Arctic Sea: Russia used criminals - wikileaks

In the cable's most revealing section José "Pepe" Grinda Gonzalez, Spain's national court prosecutor referred to the case of the Arctic Sea ship as an example of arms trafficking. Russia maintains pirates seized the vessel in July 2009 off the coast of Sweden, diverting it to Africa and the Cape Verde islands. It has consistently denied there were any weapons on board.

Although Gonzalez does not elaborate, his remarks suggest he believes the ship was used by organised criminals to smuggle arms under secret orders from Russia's intelligence agencies. There has been speculation the ship was carrying S-300 missiles destined for Iran. read

Arctic Sea: Patsy now a Lithuanian gets 3 years

Sergei gets penal colony
Eerik gets medal



Sergei Demchenko, Lithuanian national formerly called 'German-based businesman' by prosecutors, has been sentenced to three years in a penal colony by a Moscow court.

The 37-year-old struck a deal with the prosecution, fully admitted his guilt, and assisted in the investigation into the attack on the ‘Arctic Sea’ in the North Atlantic last year,
Latvian citizen Dmitry Savins confessed earlier this year, he was the second crew member to do so after Andrei Lunev pleaded guilty to hijacking and was sentenced to five years.

As part of a plea bargain Savins testified against the alleged mastermind behind the attack, Eerik-Niiles Kross, the former head of Estonia’s foreign intelligence service.
Latvian prosecutors said there was no evidence linking Kross to the Arctic Sea seizure. Eerik-Niiles Kross, who served as the director of Security Coordination Office in the Estonian State Chancellery, which is connected to the Ministry of Defense Information Service (Riigi Teabeamet), from 1995 to 2000.

In 2009, a deal was allegedly struck between Russian and Middle Eastern businessmen,to evade the' technical' delays of the S-300 missile delivery. Some sources claim the Russian military's weapons industry was implicated in the deal and transferred a number of new missiles to Kaliningrad. However the Kremlin was uninvolved, and apparently the deal was carried out in secret between businessmen from the private sector. After the deal was executed, an intelligence agency learned of the ship's departure with the weapons towards Algeria, a country located on a regularly used route for the transfer of weapons to Iran and Syria. The Arctic Sea docked in Kaliningrad in June to undergo various repairs.
On July 24,2009, the Arctic Sea, manned by a Russian crew and carrying a cargo of what was declared to consist solely of timber, was allegedly boarded by hijackers off the coast of Sweden. The story goes that the hijacking of the 'Arctic Sea' was ordered by the Moscow government.after discussions with other countries to prevent the delivery of the missiles to Iran. here more



"Allegedly they did not know the extent of the Estonia documents that Wikileaks acquired."

Eerik-Niiles Kross - a former high-level security analyst who advised the Georgian government - believes the Wikileaks revelations could endanger US relations with its allies. "Last time, Wikileaks revealed military information about Afghanistan, which in some sense was a direct threat to many lives. This time, they will reveal insider diplomatic information, which will not necessarily endager anybody, but it definitely threatens relations between the US and its allies," said Kross. "It's unfortunate that it happened because it endangers honest dialogue in the future within inner circles and with allies because everyone fears that it might somehow reach the newspapers."

Nevertheless, Kross believes the documents will reveal nothing scandalous about Estonia. "It is possible that there are judgements about the profile of some Estonian politician or diplomat, but those are only the personal matters of a few. There is nothing there that would harm bilateral relations." here

Kythira: Melissanidis bunkering tanker escapes

Kerkyra


Mr. Dimitris Melissanidis, Aegean's Founder and Head of Corporate Development, rings the bell at the New York Stock Exchange marking the Company's one year anniversary listing.
SX-DGM, Embraer Legacy 600, Aegean Oil


KYTHIRA, bunkering tanker, based at Fujairah U.A.E. was more than 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 kilometres) East of Eyl, on the Somali coast when it encountered one attack skiff, which fired weapons and attempted to board the vessel twice on 30 November 2010. However, it increased speed and evaded the skiff

9417543 KYTHIRA Chemical/Oil Tanker 5500 2009 Liberia Aegean Bunkering Services

Arctic Sea: Canceled Iran S-300 for drones?

Russia offered Israel $1 billion for advanced drone (automatic aircraft) technologies, and in addition offered to cancel the deal to supply Iran with S-300 missiles, according to an official cable published November 28 via WikiLeaks.
The cable was sent by US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher after meeting Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at the Defense Ministry Amos Gilad. The cable was sent one year before the Kremlin announced it would cancel its deal to supply Iran with the missiles.

