Canadian navy boards U.S. cargo ship
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian troops stormed on board the
U.S.-owned cargo ship GTS Katie on Thursday after a high-seas
stand-off in which hundreds of millions of dollars of Canadian
military equipment had effectively been held hostage.
"At approximately 1:45 p.m. (1745 GMT) today the Canadian navy
began boarding the vessel on orders of the government of Canada,"
Defence spokesman Lt. Ken MacKillop said.
MacKillop was unable to say if there were any casualties, but the
owners had pledged the Ukrainian crew would not resist.
The Katie was the focus of a bitter commercial tug-of-war between
its owner and the firm that chartered the vessel to transport the
equipment. The squabble drew in the Canadian government, which
grew increasingly impatient to get its cargo of 590 tanks and
other military vehicles back from Kosovo -- about one-tenth of
the army's hardware.
The cargo ship is owned by Maryland-based Third Ocean Marine
Navigation, which had halted the vessel in the North Atlantic to
try to force Montreal-based Andromeda Navigation to pay what it
was due. Andromeda denies wrongdoing.
The haggling was, in the end, apparently over a mere $100,000 --
compared to the C$223 million ($151 million) value of the cargo.
But the whole saga proved irritating and embarrassing for Ottawa,
which wanted its shipment back but which also faced criticism for
having to rely on private companies or foreign nations to fulfil
its wide-ranging peacekeeping operations.
It also wanted to bring home three Canadian soldiers who were
accompanying the cargo.
MacKillop said that at 1 a.m. (0500 GMT) the Katie had weighed
anchor and started steaming west from its position south of
Newfoundland toward the Cabot Strait and in the direction of
Quebec, its original destination.
It was shadowed by the destroyer HMCS Athabaskan and the frigate
HMCS Montreal.
MacKillop was unable to explain why the naval forces had to board
the Katie if it had already begun moving, except to say: "Because
they were told to."
The United States had not seem concerned with the prospect of a
boarding of the Katie, which is flagged in St. Vincent and the
Grenadines.
"This is a private shipping company and there is no U.S. military
involvement," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Reuters
earlier on Thursday.
A State Department official commented: "It's really a commercial
dispute and if they (the Canadians) have followed their
procedures, we have nothing to say about it. We have discussed it
with them but it's really between them and the company."
Up to the last moment, Canadian officials were holding out hope
for another option: "Once again, what we prefer is a negotiated
solution to this predicament," foreign affairs spokesman Reynald
Doiron had said.
The government of the Caribbean state of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines had earlier given Ottawa the go-ahead to board the
Katie.
Third Ocean president Peter Margan said negotiations had broken
off at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday (0330 GMT Thursday) when he
refused a Canadian government ultimatum to take one-third of what
he says he is owed.
Margan said Andromeda was bound under contract to pay it $6,000 a
day and the bill on Thursday stood at $294,000, which Third Ocean
offered to reduce to $190,000.
He said the government ultimatum was for it to take $90,000 from
Andromeda and another Montreal company, SDV Logistics, which had
won the original $895,000 contract from the Canadian military and
then subcontracted it to Andromeda.
"If we accept the offer, we go into bankruptcy. If we don't
accept the order and they seize the ship, we go into bankruptcy.
Either way we're dead," Margan said.
Andromeda said it had told Third Ocean on July 5 that it would
not be making a payment the next day because it had counterclaims
against Third Ocean. But the U.S. firm said the contract
stipulated payments must be made without any deductions, with any
disputes to be settled later.
The Katie was supposed to have arrived in Quebec in mid-July.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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