A member of the crew on the U.S.-flagged ship hijacked by African pirates sued the owner and another company Monday, accusing them of knowingly putting sailors in danger.
Richard E. Hicks alleges in the suit that owner Maersk Line Limited and Waterman Steamship Corp., which provided the crew, ignored requests to improve safety measures for vessels sailing along the Somali coast.
Hicks was chief cook on the Maersk Alabama. Pirates held the ship's captain hostage for five days until the U.S. Navy rescued him.
Hicks' lawsuit seeks at least $75,000 in damages and improved safety.
Officials for Norfolk, Va.-based Maersk Line and Mobile, Ala.-based Waterman said their companies don't comment on pending litigation.
Hicks asked that the two companies improve safety for ships by providing armed security or allowing crew members to carry weapons, sending ships through safer routes, and placing such safety measures on ships as barbed wire that would prevent pirates from being able to board vessels.
"We've had safety meetings every month for the last three years and made suggestions of what should be done and they have been ignored," Hicks said. "I'm just trying to make sure this is a lot better for other seamen."
Hicks also asked the two companies pay at least $75,000 in damages, saying he doesn't know if he will ever work on a ship again.
"My family is not looking forward to me going back out to sea. But I'm not sure if I'm going back. I'm still nervous, leery. I might find something else to do, said Hicks, who has worked 32 years as a merchant seaman.
"We think (the companies) should be more concerned about the personnel on their ships than the profits the companies make," said Terry Bryant, Hicks' attorney.
Both companies do business in Texas, which is why the suit was filed in Houston, he said.
Pirates took over the Alabama on April 8 before Capt. Richard Phillips surrendered himself in exchange for the safety of his 19-member crew. The captain was taken on a lifeboat and held hostage for five days before U.S. Navy SEAL snipers on the destroyer USS Bainbridge killed three of his captors and freed him.
Hicks said crew members have been trained on what to do if pirates or others threaten the ship.
"We need more than training," said the 53-year-old who lives in Royal Palm Beach, Fla., and has two grown sons. "I never thought nothing like this would ever happen."
Hicks said pirates had tried to board the ship two other times that week, but the Alabama had managed to outrun them. But on April 8, as Hicks was preparing food for the crew, the ship's alarm rang and the captain announced the ship was being boarded by pirates.
Hicks and the other crew members went to their designated safety room, which was the engine room, and they waited there for more than 12 hours in 125 degree heat.
"I didn't know if I was going to live or die," Hicks said.
The crew managed to take a pirate hostage, wounding him with an ice pick, and attempted to use him to get back Phillips. But the bandits fled the ship with Phillips as their captive, holding him in the lifeboat until the SEAL sharpshooters rescued him.
"He did a hell of a job saving us," Hicks said of Phillips.
But Bryant said the Maersk Line and Waterman share the blame for putting the crew at risk.
"We want to bring more attention to the shipping industry and the dangers in pirate-infested waters," he said.
[TO READ THE LAWSUIT FILED IN COURT] go to: http://dig.abclocal.go.com/ktrk/2009-4-27.Plaintiff'sOriginalPetition[1].pdf
Source: The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Somali Government Condemns Insurgent Moves to Annex Parts of Kenya
The new Somali government has sharply condemned threats of fresh attacks on neighboring Kenya by hard-line Islamic insurgent group al-Shabab. The group, which has refused to recognize President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's government threatened Monday to annex parts of northern Kenya and implement Islamic Sharia law. Nairobi on the other hand has begun strong measures to counter such an attack by deploying extra troops to man the Kenya-Somali border and maintain the disarmament of residents in the province.
Somali cabinet minister Abdirashid Irro Mohammed told VOA that Mogadishu stands in unison with its neighbor to thwart the insurgent group's violent activities aimed to destabilize the region.
"Really, we are very sorry and we condemn such actions. Kenya is our neighbor state and our brotherly country, and they have their own constitution. So there is no reason that al-Shabab should attack them and endorse the sharia law. So here, that is a very bad action and we condemn it, and we don't accept those kinds of threats… so I can say they (al-Shabab) are the enemies for all the region," Mohammed said.
He said although the government is relatively new, it is determined to ensure stability.
"As you know our government has been formed in the last two months and still we are organizing our national security forces. And as soon as we will organize and establish and empower our national security forces, we will try… and we do believe that there would not be any longer that al-Shabab will attack Kenya or our government," he said.
Mohammed said that Mogadishu is getting its security agencies together to address some of the challenges posed by hard-line Islamic insurgents including al-Shabab.
"But still we are under preparation for our troops, and very soon we hope that we will establish and reorganize and recruit our national security forces like the military, police, national security. And as soon as these institutions will be established, we will control our country as well as we will protect the interest of our neighbor countries," Mohammed said.
He said since the formation of the new government, it has been the aim to negotiate with the opposition to forge ahead in resolving the country's problems.
"We are trying our best to reconcile with our people, with our opposition, and to open a dialogue. And that is why it is one of our concessions to take one step forward with the reconciliation to take and to implement the Sharia law," he said.
