Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S. - Page 2

incarcerated · 08-13-2009, 10:47

By way of contrast:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-08-13-voa33.cfm

Russian Warships Join Atlantic Hunt for Missing Freighter

By VOA News
13 August 2009
Russian warships are scouring the Atlantic for a freighter with 15 Russian crew last spotted more than two weeks ago steaming through the English Channel.

A Russian Defense Ministry statement Thursday said authorities are using all means of detection, including satellites, to locate the Maltese-registered Arctic Sea, which was due in Algeria August 4.

Moscow ordered four ships from Russia's Black Sea fleet to the Atlantic earlier this week to hunt for the freighter.

Authorities say the Arctic Sea, which was carrying lumber from Finland to the Algerian port of Bejaia, failed to arrive at its destination and did not pass through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Reports early this week says the ship was tracked as far south as the coast of Portugal before contact was lost July 28.

Swedish and Russian authorities say people dressed as police boarded the ship in the Baltic Sea just days before its disappearance. The attackers are said to have tied up the crew for 12 hours while ransacking the ship. The reports say the attackers left without taking either money or cargo.

A spokesman for the commercial maritime intelligence service Dryad told Britain's International Television Network Thursday that several aspects of the disappearance continue to puzzle experts.

Graeme Gibbon-Brooks said hijackings in the Baltic Sea and the northern Atlantic are virtually unheard of. He said modern-day piracy is normally found in areas of the world with "weak defense structures and crushing poverty."

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

LarryW · 08-13-2009, 12:55

This is more of a threat than what it looks like. The "check in" as the ship supposedly passed thru the Straights of Gibralter coulld have been transmitted from a sailboat. My money is on the thing being repainted, new crew (one that's living), and a long ways from Tipperary right about now. The "boarding" vic of Sweeden could have been staging to move personnel also. On the high seas nothing is as it seems. Wonder if anyone has the various unique signatures of that freighter. Heads up oil rigs in the North Sea/North Atlantic!

incarcerated · 08-16-2009, 06:41

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...nnXWRzMcPifXRA

NATO, Russia join forces in hunt for missing ship
By Orlando Rodrigues (AFP) – 2 hours ago

PRAIA — As NATO and Russia joined forces in the search for the missing cargo ship Arctic Sea, commentators on Sunday said news the ship's owners had received a ransom demand augured well for the Russian crew.

Helsinki-based Solchart Management had received the demand, Finnish police confirmed on Saturday.

Finnish Detective Chief Superintendent Jan Nyholm told AFP the authorities there were keeping more than 20 countries informed of developments concerning the hunt for the ship....

The Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea left Finland for the Algerian port of Bejaia, carrying a cargo of about 6,700 cubic metres of sawn timber estimated to be worth 1.16 million euros (1.7 million dollars) on July 23.

A day later, eight to 10 masked men boarded the ship between the Swedish islands of Oland and Gotland in the Baltic Sea at about 0100 GMT, Swedish police later reported, several days after the incident.

Claiming to be anti-drugs police, they tied up the crew and conducted a thorough search of the vessel before reportedly leaving 10 to 12 hours later after freeing the crew....

incarcerated · 08-16-2009, 15:48

It's Lumber, OK? That's L-U-M-B-E-R. Russia looses its ships all the time. There's no story here.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...nnXWRzMcPifXRA

Finland denies missing ship carries nuclear material

By Orlando Rodrigues (AFP) – 11 hours ago

PRAIA — Finnish authorities dismissed talk Sunday that the Arctic Sea was bearing a cargo of nuclear material, as Russia and NATO joined forces in an international hunt for the missing vessel.

Jukka Laaksonen, head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, said firefighters conducted radiation tests on the ship -- last reported off Cape Verde -- at a port in Finland before it began a voyage full of intrigue.

But he dismissed as "stupid rumours" reports in British and Finnish newspapers that the ship could be carrying a "secret" nuclear cargo that could explain why it was attacked on the Baltic Sea before vanishing.

"Some fireman for some reason thought that there might be some radioactivity involved in this shipment and that was a very stupid idea. There was no basis for that," Laaksonen told AFP....

incarcerated · 08-17-2009, 10:02

Does this mean that they need a few minutes to think up a good story?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...I_W2QD9A4MK9G0

Russian minister: missing ship found, crew alive

By JIM HEINTZ (AP) – 1 hour ago
MOSCOW — The Russian-crewed freighter that sparked a high-seas mystery when it disappeared nearly three weeks ago has been found by a Russian naval frigate off the West African coast, the country's defense minister said Monday, according to Russian news agencies.

The Arctic Sea's 15 crew members, last heard from July 28, were alive and now aboard the navy ship, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.

He did not give details about what happened to the ship, saying the full story could be made public later Monday, according to the agencies....

incarcerated · 08-19-2009, 01:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by LarryW

Two naval officers, the skipper of a US destroyer and of a Soviet Foxtrot class sub, can be credited with preventing WW3 in October 1962.

October, 1962....
Cuban Missile Crisis?
Or elsewhere on the globe?

LarryW · 08-19-2009, 08:59

Cuban Missile Crisis. While the politicians ashore shot the breeze the warriors at sea (both sides; surface and submarine) kept their wits. IMHO, these skippers saved my old arse from being atomized.

LarryW · 08-19-2009, 09:12

Quote:

Would this have caused World War III though...? I mean would both sides have been ready to go to full-on war if the other side had destroyed one of their ships or subs?

IMHO, yes. The targets the Soviets were looking at weren't single ship contacts. They were carriers in Battle Groups. More than one ship would have gone down. Both military complexes were ready. Public opinion in both countries were primed. Had the bubble gone up at that time it would have at the very least been a theater-wide nuclear exchange, if not global. (i.e., Nuke DC from Cuba and see what the US does to Moscow.) The Soviets had the capability and were ready to launch from Cuba into the US (all except maybe Seattle). Had the Soviet C.O. launched a nuclear torpedo against one of the carrier groups (which his ROE would have allowed) the response to everything in the area would have been in a reaction mode. Had the U.S skipper fired on the sub (which his ROE allowed under the conditions) the Soviet would not have seen an option but to strike. President Reagan provided the same courage under pressure later on, but that was "later on". In October 1962 the Cold War wasn't very cold. IMHO, these guys did us an incredible service by not caving in to "brinkmanship".