Armoredd.com

June 19, 2009

INTERPOL resources are now being used in the battle against piracy.

INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 187 member countries. It facilitates cross-border police cooperation, and supports and assists all organizations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or combat crime.

The General Secretariat is located in Lyon, France. INTERPOL operates seven regional offices– in Argentina, Cameroon, C™te d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Kenya, Thailand and Zimbabwe–and a representative office at the United Nations in New York ant at the European Union in Brussels. Each member country maintains a National Central Bureau (NCB).

In an address to the G-8 Justice and Interior Ministers’ meeting in Rome in May, INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble called for greater law enforcement involvement in the fight against piracy and said that this could provide the “missing link” to fill the gap between the arrests made through military interventions and any eventual prosecutions.

In response to that call, police information to identify suspected pirates has now been shared with the global policing community by the Seychelles and Kenya.

INTERPOL’s Seychelles National Central Bureau (NCB) in Victoria has provided the General Secretariat headquarters with details, including fingerprints and photographs, of 23 detained Somali nationals who are suspected of piracy.

Entered into INTERPOL’s global databases, this information can be accessed by any of its 187 member countries and will provide a reference point for any potential matches of suspects arrested in the future.

In addition, INTERPOL’s Executive Director of Police Services, Jean-Michel Louboutin is this week holding a series of high-level meetings with senior law enforcement and government officials in Kenya. As a result, Kenya has agreed to send the photographs and fingerprints of more than 100 individuals who have been arrested and convicted in connection with maritime piracy.

Discussions also focused on the proposed creation of an international platform to bring together police officers from INTERPOL’s NCB and its Regional Bureau in Kenya as well as national investigators and prosecutors. Equipped with direct access to INTERPOL’s secure global police communications network I-24/7 and its global databases, the platform would facilitate international police investigations and subsequent prosecutions.

“Sound investigative police work is key to effectively combating maritime piracy. Without systematically collecting photographs, fingerprints and DNA profiles of arrested pirates and comparing them internationally, it is simply not possible to establish their true identity or to make connections which would otherwise be missed,” said Mr Louboutin.

“INTERPOL’s global databases are uniquely suited to support Kenya, and other countries facing the threat of maritime piracy, in their efforts to investigate and prosecute offenders and it is the only way to ensure that vital information is shared globally.”

Mr. Louboutin praised the decision by the Seychelles and Kenyan authorities to share the names and fingerprints of recently arrested pirates.

“This is an important first step by INTERPOL member countries in developing an effective law enforcement response to maritime piracy and is an example of good practice that we recommend all other countries to adopt,” concluded Mr Louboutin.

As the world’s largest police organization INTERPOL maintains global databases including those on suspected terrorists, international fugitives, Stolen and Lost Travel Documents, fingerprints and DNA profiles.

Source: Marine Log

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 12, 2009 – NATO will continue its anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said today.

The alliance’s defense ministers, who met here over the last two days, agreed to send the Standing NATO Maritime Battle Group 2 to relieve Battle Group 1, which is now operating in the area, de Hoop Scheffer said.

“That means that NATO will continue to play its role in the fight against piracy,” he said.

The battle group represents six nations, with a possibility of other NATO nations contributing ships. “Other nations might be ready and willing to join at a certain stage,” the secretary general said.

The NATO mission would have ended had the ministers not agreed to continue it, de Hoop Scheffer said. He added that it would be unacceptable for a political-military organization like NATO, with its huge inventory, to do otherwise.

“But NATO will be there,” the secretary general said. “And it may be that the mission will be beefed up. I’m very happy with the results.”

Source: Defense Link

June 2, 2009
From Combined Maritime Forces Public Affairs

HMS PORTLAND, At Sea (NNS) - While conducting counterpiracy operations in the Gulf of Aden as part of Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) Task Force 151, Royal Navy Type 23 frigate HMS Portland (F 79) detected, intercepted and boarded two suspicious skiffs preventing a possible pirate attack June 2.

In coordination with a Spanish maritime patrol aircraft, Portland identified, pursued and subsequently conducted a boarding of the vessels where they found articles that indicated the skiff had been involved or was about to conduct an act of piracy and were clearly not those of an innocent fishing vessel.

“This is an excellent example of international coordination” said Commodore Tim Lowe, deputy commander, Combined Maritime Forces. “This international collaboration cannot be understated and as more countries join the fight, we will continue to work together to help deter, disrupt and thwart criminal acts of piracy in the maritime environment.”

The skiffs, with 10 people aboard, were equipped with extra barrels of fuel, grappling hooks and a cache of weapons that included rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and ammunition.

Portland’s boarding team, consisting of Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel conducted the boarding. The ship’s embarked Lynx helicopter, equipped with a machine gun and snipers, provided cover throughout the operation while the boarding team was inserted using the ship’s armed rigid-hull inflatable boats.

Due to insufficient evidence to directly link the group to a specific attack, the suspected pirates were disarmed and released. Having prevented this group of pirates from reaching their merchant traffic prey, Portland destroyed one of the skiffs and confiscated all their weapons.

“HMS Portland has once again demonstrated the coalition and Royal Navy’s commitment to keeping the sea lanes open and making this key waterway safe for international trade,” said Cmdr. Tim Henry, Portland’s commanding officer.

Under the command of CMF, CTF 151 is a multinational task force consisting of naval forces from Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea, Singapore, Denmark and Japan. It was established to conduct counterpiracy operations under a mission-based mandate throughout the CMF area of responsibility. CTF 151 assets actively deter, disrupt and suppress piracy in order to protect global maritime security and secure freedom of navigation for the benefit of all nations.

For more news from Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet, visit http://www.navy.mil/local/cusnc/.

Source: Military Spot

Warship escorting merchant ships as part of anti-piracy surveillance in gulf

Associated Press
updated 8:56 a.m. PT, Fri., May 29, 2009

NEW DELHI - The Indian navy said Friday it thwarted a pirate attack on a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia.

An Indian warship patrolling the seas near the lawless African country responded to a distress call Thursday from the Liberian-registered merchant vessel MV Maud, which said eight armed people on a skiff were approaching it at high speed, the navy said.