Mohammed said the hard-line Islamic insurgents threatening the country's stability as well as neighboring countries is unlikely to be part of the Mogadishu government's reconciliation efforts.
"But al-Shabab, they are not dealing with our local authorities. They are getting orders from the outside Islamic world and really they are not interested whether we will implement the Sharia law or not. Because they are getting some incentive, some financial support from the outside and they are getting orders from outside. That is why they want to disturb the whole region, particularly in Somalia," Mohammed said.
He said the President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's new government is getting its act together to soon deal decisively with al-Shabab and other hard-line insurgent groups in the country.
"Really, we are going in that direction, and we are trying our best to recruit our national forces as soon as possible, and hopefully we will start to control terrorism in our capital Mogadishu very soon. As soon as we are handed over or take over the responsibility of Mogadishu, we will clean all the evils, and also we will spread over to the regions. So hopefully, we are trying our best to control for all of the country, and we will kick them out from all the region," he said.
Nairobi said recent abductions of several Kenyans at the border town of Mandera forms part of a wider scheme to force a reaction from the Kenyan government.
Described by Washington as a terrorist organization with close links to al Qaeda, al-Shabab officially informed Nairobi of its intentions to invade Kenya's Northeastern Province and make it part of their country and rule it with their religious laws.
Source: Voice of America
Somali cabinet minister Abdirashid Irro Mohammed told VOA that Mogadishu stands in unison with its neighbor to thwart the insurgent group's violent activities aimed to destabilize the region.
"Really, we are very sorry and we condemn such actions. Kenya is our neighbor state and our brotherly country, and they have their own constitution. So there is no reason that al-Shabab should attack them and endorse the sharia law. So here, that is a very bad action and we condemn it, and we don't accept those kinds of threats… so I can say they (al-Shabab) are the enemies for all the region," Mohammed said.
He said although the government is relatively new, it is determined to ensure stability.
"As you know our government has been formed in the last two months and still we are organizing our national security forces. And as soon as we will organize and establish and empower our national security forces, we will try… and we do believe that there would not be any longer that al-Shabab will attack Kenya or our government," he said.
Mohammed said that Mogadishu is getting its security agencies together to address some of the challenges posed by hard-line Islamic insurgents including al-Shabab.
"But still we are under preparation for our troops, and very soon we hope that we will establish and reorganize and recruit our national security forces like the military, police, national security. And as soon as these institutions will be established, we will control our country as well as we will protect the interest of our neighbor countries," Mohammed said.
He said since the formation of the new government, it has been the aim to negotiate with the opposition to forge ahead in resolving the country's problems.
"We are trying our best to reconcile with our people, with our opposition, and to open a dialogue. And that is why it is one of our concessions to take one step forward with the reconciliation to take and to implement the Sharia law," he said.
Mohammed said the hard-line Islamic insurgents threatening the country's stability as well as neighboring countries is unlikely to be part of the Mogadishu government's reconciliation efforts.
"But al-Shabab, they are not dealing with our local authorities. They are getting orders from the outside Islamic world and really they are not interested whether we will implement the Sharia law or not. Because they are getting some incentive, some financial support from the outside and they are getting orders from outside. That is why they want to disturb the whole region, particularly in Somalia," Mohammed said.
He said the President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's new government is getting its act together to soon deal decisively with al-Shabab and other hard-line insurgent groups in the country.
"Really, we are going in that direction, and we are trying our best to recruit our national forces as soon as possible, and hopefully we will start to control terrorism in our capital Mogadishu very soon. As soon as we are handed over or take over the responsibility of Mogadishu, we will clean all the evils, and also we will spread over to the regions. So hopefully, we are trying our best to control for all of the country, and we will kick them out from all the region," he said.
Nairobi said recent abductions of several Kenyans at the border town of Mandera forms part of a wider scheme to force a reaction from the Kenyan government.
Described by Washington as a terrorist organization with close links to al Qaeda, al-Shabab officially informed Nairobi of its intentions to invade Kenya's Northeastern Province and make it part of their country and rule it with their religious laws.
Source: Voice of America
President raises hopes for Somalia
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, president of Somalia since January, landed in office with a weak hand and a seemingly impossible task.
He controls only fragments of Somali territory and even these are vulnerable to attack by Islamist militias (once his allies).
To extend the writ of the transitional government and restore stability and services he must neutralise warlords, insurgents and now pirates responsible for turning Somalia since 1991 into the archetype of state failure. Yet he has few basic tools of state to hand.
Source: Euro News 24
He controls only fragments of Somali territory and even these are vulnerable to attack by Islamist militias (once his allies).
To extend the writ of the transitional government and restore stability and services he must neutralise warlords, insurgents and now pirates responsible for turning Somalia since 1991 into the archetype of state failure. Yet he has few basic tools of state to hand.
Source: Euro News 24
Minister dares Al-Shabaab
The government has dared Somali militiamen to seize any part of Kenya and face military action.
“Kenya is a sovereign country. We have the capacity and the ability to stave off any incursions,” Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka said on Monday.
