The Threat of Modern Piracy- A Merged Thread

[Drag]

Oh really? 

In days of old that I remember in some countries like England pirate business was perfectly legal and was endorsed by the queen.
And some well known prirates were given admiral grades and other bonuses.  ;D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake

The BIG difference is that those were privateers, not pirates.  Privateers operated in wartime and were commissioned by governments.  They were pretty much auxiliary naval forces.  Pirates were allways blood sucking scum

 

[FastEddy]

The BIG difference is that those were privateers, not pirates.  Privateers operated in wartime and were commissioned by governments.  They were pretty much auxiliary naval forces.  Pirates were allways blood sucking scum

Its okay D3, "Flanker"s comprehension and interpretation of History is obviously lacking or flawed.

He certainly hasn't heard of letters of Marque.

Cheers.

 

[tomahawk6]

Canada was known for its privateers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-PQbdmQRwc&feature=related

http://www.jsward.com/shanty/barrett.html

Barrett's Privateers
By Stan Rogers


Oh the year was seventeen seventy eight
I wish I were in Sherbrooke now!
A letter of marque came from the King
To the scummiest vessel I've ever seen
God Damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's privateers.

Oh Elcid Barrett cried the town,
I wish I were in Sherbrooke now!
For twenty brave men, all fishermen, who
Would make for him the Antelope's crew,
God Damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's privateers.

The Antelope sloop was a sickening sight.
She'd a list to port and her sails in rags,
And a cook in the scuppers with staggers and jags.

On the King's birthday we put to sea.
We were ninety-one days to Montego bay,
Pumping like madmen all the way.

On the ninety-sixth day we sailed again.
When a bloody great Yankee hove in sight
With our cracked four-pounders we made to fight

The Yankee lay low down with gold.
She was broad and fat and loose in stays,
But to catch her took the Antelope two whole days

Then at length we stood two cables away.
Our cracked four-pounders made an awful din,
But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in.

The Antelope shook and pitched on her side.
Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs,
And the maintruck carried off both me legs.

So here I lay in my twenty-third year.
It's been six years since we sailed away,
And I just made Halifax yesterday.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Yeah we kicked American ass j/k

 

[MARS]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today’s Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081120.wcogee21/BNStory/specialComment/home

When the Jolly Roger flies over Somalia

MARCUS GEE
From Friday's Globe and Mail
November 21, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST

At first blush, the outbreak of piracy off the coast of Somalia seems like a prime opportunity for the world's navies. Nobody likes pirates, and naval commanders have been taking them on since the days of the Barbary Coast. You could almost hear the cheers when an Indian frigate sank a pirate mother ship in a clash in the Gulf of Aden this week. As the pirates grow bolder - they have hijacked 36 ships this year, including the Saudi supertanker taken on the weekend - warships from India, Russia, NATO and the United States have converged on the region to patrol the coast. Even the European Union, keen to build its defence capacity, is getting in on the act.

Unfortunately, it is all a bit futile. Every warship from every navy in the world could not cover the 530,000 square kilometres of the Gulf of Aden. The Arabian Sea, where the supertanker was hijacked, is many times more vast. "The pirates will go somewhere we are not," says Royal Navy Commodore Keith Winstanley. "If we patrol the Gulf of Aden, then they will go to Mogadishu. If we go to Mogadishu, they will go to the Gulf of Aden." Even if warships could find and pursue the hijacked vessels, what would they do? With ships' crews as hostages, retaking them by force is out of the question.

Getting the ships to defend themselves is equally impractical. Insurance and safety policies forbid most crews from carrying weapons. Defending a supertanker such as the captured Sirius Star, three times the size of an aircraft carrier, would require a large, heavily armed force. The Sirius Star had a crew of 25, with no more than six hands on deck at any one time.

