http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=317_1302952747 Items in channel 'QIQrrr' Wed, 22 May 2013 21:44:05 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=317_1302952747 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:47:52 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=440_1264300905 QIQrrr The United Nations climate science panel faces new controversy for wrongly linking global warming to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods. It based the claims on an unpublished report that had not been subjected to routine scientific scrutiny - and ignored warnings from scientific advisers that the evidence supporting the link too weak. The report's own authors later withdrew the claim because they felt the evidence was not strong enough. The claim by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that global warming is already affecting the severity and frequency of global disasters, has since become embedded in political and public debate. It was central to discussions at last month's Copenhagen climate summit, including a demand by developing countries for compensation of $100 billion (lb62 billion) from the rich nations blamed for creating the most emissions. (See SOURCE for details) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=440_1264300905 QIQrrr UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters IPCC, Scandal, Fraud Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:46:01 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ac1_1263213080 QIQrrr This past week, I was having lunch at a restaurant in midtown Manhattan when my colleague noticed Al and Tipper Gore dining across the room with another couple. It was a frigid day, with record-breaking temperatures keeping most people indoors, and we were the last two tables in the restaurant. As the Gore party started walking out of the room, my colleague called out, "Hey, Al, how's all that global warming working out for you?" Gore turned around and stared at us with a completely dumbfounded look on his face. He was speechless. With a smile, my colleague repeated the question, again to a hapless look of dismay. Finally, Gore mumbled under his breath, "Wow, you sound awfully angry." I responded with a thank you, explaining to him that we were actually extremely amused. The encounter concluded with Gore's friend mouthing a very animated "f--- you" at us, and they skulked away. My only regret is that no one at the table asked Gore, "What's the matter? The polar bear's got your tongue?" What struck me the most about this meeting was Gore's complete inability to utter a sentence addressing his life's work. The former Vice President, Nobel Prize laureate, and Academy Award-winning producer standing before us was a moron, unable to articulate a simple comeback to address all that he has stood for since leaving office. He could have simply ignored us and kept walking, as he does with reporters, but by stopping and standing there dumbstruck, he looked like a fool. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ac1_1263213080 QIQrrr Al Gore's dining partner says 'F*** You' to skeptics Al Gore Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:24:43 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ea0_1260422257 QIQrrr Nobel peace prize: Norwegians incensed over Barack Obama's snubs. Barack Obama's trip to Oslo to pick up his Nobel peace award is in danger of being overshadowed by a row over the cancellation of a series of events normally attended by the prizewinner. Norwegians are incensed over what they view as his shabby response to the prize by cutting short his visit. The White House has cancelled many of the events peace prize laureates traditionally submit to, including a dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee, a press conference, a television interview, appearances at a children's event promoting peace and a music concert, as well as a visit to an exhibition in his honour at the Nobel peace centre. He has also turned down a lunch invitation from the King of Norway. According to a poll published by the daily tabloid VG, 44% of Norwegians believe it was rude of Obama to cancel his scheduled lunch with King Harald, with only 34% saying they believe it was acceptable. "Of all the things he is cancelling, I think the worst is cancelling the lunch with the king," said Siv Jensen, the leader of the largest party in opposition, the populist Progress party. "This is a central part of our government system. He should respect the monarchy," she told VG. The Norwegian Nobel committee, which awards the peace prize, dismissed the criticism. "We always knew that there were too many events in the programme. Obama has to govern the US and we were told early on that he could not commit to all of them," said Geir Lundestad, secretary of the committee. Although Obama will not lunch with King Harald, he will see him on a visit to the royal palace. Peace activists opposed to the Afghanistan war are planning a 5,000-strong protest in Oslo. The visit will test Obama's rhetorical skills as he seeks to reconcile acceptance of the Nobel peace prize with sending an extra 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan. White House officials said that Obama, who was planning to work on the final draft of his speech on his flight from Washington to Oslo, would directly address the issue of the irony of being awarded the peace prize while escalating the war. The Nobel peace committee has been criticised for awarding Obama the prize before he has any major accomplishments in international relations. A White House official said that it was not necessarily an award that Obama would have given himself. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ea0_1260422257 QIQrrr Nobel Scandal Blows Wide Open as Furious Norwegian Drama Queen Goes Ballistic Over Peace Prize Winner's King Snub Nobel Peace Price, Obama, Norway, Oslo Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:00:41 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1e1_1256075777 QIQrrr "Personal carbon rations would have to be mandatory, imposed by Government in the same way that food rationing was introduced in the UK in 1939. Each person would receive an electronic card containing their year's carbon credits." Preface. This is a factual account of the highly politicised concept of catastrophic man made climate change. The views quoted above are supported in principle by the UK govt but said to be ahead of their time. However, the means to achieve them are now being quietly introduced into main stream thinking through the systematic use of a political agenda that uses the alarming notion of catastrophic man made climate change as the means to force through a measure of social engineering unequalled in the UK in modern times. In promoting this notion, alternative and well researched views that oppose the science lying behind the unproven hypothesis are stifled, and derision heaped on those pointing out previous well documented warming and cooling periods that occur in, as yet, little understood cycles throughout our history. This is a long and complex document so it is suggested that a read through of the text that can be seen on your screen should serve as a useful introduction to the highways and byways of our political and scientific establishments. Additional information is provided in many of the links-some deserving of considerable time- so a second much more leisurely examination of the account will enable the reader to acquire a deeper knowledge of the subversion of science in pursuit of political objectives. (See SOURCE for further details.) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1e1_1256075777 QIQrrr Revealed: the UK government strategy for personal carbon rations Global, Warming, Climate, Change, Carbon, CO2, Scam, Fraud, Socialism, Communism, Statism, Welfare State, UK, Britain, England, Gordon Brown, Al Gore Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:29:44 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a33_1255469124 QIQrrr Britain continues its descent into a socialist hell, devoid of any justice or morality. We now live in a sub-Marxist world where the ultra-politicised institutions of the State wield arbitrary power, bullying the decent members of the public while dangerous criminals walk free. The legal system is fast becoming an instrument of oppression rather than a bulwark of civilisation. Such is the grip of Left-wing thinking on our so-called law enforcers that they are no longer willing to protect society from violence and thuggery. Instead, they prefer to hound ordinary citizens over offences such as thought crimes or breaches of their myriad environmental regulations. Similarly, infringements of traffic rules are pursued with far more authoritarian zeal than is ever applied to burglary, assault, theft, drug abuse or vandalism. in this process of politicisation, common sense has disappeared and basic freedoms have been destroyed. In the Big Brother culture created by Labour, full of vast databases, surveillance cameras, state- employed spies and intrusive questionnaires, all of us are now treated as potential criminal suspects for being insufficiently enthusiastic about cultural diversity or the fashionable green agenda. Yet the real enemies of our society, like crack-addicted thieves, drunken yobs, benefit swindlers or islamic terrorists, have little to fear from our enfeebled courts, which wallow in leniency and excuse-making. The only people whose human rights count are those of offenders, not their victims. Never has criminal law been wider in its scope or more useless in its central purpose of maintaining order. Under Labour more than 3,600 new offences have been created since 1997 at a rate of 320 a year, including such major crimes as holding an unlicensed concert in a church hall. Despite this frenzy of legislation, violent crime has more than doubled in the last 10 years, while the police and the Crown Prosecution Service have become so cowardly in the face of genuine brutality that fewer than half of all violent offenders are ever put through the courts. Obsessed with politically correct environmentalism, ministers and judges now speak in ever-more threatening terms about the requirement for households to recycle their waste in the official, state-approved manner. The Government has warned that homes will soon have to cope with even more complex rules. as part of this drive to turn Britain into a "zero-waste nation", a pilot scheme is being tested in the north London borough of Brent where residents have been given boxes for recyclable items from a list of no fewer than 12 categories. "We have a 12-step programme with a fixed penalty notice as the final step," said one of Brent's officials, sounding like a commissar in charge of a political re-education programme. already, state fixation with green bullying has resulted in the kind of punishments that the courts would not dream of imposing on young thugs or serial shoplifters. In Sunderland, for instance, residents have been threatened with fines of lb1,000 for putting their rubbish out on the wrong day. Further south in the test valley in Hampshire, the local authority employs a team of 12 bin monitors, whose job is to compile a database of repeat environmental offenders, this