Somali Pirates hit a new high... er low

[AntEater]

Actually I think there IS a Somali government of ethiopian making (so by proxy a US ally ) that wants to try pirates.
Pirate activity is mainly in Puntland, which is basically an independent country in the north, less ravaged by the civil war.
So the (ethiopian proclaimed) somali government is interested in trying pirates as seperatists.
Funny is that previous to piracy, Puntland was always portrayed as a model region in Somalia, where the rule of law still exists etc.....

[jpm1]

the FARC at the origin weren' bad guys i lived in Colombia in the 80's the governments of that era were known to be highly corrupted . the problem's that these governments were supported by drug cartels which brewed billions of dollars i mean it wasn't difficult not to do the same to fight such power . i heard that then they become a kinda mafia too to finance their weapons but for having known this group at its origin at the origin they weren't corrupted guys they just wanted to fight injustice , they have gone bad then maybe don't know but at the origin they were a group of "campesinos" fighting for justice .

[sonar732]

Amazing enough...the price of crude is still going down after this!

EDIT: I'm surprised that there hasn't been more security details being hired by the companies that operate in the Gulf of Aden.

Originally Posted by Blacklight

One of my first responses would be: If a port is identified as a pirate haven and is used once for that purpose, it would be bombed.

I too support military strikes against these guys. We need to send a message of cruise missiles and bombs to these guys and reduce their speedboats to matchsticks.

We also need to get a LOT more multinational armed patrols in the area. Maybe even set up a "no trafic zone" where any vessel under a certain size will be terminated on sight.

I'm with you 100% on that one. I'd send at least 4 warships to within blasting distance of their harbors, stop and search each and every boat coming out/going in, and those that don't stop, blow them out of the water. Twice (just to make sure).

If they're found to be bringing weapons out, blast the harbor and support structure.

Yes, the UN will complain about it. Tough. Let them send their own ships there to fix it if they don't like it.

So says I, once I become the Evil Overlord.

[Wolfehunter]

Originally Posted by Skybird

summary:
Experts estimate the annual ransom earned by those pirates to be around 300 million dollar, which is 150% of Puntlands income. Whole villages live by supporting assault commandos. Along the coasts, whole small towns with many villas have been build where the warlords and clan-chiefs are residing and live a life in wealth and luxury. Piracy has turned into a profitable industry, and whole restaurants and their kitchens pop up to supply both assault commandos and hostages with food. Village communities are in almost complete support of pirate operations, and have made it the basis of their economic living.

I think this gives an idea of what we are talking about. This is not just some poor, poor fisherman not catching eniough fish anymore and being driven by hunger whn they chase those big ships instead - this is a profitable enterprise on large scale, run by warlords and militias chasing the big money. No reason to have romantic images of the noble but poor natives in your mind. Considering it, I would expand my intial tactic, send in a carrier, and let the bombers clean the whole coast of all those noble restaurants and villas and new townships and burn them down and flatten all the pirate nests completely. In other words: waging unlimited war on land. these pirate enterprises are as desperate and innocent as is the FARC innocent of having turned from an ideologically driven guerilla into an a usual common mafia group commiting acts of ordinary organised crime: smuggling drugs and weapons, and kidnapping for ransom, not following any ideals beyond that anymore.

the original article in full also mentions that it is deeply worrying that this tanker was hijacked: outside the dangerous waters, far away from the coats nad in open blue water, pirates having used a hijecked big trawler to get out to the open sea that far and just near the tanker boarded their small attack boats. This is a complete new quality, and a very dangerous escalation.

the article also says the EU is hammering out a deal with the german navy that would allow them to be a bit more active and eventually arrest pirates - to hand them over to the somalias (very good joke), or hand them over to german authorities if they had directly threatened german "Rechtsgüter". No word on preventing attacks by tying to strike the attacking boats. It is so much safer to send a rubber boat with commandoes to recapture the ship, or have a helo hovering over a ship that is hijecked by persons armed with missile launchers.

idiots, idiots, idiots.

Either which way you look at it skybird these men and woman so called pirates have guns to their heads and their families if they don't do what they need to do to stay alive their dead anyways. Its about survival. So if they don't work for warlords they're dead or slaves. If they do and become pirates they may get lucky.

Its about chance. What are the odds. Both have high chances of death in the end.

Its survival in the muck and you would do it too if you had little or no choice.

Is it right? No but that is reality. Target the warlord.

[PeriscopeDepth]

The world has spoken on Somalia. Nobody cares. Unless of course, you start messing with our trade.

PD

[CaptHawkeye]

What's funny is that an absurdly simple way to protect merchant shipping in the Gulf is already available. It wouldn't even require arming Tankers and Freighters. Simply bring back the Convoy System. Every major world power and their dog has SOME kind of naval presense in that region. It wouldn't be hard to just organize the container ships into groups and have them escorted by a single DDG or even a Frigate.

[PeriscopeDepth]

Originally Posted by CaptHawkeye

What's funny is that an absurdly simple way to protect merchant shipping in the Gulf is already available. It wouldn't even require arming Tankers and Freighters. Simply bring back the Convoy System. Every major world power and their dog has SOME kind of naval presense in that region. It wouldn't be hard to just organize the container ships into groups and have them escorted by a single DDG or even a Frigate.