He was responding to reports that the insurgents were planning to take over North Eastern Province and subject it to the rule of Sharia law.
Mr Onyonka said the government would do anything to protect its territory.
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Kimeu Maingi was at the weekend quoted as saying the Al-Shabaab, a militia group linked to al-Qaeda, had officially communicated to the government, warning “they would stop at nothing, including armed conflict, to invade the province and make it part of their country and rule it using their religious laws”.
Aggression scheme
Speaking on the sidelines of a Somalia conference in Nairobi exploring the country’s civil service training opportunities, Mr Onyonka said such threats would not deter Kenya from ensuring that the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is successful in achieving its agenda.
Mr Maingi had said the abduction of several Kenyans at the border town of Mandera last month was part of Al-Shabaab’s wider scheme to aggress Kenya.
Elsewhere, Labour minister John Munyes asked the government to intensify security in the North Rift following new attacks by cattle rustlers believed to be from Uganda.
Mr Munyes said security should be beefed along all Kenyan borders to repel the attackers.
He said many people had died and livestock worth millions of shillings lost as a result of the persistent raids by bandits in his Turkana North constituency.
“Our people need to be helped. The government should intervene,” said the Labour minister, adding that a senior chief was killed in Kakuma on Thursday when bandits attacked a village in the area.
Source: Daily Nation
“Kenya is a sovereign country. We have the capacity and the ability to stave off any incursions,” Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka said on Monday.
He was responding to reports that the insurgents were planning to take over North Eastern Province and subject it to the rule of Sharia law.
Mr Onyonka said the government would do anything to protect its territory.
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Kimeu Maingi was at the weekend quoted as saying the Al-Shabaab, a militia group linked to al-Qaeda, had officially communicated to the government, warning “they would stop at nothing, including armed conflict, to invade the province and make it part of their country and rule it using their religious laws”.
Aggression scheme
Speaking on the sidelines of a Somalia conference in Nairobi exploring the country’s civil service training opportunities, Mr Onyonka said such threats would not deter Kenya from ensuring that the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is successful in achieving its agenda.
Mr Maingi had said the abduction of several Kenyans at the border town of Mandera last month was part of Al-Shabaab’s wider scheme to aggress Kenya.
Elsewhere, Labour minister John Munyes asked the government to intensify security in the North Rift following new attacks by cattle rustlers believed to be from Uganda.
Mr Munyes said security should be beefed along all Kenyan borders to repel the attackers.
He said many people had died and livestock worth millions of shillings lost as a result of the persistent raids by bandits in his Turkana North constituency.
“Our people need to be helped. The government should intervene,” said the Labour minister, adding that a senior chief was killed in Kakuma on Thursday when bandits attacked a village in the area.
Source: Daily Nation
Somali rebel group threatens to invade Kenya
A Somali rebel group which is fighting the transitional government of the Horn of Africa nation have threatened fresh attacks on Kenya, seeking annexing part of the east African nation's northern region and subject it to Islamic law.
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Kimeu Maingi said Al-Shabaab militiamen have issued fresh threats to the Kenyan government, threatening to invade the northeastern region with the intention of annexing and subjecting it to Islamic Law.
According to Kenya News Agency, Maingi said on Sunday that the militia groups have officially communicated to the government, saying they were determined to invade the North Eastern province and make it part of their country and rule it with their religious laws.
Maingi said the abduction of several Kenyan citizens witnessed at the border town of Mandera was part of a wider scheme to force a reaction from the Kenyan government.
The administrator expressed concerns at the increasing cases of locals acquiring small arms from the strife-torn country which, he said, could be used in such an attack.
Maingi, however, said the government had put up measures to counter such an attack from the militia including deploying extra troops to man the expansive and porous Kenyan-Somali border and the disarmament of residents in the province.
Speaking at Warable in Fafi district during a relief food distribution exercise, Maingi said it was unjustifiable for local people to keep demanding food rations from the government when they routinely exchanged their livestock for firearms with Somali militia at the porous border.
Early this year, two people were killed when members of these two clans clashed over the ownership of a water pan and pastureland.
Maingi issued an indefinite ultimatum for the local to surrender the firearms they had illegally acquired from Somalia, saying the government was committed to safeguarding its citizens by all means possible and no one would be allowed to own firearms illegally in the guise of protecting themselves.
Source: Xinhua
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Kimeu Maingi said Al-Shabaab militiamen have issued fresh threats to the Kenyan government, threatening to invade the northeastern region with the intention of annexing and subjecting it to Islamic Law.
According to Kenya News Agency, Maingi said on Sunday that the militia groups have officially communicated to the government, saying they were determined to invade the North Eastern province and make it part of their country and rule it with their religious laws.
Maingi said the abduction of several Kenyan citizens witnessed at the border town of Mandera was part of a wider scheme to force a reaction from the Kenyan government.
The administrator expressed concerns at the increasing cases of locals acquiring small arms from the strife-torn country which, he said, could be used in such an attack.
