Missing Ship

[Sweejak]

how is that for chucking a turd into the story

Come on in the water's fine.

Well this was inevitable.

Moscow- A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it smuggling arms to Iran. According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber.
Men acting on the behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said.
Citing Moscow publicist Yulia Latynina, the daily pointed to the surprise visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres on August 18, a day after the Arctic Sea, which had been missing for three weeks, had been tracked down and liberated by Russian forces off West Africa.
During his visit, Peres, who according to Latynina had no other business in Russia, requested Moscow refrain from supplying weapons or missile defence systems to Iran.
Russian authorities denied that the Arctic Sea had been smuggling weapons.
Russian ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Dmitri Rogozin, said earlier Friday that such allegations were a "fantasy" and "ridiculous."
The deployment at great expense of Russian Black Sea fleet to liberate the hijacked ship was undertaken for the sake of the 15 Russian seamen on board and not supposed weapons, Rogozin said.
Russian authorities in Moscow on late Friday formally charged the eight alleged hijackers with kidnapping and piracy, the Interfax news agency reported.
The suspects include a Lithuanian, a Russian, three stateless persons, and a Spaniard, the report said, adding that the citizenship of the two remaining suspects had yet to be clarified.
According to official reports, the Arctic Sea was liberated from pirates on Monday off the coast of West Africa. According to the Russian sources, pirates took the freighter on July 24 off the coast of Sweden.
Victor Matveev, director of Solchart Management, the shipping company that owns the Arctic Sea freighter stated Friday that his company "still has not received any official information" about the ship or its crew.

Copyright, respective author or news agency

And of course we have the Chechens.

A Chechen militants battalion, called Riyadus Salihiin, has taken responsibility for Monday’s accident at Russia’s biggest Hydro Electric plant in the Siberian Republic of Khakassia.

http://www.russiatoday.ru/Top_News/2009 ... assia.html

About dams, I have this:

There was a similair acident in the Akkats powerplant outside Jokkmokk in Sweden a few years ago. No casualties.

... Human error, it was decided to start it at full effect directly, opening up the way down to the turbines completely. To much water got in and pressed up the turbines through the fundaments. It took a year to repair the damage.

However some claim that it is beacause a curse laid upon the power plant by the native Sami population. It was just a few weeks after the curse was laid that this accident happened.

[MinM]

Police say ransom demanded in Arctic Sea mystery - CNN.com

"It appears that we are now dealing with two separate incidents -- the alleged hijacking off the Swedish coast and now the alleged hijacking with a demand for ransom," Lonegard told CNN on Saturday.

"The incident in the Swedish waters appeared over when we spoke to the crew and shipping company on the 31st of July. So it appears the ship has been hijacked twice."

Police don't know the location of those demanding the ransom, she said...

Penny for your thoughts: Who wanted the Artic Sea to disappear and why?

Report: Pirates seize ship on Israel's behalf, preventing arms from Iran | Headlines | Jerusalem Post

Pirates recently gained control over a Russian ship off the shores of Sweden in order to prevent weapons smuggling to Iran on Israel's behalf, according to a report by Russian newspaper Nuvia Gueta.

According to Saturday's report, which Army Radio cited, the Russian ship was carrying a load of X-55 cruise missiles intended for Teheran. Several days after the pirates seized the ship, Russian navy forces gained control over the vessel off the coast of West Africa.

Army Radio said Russian authorities denied the report, saying "the allegations are baseless."

Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, said the report was fantastical and absurd.

[Sweejak]

I can't figure why Russia or even mob/intel types would send anything to Iran via this route when all you would need would be a short hop across the Caspian.

Interesting timing on the S-300 agreement with Israel. I'd feel better if Iran had S-300's but they already have a short range Tor system. There is talk that instead of the S-300 Russia may sell fighters and other gear while Iran may be buying Russia's commercial Superjet 100.

Reports are that sale of strong alcoholic drinks have been banned in the region around the dam making me think that they think it really is negligence that caused this disaster.

NYT has an article on Soviet era infrastructure:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/busin ... ruble.html

I wonder what the US's excuse is.

[Ben D]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... e/ShowFull

Did Mossad hijack Russian ship to stop Iran arms shipment?

The Jerusalem Post August 23, 2009.

Was Israel's secret service behind the unexplained hijacking of a Russian freighter, to foil a secret attempt to ship cruise missiles to Iran?

The mystery surrounding the hijacking of a Russian freighter in July has taken a new twist with reports claiming the pirates were acting in league with the Mossad in order to halt a shipment of modern weapon systems hidden on board and destined for the Islamic republic.

While Israeli and Russian officials dismissed the reports, accounts published in the Russian media sounded more like a spy thriller than a commercial hijacking.

"There is something fishy about this whole story, no doubt about it," former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh told The Media Line. "But I can't comment further on this."