The ship and a helicopter with marine commandos made their way toward the ship, where they saw two people attempting to board it, the navy said in a statement.

“The visibility being low, it was possible that the pirates may not have sighted the warship and the helicopter. The helicopter had to, therefore, resort to firing warning shots to deter the pirates from boarding the ship,” the statement said.

The navy said the attackers fell into the water, but their fate was unclear. No injuries were reported among the crews of either ship. The statement gave no further information about the attackers.

The Gulf of Aden is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, crossed by 20,000 ships a year, and a prime target for Somali pirates.

The Indian warship was in the area escorting several merchant ships as part of anti-piracy surveillance in the area.

Last November, India’s navy drew criticism after sinking a Thai fishing trawler that had been commandeered hours earlier by pirates. The navy defended its action, saying it had fired in self-defense.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: MSNBC

May 14, 1:50 PM EDT

By BARBARA SURK
Associated Press Writer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A team of specialized American sailors apprehended 17 suspected pirates who attacked an Egyptian merchant ship in the dangerous waters off Yemen, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.

The sailors from the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg also seized eight assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher when they boarded the pirates’ vessel Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden, said the Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

The Gettysburg launched the operation with the help of the Korean Destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great after the pirates fired at the Egyptian-flagged Motor Vessel Amira about 75 miles south of Yemen’s al-Mukalla port, the Navy said. Both ships dispatched helicopters during the mission.

The Gulf of Aden is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, connecting Europe and Asia via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is used by 20,000 ships a year and has become the world’s hot spot for pirate attacks.

The 17 pirates seized were taken aboard the Gettysburg for further questioning, said the Navy. They were operating from a “mothership” - a larger vessel pirates often use to resupply the small speedboats that attack ships far offshore. The Navy did not say what happened to the mothership after the operation.

Also Thursday, Iranian state television said the country will send two warships to join an international flotilla protecting cargo ships from pirates off the Somali coast.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaei, made the commitment in a letter he sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, according to a report on the Web site of Iran’s press TV.

The ships will leave within the next two days for a five-month assignment and will join vessels from the U.S., Denmark, Italy, Russia, China and other countries.

Somali pirates have significantly stepped up their attacks in recent years. They hijacked a cargo ship operated by Iran off the Somali coast in November, the second in the past six months.

At least 19 ships and over 250 sailors are now being held hostage by Somali pirates. Last year, 42 ships were seized and pirates earned an estimated $1 million or more in ransom each time they freed a ship.

The pirates operate freely because Somalia has had no effective central government in nearly 20 years. Nearly every public institution has crumbled, and the U.N.-backed government controls only limited territory and is fighting an Islamic insurgency.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

21:24 | 07/ 05/ 2009

KIEV, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - All eight crew members of a Dutch freighter seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden are Ukrainian nationals, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The Marathon, owned by Western Marine Transport NV, was seized on Thursday some 185 kilometers (115 miles) southeast of the Yemeni port of Mukalla, the Ukrainian Embassy in the Netherlands said.

“The crew consists of eight persons, all of them Ukrainians,” the ministry said in a statement. The ship’s operator, Cargadoor Amons & Co., has confirmed the reports.

The Ukrainian embassies in the Netherlands and Kenya have been instructed to investigate the incident and contact the ship owner and operator to aid the “swift release” of Ukrainian nationals, the statement said.

In a similar incident, a Ukrainian cargo ship was seized by Somali pirates in September 2008. The Faina with the crew of 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and one Latvian was only released in February after the pirates received a reported $3.2 million ransom.

The ship’s Russian captain, Vladimir Kolobov died of a heart attack soon after the ship was seized.

Pirates are increasingly active in the waters off Somalia, which has no central government and no navy to police its coastline.

The incident marks a rare instance of cooperation between the two nations

Associated Press
updated 12:02 p.m. PT, Mon., May 4, 2009
MSNBC

NAIROBI, Kenya - South Korean snipers hovering in a helicopter Monday chased away pirates pursuing a North Korean freighter, a rare instance of recent cooperation between the two Koreas.

The South Korean ship has been operating off Somalia since last month on a mission to protect its cargo ships from Somali pirates, whose acts of high-seas crime have exploded in recent years as the bandits continue to get ransoms in the millions of dollars.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the 4,500-ton-class warship sent a Lynx helicopter to assist the North Korean vessel shortly after receiving a distress call that it was being chased by the pirate ship.

The pirate vessel gave up chasing the North Korean vessel and sped away after snipers aboard the helicopter prepared to fire warning shots, the statement said.

The incident took place 23 miles south of the Yemeni port of Aden, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Somalia and Yemen are separated by the Gulf of Aden.

Badly frayed relations between two Koreas
Relations between the two Koreas have badly frayed since a conservative government in Seoul took power last year with a vow to get tough on the North over its nuclear program. Pyongyang has responded by cutting ties and halting or restricting key joint reconciliation projects.

Piracy has become perhaps the biggest money-maker in Somalia because the pirates almost always get paid. Their wealth is all the more shocking in light of Somalia’s stunning poverty. There has been no effective central government in nearly 20 years, plunging the arid country into chaos.

Nearly every Somali public institution has crumbled.

Last year, dozens of ships were hijacked and an estimated $1 million per boat was paid in ransom for their release, according to analysts. Each pirate is believed to get on average $10,000 for a successful hijacking.

Ship owners typically air drop the plastic-wrapped cash into the sea.

Owners of ships plying the pirate-infested waters off Somalia’s coast have balked at having firearms onboard, despite an increasing number of attacks where bullets pierced hulls or rocket-propelled grenades whooshed overhead.

The reason is twofold: Owners fear pirates would be more likely to continue shooting once on board if they confronted weapons, and the company might be held liable for deaths or injuries inflicted by someone on the vessel.

Number of ships evading attacks increases
Cmdr. Jane Campbell, of the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said there are believed to be about 250 merchant mariners being held hostage and 17 ships in the Gulf of Aden and directly off Somalia’s eastern coast.

The navy said last week that Russian forces aboard the Admiral Panteleyev, which has been on patrolling the waters off Somalia as part of an anti-piracy effort, seized a vessel with 29 suspected pirates aboard on April 28. Russian officials later said some of those aboard were Iranian and Pakistani fishermen.