No, piracy cannot be beaten at sea. The solution lies on shore, at the source of the problem: Somalia. The destitute country of 9.5 million has been in a state of anarchy since the collapse of the regime led by Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Gangsters, warlords and jihadists infest its cities. The writ of the internationally recognized central government barely runs beyond the few blocks it controls in Mogadishu, and even there its offices are routinely shelled by its opponents. In a sense, the piracy on its coast is simply an extension of the chaos and lawlessness on land. The only sensible way to quell piracy is to do something about that chaos.

A tall order, no question. Though most Somalis share the same language, religion and ethnic makeup, they are bitterly divided along lines of clan and politics. Every attempt to bring them together through internationally mediated peace talks has eventually fallen apart. An Aug. 18 peace deal, the latest of many, has had no discernible effect on the ground.

Intervention by force has been just as ineffective. In 1993, the United States decided to begin pulling out its troops after 18 of its soldiers were killed in the streets of Mogadishu, the sad end of a mercy mission to feed starving Somalis. Another U.S.-backed intervention in 2006 saw Ethiopian troops overthrow a radical Islamist government, ending a rare and brief period of order in Somalia.

That helps explain why, despite repeated pleas from the transitional government in Mogadishu, neither the United Nations nor the United States has been willing to send in peacekeepers to stabilize the country. The only international presence in Somalia, a 3,000-strong African Union force, is pathetically under-resourced.

But the piracy crisis argues for another attempt at putting Somalia right. With the global economy in such trouble, the international community cannot afford to have pirates disrupt international trade. And Somalia's chaos does more than breed pirates. It breeds terror and extremism. At present, Islamist militias are battling what is left of the central government for control of the country. The most militant of them, the Shabab, has seized control of several towns. Designated by Washington as a terrorist group, it wants to turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state. The chaos also breeds regional instability. Somalia stands in an arc of danger that includes Congo and Sudan, site of the atrocities in Darfur. Finally, it breeds human misery. In what the UN calls the "forgotten crisis," more than three million Somalis are dependent on emergency rations for their survival.

For all these reasons, the outside world should stop treating Somalia as a hopeless basket case and renew efforts to pull it back together. A first step would be to put some muscle behind new UN sanctions, approved by the Security Council this week, to freeze the assets of warlords, arms dealers and others who contribute to the country's lawless state. A second would be to step up efforts to feed hungry Somalis, an effort that might mean helping to protect aid workers. Above all, the international community should put its shoulder behind the intermittent peace talks, led by a UN envoy, that have been going on between rival factions in Djibouti.

Unless other countries act soon, Somalia's chaos will continue to spill over its borders and its shores.

 

[twistedcables]

I SHYTE YOU NOT.  Mind you they have expressed care only for the Saudi tanker - the others they'll gladly let die.

I say we let Pirate and Fanatic engage - and then blow the crype outta BOTH with everything we have as soon as they are in range  :mg: :sniper: :rocket:  :flame: :fifty: :soldier: :gunner:


By Mohamed Sheikh Nor, The Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A radical Islamic group in Somalia said Friday it will fight the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million US worth of crude oil.

Abdelghafar Musa, a fighter with al-Shabab who claims to speak on behalf of all Islamic fighters in the Horn of Africa country, said ships belonging to Muslim countries should not be seized.

"We are really sorry to hear that the Saudi ship has been held in Somalia. We will fight them (the pirates)," Musa told AP Television News.

In the past two weeks, Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates have seized eight vessels including the Saudi supertanker, the Sirius Star. Several hundred crew are now in the hands of Somali pirates.

The pirates dock the hijacked ships near the eastern and southern Somali coast and negotiate for ransom.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Friday that the Saudi government was not negotiating with pirates and would not do so, but that what the ship's owners did was up to them.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991. When an umbrella Islamic group, which included the al-Shabab, controlled most of southern Somalia for six months in 2006, there were few reports of piracy.

The U.S., however, considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization and accuses the group of harbouring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who allegedly blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing more than 230 people.

