One answer to pirates
Hang 'em from the yardarmHere's the latest on the Maersk Alabama [links in original]:
The only thing odd about those Somali pirates who plunder the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea is how come they are still doing it?
One would have thought they'd have been exterminated by now.
But no, they're still at it. Not only that, they are alarmingly successful.
Over one weekend, five ships were hijacked -- merchant vessels from Britain, France, Germany, Taiwan and Yemen -- followed by the piracy of a British and a Taiwanese ship near the Seychelles in the mid-Indian Ocean.
What gives here?
There were some 130 piracy incidents in 2008 with 250 hostages taken (most still awaiting ransom or rescue, somewhere in Somalia). The world's navies seem incapable of halting this colourful way of earning a living, or extorting money.
News reports tell of a Canadian frigate's encounter with pirates -- which may help explain why these brigands of the sea not only still exist, but seem to operate with impunity when confronted by the world's navies.
Apparently last weekend, HMCS Winnipeg, a frigate and a component of NATO'S counter-piracy mission (Operation Allied Protector) spotted three small pirate sciffs closing in on an Indian merchant ship (the Pacific Opal) in the Arabian Gulf.
Instead of demanding the pirates to surrender or be sunk, the Winnipeg's helicopter hovered between the pirates and the threatened vessel, and dangled a large sign over the side of the helicopter, alongside the chopper's machine gun, that had the word "Stop" written in Somali.
The news report quoted the Winnipeg's skipper, Cmdr. Craig Baines, as saying: "They got the idea that we don't like what they're doing," and the pirates called off their attack.
Surely peace and security and common sense would have been better served if the Winnipeg and its helicopter had given the crews of the three pirate sciffs a one way trip to Davey Jones' locker, and sunk them.
And then turned their attention to the pirates' mother ship, from which the three sciffs departed. At least the captain didn't apologize for interrupting their activities.
'RULES OF ENGAGEMENT'
Cmdr. Baines obviously was following NATO orders -- likely more "rules of engagement" that plague our soldiers and inhibit them from firing back unless absolutely necessary, and giving the benefit of any doubts to insurgents.
In the old days, pirates used to be hanged from the yardarm when captured.
It didn't stop piracy, but it at least eliminated pirates one at a time.
One of the prize ships captured by pirates was a Ukrainian tanker loaded with tanks and weapons -- of substantial interest to those who might want to purchase such items.
What puzzles me is why some adventurous young millionaire somewhere, hasn't shown the enterprise to outfit a torpedo boat disguised as a pleasure craft, and head for the Somali coast to lure pirates into attacking -- and then unloading on them with massive firepower.
It's hard to fault pirates for doing what they can get away with, but there's no excuse for letting them do what they do with impunity.
On an encouraging note, Associated Press reports that an American cargo ship hijacked last week -- the sixth such incident in a week -- has been re-captured by its 20-member crew, with the pirates "apparently in the water."
One hopes so, even if President Barack Obama feels it necessary to apologize for such "arrogant" American lack of consideration to pirates.
Pirates Sending Backup to Kidnappers, Group Says (Update1)President Obama still isn't out of the woods yet, especially if the pirates do not face justice. But things are a whole lot better than when the pirates first had the ship.April 9 (Bloomberg) -- The band of pirates whose members hijacked a U.S.-flagged ship yesterday in the Indian Ocean is sending reinforcements to the kidnappers holding the captain hostage, said a member of the group who spoke from Somalia.
The man, who called himself Da’ud and identified himself as one of the pirates, spoke by phone from the area of Eyl, Somalia. He said he had been in contact with the four pirates who boarded the Maersk Alabama and who then took the captain hostage on a lifeboat that has stalled off the coast.
Any new pirates arriving at the scene will be confronted by the destroyer USS Bainbridge [better link here, thanks to Josh in "Comments"], which has moved into the area and is getting images fed to it from a drone flying over the lifeboat, an American official said. A second warship, the frigate USS Halyburton, is en route, a U.S. official said today.
The U.S. crew regained control of the Alabama yesterday and CNN reported it is sailing for Mombasa, Kenya, its original destination. The captain, Richard Phillips, surrendered himself to the pirates to secure the safety of his crew, the Associated Press reported.
“We sent reinforcement men to help them,” said Da’ud, who declined to identify himself further or give a contact for the pirates on the scene. The reinforcing pirates are going to the area in two groups, one of which is already at sea, he said.
End Predicted Soon
“The last information we received from them was that American small airplanes and helicopters are flying over them while the lifeboat’s fuel is running out,” Da’ud said. “The situation will end soon. Either the Americans take their man and sink the boat with my colleagues, or we will soon recover the captain and my colleagues in the coming hours.
“But if they, Americans, attempt to use any military operation I am sure that nobody will survive,” he said...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” about the incident and called on the world to “come together to end the scourge of piracy.”
FBI Negotiators Called
The lifeboat “has run out of gas,” Clinton said today.
FBI negotiators have been called in by the U.S. Navy to assist with negotiations and are “fully engaged in this matter,” Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Bill Carter said today. He declined to comment further.
A Boeing Co. drone has been monitoring the lifeboat since the USS Bainbridge entered the vessel’s vicinity, the U.S. official said.