Data provided by the 5th Fleet also shows that the number of ships evading attack has increased in March and April, after a multinational anti-piracy coalition was established in January. However, the data also showed that the number of ships taken hostage by Somali pirates has also increased slightly during the same time period.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the helicopter, also armed with missiles and machine guns, circled above the pirate ship that was about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away from the North Korean freighter.

The South Korean helicopter guided the North Korean ship to a safer area and the ship later sent a thank you message to the South Korean vessel several times, the statement said.

The 6,399-ton North Korean ship was carrying iron ore and was sailing from the Red Sea to India, a South Korean JCS officer said on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

The South Korean ship has been operating off Somalia since last month on a mission to protect South Korean cargo ships from Somali pirates.

Some nations sending naval vessels
A number of other countries, including Japan, have dispatched naval vessels to patrol the dangerous waters and protect shipping amid a spate of pirate attacks.

Campbell said American ships did not play a role in fending off the pirates from the North Korean freighter and that the South Korean helicopter took off from a South Korean ship called Munmu the Great, which has been part of the anti-piracy coalition for about a month.

Also Monday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the possible creation of an international piracy court, Russian news agencies reported.

Russia has not decided what to do with several suspected Somali pirates seized by the crew of a Russian destroyer last week in the Gulf of Aden.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

May 02, 2009
Associated Press
Military.com

NAIROBI, Kenya - A Portuguese warship seized explosives from suspected Somali pirates after thwarting an attack on a Norwegian-owned oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden, a NATO spokesman said Saturday.

It was the first time NATO forces found pirates armed with raw explosives, Lt-Cmdr. Alexandre Santos Fernandes said from the Portuguese frigate the Corte-Real.

The four sticks of P4A dynamite - which could be used in demolition, blasting through walls or potentially breaching a the hull of a ship - were destroyed along with four automatic rifles and nine rocket-propelled grenades also confiscated. It was unclear how the pirates planned to use the dynamite, Fernandes said.

The Corte-Real had sent a helicopter to investigate a distress call from the crude oil tanker MV Kition late Friday about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north from the Somali coast.

The suspects fled to a larger pirate vessel, but were intercepted by the warship an hour later.

“The skiff had returned to the mothership,” Fernandes said, referring to the vessels pirates commonly use to tow their small, fast speed boats hundreds of miles (kilometers) out to sea. “Portuguese special forces performed the boarding with no exchange of fire.” The Bahamian-flagged tanker also was unscathed, he said.

The 19 pirate suspects were released, however, after consultation with Portuguese authorities because they had not attacked Portuguese property or citizens. Decisions on detaining piracy suspects fall under national law; Fernandes said Portugal was working on updating its laws to allow for pirate suspects to be detained in such situations.

Nearly 100 ships have been attacked this year by pirates operating from the lawless Somali coastline despite the deployment of warships from over a dozen countries to protect the vital Gulf of Aden shipping route.

One hijacked vessel, the Philippine tanker MT Stolt Strength, was held more than five months before a $2.5 million ransom was paid and the ship and 23 crew were released April 21.

Anxious relatives greeted the freed crew in a tearful homecoming Saturday at Manila airport.

The Somali pirates had seized the chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Nov. 10 while it was on its way to India with a cargo of phosphoric acid.

“Every day, we feared for our lives,” Abelardo Pacheco, the 62-year-old skipper of the Stolt Strength, told The Associated Press. “The threat was ever-present because if we made the wrong move … we would be shot.”

After dropping the pirates close to shore, the ship remained vulnerable, unable to speed to a safe harbor because it was low on fuel. German, U.S. and Chinese naval vessels eventually came to their aid, providing food, medicine and fuel, which allowed them to sail to Oman where they stayed for two days before flying home to Manila.

Second Mate Carlo Deseo said the pirates’ evident disorganization was the source of much of his fear.

They “did not seem to know what they were doing,” he said.

He said the crew once had to treat three pirates who were wounded in a gunfight on the ship with fellow pirates. He also patched up a pirate injured while climbing aboard the ship.

© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

By Jordy Yager
Posted: 04/30/09 05:59 PM [ET]
The Hill

The merchant captain who was rescued from a lifeboat after being held by Somali pirates for five days in the Indian Ocean pushed senators on Thursday to consider using the U.S. military to protect ships like his from coming under attack.

“The most desirable and appropriate solution to piracy is for the United States government to provide protection, through military escorts and/or military detachments aboard U.S. vessels,” said Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Phillips said the military option was not a “silver bullet” solution and also suggested using methods to “harden the vessel,” or make ships more difficult to board, as part of a comprehensive plan to combat the increasing attacks in the waters in the Horn of Africa region.

Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) pressed Phillips and Maersk chairman John Clancey to consider arming members of the crew to defend themselves in the event of an attack.

And when Clancey objected, saying that many of the laws governing other country’s ports and waters prohibit crews from carrying weapons, Kerry suggested amending international convention to allow for such carrying.

Phillips told Kerry that he thought the attack on his ship, which resulted in his capture, could have been deterred if they had at least two highly trained former Special Forces soldiers on board to defend the ship.

“Understand, it’s not a mall cop that I’m looking for,” he told the committee.

Thursday’s suggestions closely mirrored comments made by Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, last Friday at a House hearing.

“I think (maritime shipping companies) are going to have to take a very hard look at not just taking additional defensive preparations in terms of just simple things like concertina wire to make it harder to climb over the side or up over a railing but also looking at the employment of armed guards or security forces. …I think that’s something they’re going to have to look hard at,” Petraeus said.

Phillips’ capture drew the national spotlight to the region, which has long been plagued with maritime unrest. Phillips was freed and all but one of his captors killed by sniper fire in a dramatic Easter Sunday rescue operation by the U.S. Navy.

There were 111 attacks in the waters in the Horn of Africa region in 2008, which was nearly double the number that occurred in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

As of last week there had been 84 attacks this year.

Approximately 300 non-U.S. crew members on 18 vessels remain in Somali captivity following hijackings, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service released last week.