Now the umbrella Islamic group is split. But in recent weeks Islamists have again seized control of most of southern Somalia with al-Shabab holding the largest territory.

Kenya's foreign minister said Friday that all countries need to work together to immediately end the increased piracy because it can disrupt world trade, adding that the pirates have earned as much as $150 million over the past year.

Most of the attacks have taken place the Gulf of Aden that links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, through which about 20,000 vessels pass each year.

"Major trading countries, India, Malaysia, China, your vessels are in danger. Our major trading partners, Germany, Britain and others, our cargo is in danger. We must act now and not tomorrow," Moses Wetangula told diplomats meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to discuss the increased threat of piracy.

He also called on ship owners not to pay ransom when their vessels are hijacked because such payments have emboldened the pirates.

Also Friday, one of the world's largest oil tanker companies warned that it may divert cargo shipments, which would boost costs up to 40 per cent.

Frontline Ltd., which ferries five to 10 tankers of crude a month through the treacherous Gulf of Aden, said it was negotiating a change of shipping routes with some of its customers, including oil giants Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Chevron.

Martin Jensen, Frontline's acting chief executive, said that sending tankers around South Africa instead would extend the trip by 40 per cent.

Bermuda-based Frontline plans to make a decision whether to change shipping routes within a week, Jensen said.

"It's not only our costs, but also those of the people who have a $100 million cargo on board," Jensen said. "We're not going to make a unilateral decision so we've been debating this with our customers."

A.P Moller-Maersk, the world's largest container-shipping company, on Thursday ordered some of its slower vessels to avoid the Gulf of Aden and head the long way around Africa.

The Copenhagen-based company said it was telling ships "without adequate speed," mainly tankers, to sail the long route around Africa unless they can join convoys with naval escorts in the gulf, group executive Soeren Skou said.

The company didn't say how many ships would be affected by the decision, but said it usually has eight tanker transits in the area per month.

And Norwegian shipping group Odfjell SE on Wednesday ordered its more than 90 tankers to avoid the Gulf of Aden because of the risk of attack by pirates.

 

[CougarKing]

The scum make their demands.

Somali pirates want $15 million for Saudi ship

By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali pirates holding a Saudi supertanker after the largest hijacking in maritime history have reduced their ransom demand to $15 million (10 million pounds), an Islamist leader and regional maritime group both said on Monday.

The November 15 capture of the Sirius Star -- with $100 million of oil and 25 crew members from Britain, Poland, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines -- has focussed world attention on rampant piracy off the failed Horn of Africa state.

Scores of attacks this year have brought millions of dollars of ransom payments, hiked up shipping insurance costs, sent foreign naval patrols rushing to the area, and left about a dozen boats with more than 200 hostages still in pirate hands.

The gang had originally been quoted as wanting $25 million to release the Sirius Star, which was captured far from Somali waters about 450 nautical miles southeast of Kenya.

But Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Isse Adow, whose men are in the Haradheere area where the ship is being held offshore, said the demand went down. "Middlemen have given a $15 million ransom figure for the Saudi ship. That is the issue now," he said.

Residents say pirates have taken the ship further out to about 100 km (62 miles) off the coast of central Somalia after Islamist militia poured into the town in search of the pirates.

Adow, who represents the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), says his men are out to confront the pirates and free the Saudi Arabian Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) because it is a "Muslim" ship. But residents say other Islamist militia want a cut of any ransom payment.

FOREIGN WARSHIPS

Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of Mombasa-based East Africa Seafarers Programme, said his sources were confirming a reduced $15 million demand. "The ship has moved into deeper waters, but it cannot go too far because of patrols," he said.

More than a dozen foreign warships are in the area, though analysts say the range Somali pirates operate in are too vast to ever properly control.

The capture of the Sirius Star has stirred up the small dusty harbour of Haradheere into a frenzy of activity, witnesses say, with armed men riding back and forth on cars all over town.

