You know the president is seen as weak when...

[Glaucus]

Beating Somali Pirates at Their Own Game

To beat pirates in potentially violent showdowns, the Navy has adopted the pirates' tactics of using "mother ships" carrying fast boats to spring on opponents.

In the early days of Somali piracy, in the 1990s, pirates ranged only a few miles from their hometowns and threatened just a few thousand square miles of ocean. The reason was simple: Most pirates were former fishermen and had only the tools of a typical fishermen. Their personal firearms and their small, motor-propelled wooden fishing boats, called skiffs. The skiffs were too slow and too flimsy to catch anything but the most rickety of vessels.

Then the pirates innovated. They began capturing trawlers and small freighters for use as motherships. Crewman Juma Mvita, from the Kenyan merchant ship Semlow, discovered this the hard way in 2005, when about a dozen armed Somalis intercepted his ship. Mvita said the pirates had no interest in Semlow's cargo. Instead, they commandeered the harmless-looking freighter to launch their next attack. It was more than three months before the pirates released Semlow and her crew.

Today, pirates use motherships for nearly all their attacks. "What we tend to see happen is a mothership will ... drag along a couple skiffs with it and have probably 10 or 15, 20 pirates on board, and then they'll send the skiffs out to go after a merchant vessel," McKnight said. He commands a new three-ship, counter-pirate task force.

That's quite the cost guard!

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Today, pirates use motherships for nearly all their attacks. "What we tend to see happen is a mothership will ... drag along a couple skiffs with it and have probably 10 or 15, 20 pirates on board, and then they'll send the skiffs out to go after a merchant vessel," McKnight said. He commands a new three-ship, counter-pirate task force.[/i]

That's quite the cost guard!

Good to see that they have come so far. They are getting quite innovative and sophisticated. It won't be long now until they qualify as a legitimate sea power.

(A "legitimate sea power" is one that can do whatever the heck it likes to your ships and get away with it).

 

[faethor]

Here's something that speaks to the idea that the pirates act as an ad hoc coast guard.

One way to look at this is that pirates are being used akin to how the US used them.

 

[Glaucus]

Sorry, but that article by Hari is complete scatology. If you look at a map of the ships that have been attacked you'll see almost all of them are well outside Somali waters (well more then 22km from the coast). Which basically means this article is complete poop. Yes, some fishing boats from Yemen and Egypt have ventured into Somali waters and yes some Somali fisher men have retaliated against them, but that's not why the Royal Navy and others are patrolling the area.

And although I don't doubt foreign fishermen enter their waters, I do have to wonder why European or other ships would dump toxic waste in Somali waters and not in the much deeper waters further out to sea. More interesting is that I've never heard of the Somali fishermen/pirates actually capturing a ship that was dumping nuclear waste off their coast. This means they're either totally ineffective at deterring this type of behavior, or it probably just doesn't happen.

 

[redrumloa]

Interestingly, out friend Ron Paul has a plan to tackle the pirates. Use congressional letters of marque and reprisal to let privateers take on pirates for a bounty

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200904 ... tico/21245

A little-known congressional power could help the federal government keep the Somali pirates in check — and possibly do it for a discount price.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and a growing number of national security experts are calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe.

Used heavily during the Revolution and the War of 1812, letters of marque serve as official warrants from the government, allowing privateers to seize or destroy enemies, their loot and their vessels in exchange for bounty money.

The letters also require would-be thrill seekers to post a bond promising to abide by international rules of war.

In a YouTube video earlier this week, Paul suggested lawmakers consider issuing letters, which could relieve American naval ships from being the nation’s primary pirate responders — a free-market solution to make the high seas safer for cargo ships.

“I think if every potential pirate knew this would be the case, they would have second thoughts because they could probably be blown out of the water rather easily if those were the conditions,” Paul said.

 

[Glaucus]

Fighting pirates with pirates? That's the dumbest thing I've heard this week.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

that's not why the Royal Navy and others are patrolling the area.

Has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with pirates. The French, the US, India, China - they're all in there.

a) The Gulf of Aden is one of the main oil shipping waterways int he world.
b) Somalia has oil and it hasn't yet been decided which major power owns it.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Fighting pirates with pirates? That's the dumbest thing I've heard this week.

