Well, you knew this was coming. We're now going to have an international phalanx of warships in the Gulf of Aden and presumably, the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
US Navy Rear Admiral Terence McKnight has been named the commander of the new force, called Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151), the US Fifth Fleet said in a statement from its headquarters in Bahrain.
Ships from other navies, including Canada, Iran, India and China, have also been patrolling one of the world's busiest sea lanes - the waters of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean leading to and from the Suez Canal.
A spokeswoman for the force, Commander Jane Campbell, said the area the pirates operate in is larger than the Mediterranean Sea and the shipping lane the force will patrol is 480 miles (780km) long.
Despite only two successful hijackings in December, Somali pirates still hold about 15 ships carrying more than 200 crew members. One of these is the Saudi oil tanker the Sirius Star, captured in November. - BBCSo, if there were only two successful hijackings and we already have warships from a host of countries, why this new force? Let's go crazy with the semiotics. Terence McKnight is the Commander of this new fleet. Now, if you put that in a comic book, Warren Ellis would blog you to death for being gobsmackingly obvious.
Why?
Terence is a name of uncertain origin, though there is an unpronouncable Gaelic name, Toirdhealbhach (meaning "instigator") that was Anglicized into Terence (much like Ó Tnúthghail was Anglicized to "Knowles").
But I like the more obvious, homophonic link- Terrans.
If "McKnight" doesn't scream "Templar" at you, you probably wandered onto this site by accident. The irony here is that researchers like David Hatcher Childress claim that the pirates of the pirate glory days were actually the descendants of the Knight Templar, waging war on their rivals in Rome by stealing all of the gold the Spanish were stealing from Mesoamericans.
Commander Jane Campbell also fascinates me, not only because Baigent and Leigh claimed in The Temple and The Lodge that the Knights Templar fought under the standard of Clan Campbell at Banockburn.The Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean- where these pirates are operating- is in a very interesting neighborhood. Because just a few hundred miles east you have the Gulf of Oman which stands on the threshold of where?
Why might you want a massive fleet of warships in that area, if dealing with these ragtag pirates really could be handled by small fleet of well-armed speedboats?
Well, you know me- I'm nuts. The first thing I start thinking is "Welcome Wagon." But a welcome for who?
Let's go back to the semiotics of Commander Jane Campbell. Jane comes from Jehanne, an Old French feminine form of Iohannes. Which brings us back to the neighborhood in question.
Greek savants also quoted the tale by the Babyloniam priest Berossus of the divine Fish-man 'Oannes' who had waded ashore from the Persian Gulf and gave Mankind civilization. These details dovetail with Sumerian texts according to which EA (later also known as ENKI) was the leader of the first group of astronauts from Nibiru who splashed down in the Persian Gulf and waded ashore, dressed as Fishmen. - Sitchin.Com
Fish Priestess (addressing unseen audience in space) declares "Atlantis is Risen!"
Berossus describes Oannes as having the body of a fish but underneath the figure of a man. He is described as dwelling in the Persian Gulf, and rising out of the waters in the daytime and furnishing mankind instruction in writing, the arts and the various sciences.
Once thought to be based on the ancient Babylonian god Ea, it is now known that Oannes is in fact based on Uan - the first of the seven antediluvian sages or Abgallu (in Sumerian Ab=water, Gal=Great, Lu=man), who were sent by Ea to deliver the arts of civilization to mankind in ancient Sumerian mythology, at Eridu, the oldest city of Sumer.- NationMasterFascinating turn of events, and entirely predictable. Let's keep an eye on the news over there, shall we?
UPDATE: This may be totally unrelated, but we also heard today that the mummy of Queen Seshestet was unearthed at that newly discovered pyramid at Saqqara. Remember that Saqqara plays into the whole Stairway to Sirius archetype, and that all queens were considered to be incarnations of Isis in Egypt.
UPDATE II: Well, here's an interesting synchronicity, in line with the "splash down" meme:
UPDATE III: Axie pointed this out in the comments: "Five of the pirates reportedly drowned while making off with their share of the ransom money after their skiff was hit by high seas," the BBC notes. Yeah, "high seas," that was it.A Saudi supertanker that was captured by Somali pirates in November carrying two million barrels of oil has been released, reports quoting pirates say.
A regional maritime group also said pirates had left the Sirius Star, Reuters news agency reported. A negotiator for the pirates told the BBC a $3m (£1.95m) ransom was paid.
A small plane was seen apparently dropping the ransom by parachute onto the tanker. The ship's owner has refused to comment.- BBC
