“I came here with my friends. They had a gun and were immediately recruited and joined companies. But I’ve never had a gun so, after a fairly long process, I was told to take part in training for a month and now I can join,” he told Reuters by phone from the coastal, pirate haven of Haradheere.
The new 20-year-old recruit is just one of hundreds of youths in Haradheere desperate to sign up in the hope of earning a tiny slice of hijack ransoms worth millions of dollars.
The steady stream of new recruits suggests that patrols by European Union warships since December 2008 to deter hijackings and arrest the seaborne gunmen have done little to dent the enthusiasm for piracy in the failed Horn of Africa nation.
*****
Pirate training? So now pirate training companies have popped up in order to help job seekers to get a position with the pirate companies? Boy, something has to be done in order to make this less attractive. We can start by making it illegal to pay ransoms and we can also mandate that companies use security on their boats. This should be a start, but we have to do a lot more than that in order to destroy this industry. Or at least make it highly unprofitable and risky for these clowns.
As to the pirates themselves, the only thing I can come up with that makes sense is that you must create an industry to fight this industry. The money from ransoms is what is driving the pirate industry, and the counter industry would be one that takes the pirate’s assets or one that bounties are given for each pirate that is captured or killed. But you need a legal system set up to prosecute these guys. As it stands now, all we have is a catch and release program or kill the bastards during their assault on the boat. Pffft.
Now we could continue with these massive naval shows of force, but if you remember, the new rules of war are now being exhibited quite well by the Somali pirates. Here they are:
Rule 1: “Many and Small” Beats “Few and Large.”–Pirates armed with AK’s and RPG’s, cruising in small motor boats versus destroyers, jets and aircraft carriers?
Rule 2: Finding Matters More Than Flanking. –Pirates hiding in captured friendly vessels, blending in with other civilian craft, in the massive expanse of the ocean.
Rule 3: Swarming Is the New Surging. –1000’s of pirates swarming on vessels, gambling that one or two will make it in for the take down.
Not to mention that even a top admiral is saying that today’s navies cannot continue their operations indefinitely and that shipping should consider armed guards. What happened to the Master and Commander music? lol
Perhaps it is time to reconsider another strategy. A hybrid strategy that involves private industry, and aggressive legal system to prosecute pirates, and the good work of professional navies. If we did go down that path, the Letter of Marque will be an essential tool for governments. I will end this with a quote below from the last LoM paper I posted. Something to think about.-Matt
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This “Golden Age of Piracy” peaked around 1720 and reached an abrupt end in 1725. More than anyone else, the man responsible for bringing this age of piracy to an end was Woodes Rogers.
In an early example of the “revolving door” between the private and public sector employment, Rogers was a privateer before being appointed as the Governor of Bahamas, then the pirate capital of the Americas. In order to reform this territory, Rogers dispersed the pirates of the Caribbean with privateers.
The piracy problem during this era was solved through a combination of tactics:
(1) the British Parliament passed legislation allowing overseas piracy trials, rather than requiring suspected pirates to be brought to England;
(2) captured pirates were publicly tried and executed;
(3) pirates who turned themselves in were pardoned;
(4) naval patrols were increased;
(5) rewards or bounties were promised for the capture of pirates; and
(6) private ships were licensed to attack and capture pirates.
Of these methods, the last is the most relevant here.
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Somalia pirates undaunted by navy patrols
By Mohamed AhmedFriday, April 16, 2010
MOGDISHU (Reuters) – Adam Shine waited months for the chance to join one of Somalia’s growth industries. He has now completed his training and is ready to use his boat-handling and global-positioning skills to hijack ships.
“I came here with my friends. They had a gun and were immediately recruited and joined companies. But I’ve never had a gun so, after a fairly long process, I was told to take part in training for a month and now I can join,” he told Reuters by phone from the coastal, pirate haven of Haradheere.
The new 20-year-old recruit is just one of hundreds of youths in Haradheere desperate to sign up in the hope of earning a tiny slice of hijack ransoms worth millions of dollars.
The steady stream of new recruits suggests that patrols by European Union warships since December 2008 to deter hijackings and arrest the seaborne gunmen have done little to dent the enthusiasm for piracy in the failed Horn of Africa nation.
(more…)
