The Piracy Business: Are they financed by our enemies?

[Meiji]

Monday, April 06, 2009

 

 

NAIROBI (AFP) - Somali pirates seized ships from France, Britain, Germany, Taiwan and Yemen in the worst spate of hijackings in months, defying the world's naval powers by prowling further out in the Indian Ocean.

 

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Coincidently? The countries of these ships have battle fleet in the Indian Ocean who were supposed to fight ''Piracy''.

 

There is more then the eye can see folks!

 

 

This Piracy phenomenon must be linked to actors who want to undermine the long-term interest and security of Somalia.

 

The pirates will be used as a justification to further interfene in Somali affaires.

 

Will this Piracy Issue lead to foreign occupation of Northeastern and Central Somalia?

 

UNISOM/AMISOM/EThiop ian occupation kinda operations for cities like Boosaso, Raas Xaafun, Eyl, Hobyo, Xarardheere?

 

The excuse will be: Piracy can only be fought by pacifiying the coastal-cities from where they operate since containing them via the Indian Ocean didn't work.

 

And how is the issue of foreign occupation of Northeastern and Central Somalia's coast and major cities linked with the talk of natural resources (oil and gas) in those regions?

 

 

Discuss

[Meiji]

As piracy surges, U.S. warns of dangers off Somali coast

 

 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A sudden surge of pirate

attacks off the coast of eastern Somalia in recent days has prompted the U.S. military to put out a new alert to mariners, warning of increased danger in the region.

 

The attacks, which took place south of the area patrolled by U.S. and coalition ships, shows pirates are changing their tactics and taking advantage of tens of thousands of square miles of open water where fewer military ships patrol, according to U.S. military officials.

 

 

"They [pirates] are going where we are not, they are looking for targets where there is limited coalition presence," according to a U.S. military briefing document shown to CNN.

 

Coalition ships mainly patrol in the busy sea lanes of the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and northern Somalia as ships come out of and head toward the mouth of the Red Sea.

 

"Despite increased naval presence in the region, ships and aircraft are unlikely to be close enough to provide support to vessels under attack. The scope and magnitude of the problem cannot be understated," according to a news release from the U.S. Navy.

 

Between January and February, only two pirate attacks were reported off the east coast of Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy attacks worldwide.

 

In March, attacks in the same area spiked to 15, according to the bureau, and the attacks have continued into April.

 

On Monday, pirates seized a British-owned cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden. Also on Monday, a fishing trawler was hijacked and used to hijack other fishing vessels in the area, the bureau said.

 

Pirates typically use small boats with a limited range to attack ships just a few miles off the coastline.

 

The new warning says recent attacks have occurred hundreds of miles off the coast, suggesting that pirates are using more "mother ships" -- a practice of using bigger boats with longer range to launch smaller pirate ships from farther out to sea, according to Pentagon officials.

 

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Liaison Office also issued a warning to mariners April 1.

 

"Recent activity suggests that pirate activity off the east coast of Somalia has increased. Attacks have occurred more than 400 nautical miles offshore," according to the warning.

 

The warning suggests ships traveling along the coast of Somalia and Kenya move to the east side of the Seychelles Islands and Madagascar, hundreds of miles east of those coastlines.

 

Pentagon officials say pirates are holding 15 ships off the Somali coast. And according to U.S. Navy statistics, pirates attacked four ships between Saturday and Monday.

 

The area involved -- off the coast of Somalia and Kenya as well as the Gulf of Aden -- equals more than 1.1 million square miles, roughly four times the size of Texas, or the size of the Mediterranean and Red Sea combined. The length of the Somali coastline is roughly the same length as the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States, according to U.S. Navy statistics.

 

"We continue to highlight the importance of preparation by the merchant mariners and the maritime industry in this message," Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of the Combined Maritime Forces, said in a statement.

 

"International naval forces alone will not be able to solve the problem of piracy at sea. Piracy is a problem that starts ashore," he said.

 

This year, the U.S. Navy started Combined Task Force 151, a multinational coalition that uses naval ships to fight piracy in the Gulf of Aden region. Navy officials say about 12 to 15 coalition ships are patrolling in the Gulf of Aden and the off the coast of Somalia.

 

Source: CNN, April 08, 2009

[Meiji]

Writings on the Wall:

 

Occupation of Northeastern and Central coast of Somalia.