Norna N: Ishima barbed chemtanker escapes

The barbed wired chemical tanker NORNA N was fired upon by small arms fire and RPG approximately 700 nautical miles East of Socotra on November 24, the ship’s Master conducted evasive maneuvers and the pirates gave up.

Owner, registered owner & operator: Norna Shipping Corp. S.A.E., Alexandria, Egypt
Manager: Ishima Pte Ltd., Singapore

The name Ishima is an acronym derived from the phrase International Ship Management. ISHIMA is a privately owned company headquartered in Singapore, endorsed by Italian Ship owning group D'Amico, providing a service that is ideally apt to fit the needs of the 21st century ship owner.

With its headquarters in Singapore, Vision encompasses a voyage of expansion, which will be constant, continuous and well constructed. Singapore allows closer proximity to major shipping routes. This provides us with opportunity to make full use of the human resources and marine services available to us.
ISHIMA was founded in July 2005, under the D’Amico group. Traditionally a family business in Italy, D’Amico has been operating for over fifty years. Today, ISHIMA manages 25 ships and supervises the construction of seventeen more.


8006866 NORNA N 3EDY7 Chemical/Oil Tanker 45528 1982 Panama
ex Ship Name: LEADER M

Pirates: U.S. Money for British Mercenaries

Operating in fast boats capable of outrunning the pirates' converted fishing vessels, mercenaries can prevent the pirates from putting to sea or returning to shore suggested Chris Holtby, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Deputy Head of Security Policy. Mr Holtby has been involved in discussions with British 'business risk consultants' Drum Cussac, which already supplies armed security teams to shipping companies.

Drum Cussac has been hired by Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) with the international community agreeing to foot the bill. The money will come from $25 million the US Government have promised to the antipiracy project.

Britain, which has so far not committed "specifically counter-piracy" money, will also contribute from "overlaying of benefits from counter-terrorism, counter-trafficking, migration, development/rule of law" funds.

Drum Cussac, which describes itself as 'the market leader in antipiracy and maritime security', is headed by former Scots Guards officer Jeremy Stampa Orwin.

Drum Cussac says it can 'supply a full range of armed services for the protection of vessels in transit through high risk waters and for static operations or survey work in areas of high threat'.

'Our armed option', it says, 'has been designed to provide fully legitimate, properly licensed and trained teams to deploy on board vessels. Our teams are experienced UK nationals and are equipped with new and modern weapons systems.'

Foreign Office officials had met with the security firm involved at the request of the Somali Government. Donor cash, including British taxpayers money, would "indirectly" pay for their operation.

Abdallah Boss Ahmed, until recently the Somali defence minister has approved the plan.
Chris Holtby
Chair, Working Group 1,(Operational Co‐ordination and Regional Capability Development),Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia
Deputy Head (European Security/NATO/Operations/Maritime Security)
Security Policy Group, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London
He has worked in both the FCO and MOD on Balkans issues and was posted to the UK Delegation to NATO in the 1990s.
[The length of the Somali coastline is roughly the same length as the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States, according to U.S. Navy statistics.]

Medi Chennai: Anangel coal carrier evades pirates

John Platsidakis, managing director of Anangel Maritime Services Inc



Leonidas Zissimatos, Technical Director of Anangel Maritime Services, Inc.







The furthest East attack ever registered, approximately 880 nautical miles (1,600 kilometres) East of Port Victoria, Seychelles, came on November 26 to the Angelicoussis bulker Medi Chennai. The pirates fired shots and RPG grenades but the barb-wired ship zigzagged and they gave up.

9300221 MEDI CHENNAI 3ECQ3 Bulker 55862 2005 Panama
ANANGEL MARITIME SERVICES INC
Anangel Maritime Services Inc (hereafter Anangel) is a private limited company that was incorporated in Liberia in March 2001.
Anangel has a fleet of 24 big bulk carriers and has 19 more on order.

“The fleet mostly consists of Capesize vessels, although there are still a few Panamaxes. Our profile, or company vision, is to be a high-quality operator of high-quality tonnage. Like everyone else in the current shipping environment, we may be concerned about ‘cost’ but we never cut our maintenance budgets. We spend considerable amounts on training our personnel at our own, DNV–certified centre.
The mother group of Anangel is called Agelef Shipping Group Ltd.. It is managed by John Angelicoussis. The group has offices in Piraeus, London, Houston, Manilla and Okpo, and operates more than 50 vessels, mainly bulk carriers and tankers. The two main management companies of the group are Anangel Shipping Enterprises, which operates about 25 bulk carriers, and Kristen Navigation with some 30 tankers. Anangel Maritime Services Inc. the Group’s bulker arm, is the first Greek company to enter the VLOC market.
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