Hunt of the Sea Wolves

De: John Chadwell

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

In 2010, pirates hijacked 53 ships and took more than 1,100 hostages, holding them and the ships for ransom. Of those, 49 ships were captured off the coast of Somalia. They also hijacked a number of yachts and murdered four Americans on one. According to the International Maritime Bureau, worldwide there were 445 attacks, proof that modern-day piracy is not simply a Somali issue. There have been hostile boardings of ships along coasts or in harbors ranging from South Asia to South America and even off the coast of Florida. While piracy seems to only catch the attention of the American government when U.S. citizens are murdered, the question all should be asking is, “why did the pirates kill their hostages in the middle of negotiating their release?” Has the pirates’ goal for financial gain begun to shift to political or religious motives? It is only a matter of time, if planning hasn’t already begun, that terrorist organizations will use piracy methods to not only finance their worldwide jihad, but perhaps use the very ships they hijack and the cargoes as weapons of mass destruction. When pirates hijacked a Greek tanker recently carrying 200,000 barrels of oil it caused a minor ripple on the marketplace and seemingly little concern to governments. What will happen when one day pirates or terrorists hijack an LNG tanker capable of carrying 30-million gallons of liquefied natural gas? And what if these same people have no intention of ransoming the ship and crew? What if their goal is to bring the ship to a major port city and, without warning, detonate it? According to some experts, a single LNG tanker carrying 30-million gallons of liquefied natural gas has the explosive power of 55 atomic bombs similar to the ones dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Some argue that this scenario is not possible. But what if it is? Who would stop the terrorists? Special Agent James Parris, of Homeland Security, heads up a team of professional terrorist hunter-killers that is called on when not one, or two, but three LNG ships are hijacked by ruthless members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, one of several military Islamist separatist organizations in the Philippines. Parris and his team of agents and Indian marines (MARCOS) must stop the ships before they reach their intended targets or hundreds of thousands of citizens of three countries will die in horrific explosions that will vaporize entire cities.