 

The plan has already been set into motion, and Somalis are as again oblivious to what is been prepared for them.

 

Just like the Ethiopian and AMISOM occupation was prepared pre-2003 for Mogadishu and Southern Somalia, while nobody thought it could happen. Well, guess what...its a FACT ANNO 2009 and nobody bothers the presence of AMISOM in the capital of Somalia.

[Meiji]

Somali Pirates Seize American Cargo Ship

 

Somali pirates have seized a cargo ship with 20 American crew on board off the Horn of Africa.

 

The 17,000-tonne vessel was attacked in the Indian Ocean, 400 miles from the Somali capital Mogadishu.

 

The vessel is owned by the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

 

In a statement, the company later confirmed that the US-flagged vessel has 20 Americans onboard.

 

Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said all the crew are believed to be safe.

 

A spokesman for the US Navy confirmed there were American citizens on board, but did not say how many.

 

The vessel is the first to be captured with an all-American crew.

 

On Monday, pirates hijacked a British-owned, Italian-operated ship with 16 Bulgarian crew on board.

 

Over the weekend, they also seized a French yacht, a Yemeni tug, and a 20,000-tonne German container vessel.

 

Interfax news agency said the Hansa Stavanger had a German captain, three Russians, two Ukrainians, and 14 Filipinos on board.

 

The pirates typically use speed boats launched from "mother ships", which means they can usually evade foreign navy ships patrolling the area.

 

They often take captured vessels to remote coastal villages in Somalia.

 

Source: Sky News, April 8, 2009

[Meiji]

White House 'closely monitoring' ship hijacking

 

WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday it was closely monitoring the apparent hijacking of a U.S.-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and assessing what steps to take to get the crew back safely, a spokesman said.

 

 

The Danish-owned container ship, Maersk Alabama, was seized off the Somali coast along with its crew, including some 20 Americans, a company spokesman said.

 

"The White House is closely monitoring the apparent hijacking of the US-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and assessing a course of action to resolve this situation," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board."

 

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

 

Source: Reuters, April 08, 2009

[me]

It is interesting to see how a pretext is created for another Somali nightmare.

 

It is like watchting a car going 100 mph straight to a wall. You know the outcome is going to be ugly.

 

It looks like that once again they want to make us the victims of their sick politics.

[Meiji]

Security Council empowers anti-piracy operations on land in Somalia

 

Gerard Aziakou

 

December 17, 2008

 

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a US resolution authorizing for the first time international operations against pirates on land in Somalia.

 

The text, co-sponsored by Belgium, France, Greece, Liberia and South Korea, is the fourth approved by the council since June to combat rampant piracy off Somalia's coast.

 

Resolution 1851 authorizes for one year states already involved in fighting piracy off Somalia to "take all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia" to suppress "acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea."

 

Unlike previous resolutions, the current text empowers states combating piracy to conduct operations on land in Somalia.

 

However to overcome objections from countries such as Indonesia, the sponsors dropped an earlier reference in the text to "ashore" or "including in its (Somalia) airspace."

 

The vote took place at a high-profile ministerial session attended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Chinese deputy foreign minister He Yafei and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

 

Rice hailed adoption of the resolution, saying it sent a "strong signal to combat the scourge of piracy" and stressing the need "to end the impunity of Somali pirates."

 

She also announced that Washington intends to work with partners to set up a contact group on Somali piracy and underscored the importance of addressing the root cause of the Somali piracy problem, referring to the insecurity and lawlessness in the Horn of Africa nation.

 

She said that though Washington was committed to continuing backing the African Union force in Somalia, it was time "to authorize a UN peacekeeping operation" in the country.

 

Ethiopian troops, who intervened in Somalia in 2006 to prop up the weak transitional government, will be withdrawn early next month, leaving the ill-equipped and under-strength 3,400-strong AU force on its own to face a resurgent Islamic rebellion.

 

The resolution also calls upon states and international organisations "to establish an international cooperation mechanism to act as a common point of contact between and among states on all aspects of combating piracy and armed robbery at sea off Somalia's coast ... (and to consider) creating a center in the region to coordinate information relevant to piracy off the coast of Somalia."

 

Indonesia's UN Ambassador Marty Natalegawa however made it clear that "the fight against piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia needs to be undertaken in full compliance with international law, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."

 

In his remarks, Ban welcomed the council's actions to combat Somali piracy and said he would submit recommendations "on ways to ensure the long-term security of international navigation off the coast of Somalia."

