What's the Real Story Behind the Somali Pirates?

[lib2DaBone]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iPPJ5oeH8vFtPkAUfYR0QS4NEbcQD97KR2B00

(snip)
A NATO spokesman says pirates attacked a tanker in the Gulf of Aden. NATO forces then detained seven Somalis behind the assault and freed 20 Yemenese fisherman being held hostage by the pirates.

Pirates plucked from the sea by navy warships could be tried anywhere from Mombasa to New York, Paris to Rotterdam — but most are simply set free to wreak havoc again because of legal issues.

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Something doesn't seem right here? The U.S. claims it can not patrol the area because it is too large.

In reality, the U.S. has AWACS RADAR planes that can cover thousands of square miles, satellites able to read the date on a dime from outer space and laser cannons mounted on drone airplanes.

A few passes of an F-16 with cannons sprayed at these little boats would do wonders to discourage the pirates. Instead, they seem to be encouraging them?

I don't know.. maybe I'm reading more into it than is necessary... but something just doesn't seem right with this situation?

[FreakinDJ]

1. Once the plane spots them - who intercepts them

That is what they mean by they can not patrol such a large area of water.

Sure you could use a whole arsenal of planes we have to spot the pirates but then you need a considerable contingency of medium size Hi-speed pursuit vessels.

Then of course we would need support vessels for them, ect ect ect....

[MADem]

2. Go get a map, and have a look at the Somali coast. It's massive.

Then understand that these guys aren't just jumping out from the shoreline, they take motherships as much as three hundred miles out to sea into the shipping lanes, and then they launch inflatables or whalers to go 'jack these vessels.

Then understand that George Bush gutted the US Navy to plump up ground forces in Iraq.

We need a coalition effort on this.

Also, because Somalia has "human rights issues," you end up arresting someone, and they demand ASYLUM while they sit in your jail. Now there's insult to injury. "I robbed your ass, I 'jacked your property, I took hostages from your country....and now I wanna live here!"

Kenya doesn't play that game--that's why the UK is paying the Kenyans handsomely to try the pirates they capture. They sit in overcrowded prisons awaiting their day in court, and when their day is done, they'll go back to overcrowded prisons to serve their sentence. They won't be 'jacking any ships for awhile, at any rate.

[FreakinDJ]

4. We should use 2 or 3 Spy Ships

to monitor and "Tri-Angulate" the cell phone calls.

[MADem]

8. You'd need more than that.

I think they need, in the short term, to "convoy" vessels past that little bump in the road. Have them all mass up, like boyscouts in the parking lot waiting for the bus to take them on the camping trip, and then have a series of multinational escort vessels place themselves on either side of the convoy with weapons at the ready. It would be expensive, it would be a pain in the ass, but it might slow this shit down until we can come up with something more long-range.

They've had some success repelling them with sound waves, but it's only a matter of time before every clever pirate is equipped with noise-cancelling headphones. Same deal with fire hoses, but with a limited number of crew you don't have enough to repel them from all sides. A couple of ships have remote-controlled fire hoses. There are a couple of ships that have a sort of "electric fence" that they can deploy and charge up that sticks out at a ninety degree angle from the hull; I don't know if this has been used successfully yet, or not.

[FreakinDJ]

10. Only way to end it is to strike the sourse

Hence the use of tracking cell phone calls.

Its the "Ring-Leader" on shore we want. Him and the stash of money and weapons we need to take out

[lib2DaBone]

5. I didn't know that about Kenya....

I also thought that maybe Obama is waiting for a coalition of countries to step up and share the cost and workload.

Also true about needing a large contingent of ships to patrol the area, but it would seem that if they routed all the ships in a narrow lane of passage, it would be easier to protect.

Theoretically, you could have drones shoot at approaching targets, but you would have no way of verifying that they are pirates. (oops..took out a fishing boat by mistake)

[MADem]

9. Kenyans don't play, also, they have those "protected" UN enclaves where

the Somali refugees are hanging out, so there's no issue of "asylum" there. They are also saying "Too bad, you have a federal government now, it's no longer our problem, we don't 'do' economic refugees" and just dumping the people at the border.

