Feral Jundi

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Maritime Security: Pirates Hijack Another Chemical Tanker, And Al Shabab Is Going To Yemen

Filed under: Maritime Security,Somalia — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 11:42 AM

   Ok, just a heads up to any of the fleets floating around out there.  If Al Shabab is wanting to get to Yemen, more than likely they are going to hitch a ride with some pirates.  It is the cheapest and easiest way for them to get over.  Plus, Yemen is just across the way, so it would totally make sense to try and take out a few of these bums as they cross.

   Further more, if there is any doubt that arming ships is not sensible, then behold this latest round of hijackings.  These guys actually grabbed another chemical tanker!  Believe it.  So how is the strategy working out for all of these multi-million dollar ultra-highspeed Navies floating around in the GOA?  It seems to me that it is severely sucking.  It will really suck when one of these days, a pirate either sells a chemical tanker to Al Qaeda or Al Shabab, or they are contracted by these guys to take a ship.  Then what?  Does it take thousands of people killed in some terrorist attack involving a large ship filled with explosives and chemicals?  Arm the ships I say! Or continue with this current strategy, and see what happens when terrorism and piracy do a waltz in the Gulf of Aden.-Matt

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Somali Rebels Pledge to Send Fighters to Aid Yemen Jihad

January 2, 2010

By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Senior leaders of the Shabab rebels promised Friday to send their fighters beyond Somalia to Yemen and wherever jihad beckoned.

In a military ceremony here, where the rebels publicly showed off hundreds of new recruits, Sheik Muktar Robow, a senior rebel official, said the group would “send fighters to Yemen to assist our brothers.”

He said that the fighters had been trained to fight the African Union peacekeeping force and the transitional federal government in Somalia but that Yemen was just across the Gulf of Aden and that “our brothers must be ready for our welcome.”

(more…)

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Maritime Security: Somali Pirates Hijack A Chemical Tanker And Ship Hauling Fertilizer

   Does anyone else see how scary this really is?  We freak out about one Nigerian dude on a plane with explosive underwear, yet pirates have just hijacked two of the largest floating potential bombs you could ever get.  So what happens when AQ contracts out the services of these pirates? The Gulf of Aden is smack dab in the middle of Somalia and Yemen, two countries ravaged by war and Islamic extremism, and now pirates have just captured a chemical tanker and ship carrying fertilizer. Am I the only one seeing the potential here?

   The other one that gets me about this is how much are we spending on all of these navies floating around out there, and what is the return on investment?  In my view, there should be ‘no hijacked vessels’ for the amount being spent.  Which leads me to my next point.  Put armed guards on the boats for crying out loud, and put the cost of security on the shipping companies.  Use the navies as QRF’s or coast guards to help assist vessels that get into gun battles.  And for all the ultra sensitive chemical and petrol tankers, assign one escort ship to them, either private or government, and call it good. That way, they can draw any fire of the pirates, away from the big vessel and on to the escort vessel for a fight.  That’s just for the defense.

   For the offense, we have to fix things on the land, so that there is nothing safe for pirates to go home too.  Until we do fix things on land, we will continue to deal with these dorks on the open seas for a long long time. The Barbary Pirates are a prime historical example for what is going on right now, and these guys have a business model that works.

   Now if we continue to depend upon large lumbering navies to defend hundreds of ships from little tiny boats with pirates on them, who are spread out amongst thousands of square miles of ocean, we will continue to have problems.  To me, taking the gloves off and getting down to business, is basically creating a business out of eradicating pirates. The pirates have a business model that drives them, we need a business model that drives our goal of stopping them.  That means Letters of Marque and Reprisal being issued to competent modern day privateers.  If you create a bounty system, as well as allow privateers to keep a percentage of whatever that pirate company had in terms of assets, then you could definitely spark the interest of private industry for something like this. –Matt

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Somali Pirates Hijack Two Vessels

December 29, 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates seized a ship carrying fertilizer from the U.S. in the Indian Ocean and a British-flagged chemical tanker in the heavily patrolled Gulf of Aden — the first merchant vessel to be hijacked in the gulf in nearly six months, officials said Tuesday.

The hijackings late Monday showed that pirates are relentless in their pursuit of quick money from ransoms and that ship owners need to take extra precaution when sailing in the Horn of Africa, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The waters off Somalia are teeming with pirates, who have hijacked dozens of ships for multimillion-dollar ransoms in the past two years. An international naval force now patrols the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

After the latest hijackings, pirates now hold 12 vessels and 263 crew members, Mr. Choong said. Pirates anchor their captured crafts near Somalia’s shore in the pirate strongholds of Haradhere and Hobyo. International forces can’t rescue the vessels without risking the lives of the crew, leaving negotiated ransoms as the only safe means of resolution.

The latest incidents brought the number of attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia to 214 this year, with 47 vessels hijacked, Mr. Choong said. That compares to 42 successful attacks out of 111 attempts in 2008, before the EU Naval Force deployed in the Gulf of Aden in December 2008.

(more…)

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Somalia: A Pirate’s Life Is Good In Somalia

Filed under: Somalia — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 10:33 AM

   Amazing.  If you read this, it matches exactly how the US privateers impacted the local colonies back in our early history.  The question I have, is what direction will this go?  Will Al Shabaab demand a cut or participate in these ventures to make money for jihad?  If the local religious leaders keep scorning the capitalist activities of these newly rich pirates, then maybe religious extremists will attach the whole piracy thing to jihad, in order to keep the activity going strong and take advantage of the skills of these guys?

    It is an excellent money maker, and if Al Qaeda is not doing too well in the donations department, then I could see them going down this path.  I could also see them going down the drug smuggling path, just as long as they can somehow tie it into jihad. If they can justify suicide bombers and killing innocents in jihad, they can justify privateering and drug smuggling.