Maingi, however, said the government had put up measures to counter such an attack from the militia including deploying extra troops to man the expansive and porous Kenyan-Somali border and the disarmament of residents in the province.
Speaking at Warable in Fafi district during a relief food distribution exercise, Maingi said it was unjustifiable for local people to keep demanding food rations from the government when they routinely exchanged their livestock for firearms with Somali militia at the porous border.
Early this year, two people were killed when members of these two clans clashed over the ownership of a water pan and pastureland.
Maingi issued an indefinite ultimatum for the local to surrender the firearms they had illegally acquired from Somalia, saying the government was committed to safeguarding its citizens by all means possible and no one would be allowed to own firearms illegally in the guise of protecting themselves.
Source: Xinhua
Monday, April 27, 2009
10 Things You Didn't Know About Somali Pirates
In the 15 years since armed Somali fishermen began forcing their way onto commercial ships, pirates have turned East Africa's seas into the world's most dangerous waters. In 2008 alone, Somalia's lawless seamen captured more than 40 large vessels in the Gulf of Aden, a shortcut between Asia and Europe that's vital to the global economy. Wiping out today's pirates won't be easy; they're smarter, better organized, and, frankly, better loved abroad than the swashbucklers of yesteryear. In a special dispatch from Mombasa, Kenya, Mental Floss correspondent David Axe explains.
1. They Have a Robin Hood Complex
Many Somali pirates see themselves as good guys. And at one point, they were. After the government in Mogadishu collapsed in 1991, neighboring countries began illegally fishing in Somali waters. The first pirates were simply angry fishermen who boarded these foreign vessels and demanded a "fee." But as the illegal fishing persisted, some early pirates banded together and called themselves "coast guards." They claimed to be looking after Somalia's territorial integrity until the government could pull itself back together.
These weren't the only vigilantes on the scene, however. Other pirates made their debut robbing U.N. ships that were carrying food to refugee camps in Somalia. These bandits argued that if they hadn't taken the food, warlords would have seized it on land. And they had a good point. Warlords gobbled down at lot of Somalia's relief food during the 1990s.
But from these perhaps defensible beginnings, piracy spread farther from Somalia's shores and evolved into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. Today, pirates are blunt about their motives. In late 2008, after a band of pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter full of weapons and demanded $25 million for its release, Sugule Ali, a member of the pirate crew, told a reporter, "We only want the money."
2. Nobody Brings Home the Bacon Like a Pirate
According to some estimates, pirates in 2008 pulled in as much as $150 million, indicating that piracy is now Somalia's biggest industry. In fact, successful pirates are the country's most eligible bachelors. While small-time swashbucklers earn in the low five figures, bosses can pull in $2 million a year—this, in a country where you can buy dinner for less than $1. But as their wallets fatten, many pirates are heading for greener pastures, and the real money is flowing out of the country with them. Many are buying properties on the seashore of Mombasa, Kenya, where new condos are being built every day. If a condo is selling for a few million dollars, there's a good chance the bosses will throw in an extra half-million, just to make sure the Kenyans don't ask too many questions.
3. Being a Pirate Is Easy!
Piracy is so simple that anyone can do it. All you need is a gun, an aluminum ladder (for scaling other ships), and a motorboat. Then you just have to wait for commercial ships to pass by. Best of all, you don't have to worry about your targets shooting back. By international agreement, civilian vessels aren't allowed to carry guns because governments don't want armed ships moving from port to port. "Once pirates are on board, they've got the upper hand," says Martin Murphy, a piracy expert with the Corbett Center for Maritime Policy Studies. The best defense against piracy is speed, but because most commercial ships aren't designed to go fast, pirates don't have any trouble chasing them down. The most sophisticated marauders use machine guns and GPS systems, but many pirates are still low-tech fisherman. After they board a ship, all they have to do is steal or ransom the goods and prisoners. The cargo of a typical commercial ship ransoms for about $1 million.
4. The Law Can't Touch Them
Everybody knows piracy is wrong, but is it illegal? The truth is that the places where pirates operate are actually lawless. In Somali territory, there's no functional government to make or enforce regulations. And because nations don't control much of the ocean, there are no laws on the high seas, either. Throughout history, governments have patched together legal frameworks to bring pirates to justice, but it's never fast or easy. Pirates—even those caught in the act by one navy or another—are often simply released on the nearest Somali beach, without so much as a slap on the wrist.
With Somali piracy on the rise, the world is playing legal catch-up. In November 2008, the United Kingdom signed an agreement to try pirates captured by the Royal Navy in Kenya. And other countries are following Britain's lead, with nations including the United States, Singapore, and Turkey signing similar agreements. But Kenya, despite having the most powerful democracy in East Africa, doesn't appear to have an effective court system. When Britain's first batch of eight captured pirates went on trial in Mombasa in December, the defense argued that Kenya shouldn't have jurisdiction and succeeded in persuading the judge to defer the trial. The long-term solution to piracy is a stable Somali government with a functional judiciary, but that requires peace between the country's warring clans. Somalia's new president, elected in February 2009, is just starting to get groups to talk.
