(Navy Times) Op-Ed: Confronting piracy

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Confronting piracy

Piracy has never been entirely out of fashion, but a new generation of Somali bandits are setting troubling standards of audacity. The international community must respond with similar unprecedented verve.

Some 15,000 ships transit the Gulf of Aden annually. As of Nov. 17, pirates this year have attacked 95 vessels and hijacked 39. Sometimes, the pirates steal just the crew’s personal effects; more often, they hold the ships for ransom.

In just the past two weeks, pirates have seized and held at least three ships, including the spectacular taking of a $150 million Saudi Arabian tanker carrying $100 million in oil. Unlike the typical coastal-waters attack, pirates hijacked the Saudi ship 450 miles out to sea. The supertanker and its crew joined 14 other ships and 350 sailors currently in captivity, including a Ukrainian ship with tanks and other munitions.

The rise has drawn international naval attention: 18 warships from NATO nations, India, and Russia are patrolling the region. This has helped. Some attacks have been averted and an Indian navy frigate last week sank a pirate mother ship.

But the seizures continue. Fighting piracy is tough; a senior Singaporean naval officer once compared it to searching for cockroaches in a large, dark room. The sea is large and ports are plentiful.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/community/opinion/navy_editorial_piracy_120108/%2e