Why not just put a few squads of infantry on each vessel depending on its size? Would be a lot cheaper than some NATO FFG that was made to hunt Soviet subs.

PD

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by jpm1

the FARC at the origin weren' bad guys i lived in Colombia in the 80's the governments of that era were known to be highly corrupted . the problem's that these governments were supported by drug cartels which brewed billions of dollars i mean it wasn't difficult not to do the same to fight such power . i heard that then they become a kinda mafia too to finance their weapons but for having known this group at its origin at the origin they weren't corrupted guys they just wanted to fight injustice , they have gone bad then maybe don't know but at the origin they were a group of "campesinos" fighting for justice .

Have I said anything different than that they turned from a left-leaning guerilla in the past to ordinary (and very brutal) criminals today? My point was that the pirates in somalia never have been what Farc was at the beginning - they were local criminals in the past decade, who then turned professional and being hired and supported by the militias and warlords. the warlords are the ones who ruined the country and are responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands over the past 20 years. These masses died of starvation for the most, and the many wars between rivaling warlords. And the West, with every ransom payed, finances these mass murders and criminals, and pays for their new weapons. they should and must be killed and their houses and boats destroyed, their supporters killed and the pirate villages burnt. Not by troops on the ground, we already had that, but by a robust air campaign via carrier, since this is not about invasiona nd conquering, but simpole destruction - and destrioytion alone can be achieved quite well from the air, with no hightech airdefense around. Piracy has been turned into a business now, and it constructs infrastructure on land for future piracy. It influences the way people live so that in the future they depend even more on supporting pirates - and then you will feel even more scruples to fire at those "poor, noble victims of and by the many millions - but Somalia's pirates have nothing to do with them anymore. they are militias and gangsters and fight not for freedom and survival, but their bosses' wealth. Destroy them.

[CaptHawkeye]

Originally Posted by PeriscopeDepth

Why not just put a few squads of infantry on each vessel depending on its size? Would be a lot cheaper than some NATO FFG that was made to hunt Soviet subs.

PD

This increases the danger to the tank though. Since infantry squads could repel attacks easily, they could not discourage them entirely. No one is going to want to assault a convoy of 3-4 ships when a Burkleswarm is leading the pack. That's the problem with a lot of these pirates, their are so many of them and yet so few military ships to GET them. What you want to do is make them come to you.

[geetrue]

Originally Posted by sonar732

Amazing enough...the price of crude is still going down after this!

EDIT: I'm surprised that there hasn't been more security details being hired by the companies that operate in the Gulf of Aden.

not today ... crude went up to $58 due mainly to this heist

here are some clues: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1119/p01s03-woaf.html

Mustafa Alani, director of the Center for Counter-Terrorism at the Gulf Research Center, a Dubai-based think tank, said that there is a part of Somalia – Puntland – where the pirates operate from and that the leader of that area is "taxing those pirates." The leader of Puntland denies any involvement with the pirates, Alani says, but adds: "You can't do these activities without political protection."

While security experts say piracy has gotten more sophisticated in recent years, they do not believe that pirates are anything more than high-rolling criminals with an eye for making easy cash.

[fatty]

What do you guys think about allegations that these pirates are funnelling their prizes into funding terrorism? These are huge multi-million dollar ransoms that they are collecting for themselves, but they don't have very many places to spend it.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by CaptHawkeye

This increases the danger to the tank though. Since infantry squads could repel attacks easily, they could not discourage them entirely. No one is going to want to assault a convoy of 3-4 ships when a Burkleswarm is leading the pack. That's the problem with a lot of these pirates, their are so many of them and yet so few military ships to GET them. What you want to do is make them come to you.

Air power.

Little Birds, Cobras, air-based recce.

FFARs, Cannons.

You don't want to wait until they "come to you". You want to actively hunt, find and kill them before they can come to you, and destroy their infrastructure on land, and the rewards their bosses have from this lucrative business. Bomb the villas and new settlements from where they operate. that way they cannot and/or will not come to you anymore.

the business must be stopped to be rewarding for them. It must be turned to be painful for them - so make it painful for them, then. when enough pirates have been killed and enough villas have been burnt, they will not come anymore.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by fatty

What do you guys think about allegations that these pirates are funnelling their prizes into funding terrorism? These are huge multi-million dollar ransoms that they are collecting for themselves, but they don't have very many places to spend it.

I don't mind wether they spend it on their own wars, or wars against us - both is a reason to put them on the list of endangered species.

[PeriscopeDepth]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Air power.

Little Birds, Cobras, air-based recce.

FFARs, Cannons.

You don't want to wait until they "come to you". You want to actively hunt, find and kill them before they can come to you, and destroy their infrastructure on land, and the rewards their bosses have from this lucrative business. Bomb the villas and new settlements from where they operate. that way they cannot and/or will not come to you anymore.

the business must be stopped to be rewarding for them. It must be turned to be painful for them - so make it painful for them, then. when enough pirates have been killed and enough villas have been burnt, they will not come anymore.

I agree with you Sky.

A combination of a few squadrons of MPAs (or even Predators) and attack helicopters would be an excellent solution.

PD