CYPRUS – A team of Navy SEALs and their large Great Dane have successfully solved the mystery of the phantom oil tanker, according to a spokesman from the U.S. 6th Fleet.

"Now let's see who you really are!" said SEAL Team 6 leader Lt. Randal Dickinson, from Groveland, Fla., as he pulled the rubber mask off the phantom ghost pirate, who hijacked the tanker Morning Glory from the Libyan porta of Sirta earlier this month.

"Old Man Belmokhtar!" all the team members exclaimed in surprise, upon seeing the former leader of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb dressed up in a pirate costume.

"Of course!" said Dickinson. "That explains why he was the only one not in the ship's galley; he was changing into his pirate outfit!"