The Islamists, who have been fighting the Somali government and its Ethiopian military allies for two years, denounce piracy in public. But analysts say some factions are taking a share of spoils and using pirates to enable weapons deliveries by sea.

Senior Somali officials are also on the take from piracy, diplomats in the region say. The government denies that.

"We are against this act and we shall hunt the ship wherever it sails, and free it," Islamist spokesman Adow said.

Piracy has flourished off Somalia thanks to chaos onshore.

The nation of 9 million people has suffered perpetual civil conflict since 1991 when warlords toppled a dictator.

Neighbour Ethiopia, which has several thousand soldiers in Somalia backing up the weak, Western-backed government, said the international naval response would not solve piracy long-term.

"The rich nations dispatching warships into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to protect their cargo from pirates may achieve initial success," Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin told state TV.

"But to believe that the growing piracy will end without tackling the 18-year-old crisis inside Somalia is futile."

The minister said Ethiopia would withdraw troops from Somalia unless leaders there could bring stability.

"There is no reason for our troops to stand guard to protect residential areas of Somali leaders who continue feuding while their country is being destroyed," he said. Seyoum said African nations contributing to a 3,000-strong African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission may also withdraw if the Ethiopians go.

AU officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by David Clarke and Matthew Jones)

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/internati...522172000&ty=ti

 

[The Bread Guy]

From Wired Magazine's blog Danger Room, by an author who spoke pretty intelligently at this year's OSINT conference in Washington - shared with the usual disclaimer....

Shipping Companies: Blockade Somalia, or Attack It
Noah Shachtman, 24 Nov 08, 10:46:21 AM EST
Blog entry link

With pirates continuing to roam the seas off of the Horn of Africa, shipping companies are talking aloud about all kinds of extreme solutions. Some are eying mercenary help. Two of the biggest firms will avoid the region altogether. The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners wants the UN to step up a naval blockade of the pirates' home bases in Somalia. A second shipping group wants ever more dramatic action -- attacks of the Somali mainland.

The pirate-infested waters off of east Africa are huge -- more than 1.1 million square miles. So rather than trying to patrol that whole, enormous area, tanker owners' association president Peter Swift suggests "putting a blockade around Somalia and introducing the idea of intercepting vessels leaving Somalia rather than to try to protect the whole of the Gulf of Aden."

Alfons Guinier, secretary general of the European Community Shipowners Association, wants to go even farther, the Guardian notes. "We’re asking not just for more escorts but for repressive action."

The demand comes after the International Maritime Organization asked the UN security council to sanction dispatch of as many warships and aircraft as possible to "disrupt" pirate operations, secure shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, and escort vessels, including those bringing food relief to war-torn Somalia.

(....)

More on link

 

[OldSolduer]

Sink the pirate ships. Survivors become shark food.

I know this is not politically correct given the state of some of our more "progressive" thinkers, who think that a double double and a donut will make it all better.

Then some will say, well we can't because of human rights, then we are no better than them etc.....DRIVEL.

They WILL NOT stop unless sufficient numbers are sent to hell, or where ever dead pirates go....Davy Jones Locker I presume.

 

[chanman]

Sink the pirate ships. Survivors become shark food.

I know this is not politically correct given the state of some of our more "progressive" thinkers, who think that a double double and a donut will make it all better.

Then some will say, well we can't because of human rights, then we are no better than them etc.....DRIVEL.

They WILL NOT stop unless sufficient numbers are sent to hell, or where ever dead pirates go....Davy Jones Locker I presume.

I think if they're opening fire on national warships (like the ones that the Indians blew out of the water), survival might just not be the first thing on their minds.  In fact, there are other analogous cases that come to mind.  Freakonomics notes that street corner drug dealers take a tiny cut, and the fatality rate is astronomical, and yet, there are always more willing to step into the way of their competitorss turf wars to the profit of their gang leader.

The solution is to fix Somalia or depopulate its coast (okay, in a manner speaking, that would be a method of fixing).  But expecting people to value their lives might be expecting too much.  I mean, they are living in Somalia, after all.