in a political climate where the policeand town halls continually bleat about "lack of resources" to deal with serious criminals. Last week, guidelines by Lord Justice Sedley urged that magistrates should take a role "equal to Greenpeace" by punishing environmental offences more heavily. in a highly political statement, he argued that "despoliation of the environment is arguably the gravest of all problems we are going to hand on to our children". it is telling that Sedley, once a tutor at a communist party summer school, has boasted that "changing the world" is one of his ideals. The same twisted values can now be seen throughout public life in Britain. the Metropolitan Police employed no fewer than 25 officers in the arrest of Tory frontbencher Damian Green for daring to highlight the shambles of the Government's immigration policy yet the State has displayed no such vigour in dealing with illegal migrants or foreign criminals. The Government is now planning a surreptitious amnesty for at least 200,000 asylum seekers, 90 per cent of whose claims are bogus. in the same way, anyone who wants to work with children is treated as a potential paedophile yet the State is woefully ineffectual at dealing with the real menaces. Only last month David Berry, 61, from Hartlepool, walked free from court despite amassing more than 500 images of child pornography. the judge imposed a meaningless community order rather than a jail sentence. Today the Commons is debating a Government proposal to make it illegal for newsagents to display cigarettes for sale. Yet this is the same Government that has all but legalised soft drugs and treats dangerous addicts as victims of society rather than law breakers. There is even a move, pushed last week by the Prison Governors association, to abolish all prison sentences of less than 12 months, replacing them with community sentences. The rest of us will be living in the shadow of fear, left defenceless by a State machine that is no longer on our side. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a33_1255469124 QIQrrr Honest citizens put in the dock as thugs go free Socialism, environmentalism, Britain, UK, England Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:08:39 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=000_1255370747 QIQrrr Engineers have performed their magic once again. The world is not going to run short of energy as soon as feared. America is not going to bleed its wealth importing fuel. Russia's grip on Europe's gas will weaken. Improvident Britain may avoid paralysing blackouts by mid-decade after all. The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions. Advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected. Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, said proven natural gas reserves around the world have risen to 1.2 trillion barrels of oil equivalent, enough for 60 years' supply - and rising fast. "There has been a revolution in the gas fields of North America. Reserve estimates are rising sharply as technology unlocks unconventional resources," he said. This is almost unknown to the public, despite the efforts of Nick Grealy at "No Hot Air" who has been arguing for some time that Britain's shale reserves could replace declining North Sea output. Rune Bjornson from Norway's StatoilHydro said exploitable reserves are much greater than supposed just three years ago and may meet global gas needs for generations. "The common wisdom was that unconventional gas was too difficult, too expensive and too demanding," he said, according to Petroleum Economist. "This has changed. If we ever doubted that gas was the fuel of the future - in many ways there's the answer." The breakthrough has been to combine 3-D seismic imaging with new technologies to free "tight gas" by smashing rocks, known as hydro-fracturing or "fracking" in the trade. The US is leading the charge. Operations in Pennsylvania and Texas have already been sufficient to cut US imports of liquefied natural gas (LGN) from Trinidad and Qatar to almost nil, with knock-on effects for the global gas market - and crude oil. It is one reason why spot prices for some LNG deliveries have dropped to 50pc of pipeline contracts. Energy bulls gambling that the world economy will soon resume its bubble trajectory need to remember two facts: industrial production over the last year is still down 19pc in Japan, 18pc in Italy, 17pc in Germany, 15pc in Canada, 13pc in France and Russia. 11pc in the US and the UK and 10pc in Brazil. A 12pc rise in China does not offset this. OPEC states are cheating on quota cuts. Non-compliance has fallen to 62pc from 82pc in March. Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela et al face a budget crunch. Why comply when non-OPEC Russia is pumping at breakneck speed? The US Energy Department expects shale to meet half of US gas demand within 20 years, if not earlier. Projects are cranking up in eastern France and Poland. Exploration is under way in Australia, India and China. Texas A&M University said US methods could increase global gas reserves by nine times to 16,000 TCF (trillion cubic feet). Almost a quarter is in China but it may lack the water resources to harness the technology given the depletion of the North China water basin. Needless to say, the Kremlin is irked. "There's a lot of myths about shale production," said Gazprom's Alexander Medvedev. If the new forecasts are accurate, Gazprom is not going to be the perennial cash cow funding Russia's great power resurgence. Russia's budget may be in structural deficit. As for the US, we may soon be looking at an era when gas, wind and solar power, combined with a