In a move similar to Phillips’ proposal, Belgium announced on Thursday that it is sending teams of soldiers to provide merchant ships with onboard protection off the coast of Somalia. The military action comes in response to the capture of a Belgian ship and its 10-person crew by Somali pirates two weeks ago. Belgian officials are still trying to negotiate the ship’s release.

Like Obama, Phillips and Clancey stressed the importance on Thursday of an international solution and diplomatic cooperation to effectively combat piracy.

Harold Koh, the State Department’s nominee for legal adviser, emphasized an international role earlier this week at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

“It’s a global challenge, and to address it you need a global law,” he said. “There’s no problem with doing it alone. It’s just that it’s not nearly as effective. If there are 193 countries in the world, one country can’t stop all the pirates.”

USA Today

ROME (AP) — An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security forces exchanged fire with the bandits.

Six men in a small, white Zodiac-type boat approached the Msc Melody Saturday and opened fire with automatic weapons, Msc Cruises director Domenico Pellegrino said. They retreated after the security officers returned fire and sprayed them with water hoses. The ship continued its journey with its windows darkened.

“It felt like we were in war,” the ships commander, Ciro Pinto, told Italian state radio.

None of the roughly 1,000 passengers and 500 crewmembers was hurt, Pellegrino said. The passengers were asked to return to their cabins and the external lights on board turned off.

Pellegrino said all Msc cruise ships around the world are staffed with Israeli security agents because they are the best trained.

The attack occurred about 200 miles north of the Seychelles, and about 500 miles east of Somalia, according to the anti-piracy flotilla headquarters of the Maritime Security Center Horn of Africa.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet, said that last fall after the attack on a Saudi tanker more than 400 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia there had been “a definite shift in (the pirates) tactical capabilities.”

“It’s not unheard of to have attacks off the coast of the Seychelles, we’ve even had some in the past month,” he said. “But at the same time, it is a sign that they are moving further and further off the Somali coast.”

Separately Sunday, four Yemeni tankers escorted by a Yemeni coast guard boat on their way to Aden were attacked by pirates. Three of the ships escaped and coast guards captured five pirates and wounded two others, said Mohammed Abdul-Rahman, a senior official at the Overseas Shipping and Stevedoring Company. Pirates could only seize one of the tankers, the Qana. The Yemeni Interior Ministry said coast guards were trying to free it.

And the Turkish cruiser Ariva 3, with two British and four Japanese crew aboard, survived a pirate attack near the Yemeni island of Jabal Zuqar, said Ali el-Awlaqi, head of the Yemeni El-Awlaqi Marine company said.

“Pirates opened fire at the cruise ship for 15 minutes then stopped for no reason,” he said, adding that the cruiser was heading to Aden, Yemen, to fix a broken engine.

International military forces have battled pirates, with U.S. Navy snipers killing three holding an American captain hostage in one of the highest-profile incidents.

But Saturday’s exchange of fire between the Melody and pirates was one of the first reported between pirates and a nonmilitary ship. Civilian shipping and passenger ships have generally avoided arming crewmen or hiring armed security for reasons of safety, liability and compliance with the rules of the different countries where they dock.

Pellegrino said the pistols on board the Melody were available to the commander and security agents. He said they were used as a deterrent, “in an emergency operation.”

It was not the first attack on a cruise liner. In November, pirates opened fire on a U.S.-operated ship, the M/S Nautica, which was taking 650 passengers and 400 crewmembers on a month-long luxury cruise from Rome to Singapore. The cruise liner was able to outrun the pirates. In early April a tourist yacht was hijacked by Somali pirates near the Seychelles just after having dropped off its cargo of tourists.

The Melody was on a 22-day cruise from Durban, South Africa, to Genoa, Italy, when the pirates attacked late Saturday, slightly damaging the liner, Pinto said.

“After about four or five minutes, they tried to put a ladder up,” Pinto told Sky TG24. “They were starting to climb up but we reacted, we started to fire ourselves. When they saw our fire, and also the water from the water hoses that we started to spray toward the Zodiac, they left and went away.”

“They followed us for a bit, about 20 minutes, and continued to fire,” he said.

Cruise line security work is a popular job for young Israelis who have recently been discharged from mandatory army service, as it is a good chance to save money and travel.

The Spanish warship SPS Marques de Ensenada met up with the Melody to escort her through the pirate-infested northern Gulf of Aden, the Maritime Security Center said. The cruise ship was headed as scheduled to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, returning to the Mediterranean for spring and summer season cruises.

Meanwhile, Somali pirates on Sunday demanded a $5 million ransom for the release of two Egyptian fishing boats hijacked earlier this month, and the safe return of their crew, Egyptian Foreign Ministry official Ahmed Rizq said in Cairo.

“Tribal sheiks are trying to mediate to convince the hijackers to release the boats and the sailors, but it’s clear to everybody that we are dealing with piracy that has no other purpose but money,” he said, adding that the negotiations were between the hijackers and the boats’ owners.

Pirates have attacked more than 100 ships off the Somali coast over the last year, reaping an estimated $1 million in ransom for each successful hijacking, according to analysts and country experts.

Another Italian-owned vessel remains in the hands of pirates. The Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer was seized off Somalia on April 11 with 16 crewmembers aboard.

On Saturday, the Foreign Ministry dispatched a special envoy, Margherita Boniver, to Somalia to try to win the release of the tug and crew. In a statement, the ministry also denied reports by relatives of the crew that an ultimatum had been issued by the pirates.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

21 April 2009

Air Force Technology

Somalia will be able to stop three quarters of pirate attacks off its coast in one year if it wins support from international donors to build its security forces, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said on Monday.

Donors will meet in Brussels this week to discuss urgent funding for Somali security forces and African Union (AU) peacekeepers in what will be an important test of support for the chaotic country’s new government.

Organisers say $165m is needed to build Somali security forces, and Ahmed said that would be enough to create the infrastructure to battle the pirates wreaking havoc on international shipping lanes offshore.

“Somalia has a very long coast. This requires that enforcement agencies be located along the coast and out into the sea to ensure the free passage of ships and other vessels,” Ahmed told Reuters in an interview.

“That amount would go a long way – $165m would be sufficient to tackle pirates at an initial stage. Three quarters of those attacks would be prevented,” he said through an interpreter late on Monday in Istanbul.

Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader elected in January at UN-brokered talks, is seen by many diplomats monitoring Somalia as the best hope in some time for restoring stability.

His administration is the 15th attempt in 18 years to set up a central government in Somalia, which has been ravaged by an insurgency and feuding warlords.

More than a million people have been uprooted by fighting in the past two years, a third of the population survives on food aid, and the turmoil has spilled into the international shipping lanes.

Organisers of Thursday’s meeting say $165m is needed over the next year to pay for a 6,000-strong national security force, 10,000 Somali police, and to support AU peacekeepers.

Ahmed said a total of 25,000 security officers could be put in place with the sum.

AU peacekeeping forces from Uganda and Burundi are stationed in Somalia, but Ahmed said he hoped it can renegotiate the mandate from the African Union in order to take over its own security needs within a year.

“If things go according to plan our government policy will be aiming to be able to take control of our security in less than a year and there would be no need for foreign troops in the country,” said Ahmed, who is in Turkey for a state visit.

Ahmed’s government has repeatedly said it needs more money to tackle insecurity and provide jobs.

Millions of dollars
In addition to security forces, Ahmed said measures should be taken to crack down on funds sent and received by pirates.

“We are talking about clandestine operations here and these transfers almost always take place outside the country … One of the things we could do is get information and share with the relevant authorities of other countries,” said Ahmed, wearing a blue suit and a light blue shirt the colour of the Somali flag.

The pirates earned dozens of millions of dollars in ransoms during their unprecedented capture of 42 vessels in 2008.

Washington has linked hardline Islamist group al Shabaab to al Qaeda, but Ahmed said there was no concrete evidence that al Qaeda was operating in Somalia, though attacks by Islamist extremists look to have been inspired by the group.

He said he hoped that within two years the country which currently ‘cannot imagine a life except anarchy and mayhem’ could come to some kind of normal state.

“We want to see people going about their daily business and having hope for the future. I am very confident that can happen,” he said.

By Thomas Grove, Reuters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and the Netherlands say they will seek authority for NATO to arrest pirates operating off the coast of Somalia.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Monday and said they will raise the issue soon with NATO.

NATO forces patrolling the Somali coast Sunday disarmed and interrogated a group of pirates, who had tried to hijack a Norwegian-flagged tanker. But NATO later freed them, citing legal issues. Clinton said that releasing pirates “sends the wrong signal.”

The two officials also said that naval operations off Somalia need to be better coordinated. A number of countries have patrolled the Somali coast in addition to NATO and European Union forces.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Sun Apr 19, 2009 3:50pm EDT

By Alison Bevege

ON BOARD NRB CORTE-REAL (Reuters) - NATO forces foiled an attack by Somali pirates on a Norwegian oil tanker, and briefly detained seven gunmen after hunting them down under cover of darkness, NATO officials said on Sunday.

It was the latest assault by sea gangs from Somalia who have hijacked dozens of ships, taken hundreds of sailors hostage and made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms — defying an unprecedented deployment by foreign navies in the region.

The violence has disrupted aid supplies, driven up insurance costs and forced some companies to route cargo round South Africa.

Michael McWhinnie, a spokesman on the Canadian warship Winnipeg, said it, a British naval supply ship and U.S. warship Halyburton all responded after pirates attacked the 80,000-tonne MV Front Ardenne in the Gulf of Aden late Saturday.

The gunmen, who were armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, fled south in their skiff as the NATO forces approached, dumping most of their weapons overboard.

McWhinnie told Reuters a helicopter dispatched by the Winnipeg fired several warning rounds in front of the pirates’ small craft from its machinegun, but they ignored it.

The Canadian warship then pursued them for hours through the night, extinguishing its lights to hunt the gang in the dark.

“We blocked their path. We were faster and surprisingly more maneuverable than the pirate skiff,” McWhinnie said by phone from the Winnipeg to the Corte-Real, a Portuguese warship that is also part of NATO’s anti-piracy mission in the area.

BELGIAN SHIP HELD

The Canadian ship then sent a boarding party to search the pirate vessel and found an RPG round, which they seized.

“Most weapons went over the side but they must have overlooked it when they started discarding objects,” he said. After documenting the evidence they let the pirates go.

“Canada’s mandate is not to normally take detainees in this mission,” McWhinnie said.

On Saturday, Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced the Yemenis to sail a “mother ship” attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden.

Gunmen from Somalia also seized a Belgian dredging vessel and its 10 crew, including seven Europeans. The Pompei was hijacked early on Saturday about 600 km (370 miles) from the Somali coast en route to the Seychelles. It has two Belgian, four Croatian, one Dutch and three Filipino crew on board.

A pirate source who said he was on board the Pompei said they would sail it to Haradheere, a stronghold of the sea gangs.

Regional analysts and security experts say that without political stability in Somalia, which has been mired in civil war for 18 years, the pirates will continue to cause havoc.

The Somali government plans to present its proposals to tackle the maritime crime wave at a major donors’ meeting on Somalia taking place in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.

It says it needs more money to tackle insecurity on land and to provide jobs for the country’s many unemployed young men.

(Writing by Daniel Wallis, editing by Tim Pearce)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

World’s Leading Authority on Piracy Offers Insight

NEW YORK, April 17 /PRNewswire/ — The capture and rescue of Maersk Alabama’s Captain Richard Phillips and the continued brazen hijacking spree by Somali pirates has riveted the world. For Angus Konstam, one of the world’s leading authorities on piracy, the drama was an old tale in new clothing. In his recent book, Piracy: The Complete History (Osprey), Konstam connects the dots between the colorful age of piracy popularized by “Pirates of the Caribbean” and modern piracy. Konstam, who has written over 50 books on naval warfare and piracy, reminds readers that despite their romantic image, pirates were always dangerous and disruptive. He explains, “I enjoyed the Jack Sparrow movies as much as the next person, but they’re pure fiction. You see how it took the full force of the U.S. government and its navy to ward off this current threat. Such has it always been in the war against piracy and pirates.”