 

But the UN boss stressed the need to address the broader security challenge in Somalia.

 

He said the most appropriate response was "a multinational force (MNF), rather than a typical peacekeeping operation."

 

Ban said he had approached 50 countries and three international organisations for contributions to such a force.

 

He added that the council could explore the possibility of setting up a maritime task force or adding to the current anti-piracy operations "a quick reaction component."

 

Somali pirates hold at least 17 ships, including an arms-laden Ukrainian cargo vessel and a Saudi supertanker carrying two million barrels of crude oil.

 

NATO has also dispatched naval forces to the region, joining other national navies in place, but increasingly bold and well-equipped pirates have continued their attacks.

 

The pirates have carried out more than 100 attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean since the start of this year.

 

Meanwhile Nicole Widdersheim, head of the charity Oxfam International's New York Office warned that: "efforts to tackle piracy and protect commercial interests in the Indian Ocean should not be mistaken for effective action to tackle the desperate humanitarian crisis in Somalia."

 

"Expanding anti-piracy operations inside Somalia risks further complicating the conflict and could exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis," she added.

[Meiji]

INTERVIEW- Fight Somali piracy on land-defence minister

 

Source: Reuters

* Defence minister says piracy fight should start onshore

 

* Acknowledges little defence experience

 

* Seeks help from retired officers to build new army

 

By Abdiaziz Hassan and Frank Nyakairu

 

NAIROBI, March 4 (Reuters) - Efforts to stop pirates hijacking ships off the Somali coast should start onshore, the country's new defence minister said in an interview.

 

"If anyone wants to fight piracy, it has to start from mainland Somalia, because the unstable situation on the mainland is largely responsible for the piracy on the water," Mohamed Abdi Mohamed told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday.

 

Somali pirates, typically in small groups aboard speedboats, have earned millions of dollars in ransoms after boarding and seizing vessels -- from fishing trawlers to a Saudi supertanker.

 

With no effective central government in Somalia since 1991, the gunmen have been able to flourish using bases on land.

 

The surge in piracy has caused international alarm and warships from several countries have tried to curb the hijacks. But 49 piracy attacks have been reported so far this year, up from 35 over the same period of 2008, according to the International Maritime Bureau in Malaysia.

 

Mohamed, who is known as "Ghandi", was appointed defence minister last month in the new government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist who aims to bring peace to the Horn of Africa nation.

 

Mohamed is one of several government members, including the prime minister, who came from the large Somali diaspora. His main task is to form a Somali army, but he admits his experience of defence issues is limited.

 

He holds doctorates in anthropology/history and geology and from France's Besancon University. He said he had been too busy in academia to gain much exposure to security affairs.

 

"Really, I don't have experience in the affairs of defence, but I will try to understand how we can get a new Somali army that can stabilise Somalia," Mohamed told Reuters.

 

He plans to study the structure of the former force, call a conference with experts and then, with the help of retired officers, form a new Somali army within a year.

 

"There are some people who were not involved in the civil war, but they did good study in the military strategic specialist schools, in Russia, Italy, Egypt and the United States," he said. "What we need is to hear their experience and to hear also the advice for the new Somali army."

 

Mohamed hopes to use dialogue to rein in the hardline Islamist al Shabaab fighters who hold sway in most parts of southern and central Somalia, along with a smaller Islamist group Hizbul Islam which is in parts of the capital Mogadishu.

 

"We hope that wisdom will prevail over violence ... because the Somali population is very tired and fed up with war." (Editing by David Clarke)

[Meiji]

World's anti-piracy strategy doomed: Puntland

 

MOGADISHU (AFP) – International navies will fail in their bid to eradicate Somali piracy if they do not commit more towards assisting the local authorities on the ground, the northern region of Puntland said Tuesday.

 

Puntland security minister Abdullahi Said Samatar, whose breakaway region is the main hub for piracy in the Gulf of Aden, made his appeal for help after pirates seized five foreign ships in 48 hours.

 

"We can see that international allied forces operating off Somalia are not succeeding in their crackdown on the pirates, who despite their increased presence are still hijacking as many ships as they used to," he told AFP.

 

Between Saturday and Monday, Somali pirates hijacked a British-owned cargo, a German container carrier, a Taiwanese tuna fishing vessel, a Yemeni tugboat and a small French yacht with a three-year-old boy on board.