5. Pirates Rarely Kill People (Which is Why They're So Dangerous)
It's difficult to tell pirates from fishermen, until they climb aboard another ship and pull out their AK-47s. So, there's not much the U.S. Navy and other military forces can do as a deterrent except sail around and look menacing. After pirates have seized a ship, navies rarely attempt to retake it, because hostages could be hurt in the process. In the absence of an effective defense, there were more than 100 documented pirate attacks in 2008 that resulted in more than 40 ships being hijacked. But for all their aggression, the body count is low. One ship's captain died of natural causes while being held hostage, and a few militia men have died in shoot-outs as they tried to rescue prisoners, but in general, little blood has been spilled.
Pirates also prefer to keep their prisoners in good health. Not only are civilians worth hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece in ransom, but the pirates' reputation for not harming their hostages has made governments reluctant to strike back on behalf of shipping companies. While the pirates' hands remain mostly blood-free, the navies patrolling East African waters have taken lives. The Indian navy, for example, destroyed one pirate boat only to discover that the pirates had Thai hostages on board. At least a dozen innocent victims died.
6. Pirates Have Friends in High Places
Pirates prowl about 2 million square miles of the ocean. That's a lot of water, and even with thousands of ships on the high seas, it's possible to sail for days without seeing another vessel. So how do pirates know where to look and which ships to attack? Spies. The biggest gangs have informants in Mombasa, the major port in the region, where ships have to file paperwork stating what they're carrying and where they're going. According to one Mombasa business leader, spies inside the Kenyan maritime agencies pass along this information to pirate bosses—for a price. Pirates are also in cahoots with local big-wigs in northern Somalia. In exchange for a cut of pirates' hauls, officials in the Puntland region of Somalia turn a blind eye to the international crime flourishing under their noses.
7. Sailors Are Fighting Back (And It's Working)
Sailors know what they're getting into when they steer toward East African waters. And because their crews can't carry guns, they've found other ways to fight off pirates. Last year, one Chinese ship used tactics borrowed straight from a medieval castle siege.
When pirates clambered up the side of the Zhenhua 4, the crew climbed onto a higher deck and pulled up the ladder. Then they turned on high-pressure fire hoses and knocked the pirates off their feet. But the crew didn't stop there. Once in better position, the Chinese sailors started hurling down Molotov cocktails, made from beer bottles filled with gasoline.
Four hundred cocktails later, the pirates retreated. One pirate, who wasn't wearing any shoes, saw he was about to walk across a deck paved with shattered glass to get back to his ship. He called up to the ship's stalwart defenders and begged for something to cover his feet.
8. Bigger Ships Mean Bigger Paychecks
Somali pirates are getting bolder. For years, they've chased small fry, such as Kenyan fishermen, small coastal freighters, and U.N. food ships. Today, with faster boats, better weapons, and more accurate information from their spies, they're going after massive cargo ships, super-tankers, and even passenger liners. Nobody's safe. In September, pirates grabbed a Ukrainian ship called the Faina, which was carrying armored vehicles, rockets, and other weapons. They followed up that dramatic heist by overtaking the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star, which had crude oil aboard valued at $100 million. (Both ships were released earlier this year after ransoms were paid.) Recent attacks on cruise-liners have been unsuccessful, but maritime officials are increasingly worried. Pirates usually attack in groups of about 10 and capture ships with 20 or so passengers. That ratio of captors to captives lets the pirates stay in control. But with cruise ships carrying as many as 2,000 people, there's no way pirates would be able to conduct an orderly capture. Things might get out of hand; and that, officials say, is when people get hurt.
9. Pirates Hurt Somalia the Most
The biggest victims of Somali piracy are the Somalis themselves. Nearly 4 million people there (half the population) depend on food donations to survive. But pirate attacks on food ships have made it difficult for the United Nations to keep sending provisions. In a desperate bid to keep the supplies flowing, the U.N. issued a plea to the world's navies in 2007. As of March 2009, no food ship sets sail from Mombasa without a Dutch, Canadian, French, German, Italian, or Greek warship riding shotgun. "If you don't have an escort, you cannot move food there," says U.N. official Lemma Jembere. But naval deployments are expensive, and warships might not be available forever. This could mean death by starvation for millions, all due to a few thousand opportunistic pirates.
10. It May Be Time for Desperate Measures
Even with the world's navies rushing to protect East African shipping, the sheer size of the ocean and the huge numbers of ships involved mean warships are rarely in the right place at the right time. The mood in Mombasa, where so many ship owners and seafarers are based, is bleak. Karim Kudrati, a shipping director whose four ships have all been hijacked at least once, says it's time for the world to mobilize an army and invade Somalia. "Everybody knows where captured vessels are being taken, and on that aspect of things, nothing is being done."
The United Nations recently passed a resolution allowing an invasion, but the United States military has put the brakes on participating in any operation. Perhaps they're hesitant because of their last experience sending troops to Somalia. In 1993, 18 Americans were killed during a commando raid to capture a few, low-ranking warlords. And yet, it's becoming more and more clear that without major, international intervention, piracy will continue to grow. With the benefits far outweighing the risks, pirates have no incentive to stop pillaging.
