Tuesday, November 25, 2008

There is something fishy about this, certainly

The day after retired Indian Navy RAdm. Raja Menon fired off this rather unflattering opinion piece in the New Express directed at the U.S. and NATO pirate fighting (or non-fighting) efforts, it seems almost too much of a coincidence that
"A US Official with knowledge of last week's incident in the Gulf of Aden tells Fox News there is no evidence to suggest that any pirates were on board the commercial fishing vessel that was destroyed by the Indian Navy."

The supposed owner of the (former?-)Thai fishing vessel that was sunk as a pirate-controlled vessel has also surfaced, claiming his ship had just been captured by pirates and the crew was endangered / killed by the naval engagement.

*Somebody* is putting out a political smokescreen, that is for sure.

. The Indian Navy, looking to justify the action?

.. Foreign fishing interests, looking to cover up poaching?

... Someone in the U.S. trying to whitewash American inaction, for whatever reasons (good or bad)?

.... Someone in diplomatic affairs acting even more pathetically petty?

The only thing clearly known about the incident is that when the INS Tabar fired on the trawler, it went up with a rather spectacular and out-sized explosion.

Some fish, eh?

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