smarter grid and a switch to electric cars returns the country to near energy self-sufficiency. This has currency implications. If you strip out the energy deficit, America's vaulting savings rate may soon bring the current account back into surplus - and that is going to come at somebody else's expense, chiefly Japan, Germany and, up to a point, China. Shale gas is undoubtedly messy. Millions of gallons of water mixed with sand, hydrochloric acid and toxic chemicals are blasted at rocks. This is supposed to happen below the water basins but accidents have been common. Pennsylvania's eco-police have shut down a Cabot Oil & Gas operation after 8,000 gallons of chemicals spilled into a stream. Nor is it exactly green. Natural gas has much lower CO2 emissions than coal, even from shale - which is why the Sierra Club is backing it as the lesser of evils against "clean coal" (not yet a reality). The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said America may not need any new coal or nuclear plants "ever" again. I am not qualified to judge where gas excitement crosses into hyperbole. I pass on the story because the claims of BP and Statoil are so extraordinary that we may need to rewrite the geo-strategy textbooks for the next half century. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=000_1255370747 QIQrrr Energy crisis is postponed as new gas rescues the world Natural gas, oil, energy Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:26:53 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3f1_1250399659 QIQrrr Greetings fellow South Florida riders, South Floridians, and Americans, here we are for another monthly installment of our Wheels on the Road political assessment. The time just seems to fly between composing these missives, what a month it has been. Last month's Washingtoons piece was entitled, "The Breaking Point; Summer of Discontent". Now I would never consider myself prescient but it does not take a rocket scientist to realize what has occurred this past month. Americans who have been disregarded by members of Congress and Senate have had enough. They did not want the TARP bill last October. They did not want the stimulus bill. They did not want the Cap and Trade bill. They have seen the national debt, deficit, and unemployment grow. However, in each instance no one listened and all these pieces of legislation were passed; of course Cap and Trade awaits Senate approval. We mentioned last month that the new target was healthcare and the 1000+ page bill is chock full of mandates that have nothing to do with improving healthcare for Americans. The people have read this bill, something that some members of Congress admit they don't do...Congressman John Conyers. Americans are not convinced that this proposed plan will reform healthcare, rather just promote more government growth, government control, and tax increases. As members have come home for their taxpayer funded summer recess, they have been welcomed home by constituents who want answers. These townhall forums have become rather heated, but who can blame the people? However, what has been the response from the liberal Democrats and the mainstream media? Concerned American citizens are being called Nazi's, evilmongers, racists, tea bagging rednecks, and right wing extremists. They have been accused of organized protest and even had an email set up which enables their "fishy behavior" to be reported. And there have been Americans who received unsolicited emails from David Axelrod with the White House letterhead to their private email accounts. Three of my friends have received such. We are witnessing something really disturbing in America. At issue is not the reaction of concerned American citizens but rather the response from the Democrats, liberal media, and the DNC. It seems they are resorting to their normal Saul Alinsky "Rules for Radicals" tactics; Rule #5, Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. They are lowering themselves to calling American's a mob and trying to depict concerned American's as sore losers. What they fail to realize is that in America we live in a Republic where we respect the rule of law, not being ruled. We have a Constitution which affords its citizens rights such as free speech, freedom of expression, and freedom to petition the government. It is amazing to me that when the opposition to President Obama's questionable policies expresses their dissent they are demeaned. When I flip over to CNN and MSNBC, not often but to understand what the opposition thinks, I find that they don't think. They only seek to create a racial confrontation by fomenting the belief that white American's refuse to accept a black POTUS. What the liberal socialists had best recognize is that their venom is no longer effective, we are anesthetized to their bite. Seems we found anti-venom and we all have been injected to produce anti-bodies. We are not going to back down. As well, the DNCs running of insidious advertisements and the White House created "Great American Snitch" program only indicate desperation. One must find it comical that the same folks who brought you the professional community organizer President are attacking citizens organizing. We have seen anti-war protests by Code Pink, PETA tossing blood on individuals, left wing enviro-terrorist groups attacking SUV dealerships, ACORN and SEIU protests, and even voter intimidation at polling stations (New Black Panther Party, Philadelphia). Yet, concerned American citizens are called extremists? President George W Bush was constantly attacked from his inauguration in Jan 2001 to the day he departed office Jan 20, 2009. Dare you speak of