 

[Flanker]

The BIG difference is that those were privateers, not pirates.  Privateers operated in wartime and were commissioned by governments.  They were pretty much auxiliary naval forces.  Pirates were allways blood sucking scum

There is no such a BIG difference.
Privateering is just a nice word for a government-endorsed form of piracy.
Many "privateers" were simple and plain pirates and were still covered by the government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Myngs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Searle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cavendish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Easton

A privateer was a private warship authorized by a country's government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping. Privateering is often described as a form of state-supported piracy. Strictly, a privateer was only entitled by its state to attack and rob enemy vessels during wartime. However, states often encouraged attacks on opposing powers while at peace, or on neutral vessels during time of war, blurring the line between privateering and piracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer

As for letters of marque, they proved their complete uselessness.

Because the difference between a privateer and a pirate was a subtle (often invisible) one, in 1856 the issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal to private parties was banned for signatories of the Declaration of Paris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque

 

[Flip]

If "Black Hawk Down" not led to a withdrawl of American forces, we would be looking at different situation today.

The real fight is against anarchy.

 

[Drag]

There is no such a BIG difference.
Privateering is just a nice word for a government-endorsed form of piracy.
Many "privateers" were simple and plain pirates and were still covered by the government.

There is a big difference, privateers operated against enemy shipping in times of war.  I consider them a sort of naval version of a militia.  They may have had chequered pasts, or turned to piracy afterwards but while they operated under Letters of Marque they fullfilled a legitimate warfighting role in their era.

 

[GAP]

Pirates move Saudi supertanker farther from coast
Updated Tue. Nov. 25 2008 1:49 PM ET The Associated Press
Article Link

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somali pirates have taken their greatest prize -- a Saudi supertanker with US$100 million of crude oil -- farther offshore in what appears to be a rare defensive move following threats by Islamic insurgents.

The pirates have dominated Somalia's high seas for the past year, bringing in some $30 million in ransom despite stepped up international efforts to fight them including foreign warships guarding the waters.

But the Nov. 15 hijacking of the Sirius Star was the pirates' most audacious to date and prompted threats from Somali extremists.

Last Friday, Islamic fighters promised to fight the pirates and free the ship because it was Muslim-owned and flagged under Saudi Arabia. Two days later, pirates moved the ship about 28 miles (45 kilometers), putting it about 30 miles (50 kilometers) off the coast of the coastal village of Harardhere.

The fighters said they represented al-Shabab -- the Islamic group waging a deadly insurgency in Somalia -- but the group's leadership denied that Tuesday, saying the threats were not from the group's official spokesman.

Roger Middleton, author of a recent report on piracy for London-based think-tank Chatham House, said it was unclear whether al-Shabab intended to seriously attack or if the group was just posturing.
More on link

 

[CougarKing]

Seems that pirate mother ship the Indians sank was not actually a mother ship at all...but a Thai trawler that was in the process of being taken by pirates when the Indians turned up:


Whoops...

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11/25/thai.trawler.india.navy/?iref=mpstoryview

Sunken 'pirate ship' was actually Thai trawler, owner says

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Fourteen sailors are still missing from a Thai trawler that was sunk last week by the Indian navy as a suspected pirate ship, the vessel's owner said Tuesday.

One crewman was found alive after six days adrift in the Gulf of Aden, and one is confirmed dead, said Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, owner of the Ekawat Nava 5.

Last week, India's navy reported that the frigate INS Tabar had battled a pirate "mother vessel" in the gulf November 18, leaving the ship ablaze and likely sunk. Wicharn said that vessel was his ship, which was in the process of being seized by pirates when it came under fire.

Indian authorities insisted that their ship had acted against a pirate vessel which had threatened to attack the Tabar.

