash with Japanese whalers

First encounter of the season, and it turns into a water cannon battle:

A couple of days later, the Japanese deploy their Long Range Acoustical Device, and Sea Shepherd busts out a laser on them. Oh, and tries to foul their propeller too:

• Sea Shepherd complain about Japan’s ‘military’ fightback
• Sea Shepherd Aim Laser Ray At Japanese Whalers

Judging from that picture, the Steve Irwin’s got some new anti-boarding measures- the yellow spiky things along the side. You can see it better in some other pictures here. Looks like maybe a new hangar for their helicopter, too.

And where’s the Ady Gil during all of this?

• Whale crew return again

Back in port again, it seems. This time their new radar got wiped out by a big wave. That was a couple of days ago, and I can’t find any indication that they’ve sailed yet.

Here’s a little more about the recent auction of oil development contracts in Iraq. People are putting a happy face on it, but it doesn’t sound like it went too well.

• Iraq hails oil auction; major firms steer clear
• Contracts Awarded to Russian, Norwegian Firms on Last Day of Iraq Oil Auction
• No boon for U.S. firms in Iraq oil deal auction

Critics said the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq said was driven by oil, but United States oil majors were largely absent from an Iraqi auction of oil deals snapped up instead by Russian, Chinese and other firms.

Iraqi officials said this proved their independence from U.S. influence and that their two bidding rounds this year for deals to tap Iraq’s vast oil reserves, the world’s third largest, were free of foreign political interference.

Maybe it proves their independence, although I doubt it. Maybe it proves the war wasn’t about oil, but yeah, right. To me, this whole episode simply proves that the Iraq war was just as botched as we said it was from the beginning. After seven years, oil production is still crawling along, it’s hard to find investors, and we didn’t even manage to deliver a few plums to American oil companies. Bad enough we fought this war at all, but we made an even worse disaster than we had to. Good going, Bushies. Way to secure your legacy.

• The Military’s Plan For The Afghan War Surge, In One Giant Chart

More about Blackwater:

• Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret C.I.A. Raids

Notice how carefully phrased the denial is:

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Blackwater, said Thursday that it was never under contract to participate in clandestine raids with the C.I.A. or with Special Operations personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.

So did they do it without a contract? Or under contract to someone else?

Here’s a new stealth drone operating out of Afghanistan. The Wikipedia article points out the most salient question: what’s it doing there?

• Wikipedia: RQ-170 Sentinel

The fact that the UAV is deployed to Afghanistan, in spite of the Taliban not possessing radar, has led to speculation that the aircraft is being used to spy on Pakistan or Iran.

And finally tonight, this:

• Iraq oil development rights contracts awarded

• Anti-whalers makes unscheduled return
• Anti-whaling boat repaired

• Sea Shepherd Picks Up a Japanese Tail En Route to Antarctica

At 1300 hours at a position 240 miles south of Albany in Western Australia, the crew of the Steve Irwin spotted a white vessel tailing in their wake at a distance of eight miles. Captain Paul Watson ordered a “Crazy Ivan” and the Steve Irwin did a 180 degree turn to head directly at the trailing vessel. The target responded by changing course due North. The Steve Irwin then changed course due South. The target followed with a course change to the South. The Steve Irwin then changed course to the West and the target followed suit. Another course change to South by Southeast put the target directly on the tail of the Steve Irwin again. The Japanese are keeping eight miles to the stern of the Steve Irwin.

“It looks like we have an escort to Antarctica,” said Captain Watson.

Here’s some pirates a long way from Somalia:

• 16 Missing After Bangladesh Pirate Attack

Pirate attacks on local fishermen are common in the Bay of Bengal. Fishermen and boat owners say authorities don’t do enough to police the waters.

Salamat Ullah, the owner of the missing boat, said he filed a complaint with police.

”We are continuing our regular patrol,” Cox’s Bazar coast guard official Lt. A.K. Chakrabarty said.

Maybe this is a diplomatic broadside, but “piracy” is political hyperbole here:

• Georgia: Tbilisi Charges Moscow With Piracy

Meanwhile, the big action is still off Somalia:

• Tanker hijacked by Somali pirates poses environmental risk
• Somali pirates hijack Pakistan-flagged ship
• Somalia: Pirates Release Greece Ship After the Payment of Ransom

• Kenyan courts on legal front line in battle to stop Somali pirates
• Somali Piracy Tribunals Unlikely, Despite Calls

But one key topic raised at discussions, hosted by the International Criminal Law Network, a Hague-based think tank, was whether the International Criminal Court (ICC), also based in The Hague, could expand its jurisdiction to include piracy.

While experts said they expect the ICC — which was set up in 2002 as the world’s first permanent war crimes court — to take up the issue of piracy at its Review Conference in Uganda in May of 2010, they don’t expect an expansion of jurisdiction.

Moreover, countries in the Horn of Africa most affected by piracy — Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea — are not signatories to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.

Enforcement, however, would be the biggest problem.

• Navy patrols may extend as Somali pirates widen attacks