the anointed one? You are a racist. Left wing blogs attacked Governor Sarah Palin and made allegations that her young Son Trig is not hers. But when the opposition questions the birth certificate authenticity of President Obama they are referred to in derision as "birthers". Left wing news media attacked former First Lady Laura Bush reference a traffic accident when she was a teenager. No one is questioning the law license inactive status of First Lady Michele Obama. And what is up with (22) staffers for the First Lady Michele? The Bush twins were regularly part of media attacks, dare no one speak of the Obama daughters who attend wonderful Sidwell Friends School. This is an exclusive school where it is not possible for other children in DC, who are just a little less fortunate but qualified, to attend thanks to their Dad's decision. What is happening is that some of us read the book "Rules for Radicals" and we are turning the table on the liberals. Here are some examples; Rule 1: "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have" Rule 3: "Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat" Rule 4: "Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this..." Rule 8: "Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions..." Rule 9: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself" Rule 11: "If you push a negative hard enough and deep enough it will break through into its counterside" Rule 13: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it" It seems to me that the liberals are great at dishing it out but intolerant of taking a punch. As for me, well, I am above the name calling. I would never say President Barack Hussein Obama is a thin skinned, inept, malignant narcissist. It is beneath me to call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a weak spineless wimp. It is unconscionable to refer to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as a maniacal pathological liar. However, my opponent Congressman Ron Klein, well, does remind me of the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz...before the Wizard gave him courage. As a 22 year US Army combat Veteran I can smell fear, and the left wing liberals are showing it. My admonition, be like a shark which senses blood in the water and attack. The left truly felt that since they won, we would lie down and not fight back against their dangerous agenda, wrong! I will say what may not be politically correct but the future and legacy of our Country is at stake. Get out there and live by the new Golden Rule, "Do Unto Liberals as they Have Done to You"...and watch them crack. Steadfast and Loyal! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3f1_1250399659 QIQrrr Lt. Colonel Allen West: "Do unto Liberals as they have done to you" Allen West Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:54:54 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=45b_1250397832 QIQrrr A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter. The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins. It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine. GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal. The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications. It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when: - More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu. - 500 cases of GBS were detected. - The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times. - The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear. - The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected. Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown. (See SOURCE for more information) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=45b_1250397832 QIQrrr Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America Swine Flu, N1H1, Influenza, Vaccine, Vaccination, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, GBS Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:39:53 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=99b_1250210173 QIQrrr What's the "message" of the market here? Over the last two weeks corporate insiders have dumped over $2.1 billion in stock vs. $73.1 million in buys. I'm not sure I've ever seen the ratio of insider sells vs. buys this skewed toward officers and directors looking for the exit door. Talk about the captain jumping into the lifeboat and speeding away before the ship sinks.... Given that the trailing, "as reported" price/earnings ratio is now 144, or substantially above the peak p/e ratio on the Nasdaq at the top of the tech bubble, what is the market trying to tell us? Think about that when you call up your financial advisor or broker and tell him you want get out of the stock market. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=99b_1250210173 QIQrrr An Avalanche of Insider Stock Selling Stock Market, Wall Street, Insider, Trading, Crash, Collapse, Inflation, Hyperinflation Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:35:29 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2f2_1250140506 QIQrrr Australia's Senate rejected the government's climate-change legislation, forcing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to amend the bill or call an early election. Senators voted 42 to 30 against the law, which included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe. Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade. (See SOURCE for more information) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2f2_1250140506 QIQrrr Australian Senate Rejects Cap and Trade Emissions Plan Australia, Aussies, Climate Change, Global Warming, Warmers, Cap and Trade, IPCC, UN, Scam, Fraud, Al Gore, Goracle Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:58:52 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cca_1250131774 QIQrrr Michigan just experienced its coldest July on record; global temperatures haven't risen in more than a decade; Great Lakes water levels have resumed their 30-year cyclical rise (contrary to a decade of media scare stories that they were drying up due to global warming), and polls show that climate change doesn't even make a list of Michigan voters' top-ten concerns. Yet in an interview with the Detroit News Monday, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) - recently appointed to the Senate Energy Committee - made clear that fighting the climate crisis is her top priority. "Climate change is very real," she confessed as she embraced cap and trade's massive tax increase on Michigan industry - at the same time claiming, against all the evidence, that it would not lead to an increase in manufacturing costs or energy prices. "Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes." And there are sea monsters in Lake Michigan. I can feel them when I'm boating. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cca_1250131774 QIQrrr Sen. Debbie Stabenow: "Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying" Debbie Stabenow, Global Warming, Climate Change, Cap and Trade, Taxation, Fraud, Scam, IPCC, UN, Al Gore, Goracle, The Sky Is Falling Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:08:14 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f4a_1250056903 QIQrrr While their Kalashnikov-armed modern peers are running riot off the Horn of Africa, pirates have been absent from the coasts of Europe for hundreds of years. Now, however, coastguards are investigating what could be the continent's first significant case of maritime piracy in living memory. The mystery surrounds the Arctic Sea, a 98-metre Russian-crewed cargo ship that set off from Finland on 23 July carrying timber worth about lb1m, bound for the Algerian port of Bejaia. In the early hours of the next morning, in the Baltic Sea near the Swedish island of Oland, the ship was boarded by up to 10 armed men dressed in police uniforms, according to reports from the Russian news agency Tass. The raiders tied up the crew as they searched the vessel and stole a few items, including a satellite phone, before leaving in their rubber dingy. Three crew members were reportedly injured. Curiously, the attack did not seem to be reported immediately, and only emerged 10 days later when Interpol issued an alert. By this time the Maltese-registered ship had vanished. Its last confirmed contact with the outside world came just before 3pm UK time on 29 July, when it radioed British coastguards to say it was in the Dover straits and heading for Algeria. Signals from the ship's automatic identification system (AIS) beacon confirmed the position. "That's all they said - where they were and where they were going," said Mark Clark, of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. "They didn't mention anything about having been boarded or hijacked, which would seem a bit curious. If they had been tied up by pirates you'd have thought they might have mentioned it." According to websites that monitor live AIS signals, the Arctic Sea, built in 1992 and owned by a Finnish company, disappeared from tracking systems in the early hours of 30 July off the northern French port of Brest. This did not necessarily mean the system was turned off, as tracking coverage can be patchy. The ship was later spotted by a patrol aircraft off the Portuguese coast, Clark said. And then, nothing - the ship and its crew seemingly disappeared into thin air. The vessel was due at Bejaia more than a week ago, but never arrived. Spanish reports say it was never seen passing the Straits of Gibraltar, meaning it could have been taken down the west coast of Africa. The Russian navy has sent ships from its Black Sea fleet to the Atlantic to hunt for the Arctic Sea, according to the country's defence ministry, while Portugal is carrying out its own search. "We don't know what has happened, but it is possible the ship was attacked by pirates," said a spokesman at the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Lisbon. "We are searching with planes and boats, but so far there is no sign of it." The call to British coastguards was a mystery, Clark said. "It seems possible that the hijackers could still be on board. Even if they are not, at the very least a large ship has apparently gone missing, which is unusual enough. It is possible that the person who spoke was either a pirate or a member of the crew speaking under duress." Inevitably, a number of alternative theories have sprung up, including the notion that criminal gangs or someone connected to the crew had been smuggling drugs or another illegal consignment amid the timber. Russian maritime officials have dismissed any notion of crew complicity, saying those on board were experienced and trusted. If the case does turn out to be piracy, it would be an unprecedented situation, according to Jeremy Harrison, from the UK's Chamber of Shipping. "It's extraordinary. This just doesn't happen. These are heavily patrolled waters," he said. If boarders had turned off the AIS signal, finding the vessel could prove hard, Harrison added. "It can take a long time even to find boats in trouble, even when the general location is known. If the vessel is still afloat and is trying to hide - well, it's a big ocean." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f4a_1250056903 QIQrrr Mystery of the Arctic Sea: ship feared seized by pirates in European waters Arctic Sea