"We fired in self-defense and in response to firing upon our vessel. It was a pirate vessel in the international waters and its stance was aggressive," Commodore Nirad Sinha, a navy spokesman, told CNN. He said the ship the Tabar fired upon was laden with ammunition.

Wicharn told reporters that the Ekawat Nava 5 was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was set upon by pirates off the Horn of Africa. The pirates were seizing control of the ship when the Tabar moved in, he said.

Wicharn said he learned the fate of his vessel from a Cambodian crew member who survived the gunfire and drifted in the ocean for six days before he was plucked to safety by a passing ship. The sailor was recovering in a hospital in Yemen, he said.

Wicharn said his ship made a distress call on November 18 as it was chased by pirates in two speedboats, but the connection was lost midway. The owners, Sirichai Fisheries, had not heard from the crew since then.

Later that evening, the Indian navy said it encountered a suspected pirate "mother vessel," with two speedboats in tow, about 285 nautical miles (525 km) southwest of the Omani port of Salalah. "Mother vessels" are often used as mobile bases to ferry pirates and smaller attack boats into deep water.

When the Tabar's crew hailed the ship and demanded it stop for inspection, the pirates threatened to destroy the Indian ship, the ministry reported.

"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued its threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar," the ministry said. The Indian frigate returned fire, setting the pirate ship ablaze and setting off explosions on board, the statement said.

An international fleet has been patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa in an effort to crack down on pirates based in largely lawless Somalia. Map of piracy incidents in 2008 »

Pirates have attacked more than 90 vessels off East Africa so far this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center, which monitors piracy around the world, including a Saudi supertanker captured earlier this month.

The latest ship seized was a Yemeni freighter Adina taken last week with a crew of seven on board, including two Yemenis, two Panamanians and three Somalis, security sources in Yemen told CNN.

The government is in direct contact with officials in Somalia to work on rescuing the ship, for which the hijackers are asking for a $2 million ransom.

While the pirate take over of the Saudi super-tanker highlights the dangers facing cargo ships navigating the Horn of Africa, marine security experts are warning that racing boats, private charters and luxury yachts can be far easier pirate targets -- rich people usually carry cash, and jewels. Watch the risks facing racers and luxury sailors »

And competitors in the world's biggest ocean race made an unprecedented change of course this year as organizers mandated yachts steer clear of Africa's east coast.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

And this is why a navy should be sure who they are engaging. I am all for turning the pirates and their ships into shark food and part of a coral reef but be sure of the target.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Indian columnist calls spade a spade, and offers a bit of insight re:  India not being able to do more.  Shared with the usual disclaimer...

Piracy, Somalia and India
Raja Menon, Expressbuzz.com, 25 Nov 08
Article link

....As the pirate attacks increased, an allied coalition of four to five ships, designated Task Force 150, under the United States Centcom or Central Command, began to be tasked to do something.

Here begins the trouble for Indian participation.

Centcom controls the area of the Middle East and Pakistan. India comes under the area of jurisdiction of the US’ Pacific Command, PACOM. Hence India cannot, according to the US Navy rules, be invited to join Task Force 150. The Task Force had a rotating command post and a couple of years ago, the commander was a Pakistani naval officer.

Now Indians and Pakistanis working together on a joint mission for the UN is old history. It was a Pakistani Brigadier in command in the earlier Somalia operations and his staff were mostly Indian. A Pakistani Brigade and an Indian Brigade operated next to each other in Somalia and the Congo, so Pakistan is not the problem.

This force maintains a sanitised corridor in the Gulf of Aden almost 400 miles long and ships join the corridor at either end.

Ships join at either end and a warship convoys them through. So eventually when pressure from the Indian navy finally prompted the MEA to allow Indian participation, INS Tabar, a Talwar class frigate was sent to join at the Eastern end of the corridor. Coordination was arranged through diplomatic channels. The big difference in the way INS Tabar operated was that it was given clear instructions on the Rules of Engagement or ROE at it is commonly referred to by Naval Headquarters.