 

Close to 150 attacks by Somali pirates on foreign ships were reported in 2008, most of them in the Gulf of Aden, where 16,000 ships bottle-neck into the Red Sea each year on one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.

 

Most of the ships in the pirates' latest haul were caught in the Indian Ocean, far from the heavily-patrolled shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden.

 

The flurry of hijackings shattered a relative lull in Somali piracy since the start of the year but it now appears the reprieve owed more to unfavourable winter seas than naval deterrence.

 

The European Union's months-old Atalanta anti-piracy naval mission is estimated to cost more than 300 million dollars (230 million euros) annually and Samatar warned the money could be wasted if his administration wasn't propped up.

 

China, Japan, Norway, Russia, the United States and other countries also have naval forces also operating in the area.

 

"They should assist us and try to solve the crisis on the ground so that we can tackle the pirates together," he said in a phone interview.

 

"The campaign against the pirates can achieve quick success if the international community heeds our calls for help because this war needs local community forces to help the international forces," he added.

 

The Atalanta mission's mandate expires in December 2009 but the EU said last month it was mulling an extension.

 

 

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[Meiji]

"They should assist us and try to solve the crisis on the ground so that we can tackle the pirates together," he said in a phone interview.

 

"The campaign against the pirates can achieve quick success if the international community heeds our calls for help because this war needs local community forces to help the international forces," he added.

 

 

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Hunguri will destroy not only these opportunists themselves but also Somalia.

 

The world knowes that the Northeastern administration is allied with the Pirates and such pleas to get more money will only pave the way for the occupation of Northeastern and Central Somali coast.

[Meiji]

It’s time for a new anti-piracy strategy

 

Somali pirates hijack another boat — or two or three — every day despite the best efforts of the U.S. 5th Fleet, NATO, Russia, India and others. This is not new; pirates have been frustrating the mighty for at least 2,000 years — since snatching Julius Caesar, then ransoming him for 50 talents, and leading Alexander the Great on a wild goose chase around the Mediterranean.

 

As the UN Security Council grapples with Somali piracy, its members are in venerable company. According to Plutarch, Caesar got even: He caught and crucified his hapless captors, but he never drove piracy from the Roman Empire. Today’s brigands have faster boats and rocket-propelled grenades, but their best assets are the same as those used to stymie Caesar and Alexander — big seas, many prey and few protectors.

 

For Somali pirates today, the odds are even better: They have a hunting ground of 2.5 million square nautical miles transited by 20,000 commercial ships annually. Muscle-bound warships try but regularly fail to defend all those merchantmen.

 

It may be time for a new strategy. This week, the Security Council gave Secretary General Ban Ki-moon 90 days to come up with one. Late last month, for example, the council adopted a British plan for travel and financial sanctions against the pirates’ leading lights. That’s fine, but the pirates seem to have their own means of travel and finance, including million-dollar bounties that fall from the sky in suitcases — and no one seems to know who the leaders are anyway.

 

The Organization of African Unity wants a UN peacekeeping force to tame Somalia, but the United Nations has sought recruits for months without success. Private security guards will shoot it out with bandits for $5,000 to $20,000 a day, but many ships carry flammable cargos, so seaborne firefights between thugs and testosterone-soaked mercenaries are best avoided.

 

The global shipping association wants to seal off Somalia with a blockade. Since the country has the longest coast in Africa, that’s a little ambitious. But the shippers are on the right track. Somali pirates need havens that have water deep enough not to run trophy ships aground yet that are close enough to towns for resupply. From the capital, Mogadishu, north around the Horn of Africa into the Gulf of Aden, Somalia has only a few suitable places: Eyl, Hobyo and Haradhere on the Indian Ocean; Bosaso on the Gulf of Aden; Mogadishu itself; and possibly one or two more.

 

 

In fact, piracy has been a crime under international law since the 17th century. Building on customary law and the UN Law of the Sea Convention, the Security Council in June authorized a six-month mandate, which this week was extended for a year, for cooperating states to use force against pirates in Somali territorial waters and on the high seas.

 

Because piracy is a crime of universal jurisdiction, captors with no connection to the victims, property or perpetrators may detain and prosecute suspects. For those who prefer to extradite suspects from Somalia, nearby Kenya is an option; its courts have been convicting pirates for years.