In Piracy: A Complete History, Konstam reveals how this is not the first time pirates have plagued shipping in the Indian Ocean. He writes, “Much like today, in the late 1690s through the 1720s, the Indian Ocean was the most lucrative pirate destination in the world. They found a pirate’s dream–rich and poorly protected prizes, a range of suitable hideaways to evade pursuers, and a collection of European trading companies too busy fighting each other to worry about the threat of pirates.”

Konstam cites several successful campaigns against piracy giving clues on to how to attack the current problem. “Modern-day pirates now enjoy all the advantages of technology–radios, radar, satellite navigation, automatic weapons and high-performance boats. As in the past, there is a lack of regulation on the high seas due to a shortage of interest, international goodwill and resources. A concerted international effort will be required to rid the world of this scourge.” Konstam adds, “Just as today, successful pirates have always been a daunting threat.”

Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Konstam, who studied at the Universities of Aberdeen and St. Andrews, is a former naval officer, an underwater archeologist and museum curator. He advised the archeologists excavating Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, appears nationally on TV and is featured on PBS’s “Secrets of the Dead: Blackbeard’s Lost Ship,” April 22, 2009.

SOURCE Angus Konstam

By REUTERS
Published: April 14, 2009
Filed at 10:10 p.m. ET
International Herald Tribune

ON BOARD CORTE-REAL (Reuters) - Somali pirates hijacked two more cargo vessels and opened fire on two others on Tuesday in attacks that showed a determination to go on striking at shipping on the region’s strategic trade routes.

The capture of the Greek-owned MV Irene E.M. and Togo-flagged MV Sea Horse were a clear sign pirate gangs have not been deterred by two raids in recent days in which U.S. and French special forces have killed five pirates.

NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes said the Portuguese warship Corte-Real had received a pre-dawn distress call from the St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged Irene E.M. as it traveled through the Gulf of Aden.

“There was only three minutes between the alarm and the hijack,” Fernandes told Reuters aboard the warship. “They attacked at night, which was very unusual. They were using the moonlight as it’s still quite bright.”

Greece’s Merchant Marine Ministry said the Irene E.M.’s 22 crew were Filipinos. The East African Seafarers’ Assistance Program, which tracks piracy, said they were all unharmed.

The bulk carrier was sailing from Jordan to India. Its Piraeus-based owners were not immediately available for comment.

Hours later, NATO officials on the Corte-Real said the nearly 5,000-tonne MV Sea Horse had also been seized about 77 nautical miles off Somalia. It was hijacked by pirates on board three or four skiffs, they said.

The officials said another pirate gang fired automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at the Liberian-flagged 21,887-tonne Safmarine Asia. They said it managed to escape and that there was no word of any casualties.

The U.S.-flagged cargo ship Liberty Sun also was attacked by pirates firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, the ship’s owner, New York-based Liberty Maritime Corp, said in a statement.

The pirates damaged the ship but did not manage to board it. Liberty Sun immediately requested help from the U.S. Navy and is now under escort. The ship was carrying U.S. food aid and headed to Mombasa, Kenya, from Houston.

Heavily armed pirates from lawless Somalia have been increasingly striking the busy Indian Ocean shipping lanes and strategic Gulf of Aden, capturing dozens of vessels, hundreds of hostages and making off with millions of dollars in ransoms.

SPECIAL FORCES

The pirates have vowed to take revenge on U.S. and French citizens after the military operations by Washington and Paris.

Foreign navies are patrolling the seas off Somalia but the pirates have largely evaded them, driving up insurance costs and defying the world’s most powerful militaries.

Until there is political stability onshore, say experts, attacks on shipping will continue off Somalia’s coast.

“Piracy is far more complex than any naval patrol,” said U.S. analyst J. Peter Pham, of Madison University. “It will require more than just the application of force to uproot piracy from the soil of Somalia.”

Snipers on a U.S. Navy destroyer freed an American ship captain on Sunday by killing three Somali pirates holding him hostage in a lifeboat, ending a five-day standoff. Two more pirates died on Friday when French commandos stormed a yacht that had been seized. A French hostage was also killed.

A.P. Moller Maersk, owner of the U.S.-captained Maersk Alabama caught up in Sunday’s incident, said it was reviewing policies and procedures for sailing off Somalia and urged the international community to unite to find a solution to piracy.

The Somali pirates have been striking regularly for years. They are currently holding prisoner some 260 sailors, including about 100 Filipinos, on 19 captured ships.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had ordered a review of the U.S. military’s strategy on piracy after the Maersk Alabama incident.

He told ABC television’s “Good Morning America” show on Tuesday he had asked senior officers to look “broadly and widely and deeply at the overall strategy.”

“One of the big challenges, quite frankly, is when we capture pirates, what do you do with them? What criminal court do you take them to? … It’s a very big challenge.”

Asked about the possibility of pirates seeking revenge, he said he took their comments seriously: “That said, we’re very well prepared to deal with anything like that.”

Sunday, April 12, 2009
Fox News

American sea Captain Richard Phillips was safely rescued Sunday from four Somali pirates, who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a U.S. intelligence official said.

Three of the pirates were killed and one was in custody after what appeared to be a swift firefight off the Somali coast, the official said.

Initial reports indicate Phillips jumped overboard for a second time and the military was able to take advantage of the situation.

Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vt., was transported to the USS Bainbridge nearby.

The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Asked whether the pirate arrested will now be brought to the U.S. for prosecution, the Department of Justice told FOX News, they will be “reviewing the evidence and other issues to determine whether to seek prosecution in the United States.”

Maersk Line Limited President and CEO John Reinhart said in a news release that the U.S. government informed the company around 1:30 p.m. Sunday that Phillips had been rescued. He was to hold a media briefing later Sunday.

Reinhart said the company called Phillips’ wife, Andrea, to tell her the news. He said the crew of the Maersk Alabama was “jubilant” when they received word that Phillips was safe.

They placed an American flag over the rail of the top of the Maersk Alabama and whistled and pumped their fists in the air. Crew fired a bright red flare into the sky from the ship.

The rest of the crew and the ship had made it safely to a port in Kenya.

A government official and others in Somali with knowledge of the situation had reported hours earlier that negotiations for Phillips’ release had broken down.

Talks began Thursday with the captain of the USS Bainbridge talking to the pirates under instruction from FBI hostage negotiators on board the U.S. destroyer.