Source: mental_floss
1. They Have a Robin Hood Complex
Many Somali pirates see themselves as good guys. And at one point, they were. After the government in Mogadishu collapsed in 1991, neighboring countries began illegally fishing in Somali waters. The first pirates were simply angry fishermen who boarded these foreign vessels and demanded a "fee." But as the illegal fishing persisted, some early pirates banded together and called themselves "coast guards." They claimed to be looking after Somalia's territorial integrity until the government could pull itself back together.
These weren't the only vigilantes on the scene, however. Other pirates made their debut robbing U.N. ships that were carrying food to refugee camps in Somalia. These bandits argued that if they hadn't taken the food, warlords would have seized it on land. And they had a good point. Warlords gobbled down at lot of Somalia's relief food during the 1990s.
But from these perhaps defensible beginnings, piracy spread farther from Somalia's shores and evolved into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. Today, pirates are blunt about their motives. In late 2008, after a band of pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter full of weapons and demanded $25 million for its release, Sugule Ali, a member of the pirate crew, told a reporter, "We only want the money."
2. Nobody Brings Home the Bacon Like a Pirate
According to some estimates, pirates in 2008 pulled in as much as $150 million, indicating that piracy is now Somalia's biggest industry. In fact, successful pirates are the country's most eligible bachelors. While small-time swashbucklers earn in the low five figures, bosses can pull in $2 million a year—this, in a country where you can buy dinner for less than $1. But as their wallets fatten, many pirates are heading for greener pastures, and the real money is flowing out of the country with them. Many are buying properties on the seashore of Mombasa, Kenya, where new condos are being built every day. If a condo is selling for a few million dollars, there's a good chance the bosses will throw in an extra half-million, just to make sure the Kenyans don't ask too many questions.
3. Being a Pirate Is Easy!
Piracy is so simple that anyone can do it. All you need is a gun, an aluminum ladder (for scaling other ships), and a motorboat. Then you just have to wait for commercial ships to pass by. Best of all, you don't have to worry about your targets shooting back. By international agreement, civilian vessels aren't allowed to carry guns because governments don't want armed ships moving from port to port. "Once pirates are on board, they've got the upper hand," says Martin Murphy, a piracy expert with the Corbett Center for Maritime Policy Studies. The best defense against piracy is speed, but because most commercial ships aren't designed to go fast, pirates don't have any trouble chasing them down. The most sophisticated marauders use machine guns and GPS systems, but many pirates are still low-tech fisherman. After they board a ship, all they have to do is steal or ransom the goods and prisoners. The cargo of a typical commercial ship ransoms for about $1 million.
4. The Law Can't Touch Them
Everybody knows piracy is wrong, but is it illegal? The truth is that the places where pirates operate are actually lawless. In Somali territory, there's no functional government to make or enforce regulations. And because nations don't control much of the ocean, there are no laws on the high seas, either. Throughout history, governments have patched together legal frameworks to bring pirates to justice, but it's never fast or easy. Pirates—even those caught in the act by one navy or another—are often simply released on the nearest Somali beach, without so much as a slap on the wrist.
With Somali piracy on the rise, the world is playing legal catch-up. In November 2008, the United Kingdom signed an agreement to try pirates captured by the Royal Navy in Kenya. And other countries are following Britain's lead, with nations including the United States, Singapore, and Turkey signing similar agreements. But Kenya, despite having the most powerful democracy in East Africa, doesn't appear to have an effective court system. When Britain's first batch of eight captured pirates went on trial in Mombasa in December, the defense argued that Kenya shouldn't have jurisdiction and succeeded in persuading the judge to defer the trial. The long-term solution to piracy is a stable Somali government with a functional judiciary, but that requires peace between the country's warring clans. Somalia's new president, elected in February 2009, is just starting to get groups to talk.
5. Pirates Rarely Kill People (Which is Why They're So Dangerous)
It's difficult to tell pirates from fishermen, until they climb aboard another ship and pull out their AK-47s. So, there's not much the U.S. Navy and other military forces can do as a deterrent except sail around and look menacing. After pirates have seized a ship, navies rarely attempt to retake it, because hostages could be hurt in the process. In the absence of an effective defense, there were more than 100 documented pirate attacks in 2008 that resulted in more than 40 ships being hijacked. But for all their aggression, the body count is low. One ship's captain died of natural causes while being held hostage, and a few militia men have died in shoot-outs as they tried to rescue prisoners, but in general, little blood has been spilled.
Pirates also prefer to keep their prisoners in good health. Not only are civilians worth hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece in ransom, but the pirates' reputation for not harming their hostages has made governments reluctant to strike back on behalf of shipping companies. While the pirates' hands remain mostly blood-free, the navies patrolling East African waters have taken lives. The Indian navy, for example, destroyed one pirate boat only to discover that the pirates had Thai hostages on board. At least a dozen innocent victims died.