The commanding officer was given wide latitude to use force, at his discretion. Clearly, such explicit ROEs don’t exist for ships of TF 150.

This is a ridiculous situation, as the ROE of the NATO ships worries more about the human rights of the pirates, than about stamping out piracy. Actually there is an 1838 convention that permits any warship to interfere anywhere on the ‘High Seas’ to intercept pirates and try them — without handing them over to the country of origin.

Today’s interpretation by human rights lawyers state that pirates cannot even be handed over to their own state if that state does not respect the human rights of the pirates. This is an absurd situation. The US is not going to amend its rules regarding Centcom and Pacom.  The answer appears to lie in New Delhi, where the MEA needs to draw up its own coalition of Indian Ocean powers, under the Indian navy to stamp out the pirates, in their harbours, ruthlessly.

 

[Drag]

Why, oh why does this not suprise me???

Former Ottawa gas station operator rules home state of Somali pirates

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/081126/canada/canada_somali_piracy

OTTAWA (CBC) - There's a Canadian connection to the ongoing piracy drama off the coast of Somalia.

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Many of the pirates hijacking vessels in the region are based in an autonomous region called Puntland, beyond the control of what passes for a central government in Somalia.


The president of Puntland for the past three years has been Mohamud Muse Hersi, a former Ottawa gas station operator.

Hersi emigrated to Canada in the 1980s, bought a gas station and raised a family, but his clan connections to Somalia remained strong. When the elders of Puntland were looking for a new president in 2005, they chose Hersi.

There are about a dozen hijacked ships anchored off the Puntland coast at the moment, waiting as the pirates and shipowners haggle over ransom money.

Hersi's critics accuse him and his ministers of taking bribes from the pirates to look the other way.

Ahmed Hussen, president of the Canadian Somali Congress, says he lacks evidence of such corruption but adds: "It would be inconceivable for all this piracy to be going on on the coast of Puntland without at least the knowledge, if not the collusion, of the Puntland government."

Hersi vigorously denies the charge. As proof, he points to two successful counterattacks against the pirates mounted by Puntland's coast guard.

Roger Middleton, an analyst at the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs, says the two hijackings Hersi's government interfered with involved cargos of direct economic interest to the regime.

"In one case, the cement that was in the ship belonged to one of the ministers in the government, so there was clearly a reason why they wanted to get involved," he told CBC News.

If the Puntland government really wanted to stop the pirates, it would, Middleton says. But piracy has become the region's most profitable industry. Middleton estimates the pirates will net about $50 million US this year while the Puntland government's annual budget is just $20 million US.

Formally, Hersi is president of the Puntland State of Somalia, carved out of the collapsed country in 1998. It claims about a third of the national territory and calls itself "part of an anticipated Federal State of Somalia."

Hussen of the Canadian Somali Congress says Puntland has been sliding toward the abyss under Hersi's rule.

"I don't think it's reached the stage of anarchy yet, but it's on the verge of that," he told CBC News.

In a briefing paper on piracy published last month, Middleton made these points:

- Piracy off the Somali coast has more than doubled in 2008, with more than 60 ships attacked so far.

- Pirates are regularly demanding and getting million-dollar ransom payments and are becoming more aggressive and assertive.

- Money from ransom is helping to pay for the war in Somalia, and the high level of piracy is making aid deliveries to the drought-stricken country more difficult and costly.

- The danger and cost of piracy, including soaring insurance premiums, may force ships to avoid the Suez Canal route and sail around Africa, raising transportation costs and hence the price of oil and manufactured goods shipped to Europe and North America.

- Piracy could cause a major environmental disaster if a tanker is sunk, run aground or set afire - and the pirates' ever more powerful weaponry makes this increasingly likely.

 

[geo]

The president of Puntland for the past three years has been Mohamud Muse Hersi, a former Ottawa gas station operator.

Once a bandit, always a bandit.......