U.S. warships and helicopters stalked the lifeboat holding Phillips and his four Somali captors Sunday, while his crew briefed FBI agents about how they fought off the pirates who boarded their ship, the Maersk Alabama.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Katharine Houreld, Associated Press Writers
Yahoo News

MOMBASA, Kenya – Nineteen American sailors who escaped a pirate hijacking off the Horn of Africa reached safe harbor on Saturday, exhilarated by freedom but mourning the absence of the captain they hailed for sacrificing his freedom to save them.

With a throng of reporters shouting questions from shore, the crew of the Maersk Alabama described an ordeal that began with Somali pirates hauling themselves onto the deck from a small boat bobbing on the surface of the Indian Ocean far below.

“They came from the stern of the ship and came on with hooks and ropes and were firing in the air when they got on board,” said ATM Reza, a father of one from Hartford, Connecticut, who said he was the first to see the pirates board Wednesday.

As the pirates shot in the air, Capt. Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself to safeguard his men, crew members said. Phillips was still held hostage in an enclosed lifeboat Saturday by four pirates being closely watched by U.S. warships in an increasingly tense standoff.

“He saved our lives!” second mate Ken Quinn, of Bradenton, Florida, declared from the ship as it docked in the resort and port city of Mombasa. “He’s a hero.”

Reza said that he had led one of the pirates to the engine room, where he stabbed him in the hand with an ice pick and tied him up. Other sailors corroborated that story.

The crew did not elaborate Saturday but have told family members by phone that they took one pirate hostage before giving him up in the unfulfilled hope their captain would be released. Instead, the Somalis fled with Phillips to the lifeboat.

Some of the Alabama’s crew cheered and cracked jokes as they arrived in Mombasa, others peered warily over the edge of their 17,000-ton cargo ship.

With Navy Seals standing guard, one sailor told off the mass of journalists, saying: “Don’t disrespect these men like that. They’ve got a man out on a lifeboat dying so we can live.”

Crewman William Rios described the whole experience as a “nightmare” and said the first thing he will do back home in New York is pray. “I’m going to church,” he said, specifying St. John the Baptist Church in New York City.

Quinn told reporters the experience was “terrifying and exciting at the same time.” Asked what he thought of the pirates who seized the boat, Quinn said: “They’re just hungry.”

Maersk President John Reinhart said from Norfolk, Virginia that the ship was still a crime scene and the crewmen could not leave until the FBI investigates the attack.

He said crew members have been provided phones so they can stay in touch with family members.

“When I spoke to the crew, they won’t consider it done when they board a plane and come home,” Reinhart said. “They won’t consider it done until the captain is back, nor will we.”

Other bandits, among the hundreds who have made the Gulf of Aden the world’s most dangerous waterway, seized an Italian tugboat off Somalia’s north coast Saturday as it was pulling barges, said Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman at NATO’s Northwood maritime command center outside London.

The Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed 10 of the 16 crew members are Italian. The others are five Romanians and a Croatian, according to Micoperi, the Italian company that owns the ship.

A piracy expert said the two hijackings did not appear related.

“This is just the Somali pirate machine in full flow,” said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, founder of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Ltd.

Phillips jumped out of the lifeboat Friday and tried to swim for his freedom but was recaptured when a pirate fired an automatic weapon at or near him, according to U.S. Defense Department officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the sensitive, unfolding operations.

“We believe that Capt. Phillips will survive this situation,” said Capt. Joseph Murphy, father of second-in-command Shane Murphy. “We know he will survive because he will never give up.”

A U.S. military official said that early Saturday the pirates in the lifeboat believed to be armed with pistols and AK-47s fired a few shots at a small Navy vessel that had approached, possibly to conduct reconnaissance. No one was hurt and the Navy vessel turned away, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The U.S. sailors did not return fire, he said. The U.S. had not approached in a rescue attempt, he said.

The captain of the warship watching the lifeboat has been getting direction from FBI hostage negotiators and talks have taken place with the pirates, U.S. officials said.

In Underhill, two young girls set up a lemonade stand with a sign saying “Come home safe Capt. Phillips.”

Rev. Charles Danielson of the St. Thomas Church, said the congregation would continue to pray for Phillips and his family, who are members, and he would encourage “people to find hope in the triumph of good over evil.”

Reinhart said he spoke with Phillips’ wife, Andrea, who is surrounded by family and two company employees who were sent to support her.

“She’s a brave woman,” Reinhart said. “And she has one favor to ask: ‘Do what you have to do to bring Richard home safely.’ That means don’t make a mistake, folks. We have to be perfect in our execution.”

The USS Bainbridge was joined Friday by the USS Halyburton, which has helicopters, and the huge, amphibious USS Boxer was expected soon after, the defense officials said. The Boxer, the flagship of a multination anti-piracy task force, resembles a small aircraft carrier. It has a crew of more than 1,000, a mobile hospital, missile launchers and about two dozen helicopters and attack planes.

On Friday, the French navy freed a sailboat seized off Somalia last week by other pirates, but one of the hostages was killed.

The vice president of the Philippines, the nation with the largest number of sailors held captive by Somali pirates, appealed for the safety of hostages to be ensured in the standoff.

“We hope that before launching any tactical action against the pirates, the welfare of every hostage is guaranteed and ensured,” said Vice President Noli de Castro.

Meanwhile, France’s defense minister promised an autopsy and investigation into the death of a hostage killed during a commando operation, which freed four other captives and was prompted by threats the passengers would be executed. Two pirates also were killed. Three pirates were captured and are to be brought to France for criminal proceedings.

Somali pirates are holding about a dozen ships with more than 200 crew members, according to the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau, a piracy watchdog group. The bureau lists 66 attacks since January, not including the Alabama or the Italian ship seized Saturday.

___

Associated Press writers who contributed to this report include Mohamed Olad Hassan and Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu, Somalia; Michelle Faul and Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya; Ariel David in Rome; Constant Brand in Brussels; Matt Apuzzo and Robert Burns in Washington; Oliver Teves in Manila, Philippines; and Pierre-Yves Roger in Paris.

French special forces, on mission on Friday to free five hostages on the French yacht Tanit held by Somali pirates, may have accidently shot dead one of the hostages, French Defence Minister Hervé Morin said on Saturday.