6. Pirates Have Friends in High Places
Pirates prowl about 2 million square miles of the ocean. That's a lot of water, and even with thousands of ships on the high seas, it's possible to sail for days without seeing another vessel. So how do pirates know where to look and which ships to attack? Spies. The biggest gangs have informants in Mombasa, the major port in the region, where ships have to file paperwork stating what they're carrying and where they're going. According to one Mombasa business leader, spies inside the Kenyan maritime agencies pass along this information to pirate bosses—for a price. Pirates are also in cahoots with local big-wigs in northern Somalia. In exchange for a cut of pirates' hauls, officials in the Puntland region of Somalia turn a blind eye to the international crime flourishing under their noses.
7. Sailors Are Fighting Back (And It's Working)
Sailors know what they're getting into when they steer toward East African waters. And because their crews can't carry guns, they've found other ways to fight off pirates. Last year, one Chinese ship used tactics borrowed straight from a medieval castle siege.
When pirates clambered up the side of the Zhenhua 4, the crew climbed onto a higher deck and pulled up the ladder. Then they turned on high-pressure fire hoses and knocked the pirates off their feet. But the crew didn't stop there. Once in better position, the Chinese sailors started hurling down Molotov cocktails, made from beer bottles filled with gasoline.
Four hundred cocktails later, the pirates retreated. One pirate, who wasn't wearing any shoes, saw he was about to walk across a deck paved with shattered glass to get back to his ship. He called up to the ship's stalwart defenders and begged for something to cover his feet.
8. Bigger Ships Mean Bigger Paychecks
Somali pirates are getting bolder. For years, they've chased small fry, such as Kenyan fishermen, small coastal freighters, and U.N. food ships. Today, with faster boats, better weapons, and more accurate information from their spies, they're going after massive cargo ships, super-tankers, and even passenger liners. Nobody's safe. In September, pirates grabbed a Ukrainian ship called the Faina, which was carrying armored vehicles, rockets, and other weapons. They followed up that dramatic heist by overtaking the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star, which had crude oil aboard valued at $100 million. (Both ships were released earlier this year after ransoms were paid.) Recent attacks on cruise-liners have been unsuccessful, but maritime officials are increasingly worried. Pirates usually attack in groups of about 10 and capture ships with 20 or so passengers. That ratio of captors to captives lets the pirates stay in control. But with cruise ships carrying as many as 2,000 people, there's no way pirates would be able to conduct an orderly capture. Things might get out of hand; and that, officials say, is when people get hurt.
9. Pirates Hurt Somalia the Most
The biggest victims of Somali piracy are the Somalis themselves. Nearly 4 million people there (half the population) depend on food donations to survive. But pirate attacks on food ships have made it difficult for the United Nations to keep sending provisions. In a desperate bid to keep the supplies flowing, the U.N. issued a plea to the world's navies in 2007. As of March 2009, no food ship sets sail from Mombasa without a Dutch, Canadian, French, German, Italian, or Greek warship riding shotgun. "If you don't have an escort, you cannot move food there," says U.N. official Lemma Jembere. But naval deployments are expensive, and warships might not be available forever. This could mean death by starvation for millions, all due to a few thousand opportunistic pirates.
10. It May Be Time for Desperate Measures
Even with the world's navies rushing to protect East African shipping, the sheer size of the ocean and the huge numbers of ships involved mean warships are rarely in the right place at the right time. The mood in Mombasa, where so many ship owners and seafarers are based, is bleak. Karim Kudrati, a shipping director whose four ships have all been hijacked at least once, says it's time for the world to mobilize an army and invade Somalia. "Everybody knows where captured vessels are being taken, and on that aspect of things, nothing is being done."
The United Nations recently passed a resolution allowing an invasion, but the United States military has put the brakes on participating in any operation. Perhaps they're hesitant because of their last experience sending troops to Somalia. In 1993, 18 Americans were killed during a commando raid to capture a few, low-ranking warlords. And yet, it's becoming more and more clear that without major, international intervention, piracy will continue to grow. With the benefits far outweighing the risks, pirates have no incentive to stop pillaging.
Source: mental_floss
New breed of pirates follow old handbook
It's enough to give the 'pirate' trade a bad name.
After an accused Somali piracy suspect made his way tearfully through a court in New York, his worried mother, late last week, pleaded for compassion in his case.
Adar Abdirahman Hassan said her teenage son - a "talented boy" and "a good student" - is no scourge of the sea, but instead, a confused kid who was roped into taking part in the kidnapping of U.S. ship captain, Richard Phillips.
But how does her eldest child, Abdiweli Muse, who may have been the ringleader of the gang which stormed Phillips's U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on April 8, compare with those sea-dogs of yore, who once preyed upon slower boats and weaker men off Canada's East Coast?
Do today's pirates hold a stolen candle to their bloodthirsty forefathers? And if they met on open water, how would the legendary likes of Captain Kidd and Black Bart view their modern heirs?
Apparently, says one of Canada's most respected pirate experts, they would be embraced as following -remarkably closely - the age-old pirates' handbook.