In all seriousness though

Was reading in the paper that the Egyptian military was lukewarm about stepping into the fray & contributing to the war on piracy - when Egypt is probably one of the countries most likely to suffer if shipping companies decide to bypass the area (and the suez canal) because of it's dangers.  I woud've thought the Egyptian gov't woulda been more interested in getting a handle on this cursed problem

 

[MARS]

Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today's Montreal Gazette

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=ea08bfd3-c5a0-4940-ba75-35d23a981ac4

Canadian commodore foils attack
Ships must hire security guards, naval officer says
KATHERINE WILTON, The Gazette

On a dark night last September, Canadian sailors aboard HMCS Iroquois were patrolling in the Gulf of Aden when they heard a mayday call from an Italian ship that was under attack by Somali pirates.

Commodore Bob Davidson, who was commanding coalition maritime security operations in the region, had the Canadian destroyer charge toward the Italian vessel, which was about 50 kilometres away. He also dispatched a U.S. helicopter from a nearby ship to try to thwart the pirates' attempt to seize the boat.

By the time the Iroquois arrived at the scene, the pirates had disappeared into the night. Davidson said he believes the presence of the helicopter and the oncoming Canadian vessel likely persuaded the pirates to flee.

But he said smart security measures adopted by the Italian ship's owners prevented the pirates from successfully boarding the vessel.

"They had fire hoses dumping water over the side of the ship to prevent the pirates from boarding," said Davidson, who returned to Canada last month after spending several months in the region engaging in counterterrorism and anti-piracy activities.

"They also rigged extra upper deck lighting around the ship. They spotted the pirates as soon as they arrived and called for help. It was a textbook response on their part to protect themselves."

Somali pirates have made headlines around the world this month after capturing a Saudi Arabian oil tanker with $100 million worth of oil and 25 crew members aboard, one of the largest hijackings in maritime history. Since the start of the year, they have carried out dozens of attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Davidson, 49, said shipping companies cannot rely on navy ships to protect their vessels over the long term and need to hire private security guards to safeguard their ships as they travel through the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia.

"If they had just a couple of security guards on their ships, they would probably prevent attacks," Davidson said yesterday.

He said some ship owners have been reluctant to hire private security because they fear gun fights between armed guards and pirates could result in crew members being shot or vessels being damaged.

For several months this year, four Canadian warships patrolled the region, escorting vessels delivering food to Somalia and thwarting piracy attacks.

Although the navy ships try to provide safe shipping lanes for the vessels, the area is too large to protect all of them. "If you aren't within 30 minutes of a vessel when an attack starts, you might not be able to stop it," Davidson said.

The navy ships in the area also engaged in counterterrorism work, trying to prevent the high seas from being used to ship weapons or drugs that finance terrorist operations. While commanding coalition maritime security operations as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Davidson was responsible for covering an ocean area about half the size of Canada.

Davidson said the piracy problem began to surface about 10 years ago when angry Somali fishermen began seizing boats that they said were overfishing in Somali waters. "They claim they went out to seize vessels to collect fines," Davidson said during an interview yesterday at National Defence offices in Montreal.

Whatever their motives, it did not take the pirates long to realize there was big money to be made by seizing commercial vessels, something they have been able to accomplish using small boats with outboard motors, ladders, AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

Often, the brazen pirates pull up beside a ship, hook a ladder onto the vessel and climb aboard. In other cases, they have fired weapons at the ship's bridge to try to frighten the captain, Davidson said.

Large vessels used to avoid pirates by staying far from the Somali coast. But pirates are now using mother ships to launch smaller boats in the shipping lanes far off the coast. In most cases, the pirates force the captain to sail back to their village and the crew is held hostage until a ransom is paid, usually by the vessel's insurance company.

Davidson said the pirates are using their millions to build fancy villas and buy luxury cars.

"It is hard to deal with the pirates because Somalia is a failed state," he said. "No one wants to put soldiers in there and they have gained in sophistication so they can get on just about any vessel with their boats and ladders."