“There is no way the Bainbridge is going to allow that lifeboat to go anywhere,” said Rear Admiral Richard Gurnon, president of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in the Cape Cod town of Bourne. “The pirates are going to quickly realize they have two options: Surrender Phillips, maybe you get in jail for two years, or harm Phillips and face instant death [emphasis added, one hopes he's right though the sentence seems, er, light].”..
Da’ud said the pirates who boarded the Alabama were from a group of seven who had hijacked a German ship.
After the four pirates took over the Alabama, they were holding the captain at gunpoint when one of the U.S. crew overpowered a pirate and snatched his machine gun, Da’ud said. The other three pirates then took the captain and fled in a lifeboat. They later contacted the Alabama to discuss an exchange, which the two sides agreed on, he said.
During the handover, “my colleague, the hostage, jumped into the sea while the three others suddenly refused to free the captain and the four pirates with the captain together fled the scene with the lifeboat” he said...
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 3:21 p.m.
5 Comments:
Your link to USS Bainbridge refers to the wrong ship (the nuclear cruiser, decommissioned in 1996). You want this one.
Josh: Thanks, but not my link, Bloomberg's. Addition made.
Mark
Ottawa
I have to agree that it is long past time to take firm action.
The Canadian and other NATO crews cannot be critized as the memories of the last Somali rescue/UN aid effort (and JTF) are all still too recent and painful. So too for the Italians.
I suppose if anything - it is fortunate that a USA ship got attacked as now the effort will enter a new stage with new rules.
France and India were able to act differently and aggressively as they do/did not belong to NATO.
But to the Ukrainian ship with Russian tanks - I was always surprised their Special forces did not intervene on or off land.
Oh well, perhaps back to the idea of Convoys back to the Battle of the North Atlantic.
Pirate update = using other hostages and hijacked/seized ships. Organized Crime at its best:
From CTV:
Pirate reinforcements
But it appears that the pirates have called for reinforcements as well.
"The pirates have summoned assistance -- skiffs and motherships are heading towards the area from the coast," an unnamed Nairobi-based diplomat told to AP on Friday. "We knew they were gathering yesterday."
Mohamed Samaw, a Somali resident who claims to own a "share" in a recently hijacked, British-owned ship, told AP that four foreign ships are headed for the lifeboat.
The pirates have 54 international hostages on board two of the ships, whom they will be using as bargaining chips. Samaw said a seized German cargo ship is among the ships moving towards the lifeboat.
Former FBI agent Jack Cloonan told AP that having other hijacked vessels arrive in the area "could complicate the negotiation strategy under way."
And the situation already is tense enough with the U.S. warships that are sailing towards the scene.
Abdi Sheikh, the Mogadishu Bureau Chief for Reuters, told CTV Newsnet that the pirates "are afraid to be bombed by the American warship."
The Maersk Alabama left the area on Thursday, protected by armed Navy SEALs who will ride with the cargo ship until it arrives at its destination port in Mombasa, Kenya, on Saturday night.
It was the sixth ship to be hit by pirates in the same week.
Because pirates have been able to repeatedly extort multimillion-dollar ransom fees from shipping companies, such attacks have become an ever-more common phenomenon.
Davis said pirates, like those involved in the current standoff, care little about the turmoil they cause for their hostages.
"They have no respect for anybody or anything else they just want the money to be able to change their own lives," he said.
With files from CTV Newsnet and The Associated Press
The picture of things to come - sadly but it was bound to happen and perhaps ship owners, cruise ships and pleasure craft will take warnings seriously.
"Hostage dies as French attack Somali pirates
One hostage dies in rescue, four others freed, French president's office says. Two pirates also killed in rescue operation
(CNN) -- A French hostage and two pirates died Friday in a rescue operation off Somalia, the French president's office in Paris said Friday.
The luxury yacht, Tanit, was captured by pirates off Somalia last weekend.
Four hostages, including a child, were freed from the hijacked yacht after almost a week of captivity, Nicolas Sarkozy's office said.
The French military decided to move in when pirates refused their offers and increased threats against the hostages, it said.
A defense ministry source told CNN the pirates were threatening to execute their captives.
The four adults and a child had been held aboard their yacht, the Tanit, since it was seized in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, the president's statement said.
There has been a series of high-profile and increasingly sophisticated pirate attacks in recent months.
Also off Somalia this week, the cargo vessel Maersk Alabama was boarded by pirates, who briefly took control of the ship.
Although the crew retook the ship, its captain, Richard Phillips, was Friday still being held by the gang holed up in a lifeboat.
The Maersk was hijacked some 350 miles off Somalia's coast, a distance that used to be considered safe for ships navigating in the pirate-infested waters.
International navies have increased patrols in the area but the region is so large the pirates can still operate.
The U.S. military warned earlier this week that recent attacks have occurred hundreds of miles off the coast, suggesting that pirates are using "mother ships" -- a practice of using bigger boats with longer range to launch smaller pirate ships against targets further out to sea.
Last year, Somali pirates seized another French luxury yacht and the French military launched an operation that ended with them chasing the gang across the desert."
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