"Black Bart would be proud," says Dan Conlin, curator at The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.
Bart - Bartholomew Roberts - was the most skilled pirate of the golden age of his kind.
During the early part of the 1700s, he captured more than 470 vessels, including in waters around Cape Breton and Newfoundland. It was fairly common for bandits to move up off Canada's shores every spring.
Into the 1800s, their executed bodies were still displayed, decaying inside the clutches of gibbets, hung from posts in the Maritimes.
Conlin, who will publish Piracy on the Atlantic - Robbery, Murder and Mayhem on Canada's East Coast this summer, says the high sea raiders of today and yesteryear are born from the same three ingredients - poverty, a weak local government and rich trade tempting them on the horizon.
"As long as you have those ingredients, you'll have pirates," he explains.
Today's scalawags count on the same kind of classic boarding contraptions ancient pirates would have used, and both largely favour small boats to capture larger vessels.
"And holding ships for random - they often did it with slave ships - has always been a common tactic," says Conlin.
Even the excuses by the two generations of pirates - that they're somehow righting social and economic wrongs - mirror one another.
During the last great days of piracy - from 1680 to 1730 - there was also anxiety over where to hold trials, with many, prior to colonial courts, being shipped to England.
But accused pirate Muse doesn't face the same fate. One public hanging, involving an entire pirate crew, took three days to complete.
But who's more blood-thirsty?
Conlin says it was the old salts, who had a fondness for ritualistic torture.
"I'll give the Somali pirates a little credit, they've killed very few people," he notes, but points out the number of people ancient marauders murdered has likely been exaggerated over time.
"But these (new generation) are nasty people ... no bones about it."
One other similarity, he says: "Neither buries treasure. That's a myth."
But would the pirates who patrolled Canadian waters in our earliest years not wince at their modern version - if guilty - crying, with his mother asking for compassion?
Old pirates could also have a softer side. As well as a few female buccaneers of long ago, a 1997 book, Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Rogers, theorized the dreaded Black Bart was a female disguised as the manliest of sea-dogs.
Source: Edmonton Sun
After an accused Somali piracy suspect made his way tearfully through a court in New York, his worried mother, late last week, pleaded for compassion in his case.
Adar Abdirahman Hassan said her teenage son - a "talented boy" and "a good student" - is no scourge of the sea, but instead, a confused kid who was roped into taking part in the kidnapping of U.S. ship captain, Richard Phillips.
But how does her eldest child, Abdiweli Muse, who may have been the ringleader of the gang which stormed Phillips's U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on April 8, compare with those sea-dogs of yore, who once preyed upon slower boats and weaker men off Canada's East Coast?
Do today's pirates hold a stolen candle to their bloodthirsty forefathers? And if they met on open water, how would the legendary likes of Captain Kidd and Black Bart view their modern heirs?
Apparently, says one of Canada's most respected pirate experts, they would be embraced as following -remarkably closely - the age-old pirates' handbook.
"Black Bart would be proud," says Dan Conlin, curator at The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.
Bart - Bartholomew Roberts - was the most skilled pirate of the golden age of his kind.
During the early part of the 1700s, he captured more than 470 vessels, including in waters around Cape Breton and Newfoundland. It was fairly common for bandits to move up off Canada's shores every spring.
Into the 1800s, their executed bodies were still displayed, decaying inside the clutches of gibbets, hung from posts in the Maritimes.
Conlin, who will publish Piracy on the Atlantic - Robbery, Murder and Mayhem on Canada's East Coast this summer, says the high sea raiders of today and yesteryear are born from the same three ingredients - poverty, a weak local government and rich trade tempting them on the horizon.
"As long as you have those ingredients, you'll have pirates," he explains.
Today's scalawags count on the same kind of classic boarding contraptions ancient pirates would have used, and both largely favour small boats to capture larger vessels.
"And holding ships for random - they often did it with slave ships - has always been a common tactic," says Conlin.
Even the excuses by the two generations of pirates - that they're somehow righting social and economic wrongs - mirror one another.
During the last great days of piracy - from 1680 to 1730 - there was also anxiety over where to hold trials, with many, prior to colonial courts, being shipped to England.
But accused pirate Muse doesn't face the same fate. One public hanging, involving an entire pirate crew, took three days to complete.
But who's more blood-thirsty?
Conlin says it was the old salts, who had a fondness for ritualistic torture.
"I'll give the Somali pirates a little credit, they've killed very few people," he notes, but points out the number of people ancient marauders murdered has likely been exaggerated over time.
"But these (new generation) are nasty people ... no bones about it."
One other similarity, he says: "Neither buries treasure. That's a myth."
But would the pirates who patrolled Canadian waters in our earliest years not wince at their modern version - if guilty - crying, with his mother asking for compassion?
Old pirates could also have a softer side. As well as a few female buccaneers of long ago, a 1997 book, Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Rogers, theorized the dreaded Black Bart was a female disguised as the manliest of sea-dogs.
Source: Edmonton Sun
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