   Despite the direction it goes, these guys will continue to get more loot.  They have a taste of that good life, and they will not let go of that anytime soon. Piracy is king in Somalia, and all the kids are doing it.

    I say break out the LoM and lets make a pirate’s life miserable and poor. Turn the eradication of pirates, into a full blown industry and take back the high seas. –Matt

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A pirate’s life is good in Somalia

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Mohamed Olad Hassan

BOSSASO, Somalia

A parcel of land here that sold for $12,000 two years ago now costs more than $20,000. The price of a nice pair of men’s shoes has gone up from $20 to $50. The reason: pirates. The influx of millions of dollars in ransoms has changed life in this coastal Muslim community, driving prices up and creating a schism between the pirate haves and have-nots. As piracy ramps up again with the end of the monsoon season, the lifestyle of the pirates – big houses, fast cars and easy drugs – is decried by both religious leaders and ordinary villagers.

“The use of drugs such as cannabis and the drinking of alcohol, sex and other obnoxious misconduct are now becoming common within the pirates, causing social problems,” said Sheik Ahmed, a mosque leader in the town of Galkayo. “That is what is worrying us, a lot more than the risk they pose to the foreign ships and crew.”

(more…)

Monday, December 14, 2009

Maritime Security: Pirate Attacks Trigger Armed Guard Coverage

   Hell, you know what that means when the insurance companies start jumping all over this?  They are reading the Tea Leaves and getting the picture that security contractors or ‘marine contractors’ on boats, armed with the necessary tools and skills to defeat these thugs, are the way to go.

   I also want to commend Zack Phillips for writing such a well researched little article.  There is a lot of meat in this thing, and I highly recommend checking out some of the maritime security companies he mentioned.  You might be able to get a job with them, by doing a little Google Fu. –Matt

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Pirate attacks trigger armed guard coverage

Programs protect shipowners against increased liability risk

Dec. 13, 2009

Zack Phillips

Insurers and brokers have begun to offer products that cover or facilitate the use of armed security guards onboard ships to defend against piracy.

But despite the persistence of pirate attacks, the shipping industry remains largely reluctant to put firearms on vessels, observers say.

Shipowners and their underwriters typically have been wary of arming merchant ships, due to a host of potential legal, logistical and safety problems. But in recent months, as pirates off the coast of Somalia have hijacked several ships and attacked scores of others, some insurance products have emerged that would cover the use of armed security personnel to ward off pirates.

“The attitude has changed but they never had this type of scenario before,” said Lars Gustafson, a New York-based senior vp at Marsh Inc.

Despite an international flotilla of naval ships shepherding merchant ships through safe-travel corridors, pirates off the coast of Somalia have hijacked 31 ships in 2009 and attacked 172, compared with 42 hijackings and 111 attacks in 2008, according to figures from the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Senior officers in the U.S. and British navies separately have encouraged ship owners to consider the use of armed security personnel on board. The Danish shipping giant Clipper Group announced in November it was carrying up to six Russian marines aboard some of its ships transiting the Gulf of Aden near Somalia.

(more…)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Somalia: P.M. Calls for Plan Like U.S. Afghan Strategy

Filed under: Somalia — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 6:53 AM

     You know, this PM has a point.  We are investing a lot of troops and resources to Afghanistan, but there are other centers of gravity for the enemy that we should be focusing on.  One of them is Somalia, and the enemy is gaining momentum there as well. Money and manpower issues come to mind as to why we are not ‘surging’ into Somalia.

   He also mentioned another fantastic point.  For the amount of money we are spending on all of these massive navies to go after small little boats with pirates in them, we could certainly re-evaluate that process and use that money for a better return on investment.

   We could instead force the shipping industry to provide their own security, and then the costs could easily be passed down to the companies, and then to the consumer. It is already happening like that, but instead of security costs, the shipping companies are having to pay for increased insurance do to kidnappings.  I say lower the kidnapping potential by increasing security on the boats. Invest in security, and not insane insurance costs that only go up as the pirates capture more boats.  That makes economic sense.

    Also minimize the naval presence out there, and focus on being a quick reaction force or QRF to all these security contractors on boats.  The taxpayers of all the countries are paying for these massive naval operations that are not effective. It’s like using elephants to kill mice.

    Thanks to David who sent me the article below this one, this only strengthens the point that large navies are not that effective at stopping all of these small scale attacks.  They cannot be every where and at all times.  But security on boats can be on scene at the right time, and every time.  The monopoly on the application of the use of force, must be loosened, and there must be an effort to allow and even encourage the hardening of these boats.

   But back to the money.  Just imagine if instead of spending millions every day for all of these navies, to instead put that down on a land based strategy with some teeth?  It could happen, but it will take a re-thinking of the proper allocation of money and manpower for this to take place.  It would also take political will to communicate why this needs to happen. –Matt

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Somali PM Calls for Plan Like US Afghan Strategy

05 December 2009

VOA News

In a letter published Saturday in the British newspaper ‘The Times,’ Omar Sharmarke said Obama’s plan for Afghanistan, announced in a speech Tuesday, ‘marks a sea change in international support to troubled countries.’

Somalia’s prime minister is asking for U.S. President Barack Obama’s vision for Afghanistan to be applied to his country.In a letter published Saturday in the British newspaper The Times, Omar Sharmarke said Obama’s plan for Afghanistan, announced in a speech Tuesday, “marks a sea change in international support to troubled countries.”Prime Minister Sharmarke said Somalia needs similar aid, to restore an effective government and train security forces, to police Somalia’s waters to ensure only Somalis profit from the fish, oil, and gas, and to launch a vocational training program for young people. (more…)

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