He said the measure was necessary for its ships when they were unable to avoid high-risk areas off Somalia, adding that the firm was keen on hiring British security companies which use former Special Air Service troops or Royal Marines.
Good on Cosco and hopefully other shipping companies will start looking hard at increasing their security investments. No idea what security companies they will use, but it does look like they are more interested in British companies at this time. Congrats to whatever company that is, and good job to the British maritime security sector for gaining such a reputation.
Which also coincides with my recent survey. Most of the companies that guys wanted to work for, were British companies. So perhaps EOS Risk, MAST, or PVI could be in that pool of companies that Cosco is looking at? If anyone has any inside scoop, let me know with an email or in the comments below. Although it also begs the question–what would be your status as a citizen, if you worked for a Chinese company? Can you work for them as an armed security guard, and do guys really want to work for them? I mean it is not unheard of to work on a boat that is owned and operated by multiple nationalities. But would guys have an issue working for a Chinese company like this? –Matt
China shipping giant to hire armed guards: report
Jul 14, 2011
Chinese shipping giant Cosco Shipping will spend $12 million on armed guards and other measures to protect its ships, a report said Thursday, after the UN warned of a growing threat from pirates.
The firm, China’s largest shipping company, said it would spend the money this year on bullet-proof vests and on-board equipment to deter attacks and protect its ships and crews in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
“We don’t want to injure people… but we have to protect ourselves,” Cosco Shipping’s chief operating officer Guo Jin told the South China Morning Post, describing the use of armed guards as a “difficult issue”.
This is actually pretty interesting if you take a step back and see what has really happened here. The back story is that a Marine named Sgt. Moore originally posted a youtube video to ask actress Mila Kunis to be his date for the Marine Corps Ball. This ball is a celebration of the Marine Corps Birthday that is held every year, and she accepted! Good for Sgt. Moore and Semper Fi.
Now how is this a ‘social coup d’etat’? In reality, Mila Kunis and this Marine would never purposely seek one another out, just because of the vastly different social circumstances of each party. Mila is a celebrity in Hollywood, and Sgt. Moore is serving in Afghanistan. Actresses typically do not go to Afghanistan to specifically date military men. They might go there for a USO tour, but not to find dates. And socially and even economically, both the celebrity and soldier live in some very different worlds. Now of course this date does not mean that they are now connected at the hip and actually interested in one another. But they both are certainly going to be hanging out for one night together at this ball, and that is pretty cool. I could even see Hollywood making some show about the whole thing. Who knows?….
But it is this collision of two very different worlds that grabs my interest, and it is cool to check out the dynamics of how it happened and snowballed. Youtube is a tool that anyone can use, and the potential for a video to go viral or be passed around and seen by a lot of people, is open to anyone with a good idea. I first learned about this video on Facebook, because someone watched it, and passed it around on FB. Guess what, I passed it around as well. The thought of a celebrity going to the Marine Ball with this Marine, was a cool idea and everyone was very supportive of this Marine’s gumption to post such a thing. It is that image of a actress and Marine, going to the ball together, which has created the viral effect of the idea itself.
Once this idea came out, and people agreed with it and celebrated the idea, then guess what? People support what they help to create, and Facebook/Twitter/blogs etc. all allows people to pass around the idea and show their support for it. They also know that the more people they pass around this idea too, will equate to them being rewarded with a ‘thanks’ and a ‘like’ out there in the world of cyber democracies. Passing around a good idea, makes you a ‘good idea’ within your online community. That is the incentive, and everyone wants to be the purveyor of good ideas within their social networks. That is why I passed it around on my Facebook account, and that is why my friends passed it around as well.
It get’s better, because now you have this massive viral video explosion going on in the social networks of the world, and meanwhile, little ol’ Mila Kunis has no idea what is about to hit her. When you watch the video where she found out about this video and invitation, she was shocked and had no idea how to respond until her co-host Justin Timberlake clued into the big picture and said ‘this needs to happen’ wink, wink. She said she would go, and that is what sealed it.
I am sure afterwards she was contacting her PR guy and trying to figure out what happened. They have also clued into the fact that if she does not go, that it would be extremely negative publicity for her. But the main point here is that Sgt. Moore performed a social coup, and was able to get this celebrity elite to go on a date with him to the Marine Ball! A celebrity that would have never had connected with this Marine within the normal societal rules and structures we live in today. Hell, for all we know, Kunis might be an anti-war, thumb her nose at soldiers, Hollywood liberal. But that doesn’t matter if true, because she will be the bad guy now if she doesn’t go.
Finally, this little incident has inspired others (mimicry strategy), because another female Marine named Corporal De Santis has asked Justin Timberlake to accompany her on a date via youtube to the Marine Ball. lol I speculate that he will go, just because if he doesn’t, he will look like a hypocrite for telling Kunis to go and not going himself. Plus, it is all good PR for the movie that Kunis and Timberlake are promoting called Friends With Benefits. The Marines benefit from this PR as well. Stuff like this makes Hollywood happy too if these leads to more revenue and an increase in star power for these two actors. The power of viral videos and social media, continues to amaze me. –Matt
I have to say it. Today’s naval strategies to counter piracy is a failure. We also have the moral high ground in this fight, and yet the piracy industry flourishes. Amazing. It also points to the amazing power of a naturally occurring offense industry. Not one country has given these pirates Letters of Marque or licenses to do what they are doing, and it is an industry that has naturally evolved and expanded. Kind of like a naturally occurring virus, versus a lab manufactured virus.
To take that thought a step further, if a government wanted to manufacture an artificial offense industry, then they could probably learn a lot from this naturally occurring virus called modern piracy. Of course you could also study the history of piracy and privateering, and find consensus from that.
Probably a good starting point would be to study Sir Henry Morgan, a very effective and intelligent privateer that did very well in the Spanish Main. Another privateer I liked was Christopher Newport, just because the guy was an amazing privateer that dominated in the Caribbean. He was also the go to guy for the Virginia Company of London, for transporting colonists to the Virgina Colonies in the new world. Christopher was a stud, and of course there are other famous privateers I am missing. The common theme here is that they were ‘authorized and given license’ to do what they did, and this public/private partnership was mutually beneficial.
Another point to bring up about these older privateers, is that these folks acted more like Marines, than seamen. That they boarded vessels, but they also conducted raids on land. So the captains of vessels or PMC’s had to be proficient in naval operations, and land warfare, to maintain their position of power. Because on these boats, they were extremely democratic and followed codes/rules. If a captain sucked, no one would follow him and they would vote for someone else on the boat to lead them to the prize. I would compare it to today’s modern fishermen in Alaska, and that if they are not able to find the crab, the crew goes home penniless and investors soon go shopping for another captain that ‘can’ find the crab. Everyone likes a winner in the world of offense industries. So privateer captains all had to know their stuff, if they wanted to keep their job. –Matt
Pirate attacks at sea getting bigger and bolder, says IMB report
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Pirate attacks on the world’s seas totalled 266 in the first six months of 2011, up from 196 incidents in the same period last year, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) revealed today.
More than 60% of the attacks were by Somali pirates, a majority of which were in the Arabian Sea area said the report, Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships. As of 30 June, Somali pirates were holding 20 vessels and 420 crew, and demanding ransoms of millions of dollars for their release.
“In the last six months, Somali pirates attacked more vessels than ever before and they’re taking higher risks,” said IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan. . “This June, for the first time, pirates fired on ships in rough seas in the Indian Ocean during the monsoon season. In the past, they would have stayed away in such difficult conditions. Masters should remain vigilant.”
This is not particularly new, and I have talked about IRAMs and EFPs here in the past. But it is still important to keep the information flow going out there as far as what are the ongoing threats. Military forces and contractors are still in Iraq, and they still face these threats. It is also important to point out that we have seen the highest amount of deaths in Iraq since 2009.
Both of these types of weapons are pretty specialized, and it would make sense that Iran would be behind the construction of ‘effective’ IRAM’s and EFP’s. It is also important to note that the spokesman made a very interesting point about the construction of this stuff. Here is the quote, and this kind of goes against the conventional wisdom about how ‘easy’ these weapons are to produce.
Neither weapon is something someone can produce on a lathe in a garage. The EFP requires very precise machining, and the explosive charge is cast. For the IRAM to be effective, it requires specially machined parts to attach the larger warhead to the missile. The firing mechanisms are factory-made electronic parts that have no other use than firing off IRAMs or EFPs. And the forensic teams can categorically state that the weapons are from Iran. In one case, an IRAM built in Iran was turned over to the Quds Force – part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – and then given to an Iraqi extremist in Kitab Hezbollah, a terrorist group that is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Quds Force, officials said.
So there you have it, and take that for what it is worth. I would imagine that insurgents would take the path of least resistance when it comes to weapons. If Quds are handing these things out, then why go through the effort to make these weapons in a garage? DIY weapons are nice and all, but getting them for free is better. Especially if Iran is logistically able to keep the flow of weapons consistent and sufficient. –Matt
Extremists Use Iranian Weapons, Iraq Command Spokesman Says
By Jim Garamone?American Forces Press Service
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, July 11, 2011 – There is no doubt that deadly weapons being used against American forces in Iraq originated in Iran, a U.S. Forces Iraq spokesman said here today.
Army Maj. Gen. Jeff Buchanan led reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on a tour of Joint Task Force Troy here, where they were free to talk to the men and women who examine all enemy ordnance to determine its origin and to look for ways to defeat the threat or prosecute those who launch attacks.
Part of the unit is the combined explosive exploitation cell laboratories. “When p[explosive ordnance disposal] teams go out and they respond to an explosive event, they collect whatever evidence they find and bring it back,” said a military official at the unit, speaking on background. “We take that evidence and take it apart and exploit it.”
The team looks at the weapon from a technical and chemical viewpoint. “You put all those puzzles together, and you can determine where they are from,” the official said. The team also can sweep the weapons for fingerprints and DNA evidence.