The UN is making noise about it, but it's going nowhere. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30381&Cr=somali&Cr1=

In the unlikely event that a pirate is found innocent, they haul his ass to the camp, or the Kenya-Somalia border, and dump him off. No green card for YOU, joker!

It'll probably be US and UK that do the lion's share of the organizing, as usual. I will say the Indian Navy has done their bit--they stepped up a couple of months ago. The Germans and the Japanese have sent assets, too. Now the trick is to coordinate all this seapower into an effective defense to free the sea lanes from danger.

Alfred Thayer Mahan must be chuckling in his grave...."See? See?? I'm STILL right!"

[stillcool]

3. I think there is a lot more to the story...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/North_Africa/North_Africa_page.html

Somalia: Another CIA-Backed Coup Blows Up
by Mike Whitney
December 2, 2008

"The Ethiopian invasion, which was sanctioned by the US government, has destroyed virtually all the life-sustaining economic systems which the population has built for the last fifteen years." Abdi Samatar, professor of Global Studies at the University of Minnesota, Democracy Now

Up until a month ago, no one in the Bush administration showed the least bit of interest in the incidents of piracy off the coast of Somalia. Now that's all changed and there's talk of sending in the Navy to patrol the waters off the Horn of Africa and clean up the pirates hideouts. Why the sudden about-face? Could it have something to do with the fact that the Ethiopian army is planning to withdrawal all of its troops from Mogadishu by the end of the year, thus, ending the failed two year US-backed occupation of Somalia?
The United States has lost the ground war in Somalia, but that doesn't mean its geopolitical objectives have changed one iota. The US intends to stay in the region for years to come and use its naval power to control the critical shipping lanes from the Gulf of Aden. The growing strength of the Somali national resistance is a set-back, but it doesn't change the basic game-plan. The pirates are actually a blessing in disguise. They provide an excuse for the administration to beef up it's military presence and put down roots. Every crisis is an opportunity.

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In 2006, the Bush administration supported an alliance of Somali warlords known as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) that established a base of operations in the western city of Baidoa. With the help of the Ethiopian army, western mercenaries, US Navy warships, and AC-130 gunships; the TFG captured Mogadishu and forced the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) to retreat to the south. Since then the resistance has coalesced into a tenacious guerrilla army that has recaptured most of the country.
The Bush administration invoked the war on terror to justify its involvement in Somalia, but their case was weak and full of inconsistencies. The ICU is not an Al Qaida affiliate or a terrorist organization despite the claims of the State Department. In fact, the ICU brought a high level of peace and stability to Somalia that hadn't been seen for more than sixteen years.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/North_Africa/Somalia_CIA_Backed_Coup.html

US' Somalia Policy Likely to Bring Blowback
by Jim Lobe
September 4, 2008
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Only by reinforcing the moderates can the international community, including the US, enhance the chances for the agreement's successful implementation and, with it, the chances for reconciliation, according to Menkhaus. But that will require major changes in US and western policies, which have "actually worked to strengthen and embolden hardliners" over the past two years.

In that respect, the US emphasis on counterterrorism has been particularly destructive, not only in supporting the Ethiopian offensive in December, 2006, but, more recently, in placing the Shabaab on its list of designated terrorist groups last March. That step not only isolated opposition moderates from their own coalition but also gave the Shabaab "even more reason to sabotage" ongoing peace talks.