The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported over the weekend that the vessel Arctic Sea had been carrying x-55 cruise missiles and S300 anti-aircraft rockets hidden in secret compartments among its cargo of timber and sawdust.
-snip-
Pravda's Web site reported that the ship had been smuggling cruise missiles to Iran on a well-worn path via Algeria, but a "power that has relations with Ukraine" had prevented this. Novaya Gazeta reported that the hijackers had been operating on behalf of the Mossad.

[Sweejak]

Moscow - The pirates suspected in the capering of the freighter Arctic Sea may be Estonians with previous crime records, the Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Monday.

The paper cited several Estonian sources as having recognised the captured pirates in photos.

Six of the eight pirates were said to be from one district of the capital Tallinn, with the suspects having previously served prison terms for various crimes including drug offences, assault and theft, the paper reported.

Komsomolskaya identified one of the suspects by name, 35-year-old Alexander Buleyev, and said he had recruited the others to join in capering the freighter and seeking a ransom for it.

Now in custody, the suspects are insisting that they were environmentalists who had helped the Arctic Sea while it was in distress and that they had had a 'friendly relationship' with the ship's 15-man crew.

One newspaper, the Moskovski Komosomolez, did not that so far the authorities had not produced as evidence any weapons from the pirates.

Further media reports, turning up yet other unusual details in the case, said that one of the suspects was a seaman who had been declared dead at sea in 2006. His family in the city of Kursk recognised him in pictures.

Not only are the eight pirate suspects still being held by the Russian secret service, but also the crew members. Investigators are still probing whether there may have been any collusion between the pirates and crew.

The Arctic Sea was liberated by Russian naval forces on August 17 off of West Africa, after the freighter had gone missing in the Baltic Sea under mysterious circumstances three weeks earlier.

[Ben D]

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090826/155928994.html

Russia says Arctic Sea ship was monitored throughout hijacking

09:50 26/08/2009

MOSCOW, August 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that the Arctic Sea cargo ship, earlier reported to have gone missing before being found with hijackers on board, was constantly monitored throughout the incident.

Russian officials earlier said that the freighter loaded with timber was "found" on August 17 and freed from hijackers by the Ladny missile frigate a few hundred kilometers from Cape Verde.

However, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday evening: "Of course this bulk freighter with deadweight of 7,000 tons was never lost. Its movements were monitored, and its coordinates were provided by several sources, including our foreign partners."

The Arctic Sea, which had 15 Russian crewmembers, is currently being towed to the Russian port of Novorossiisk on the Black Sea. Four of the crew remain on board, while the other 11 have been flown to Moscow for questioning. Eight alleged hijackers, found on board when the freighter was released, have been arrested and are face piracy charges.
The ministry said several questions remain unanswered in the incident, for example whether the reported seizure of the freighter on July 24 was preceded by another attack, and whether there were other hijackers involved.

Russia's top investigators had earlier suggested the ship was carrying not only timber, but the Foreign Ministry said the vessel has now been searched, and that no suspicious cargo has been found.

"The preliminary search of the ship did not reveal the presence of suspicious cargo on board. A more thorough search will be conducted at one of the ports on the way to Russia," the statement said.

[Sweejak]

Automatic shutdown system fails at Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP

25.08.2009, 21.29

MOSCOW, August 25 (Itar-Tass) -- The automatic shutdown system failed at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant, the Federal Environmental, Technological and Atomic Supervisory Service head Nikolai Kutyin told a Tuesday press conference.

In all, the hydropower plant had three security systems but none of them worked as it should at the accident moment.

The service seized all documents related to the condition of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP units, Kutyin told the Vesti news channel before the press conference.

“We are studying documents about regular maintenance and halts of the turbines. We shall see if the works were done properly, but we already know about some problems with the hydropower plant units, including repairs of wheel cracks. We will also concentrate on the automatic control systems,” he said.

There was no criticism of the technical condition of Sayano-Shushenskaya units during last year’s inspection, Kutyin said. “The power plant diagnostics was timely,” he noted. “The units could have worked for 50 or 60 years with the normal operation, timely repairs, proper maintenance and diagnostics. We devoted the first two days after the accident [August 17 and 18] to the dam. We did not see any danger. We think that all the destructions occurred in the engine room.”

There is no ‘human factor’ theory so far, he said. “It is hard to speak about a human factor in the 2nd unit’s accident, although the situation certainly had some human factor. The 60-minute duration of the accident is related to the actions of the power plant personnel,” Kutyin said.

[Penguin]

Further media reports, turning up yet other unusual details in the case, said that one of the suspects was a seaman who had been declared dead at sea in 2006. His family in the city of Kursk recognised him in pictures.

Not only are the eight pirate suspects still being held by the Russian secret service, but also the crew members. Investigators are still probing whether there may have been any collusion between the pirates and crew.

Oh wow...Howd he miss Kursk!

Lies, lies, lies...
I guess there wasn't anything factually correct in the original reporting, just as surmised. All authorities partaking in the spreading of disinfo thru the media...Nice to see that Russia, EU, Nato and Finland can all get along when something important happens!

[Sweejak]

I want to know what the confidentiality agreement with 3 other EU countries was.

