Piracy makes a comeback

[Shaka_Khan]

I'm surprised no one posted the story of the Latvian cargo ship that was hijacked with T-72 tanks and RPGs.

It was mentioned in another thread.

According to wiki, it hasn't been resolved yet.

The German-owned, Antigua and Barbuda-flagged MV BBC Trinidad is hijacked. It is released on September 11, along with its 13-person crew consisting of a Slovakian captain, ten Filipinos, and two Russians, after a ransom of US$1.1 million is paid.[71] The MT Irene, a Japanese-owned with a crew of three Croatians and 16 Filipinos is also seized on the same day. It is released around the same time as the MV BBC Trinidad for US$1.5 million. Both were held near the town of Eyl.[72] The MV Iran Deyanat was also hijacked and brought to Eyl on the same day. The Iranian-owned ship and its crew of 14 Iranians, three Indians, two Filipinos, and 10 Eastern Europeans, possibly Croatian, is being held for ransom. Pirates have suffered health problems including hair loss and even death, suggesting that could be carrying chemical munitions or radioactive materials.

3 ships were hijacked that day!

<- nice emoticon

[Shaka_Khan]

The MY Le Ponant was seized in the Gulf of Aden. The French-owned luxury yacht had no passengers on board, but there were 30 crew members: one Cameroonian, six Filipinos, 22 French, and one Ukrainian. The FS Commandant Bouan, a French D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso, and the HMCS Charlottetown, a Canadian Halifax-class frigate, were dispatched to the yacht. On April 12 the crew and the ship were released, apparently after the owner, CMA CGM, paid a ransom. After the crew was released, French soldiers tracked the pirates, who were then on land. According to the French military a sniper in a helicopter disabled the engine of a car transporting the pirates, while another helicopter landed and captured six pirates and recovered some ransom money. On April 13 the six appeared in a French court in Paris and were charged with, among other things, hostage-taking, hijacking, and theft.

Will any other pirates touch a French ship after that?

[Sigurd]

It has been decided that we will be sending this to the area this coming spring.
No Norwegian ships have been captured so far (not that the priates havent tried ), but our ships could need assistance.

[rory_20_uk]

It's reward verses risk.

Currently the risks appear to be slight, as even if captured getting a trial would be tough - then they might even demand asylum...

The Indian Navy had the right idea: sink the bastards; the French and British for some reason took prisoners.

I would have thought using radar / satelite to locate likely staging ships these should then be challenged, and searched. Any resistance they're sunk. This would rather quickly mean that the only ships would be land launched and these have pretty poor range.

It isn't a beehive and bees, it is a latrine and horseflies. There is nothing of value in that , and jumping into that mess will only get us up to our necks in crap. We swat at the flies that come close to the picnic and hold our noses to the smell.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Indian Navy destroys pirate boat.

"Millons for defense but not one penny for tribute". Paying ransom only encourages the criminal element to increase their predation.

The problem there is that the people running this are sitting in a luxury villa in Mombasa or Dubai collecting the ransoms and couldn't really give a damn if you flattened a town in somalia and killed all their gunmen , they would just buy another town and hire more gunmen .
What you need is a small international police operation to arrest the financiers , plus of course you need relative stability in the area of North-East africa so any that escape the net don't have a bunch of local warlords and armed people looking for jobs that the financiers can hire easily .

I agree. Follow the money and take out the organizers just like any other organized crime syndicate. The pirates could give a fig about religion. They're attacking any and all ships irregardless of religious sect or affiliation. The only criteria is if they can attack and board them. Make this more difficult and expensive for them to do so.

The pirates aren't using ships just small swift coastal boats, and like any guerrilla war, the hardest part is identifying the foe. Boarding a large tanker or container ship wouldn't be so easy if they employed anti-boarding devices and armed security teams for the most valuable cargos.
As the cost of shipping insurance goes up more resources for defense and police action will be spent to minimise the losses. It can't be stopped, and as far as stability in that area of the world goes...has it ever really been stable?

[Tribesman]

Interesting. I had suspected that there would be a "kingpin" type of approach, but hadn't found any corroboration or analysis. I know I'm not going to get a link, but any chance of a bit of direction to useful sources?

Well BG what sort of banking system does Somalia have?
Is it a case of when a ransom is paid you get a shipping courier going into a lawless dump carrying a big big of cash or do they make deposits into the UAE and Kenya to get their boats and staff back ?
if you want direction then since this involves ships the international maritime organisation is a good start , or for more localised stuff go to the East African merchant mariners association .

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Sasaki/Tribesy - my realpolitik approach would be far more sanguinary than the previous attempts at peace-keeping in Somalia. For starters, it wouldn't really be about keeping the peace.

That's also one of the reasons I wouldn't support it.

[Tribesman]

but the the best way to minimise anarchy like this is perhaps for the US administration not to interfere to overthrow regimes they don't like.

Strictly speaking that ain't fair Banquo , the area most of these pirates are coming out of isn't part of the country that was run by Adid or the coilition of warlords , neither is it a part that the Islamic courts ran , for that atter it isn't a part that the US backed Ethiopian invasion took over before the new Islamic groups started kicking their arse back towards the border , its just one of the regions in the country that no one has really bothered with .
So you cannot really blame Americas screw ups in Somalia as a whole for the events in that region of Somalia .

That battleship would be the equivalent to a 17th century frigate, no?

Correct , the answer is no .
The New Jersey is a battleship which would be a battleship .

The pirates work as a beehive and the current effort is just chasing the bees ( the small pirate ships) away. To kill a beehive you need to strike at it and not the bees. Generaly an argument such as ' If you dont release the ship we will flatten your pirate port to the ground' works better. U need to arrest the Pirate lords, capture the ports and destroy their infrastructure to succeed.

The problem there is that the people running this are sitting in a luxury villa in Mombasa or Dubai collecting the ransoms and couldn't really give a damn if you flattened a town in somalia and killed all their gunmen , they would just buy another town and hire more gunmen .
What you need is a small international police operation to arrest the financiers , plus of course you need relative stability in the area of North-East africa so any that escape the net don't have a bunch of local warlords and armed people looking for jobs that the financiers can hire easily .

[Banquo's Ghost]

Strictly speaking that ain't fair Banquo , the area most of these pirates are coming out of isn't part of the country that was run by Adid or the coilition of warlords , neither is it a part that the Islamic courts ran , for that atter it isn't a part that the US backed Ethiopian invasion took over before the new Islamic groups started kicking their arse back towards the border , its just one of the regions in the country that no one has really bothered with .
So you cannot really blame Americas screw ups in Somalia as a whole for the events in that region of Somalia .

I stand corrected. Though I still believe that interference has delayed the development of a stable government that might have begun to build control over the area sooner rather than later. Interventions in other countries' affairs is invariably wrong, but unthinking interventions without even an analysis of likely future impacts is foolish - and the War on Terror does tend to follow the Fragony Fallacy - everything Islamic is dangerous and monolithic.

The problem there is that the people running this are sitting in a luxury villa in Mombasa or Dubai collecting the ransoms and couldn't really give a damn if you flattened a town in somalia and killed all their gunmen , they would just buy another town and hire more gunmen .
What you need is a small international police operation to arrest the financiers , plus of course you need relative stability in the area of North-East africa so any that escape the net don't have a bunch of local warlords and armed people looking for jobs that the financiers can hire easily .

Interesting. I had suspected that there would be a "kingpin" type of approach, but hadn't found any corroboration or analysis. I know I'm not going to get a link, but any chance of a bit of direction to useful sources?