 

Alongside those sturdy criminal and jurisdictional foundations is the Security Council’s own authority to impose blockades, under Article 42 of the UN Charter, to counter threats of any stripe to international security. A limited blockade would also cost less than the combined insurance premiums, security charges, expenses from longer voyages and million-dollar bounties likely to be paid if piracy continues.

 

Shippers could cushion the blow to national treasuries by paying into a multinational fund — set up outside the United Nations — to support the operation. Trillions of dollars in commercial cargos transit the sea lanes annually; so long as they do, thugs in boats will prey on them. The world has a chance to shut down the Somali pirate franchise. Let’s not squander it.

 

 

Source: Arab News

[Resistance]

So whats the solution, how do u stop 'them' and their 'plans'. In other words sidii loga hortagi karaa.

[NASSIR]

Meiji, I think the pirate problem has developed into an epidemic scale. Poor people from rural areas are flocking to the coastal cities in the hope of joining or helping this intricate network of gangs comprised of the unemployed youth, corrupt officials, former fishermen, and local and foreign businessmen based in Dubai with the aim of enriching themselves from Somalia's status of lawlessness.

 

Though it's hard to deny the external factor, we spawned the problem and it all started when local officials in the region contracted commercial fishing companies and their vessels to fish freely off the coast of Somalia, the cumulative effect of which led to the rise of fishermen.

 

This revolution by the coastal communities against pirate-fishing could have been addressed and kept on the lid, but its brief forays on the high seas were successful, thereby inspiring more and more attacks until the whole thing became a vicious cycle.

 

I also think the genesis of the Security Council resolution on Somali pirates is born out of serious concerns by several countries' top leaders who suspected initially that America had a direct hand in the piracy off our coast.

Therefore, every country was given a green light to escort and protect their commercial vessels, and the occasion afforded an opportune time for countries like China and Japan to make a historic naval expansion.

 

I think the pirate plague is on shore/domestic issue and I am really afraid for the Puntland administration's effectiveness to deal with it. The top brass has been accused of working with this pirate network.

 

 

See, Biyokulule Special Report.

 

Piratestan Series

[Meiji]

Officials: Pirates, terrorists not linked directly

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials have found no direct ties between East African pirates and terrorist groups but continue to search for signs of links between the two factions in the wake of the Indian Ocean hostage incident. It was not clear whether officials were specifically scrutinizing the Somali pirates who boarded the Maersk Alabama on Tuesday and fled in a lifeboat after taking hostage the cargo ship's captain.

 

 

Military and counterterrorism officials say that in the transient world of Somalia's combative coastal dwellers, a Somali clansman can be a fisherman one day, a pirate the next, and a weapons trafficker the following day.

 

"If you look at the clan structure or the tribes — to think that there may not be linkages probably is a bit naive," Adm. William "Kip" Ward told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.

 

Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, warned that some of the money from piracy could make its way into the hands of extremists.

 

"I certainly would not put that out of the realm of possibility," Leiter said at the Aspen Institute.

 

When hijackings first spiked off the coast of Somalia last year, counterterrorism officials pressed for any evidence that the country's extremist factions, or even al-Qaida militants operating in East Africa, might be using piracy to fund their violence.

 

But the complicated clan structure and Somalia's ungoverned black market have made it difficult to trace the cash transactions.

 

In one indication that the groups sometimes have conflicting agendas, members of the al-Shabab terrorist organization lashed out publicly at a group of pirates late last year after they attacked the Sirius Star, a Saudi oil tanker.

 

A senior U.S. military official familiar with the region, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence gathering, said the military is still looking hard at potential connections between piracy and the escalating terrorist activities in east Africa.

 

 

A key concern for the military, the official said, is the steady flow of black-market weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, from Yemen into Somalia, where militants use them in both on- and offshore crimes.

 

Source: Associated Press, April 9, 2009

[Meiji]

Terrorism card is now scrutinized to check whether it can succesfully be used as a pretext.

 

Another development:

 

Somali opporunists are throwing their bid at attracting some money and weapons by showing their willingsness to collaborate. Before the Ethiopian occupation and the open warfare against the Islamic factions in Somalia, the US and others financed and armed Somali opportunists to hunt the wadaado down and fight their factions.

 

Are we experiencing now the same development with opportunists from Northeastern admin begging for funds so they can combat the Piracy themselves?

 

The same with the foreign-created government who cried for financial and logistical support so that they can combat the pircacy too.