[StarmanSkye]

I'm bemused and not a little disappointed in my failing to consider what now seems highly likely, that the crew and alleged pirates were colluding in an evident ransom caper, tho I'm not aware any officials are making this claim. Though I imagine some savvy news-watchers and deep-politics junkies invariably made that leap of insight. In hindsight, it's one of the most plausable explanations to account for the way the media and officials danced around this mystery, esp. acting like the ship was 'lost', and then the outlandish story of the pirates being ecologists whose rubber skiff ran out of gas, being on 'good terms' with the crew, and now the pirates and majority of crew being held by police (though latest updates may have changed this).

So, were the smuggling weapons-or-narcotics report a PR-distraction ruse or what? Did authorities have advance knowledge of an impending piracy-hijack and monitor it to hopefully ferret-out the landbased organized-crime big-boss accomplices?

An interesting bit of speculative Wazzup? detail was re: recent two-week refit involving secret dismantling and reconstruction of a hidden compartment to supposedly hide a Chinese missile being smuggled to Iran (silkworm?) which parts of the deep-politics alt media has been claiming Iran already posseses & that could devastate the US fleet if/when the US/Iran conflict goes Hot.

Kinda hard to tell sensationalist 'news', rumour-mongering, spectacle-pandering, infotainment, Newshour SoapOpera, warmonger propaganda and disinfo/psyops media apart. It seems the categories and agendas sure blend more and more, perhaps even pandering to different unstated agendas.

[Sweejak]

Kinda hard to tell sensationalist 'news', rumour-mongering, spectacle-pandering, infotainment, Newshour SoapOpera, warmonger propaganda and disinfo/psyops media apart. It seems the categories and agendas sure blend more and more, perhaps even pandering to different unstated agendas.

Yeah especially when they say they are using disinfo to solve the case.

Weapons smuggling to Iran or Syria just doesn't make sense for me. Well maybe Syria, but then it wouldn't be state sponsored because Russia has little naval base in Syria and they could just sail there without the intrigue.

I'm provisionally putting the hijacking as a plot that included members of the crew.

About the dam, I can't say and I'd like to see an explanation of how it could physically happen. Chernobyl happened because they were running a test and shut off 3 independent safeguards. They guy in charge of the test committed suicide.

[Sweejak]

Delete double

[Penguin]

About the dam, I can't say and I'd like to see an explanation of how it could physically happen. Chernobyl happened because they were running a test and shut off 3 independent safeguards. They guy in charge of the test committed suicide.

And in addition to that, not everyone running the plant even understood how the reactor worked, the day shift went home when the test took longer, and the night shift was clueless and did all the wrong things, leading to the meltdown.

[smiths]

they could just sail there without the intrigue

russia would know that every time they sail into syria they are being watched, it wouldnt surprise me if its possible to do x-ray type scans from space,

if you wanted to move something hot you would move it in a more subtle way

[Sweejak]

The presumption here is that it would have gone to Algeria and then to Syria? Maybe overland from Algeria to Syria? Doesn't make much sense to me from either a political or practical angle, but I don't know how hard it is to detect nukes and if we are talking weapons smugglers I don't think politics matters that much.

There is nothing to chew on here without going to official sources. No video, no witnesses.

MOSCOW, August 27 (RIA Novosti) - Eight men detained last week on suspicion of hijacking the Arctic Sea cargo ship have been arraigned on piracy and kidnapping charges, Russia's special investigations committee said on Thursday.

A committee spokesperson said one of the suspects had also been charged with organizing the crimes, but named no names.

The Arctic Sea is currently being towed to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. Four crew members remain on board, while the other 11 were flown to Moscow to be questioned by the Russian authorities amid speculation that they may have been in cahoots with the alleged hijackers.

Last Friday, Moscow's Basmanny District Court remanded in custody eight unemployed men from Estonia in connection with the case. All eight deny accusations of piracy and hostage-taking.

A defense lawyer for two of the alleged hijackers formally appealed their arrest on Tuesday.

Some media reports have dismissed the hijacking theory as a plot to cover up a possible conspiracy, including arms smuggling.

Russia's chief investigator said on Tuesday allegations that the Arctic Sea may have been involved in illegal operations would be probed.

Press speculation over the mystery surrounding the Arctic Sea's disappearance has been rife, with some media outlets saying the Russian authorities are trying to cover up a smuggling or trafficking operation. Moscow-based columnist Yulia Latynina speculated that the vessel was secretly shipping arms via Algeria to a rogue state such as Iran or Syria.

Other reports have suggested that the Arctic Sea was hiding a second, smaller vessel while sailing off Sweden's eastern coast.

Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin has dismissed such allegations as "outlandish" and "ridiculous."

Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigations Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, said on Wednesday "we do not rule out that it may have carried more than just sawn timber."

The Maltese-flagged vessel, which had been missing in the Atlantic for more than two weeks, was discovered off Cape Verde last Monday by a Russian warship. It was freed without a shot being fired.