Russian Cargo Ship News Report

it looks like the mossad did a real life shadowrun! is it bad that when i read a story about the possibly transport of weapons of mass destruction or other badness that i think of SR?

Er...
Unless I totally read that wrong, it said it was pure speculation, that there was no proof the ship had weapons aboard, doesn't even MENTION Mossad, and overall is about an entirely different topic, being a threatening phone call to that editor guy. Additionally, the speculation about Israel's possible involvement (and denial of it, not that THAT really means anything ) has been around for a good while, even DURING the disappearance...

Not really saying that the speculation is wrong, just that there's nowhere near enough evidence to raise this from the status of 'pure conspiracy theory' to anything else.

Extralegal operations occur every day in the world. The better ones neve rmake the news.

mossad have in the past been very pro-active in its activities.

The Mossad seems to be involved in more than their fare share as well. Israel's shown no compunction in the past about acting illegally if they feel their safety is threatened, or even in retaliation.

Mossad enjoys quite a bit of lee way considerably more then other agencies in some cases. The reasons for that are complex and geo-political and not really completely understood by me. They would also go beyond the scope of this board. Additionally I kind of doubt this was Mossad.

Definitely beyond the scope of this board. But, hijacking a cargo ship carrying some hidden illegal weapons shipments would make for a good shadowrun. Certainly something that any parties involved would prefer to use deniable assets to take care of.

I do not know about MOSSAd but the Russian reporter who broke the sotry fled to Turkey saying he had death threats.

What is odd about the story is that the official story, that pirates siezed the ship, does not stand up on two counts:
1) Why would pirtaes sieze a hsip with a relatively valueless cargo? $1.5 million worth of lumber?
2) Why would pirates strike in a part of the world where they have not been active before?

It is just too many questions to accept the given official Russian explanation.

When I heard about it, I was thinking SR as well. Sorta. I also read books authored by Richard Marchinko, Matt Reilly, and that guy who wrote Dogs of War - and I thought of those pieces of fiction too. Its just one of many news stories that feel like you are either being lied to and/or you will never learn what actually happened while reading it ... sorta like when I read the history of SR4A.

and who said the cold war had ended...

Not anyone who pays attention. It just switched to a more E&E* focus. Russian mafia (a.k.a. the Russian government) has the best hackers in the world. Just look at what they did to Heartland Systems Inc, and the countries of Georgia and Estonia.
Crap, I'm probably gonna get my identity stolen for posting this. Screw it, I'm already broke.

*Economic and Electronic Warfare

The Russian reaction to Georgia last year was pretty well a Soviet response and compared with what they say about Chechnia in relation to the ethnic Russians breaking away from Georgia shows typical Soviet hypocrisy. Also look at the stuff they did to that spy in London, the one they poisoned with radiation. That and the 'invasion' of Serbian Kosovo to keep some assets out of the hands of Nato forces, the airport? The Shadowrun type stuff going on is just proof the Cold War and Black ops are still going strong.

so there will be a endless list of proxy wars and disregards of UN decisions...

Yup. The next 50 years will be just like the last 50 years. Excepting that we'll be pretending to get along in public.

The next time I hear someone refer to "our Russian allies" I may have to shoot them in their pinkie toe as a matter of principle.

in other words, global politics are going to be like japanese social behavior.

and here i thought 80's ended with the japanese economy taking a hit...

Yes, but you aren't in jail yet for pedophilia that was observed on the playground camera's on an absolutely secure network are you.

There's always worse things that can happen, no matter the situation.