At the same time, Washington has provided "robust financial and logistical support to armed paramilitaries resisting the command and control of the TGF, even though they technically wear a TFG hat" to both fight the Shabaab and track down suspected terrorists.
"To the extent that these security forces also deeply oppose...reconciliation efforts with the opposition, the US counterterrorism partnerships have also undermined peace-building efforts by emboldening spoilers in the government camp," according to the report.
Washington has not been alone in supporting the hard-liners, however. As part of their state-building agenda, other western donors have also provided direct support to TGF security forces under the control of the hawks. Despite the UN's role as a supposedly neutral broker between the TFG and the opposition, the UN Development Program, has also provided security assistance to the TFG.
The Tomahawk missile attack that killed Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayro in May - the latest in a series of similar strikes against armed Islamists in Somalia, allegedly tied to al-Qaeda - resulted in a sharp radicalization in the group, which announced at the time that it would strike against US and western targets, including aid workers, as well as Ethiopian and TFG forces, compounding an already dramatic humanitarian crisis.
"Somalia today is the most dangerous place in the world for humanitarian aid workers," according to Menkhaus. More than 20 humanitarian workers have been killed since January, while some 30 more have been kidnapped.
"The situation in Somalia today exceeds the worst-case scenarios conjured up by regional analysts when they first contemplated the possible impact of an Ethiopian military occupation," according to the report. "Over the past 18 months, Somalia has descended into terrible levels of displacement and humanitarian need, armed conflict and assassinations, political meltdown, radicalization and virulent anti-Americanism."


http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/North_Africa/US_Somalia_Policy_Blowback.html

[FreakinDJ]

6. Chinese Approach to Securing African Oil

Chinese Approach to Securing African Oil

Because Nigeria and Angola, the continent's largest oil producers, have decades-long relationships with Western oil companies, China has developed a two-pronged strategy toward energy investments. First, it has pursued exploration and production deals in smaller, low-visibility countries such as Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of Congo. Second, it has gone after the largest oil producers by offering integrated packages of aid.

In Angola, which exported roughly 465,000 barrels of oil per day to China in the first six months of 2007, Beijing secured a major stake in future oil production in 2004 with a $2 billion package of loans and aid that includes funds for Chinese companies to build railroads, schools, roads, hospitals, bridges, and offices; lay a fiber-optic network; and train Angolan telecommunications workers. Elizabeth C. Economy, CFR's senior fellow and director for Asia studies, says China is following a very traditional path established by Europe, Japan, and the United States: offering poor countries comprehensive and exploitative trade deals combined with aid. The Chinese counter that they are giving African governments what they want: no-strings-attached investment and infrastructure.

Such aid deals have not always been successful, however. In Nigeria, Chinese state-owned CNPC's $2 billion investment in an oil refinery has fallen through, and in Angola, news reports suggest that work on the country's railroads has either halted or encountered serious delays. Analysts say China's most successful African energy investment has been in Sudan, which now sends 60 percent of its oil output to China.

Overall, China has not made the inroads into Africa's oil reserves that some media coverage has suggested; the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie estimates Chinese companies hold under 2 percent of Africa's known oil reserves. Erica S. Downs of the Brookings Institution writes that "most of the African assets held by China's NOCs are of a size and quality of little interest to international oil companies (IOCs). In fact, many of these assets were relinquished by the IOCs."
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9557/

[lib2DaBone]

7. Good article... I should have known....

George Bush's greasy fingerprints all over this problem.

The 'curse of Bush' may never go away....

[MADem]

12. This problem predates Bush.

Those pirates have been having their fun since the early nineties. They're just doing it with increasing frequency in this decade.

[conscious evolution]

11. Its all a misinformation/phsyop campaign

designed to fool the American people into thinking that wwe are the good guys.

If we really gave a shit about pirates we would have been doing something about the pirates that operate around the rest of the worlds oceans.
Another facet of the same propoganda campaign to keep an eye on is all of the stories reappearing in the msm concerning Afghaniistan and the treatment of women there.Such stories sole purpose is the demonization of the taliban and muslim men as a justification for keeping our troops there so they can protect the oil industry profits.

[msongs]

13. don't you wish the poor demonized taliban was running the schools in YOUR town?

[conscious evolution]

14. Its worse than that

We have the christians running the local schools.:scared: