Anyone else following these little tidbits?

Backround- the Arctic Sea a Russian ship flagged for Latvia picked up a load of lumber from Finland a few weeks ago and headed to some place in Africa . It disappeared for like 2 weeks. Then was found by Russian navy frigates off the coast of the Cape Verde Islands. Apparently the Russians new where it was for most of the time it was "missing" and they said news folk were helping them keep it hush hush because it had been taken over by pirates and they , the Russian NAvy, were trying to rescue the ship and crew.

Then it gets weird. The "Pirates" claim to be just some science guys doing a study who are being framed. The Russians take everyone off the ship onto a navy ship and proceed to a port. At the port 2 HUGE Russian Air Force heavy lift aircraft arrive and take supposedly the 11 crew and handful o f"pirates" back to Russia.

2 big cargo planes for like 20 guys?


then a rumor starts that there maybe was something else on the ship besides wood. The Russians denied that of course.

Then one of the Russian officials said that "maybe" something else was on board.

Some are suggesting missiles were on board headed for the middle east.

Today the guy who was pushed the investigation into where the ship was in the first place story FLED RUSSIA IN FEAR FOR HIS LIFE--

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gGMWEnaCdQQYsfVwZJjeIVkgLzgQD9AG10500


Ill have more on my theory later:)

but let me just tease with this picture

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2009/08/17/russia-power-cp-7176236.jpg

:suspect:

Is that suppose to be a missile holder?

I think it contained the water vaporizer from Batman begins.

Or maybe that radioactive goo from Transporter 3.

NO WAIT! It had to have been Megatron, they pulled it up from the ocean bottom!

We have more in coming that I thought Zoom :)

I've been following this too, fwiw here's last weeks time article. A lot of fingers are being pointed to weapons to the mid east.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090831/wl_time/08599191934200
In July, the Russian-manned cargo ship the Arctic Sea disappeared on its way to take timber from Finland to Algeria, sparking reports of the first incident of piracy in European waters since the days of the buccaneers. Experts and observers weighed in with their theories: the ship had been snatched in a commercial dispute; it was being used to run drugs; it was carrying something more precious - or dangerous - than timber.


Since then, the Russian navy has found the ship, and the alleged hijackers who boarded it on July 24 have been charged with kidnapping and piracy. The ship's captain, his crew and whatever cargo the ship was carrying have also been detained. An initial search of the hull turned up nothing suspicious, and now Russia's official explanation of what happened will probably become the final one - this was a hijacking thwarted by its navy without a shot being fired. But there are baffling details left unexplained, leading some experts to claim that the truth is much more sinister: the Arctic Sea, they say, was intercepted by Israel as it carried a secret cargo of weapons to the Middle East. (See pictures of dramatic pirate-hostage rescues.)


The highest-ranking official to put forward this version of events is the European Union's rapporteur on piracy and a former commander of the Estonian armed forces, Admiral Tarmo Kouts. In an interview with TIME, he says only a shipment of missiles could account for Russia's bizarre behavior throughout the monthlong saga. "There is the idea that there were missiles aboard, and one can't explain this situation in any other way," he says. "As a sailor with years of experience, I can tell you that the official versions are not realistic."


Kouts says an Israeli interception of the cargo is the most likely explanation. But this theory, which some Russian analysts put forward in the days after the Arctic Sea was rescued and which Kouts agreed with in his interview with TIME, has been vehemently denied by Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin, who says Kouts should stop "running his mouth." (Read "Girding for the Pirates' Revenge.")


The official explanation coming out of Moscow is simple enough: the Arctic Sea, manned by a Russian crew, set sail from Finland under a Maltese flag on July 22. It was destined for Algeria and carried less than $2 million worth of timber. Then a group of eight Russian and former Soviet hijackers boarded the ship on July 24. The ship's tracking device was disabled in the last days of July, as it passed through the English Channel into the Atlantic, and the ship disappeared. On Aug. 12, the Russian navy sent out a search party. A week later, Russia declared that the ship and its crew had been rescued. (Read "Has Piracy Spread to Europe's Waters?")


But as details of the hijacking emerged, the tale got murkier, and Moscow's explanation does little to clear things up. Why, with so many other ships carrying much more valuable cargo, would the hijackers target the Arctic Sea and its small load of timber? Why didn't the ship send out a distress signal? Why did Israeli President Shimon Peres pay a surprise visit to Russia a day after the ship was rescued? Why did Russia wait so long to send its navy to find the ship? And what did the brother of one of the alleged hijackers, Dmitri Bartenev, mean when he told Estonian TV on Aug. 24 that his brother and the other suspected pirates had been "set up ... They went to find work and ended up in a political conflict. Now they are hostage to some kind of political game"? Bartenev's lawyer tells TIME that his client was "in the wrong place at the wrong time."


There are also questions surrounding the Arctic Sea's rescue. On orders from the Kremlin, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov sent a completely disproportionate force, including destroyers and submarines, to look for the vessel. It took five days for them to find it, the Defense Ministry said, even though the Foreign Ministry later announced that it was fully aware of the Arctic Sea's coordinates the entire time. To fly the alleged pirates and the crew back to Moscow - a group of only 19 men - Russia dispatched two enormous military-cargo planes. And then on their arrival, the ship's crew was detained along with the alleged hijackers for days of questioning, with no access to their families or the media.


"Even from the basic facts, without assumptions, it is clear that this was not just piracy," says Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the Russian maritime journal Sovfrakht, which has been tracking unusual incidents on the high seas for decades. "I've never seen anything like this. These are some of the most heavily policed waters in the world. You cannot just hide a ship there for weeks without government involvement."


According to Voitenko and other experts, a secret cargo could have been hidden on the ship during the two weeks it spent in Kaliningrad for repairs, just before it picked up its Finnish haul of timber. Not contiguous with the rest of Russia, Kaliningrad is the country's westernmost enclave on the coast of the Baltic Sea, and is known as a hub for Russian smugglers. "Personally, I don't care about any missiles," Voitenko tells TIME. "I care about what they're doing with those sailors."


There are many governments, however, that would be more concerned about a possible missile shipment, especially if it were destined for the Middle East. Chief among them is Israel. In recent years, the Israeli government has consistently raised alarms about Russia's plans to sell MiG-31 fighter planes to Syria and its construction of a nuclear-power station in southwestern Iran. Negotiations with Moscow have been tough on these issues and relations often icy, as the Israeli President pointed out during his visit to Russia on Aug. 18, just as the mysteries behind the Arctic Sea's disappearance began to unfold. (Read "Medvedev and Obama: Sunshine in Moscow.")


"The most likely explanation is that the Israelis intercepted this cargo, which had been meant for Syria or Iran," says Yulya Latynina, a prominent political commentator and radio host on Echo of Moscow, a station owned by state-controlled gas giant Gazprom. "They will now use the incident as a bargaining chip with Russia over weapons sales in the region, while allowing Russia to save face by taking its empty ship back home." When contacted by TIME, both the Israeli Prime Minister's office and Mossad, Israel's secret service, declined to comment. (See pictures of 60 years of Israel.)


But in an Aug. 18 statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Peres had discussed "the sale of Russian weapons and military hardware to countries hostile to Israel" with his Russian counterpart, Dmitri Medvedev, on that day during four hours of closed-door talks in the Russian city of Sochi. According to the statement, Peres "stressed that Israel has concrete proof of Russian weapons being transferred to terrorist organizations by Iran and Syria, especially to Hamas and Hizballah." A spokeswoman for the Israeli President declined to elaborate on any connection with the Arctic Sea. In a parallel statement, the Kremlin did not mention weapons sales, saying after the meeting that "we more clearly and precisely understand each other's positions."


Russia's chief investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, told official state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta that a band of new-age pirates, possibly in connivance with the crew, is all that lies behind the Arctic Sea mystery. But he did concede that there are questions that need answering. "We don't rule out the possibility that [the ship] was carrying more than just timber," he said, without elaborating further.


Speaking to TIME, NATO envoy Rogozin backed up the investigator's statement: "The cargo has to be checked to see if there was something illegal, something being smuggled." But he declined to comment on the theory of Israeli interception. "This is no longer a question for diplomats or for the military," he said. "It is now a question for the investigators, and they are carrying on with their work. We are also very curious to hear their findings." (See pictures of the face of modern piracy.)


When asked by TIME about the possibility that the Arctic Sea was carrying a secret cargo, Vladimir Voronov, deputy head of Oy Solchart Management - the Helsinki-based, Russian-run company that operates the ship - replied, "I don't know anything about a secret cargo. We're just a simple shipping firm, and from what we understand, our ship was hijacked."


According to investigator Bastrykin, a full search of the vessel will be carried out when the ship arrives at a Russian port in the next few weeks. But observers don't expect any revelations. "The versions we are getting from the Russian government do not fit into any logical parameters, and I don't think that will change," commentator Latynina says. "When people lie, they tend to lie consistently."

great read Zoom and Dills.

lol it reminds me of Lord of War :)

.... WMD's..... but shhhh dont tell anyone

http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=144889&stc=1&d=1252074787

ok sorry for the delay

So this pic is of a Russian Hydro Electric Power Plant that had an "Accident"

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2009/08/17/russia-power-cp-7176236.jpg

which occurred recently. There was an explosion- the source of which remains unidentified but Russian Authorities have said there was no evidence of explosive materials or sabotage- which caused a surge of water through the turbines destroying them and apparently killing some 70 people.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iP8LEhWDkeRuNFgkFHV4E-oee6TAD9A6P6QG0

When I hear "Russian Power Plant" and see destruction like that I cant help but think of a scene like this

http://www.nexternal.com/dreamland/images/xmen_5.jpg

and there is also this little mysterious tid bit of news from the AP i first found in the USA today


Police: 1 killed in small plane crash in Pa.

(AP) – 4 days ago

EFFORT, Pa. — State police say one person has been killed in a small plane crash in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Trooper Bryon Dickson says the accident happened Sunday morning near a small airport in Chestnuthill Township, Monroe County, about 40 miles north of Allentown.

The plane crashed behind a home near the Pegasus Air Park.

Dickson says the call came in shortly before 10 a.m. He says police believe the plane was some kind of experimental aircraft and that it appeared to be a one-seater.

The Federal Aviation Administration is heading to the scene to investigate.


Which sounds exactly like the kind of canned reports the Government issues to cover up stuff.

"nothing to see here move along"

I say all of these events are connected!!!

Something was hidden at the Russian power plant.

Someone went there to steal it and there was a big fight but they got away with the "Carbonadium Syntesizer" and something else.....

The items were smuggled out to Finland where they were put aboard the Arctic Sea.

The Russians attempted recover them by sending the fleet after the Arctic Sea but were too late. Someone got away with it in the Alien Spacecraft that was also held at the Russian "Energy Station"

The pilot- probably injured in the fights in Russia and aboard the ship- crashed the UFO into the woods in PA on his way to some secret base in NY or Canada

Now the UFO and the Carbonadium Syntesizer are in the hands of the US Government.

The Russians are trying to clamp down on the whole incident and sweep it under the rug- hence the threats to the guy who left the country and the disinformation coming from them

http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=144889&stc=1&d=1252074787

Good movie...

Is this surprising for Russia? Is this unexpected? Nope.

Perhaps this is just another example of desperate "reporters" trying to fabricate stories in order to sell advertising.

What does it matter if it had "omg missiles" or not? So what? Lots of vessels carry missiles around every single day.

Missiles, middle east, wmd, same old same old.

ok sorry for the delay

So this pic is of a Russian Hydro Electric Power Plant that had an "Accident"



which occurred recently. There was an explosion- the source of which remains unidentified but Russian Authorities have said there was no evidence of explosive materials or sabotage- which caused a surge of water through the turbines destroying them and apparently killing some 70 people.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iP8LEhWDkeRuNFgkFHV4E-oee6TAD9A6P6QG0

When I hear "Russian Power Plant" and see destruction like that I cant help but think of a scene like this



and there is also this little mysterious tid bit of news from the AP i first found in the USA today





Which sounds exactly like the kind of canned reports the Government issues to cover up stuff.

"nothing to see here move along"

I say all of these events are connected!!!

Something was hidden at the Russian power plant.

Someone went there to steal it and there was a big fight but they got away with the "Carbonadium Syntesizer" and something else.....

The items were smuggled out to Finland where they were put aboard the Arctic Sea.

The Russians attempted recover them by sending the fleet after the Arctic Sea but were too late. Someone got away with it in the Alien Spacecraft that was also held at the Russian "Energy Station"

The pilot- probably injured in the fights in Russia and aboard the ship- crashed the UFO into the woods in PA on his way to some secret base in NY or Canada

Now the UFO and the Carbonadium Syntesizer are in the hands of the US Government.

The Russians are trying to clamp down on the whole incident and sweep it under the rug- hence the threats to the guy who left the country and the disinformation coming from them


is this him? if so, they finally got to him :(

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/image-files/firefox-clint-eastwood-movie-poster.jpg
















but wow, man your post actually makes you wonder though.

Russia publicly denies it's missles, but doesn't state what the cargo was or why the concern:

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Tuesday rejected speculation that a hijacked Russian-crewed freighter was carrying advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles possibly destined for Iran.

The freighter, the "Arctic Sea," was allegedly hijacked in the Baltic Sea in late July after leaving a Finnish port. Russian naval vessels intercepted the ship weeks later off Cape Verde, thousands of kilometers from the Algerian port where it was purportedly set to deliver a load of timber.

A Russian shipping expert and a European Union anti-piracy official have speculated that the vessel was carrying a clandestine cargo, possibly S-300 surface-to-air missiles for Iran or Syria.

But Lavrov said the presence of S-300s on board the cargo ship was "a complete lie," the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, quoted sources in Russia and Israel as saying the ship was carrying the advanced missiles to Iran and had been tracked by Israel.

The paper also quoted the sources as saying that the Mossad tracked the vessel and later tipped off Moscow that its cargo had been sold by former Russian military officers linked to the Russian underworld.

Iran has long been interested in buying medium-range Russian S-300 air defense systems from Russia. Israel has meanwhile sought to convince Moscow not to deliver the missiles, which could help repel possible Israel and U.S. air strikes against the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1113364.html

Russia has offered to sell the missiles to Iran.

Israel doesn't want Iran to have the missiles. It's well known that Israel has threatened to bomb the facilities that could help Iran create nuclear weapons. The missiles could make such a strike more difficult.

So if you were going to sell these missiles to Iran, you wouldn't want to let the Israelis know they were being shipped.