Kidnapped British yacht couple 'need urgent help'

[Solaris]

A British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates three months ago have said they are in urgent need of help.
"We have not much time left and are being badly treated", Rachel Chandler told a journalist from the French news agency AFP who met them in captivity.
She and husband Paul, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were captured while sailing towards Tanzania on 23 October.
Mr Chandler, 60, said the couple could not meet the pirates' ransom demands and begged the UK government to help.
The pirates have threatened to kill the couple if their demands for $7m (£4.4m) are not met, but the Foreign Office has said it does not pay ransoms or give substantial concessions to pirates.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/8489958.stm

I don't get it, it seems like we know where they are being held by unskilled pirates. Why not just send in the SAS guns blazing? **** Somalian sovereignty. Also, if it went well, Gordon Brown would look like a badass prime minister leading the world against piracy.

 

[Remus]

I don't get it, it seems like we know where they are being held by unskilled pirates. Why not just send in the SAS guns blazing?

Apparently that only happens in the movies, which is a shame.

 

[<RJMC>]

thats what they deserve by taking somalia resources by simply going into theyr waters

well thats what the socialists say

 

[YROC]

Hope they make it out alive.

 

[Reginald]

They are from my home town.

 

[Raziaar]

Hope they make it out alive.

Yeah. Hopefully the pirates don't actually end up killing them if worse comes to worse. Hopefully they just set them afloat or something. Killing is not going to get you your money... and if anything it'll bring down the wrath of foreign governments on your ass which I'm sure the pirates do not want.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Apparently that only happens in the movies, which is a shame.

Watched this documentary/dramatization of a true kidnapping by rebels in uhh... I forget, some island, looked tropical. I was kind of shocked by the way the armed forces handled it - that is, by going in guns blazing. In the end, after months of trekking through the jungle, starving to death while the rebels gorged, watching each of the other hostages die off one by one, the armed forces finally rush in and rescue them. Only, they also manage shoot and kill the narrator's husband in the first 2 seconds of the assault because they "just went in guns blazing." Subtlety, much? Depressed the hell out of me, anyway. ;(

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/8489958.stm

I don't get it, it seems like we know where they are being held by unskilled pirates. Why not just send in the SAS guns blazing? **** Somalian sovereignty. Also, if it went well, Gordon Brown would look like a badass prime minister leading the world against piracy.

We already tried that with the SBS, and it didn't work out.

 

[Baserape>]

"We have not much time left and are being badly treated",

 

[Warped]

I hate to come in this thread and shit all over it but both the Somali pirates and captured prisoners are pretty much all prisoners in that country. its a hellhole and unless someone smart invests time and money into the country it'll stay a cesspool for generations. imo, they should set up desalinization plants, flood the desert with water and start farming like crazy. people would have all the food and water they needed and problems would get solved.

/way off topic

 

[Maestro]

There's that whole 'investing money' part. Usually if someone is interested in improving a nation wholesale it's at a fantastic interest rate.

 

[jverne]

Maybe they hired some black guys to pose as pirates so they can get free money from the gov.
Probably not....but just in case...scams like these do start to pop up.

 

[Shyam]

Yeah. Hopefully the pirates don't actually end up killing them if worse comes to worse. Hopefully they just set them afloat or something. Killing is not going to get you your money... and if anything it'll bring down the wrath of foreign governments on your ass which I'm sure the pirates do not want.

Yeah that's the only consolation. Killing hostages is bad for business.

@ Solaris. There are not just unskilled pirates at work, but a whole network of islamists and money launderers. These pirates usually have the backing of big organisations like Al- Shabaab or the powerful clans in Somalia.

 

[Raziaar]

I hate to come in this thread and shit all over it but both the Somali pirates and captured prisoners are pretty much all prisoners in that country. its a hellhole and unless someone smart invests time and money into the country it'll stay a cesspool for generations. imo, they should set up desalinization plants, flood the desert with water and start farming like crazy. people would have all the food and water they needed and problems would get solved.

/way off topic

The Somali Pirates aren't prisoners though. They're just living in a shitty country and are choosing a life of crime. No sympathy for the pirates... they give pirates a bad name, the incompetent and lousily attired ****ers.