It's pretty much the same model that the US uses for the drug war. Drug enforcement units are self financing since they can seize and auction all the property of anyone they say is dealing.

 

[redrumloa]

Fighting pirates with pirates? That's the dumbest thing I've heard this week.

If you actually read the article you would see modern day privateers would not be allowed to keep the loot. Instead, they would get a bounty for capturing, or presumably killing known pirates.

I'm not stating an opinion either way yet, just found it interesting.

 

[Fade]

McDeath sez
"Drug enforcement units are self financing since they can seize and auction all the property of anyone they say is dealing."
-------------------------------------

Isn't that exactly how all socialist organizations work? :duel:

 

[Glaucus]

If you actually read the article you would see modern day privateers would not be allowed to keep the loot. Instead, they would get a bounty for capturing, or presumably killing known pirates.

I did read it actually. Getting a bounty from the US congress is not much different then just keeping the loot all together. First of all, what's there to make sure they don't size some poor Somali fisherman and arrest him for piracy? Creating another "gold rush" here is not likely to solve the problem. I know Ron Paul is a die hard capitalist and it's natural for his mind to come up with a solution that relies on the private sector and minimum government effort, but that won't work here. Besides, it's clearly illegal as the UN specifically states that only military vessels are permitted to intervene with the pirates. This is probably so that states are directly held accountable for whatever happens on the open seas. Fluffy is right that the US war on drugs has become somewhat self serving in that money has become a major motivator. This, coupled with private prisons is just bad news. Not sure how anyone could think any of these things are a good idea.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

McDeath sez
"Drug enforcement units are self financing since they can seize and auction all the property of anyone they say is dealing."
-------------------------------------

Isn't that exactly how all socialist organizations work? :duel:

No.

 

[redrumloa]

I did read it actually. Getting a bounty from the US congress is not much different then just keeping the loot all together. First of all, what's there to make sure they don't size some poor Somali fisherman and arrest him for piracy? Creating another "gold rush" here is not likely to solve the problem. I know Ron Paul is a die hard capitalist and it's natural for his mind to come up with a solution that relies on the private sector and minimum government effort, but that won't work here. Besides, it's clearly illegal as the UN specifically states that only military vessels are permitted to intervene with the pirates. This is probably so that states are directly held accountable for whatever happens on the open seas. Fluffy is right that the US war on drugs has become somewhat self serving in that money has become a major motivator. This, coupled with private prisons is just bad news. Not sure how anyone could think any of these things are a good idea.

I may be open for it, based on details. In the USA bounty hunters are already legal. While there are abuses, overall bounty hunters are probably a very needed service. What would your solution be? US tax payers should not have to flip the bill to patrol the entire world's oceans for pirates.

 

[Glaucus]

I may be open for it, based on details. In the USA bounty hunters are already legal. While there are abuses, overall bounty hunters are probably a very needed service. What would your solution be? US tax payers should not have to flip the bill to patrol the entire world's oceans for pirates.

I would think that either way you'd be doing so. Bounty hunters would only bother if the bounty was enough to pay for all their expenses. And they would be great as they'd need quite the operation. They'd basically need their own little war ship armed with heavy weapons, a helicopter, a hundred or so armed men and proper logistical backing. And there would need to be dozens of these private warships. And if they actually became effective, they'd quickly work themselves out of a job. Sounds like a large, risky investment if you ask me.

Anyway, the whole situation has been escalated this weekend thanks to both the French and US rescue attempts. The Somalis may not be so nice from now on and start treating certain hostages badly. This will likely cause more violent intervention by some navies. We'll probably start to see hostages being killed. I suspect that the shipping companies will have to seriously consider hiring private security firms. If all those merchant ships were decked out with heavy weapons the piracy problem may dissipate rather quickly. Interestingly, that's a technique that's never really been used against pirates. I guess merchant sailors make bad fighters? But what if we just air lifted a bunch of commandos with specialized weapons on every ship that passed through the area? That would probably be cheaper and more effective then the current scheme.

And Red, it's not just the US Navy that's there. This might surprise you, but the flagships of all 4 major task groups operating there are part of the Royal Navy. Nations from throughout the world are sending their navies there, it's a world effort. Your name is not Atlas and the world is not on your shoulders. Get over it.