Yo Ho Ho and a Tanker of Oil: The Perils of Modern Piracy
To the Point
KCRW
4.4 • 583 Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2008
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Sirius Star is a Saudi freighter the size of an aircraft carrier, which is being held by a small band of Somali pirates. With a load of two million barrels of crude oil and a crew of twenty-five, the ship is a valuable hostage for the pirates and a potential environmental disaster if negotiations fail and an oil spill occurs. There been more than two hundred incidents of piracy this year. Guest host Sara Terry explores what's happened to millions of dollars in ransom paid for the release of other vessels, who the pirates are and why they aren’t being caught by naval forces. Also, the Fed targets consumer spending and mortgage rates, and how to trim the fat from the federal budget in tough economic times.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point. |
| 0:08.3 | Yo-ho-ho and a tanker of oil, the perils of modern piracy. |
| 0:16.3 | I'm Sarah Terry sitting in for Warren Olney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International, |
| 0:22.3 | a daily look at the issues Americans care about most. |
| 0:25.7 | Somali pirates want $15 million in ransom money for a Saudi tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude oil. |
| 0:34.2 | And this morning, news that yet another cargo freighter has been captured, this one from |
| 0:38.6 | Yemen. That brings the total of ships now being held by pirates to 17. Why has the coast of East |
| 0:45.0 | Africa become such a dangerous place for shipping? What's caused a resurgence in piracy on the world's |
| 0:50.8 | oceans? On reporter's notebook, Where's the Fat? Trimming the federal budget in |
| 0:56.1 | tough economic times. First, the news. Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW |
| 1:03.3 | Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford |
| 1:08.9 | Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur |
| 1:11.5 | Foundation. I'm Sarah Terry, sitting in for Warren Only, back with To the Point from PRI. We'll be |
| 1:17.8 | talking about modern-day pirates and the Sirius Star. It's a Saudi freighter, the size of an aircraft |
| 1:23.8 | carrier, which is being held by a small band of Somali pirates. With a load of two million |
| 1:29.6 | barrels of crude oil and a crew of 25, the ship is a valuable hostage for the pirates and a |
| 1:36.6 | potential environmental disaster if negotiations fail and an oil spill occurs. Why have there been |
| 1:42.7 | more than 200 incidents of piracy this year? What's |
| 1:46.1 | happened to millions of dollars in ransom paid for the release of other vessels? Who were the |
| 1:50.9 | pirates? And why aren't they being caught by naval forces? On reporter's notebook, finding |
| 1:56.3 | the fat in the federal budget, what's there to cut, And how hard will it be to take on special interests? |
| 2:03.1 | First, this news update. President-elect Barack Obama held another press conference today, |
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