Hey, check out this website. I know James from the Black Flag Cafe and his website about civilian contractors. The Expat Rockstar Magazine is an extension of what he is really expert in, and if you want an interesting read, check it out. –Head Jundi
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A great little article about how we used to do things, when it came to pirates. Send the Marines and some Mercenaries, and attack the land bases of these pirates. That and stop paying these ransoms, because it only encourages these guys.
Now do I see an Obama administration sending troops to the shores of Somalia, just like we did in 1804? Or will the memory of our efforts in Somalia in the early nineties kick in, and prevent us from doing what we need to do?
I don’t see us doing anything on land because of the bitter memory of our last venture there, but you never know. If piracy becomes a money making tactic of the mufsid dorks, then we might see more of an effort to combat it as part of the overall war strategy. More than likely, it will continue to be treated as a criminal thing, and ships will be on their own and the various navies involved will only have a partial impact on protecting them all.
Although, if we are to learn anything from history, we must deal with the land component of piracy as part of an overall strategy, if we are truly serious about combating it. –Head Jundi
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To the Shores of Tripoli . . .
The place to stop pirates is on the beaches.
by Seth Cropsey
12/08/2008, Volume 014, Issue 12
The November 15 hijacking 450 miles east of Mombasa, Kenya, of a thousand-plus foot oil tanker carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil forced international recognition that the seas have been dramatically added to the world’s list of outlaw space. According to the International Maritime Bureau, recorded attacks by pirates in the Gulf of Aden area have more than tripled–to 92–in the past year. The million square mile swath of the Indian Ocean off, and south of, the Somali coast through which approximately 20,000 ships a year pass between Asia, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere is within hailing distance of smaller, but no less significant, portions of the Middle East and South/Central Asia whose lawlessness has produced important consequences around the world. The prospect of a large-scale meeting of lawless land and lawless sea would be especially troubling even if the possible failed state in the middle–Pakistan–didn’t possess nuclear weaponry.
But for now, the problem is that Somali pirates who use global positioning devices to help identify potential targets, who deploy “mother” ships that can venture out to sea to launch and recover small fast boats, and who have mastered simple but effective tactics for capturing ships have transformed one of the world’s strategic choke points into a watery version of the Cyclops’ island home, a place without law. The consequences transcend what is already happening: spiking maritime insurance rates, significantly increased costs to international consumers as shipping lines reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, and a growing problem of captured ships’ crews held hostage in Somali pirate havens–330 crew members from 25 nations at last count.
So I am watching video and reading all of these reports coming out of Mumbai, and I have just been cringing. I mourn the deaths of hostages, and my heart goes out to the families. But there is a part of me that watched this attack from a tactical command point of view, and it pissed me off. Could the death toll have been minimized if in fact the Indian response was coordinated and well managed under one management system? I think so.
Incident Command System or ICS is the most important element of the response to any incident or attack. And this management system, if applied correctly, could have saved lives. It is a system that would have helped to organize and call up resources quickly, and help to control and end the attack quickly. ICS is a system used to bring order to chaos, and if the Indian government would have trained on this aspect of command, then they could have dealt with this in a much more efficient manner.
As for some thoughts on what was missing from the response, where do I start? For one, if all of the police and military were briefed on ICS and how it works, then that would be a great start. From there, the police(who are the first responders), would act as the Incident Commander for their particular scene, and request more resources. That request should be in the form of how do we expand the ICS, because this attack is spreading all over the city. I would also ask all resources to make communications with the Incident Commander, and establish the on scene chain of command. But really, the first order of business is make your assessments of the situation, and order resources. And if that initial Incident Commander of the scene is not qualified for larger incidents, then he orders up a more qualified Incident Commander through dispatch. Until then, that individual is in command, because there is no one else.
SA ‘heroes’ save Mumbai hostages
November 28, 2008
BBC
A team of South African bodyguards have been explaining how they led 120 hostages to safety from a hotel seized by gunmen in the Indian city, Mumbai.
The guards, armed only with knives and meat cleavers, helped other hotel guests to safety down a fire escape.
They carried a traumatised old woman in a chair down 25 flights of stairs.
“Everybody was calm and no-one became hysterical,” said Bob Nicholls, director of the security company in Mumbai for a cricket tournament.
Mr Nicholls said he and his employees were eating in the restaurant and were planning to get an early night when they heard shooting in another part of the five-star Taj Mahal hotel.
The seven bodyguards were in Mumbai providing protection for cricketers playing in the Indian Premier League tournament.
Live Piracy Map 2008
This map shows all the piracy and armed robbery incidents reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre during 2008. If exact coordinates are not provided, estimated positions are shown based on information provided. Zoom-in and click on the pointers to view more information of an individual attack. Pointers may be superimposed on each other.
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