Saturday 11 April 2009
By FRANCE 2 - Olivia Salazar-Winspear
France 24

AFP - French Defence Minister Herve Morin did not rule out Saturday that French special forces might inadvertently have been responsible for a hostage’s death during a release operation off Somalia.

“There will be a judicial inquiry and therefore an autopsy. One cannot exclude that during the exchange of fire between the pirates and commandos the shot was French,” Morin told Europe 1 radio.

Morin’s comments came a day after French commandos stormed a yacht that had been seized by Somali pirates, freeing four hostages aboard.

But the fifth hostage, the yacht’s owner Florent Lemaçon, was killed in the operation, along with two of the pirates. Three other pirates were taken prisoner.

The four ex-hostages, Lemaçon’s wife Chloe, their three-year-old son Colin and two other adults — are due in Paris on Sunday aboard a French-chartered plane, Morin separately told AFP.

He said the French government had earlier offered the pirates a ransom because of the child.

“It was unimaginable he could be taken hostage for a long time in that area,” he said.

The defence minister refused to specify the sum offered, but the pirates at any rate rejected it.

The Tanit was captured in the Gulf of Aden last Saturday as it headed for Zanzibar, in one of a rash of pirate attacks off the east African coast.

<---End of Quote--->

Related Article:
Despite ‘repeated’ warnings, French family sails into pirate hands

07 April 2009
By Marie Sophie JOUBERT
France 24

The French navy had warned them several times. Somali waters are not safe – least of all for a family of three sailing on a small yacht. The crew of the Tanit, however, did not heed what the French navy says were “repeated warnings”.

On March 17, a French surveillance ship, the Floreal, first contacted Florent and Chloë Lemaçon, warning them against sailing in the Gulf of Aden.

“They met the crew of the Floreal on March 20 and were strongly advised not to pursue the trip to Kenya, even at great distance from the Somali coast,” said army spokesman Christophe Prazuck.

On their family blog, the couple recalled this encounter with the French army with warmth but without taking much heed. “It’s pretty cool to meet French people out at sea, far from home,” they write on their blog. Florent and Chloë Lemaçon, respectively aged 27 and 29 years old, maintained their course to Kenya with their three-year-old son Colin and two friends on board.

On April 4, Somali pirates highjacked the Tanit and took the crew hostage off the coast of Ras Hafun, northeast Somalia.

‘Pirates will not shatter our dream’
Captain Prazuck believes taking this amount of risk was irresponsible. “Since they set off, they could not be unaware of the dangers. There are so many websites and media outlets on [Somali piracy],” he said.

On their regularly updated blog, Chloë Lemaçon tells how they once met Carré d’As skipper Jean-Yves Delanne and his wife Bernadette, who were captured by Somali pirates in September 2008. Chloë writes in January that the problem of piracy “has been hyped up these days.” Later, she explains in the blog that they do not want to see pirates shatter their dream of being at one with nature, free from consumerism.

The Floreal was unable to prevent the Tanit from heading towards Kenya and escorted them for a couple of days. “We weren’t going to abandon them,” explains Captain Prazuck.

On March 20, The Floreal left the Tanit as they approached the Bab-el-Mandeb Detroit which marks the entrance of the Indian Ocean. The warship is not authorised to go any further. Its mission is to protect the commercial ships which cross the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s most strategic routes.

Pirate attacks on the rise
The communication cell of France’s Indian Ocean fleet took over the situation and warned the “Tanit” several times. “The warnings were firm,” says Prazuck.

An email message was sent to the Tanit crew on March 27 stating that sailing to Kenya was “very dangerous” due to a spike in the number of pirate attacks. The email warned them that “the pirates were operating further and further out”.

Francis Lemaçon, the skipper’s father, refuses to believe that his son did not respect the military’s orders. In the French daily Ouest France, he said on Tuesday the couple were “far, out at sea just like the [navy] had asked them.”

“They are experienced sailors and not irresponsible,” he added.

However experienced, their 12.5-meter-long sailing yacht proved to be an easy target. Last November, Somali pirates showed they were capable of taking over the “Sirius Star”, a supertanker transporting some 2,000,000 barrels of crude more than 800 km from the Kenyan coast.

USA Today

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An American captain held hostage by four Somali pirates tried to swim for his freedom but was recaptured Friday, and officials said the high seas hostage drama escalated as both pirate ships and U.S. warcraft sailed to the scene.

In a separate incident off the Somali coast, one hostage and two pirates were killed Friday when French naval forces stormed a sailboat and freed four other hostages, including a child. Three pirates were taken into custody.

Pirates threatened to kill their American hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips, if the U.S. attacked them, according to a Somali who has been in contact with the pirates who are in a lifeboat within sight of a U.S. warship about 200 miles off the coast of Somalia.

The U.S. was bolstering its force by dispatching other warships to the site off the Horn of Africa, where a U.S. destroyer shadowed the lifeboat carrying Phillips. He was taken hostage in the pirates’ failed effort to hijack the cargo ship Maersk Alabama on Wednesday.

Defense officials say the USS Boxer, flag ship for a multination anti-piracy task force, will be nearby soon. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss sensitive ship movements.

The Boxer resembles a small aircraft carrier. It has a crew of more than 1,000, a mobile hospital, missile launchers and about two dozen helicopters and attack planes.

The pirates’ strategy is to link up with their colleagues, who are holding Russian, German, Filipino and other hostages, and get Phillips to lawless Somalia, where they could hide the hostage and make it difficult to stage a rescue, the Somali said. That would give the pirates more leverage and a stronger negotiating position to discuss a ransom. Anchoring near shore also means they could get to land quickly if attacked.

The Somali, who helped negotiate a ransom last year to pirates after they seized a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said he has talked with a pirate leader in Somalia who helped coordinate the failed effort to seize the Alabama.

He said the pirate leader had been in direct contact with the lifeboat via a satellite phone but lost contact after Phillips’ captors threw the phone — and a two-way radio dropped to them by the U.S. Navy — into the ocean, fearing the Americans were somehow using the equipment to give instructions to the captain. They acted after Phillips’ failed effort to escape.

Around midnight local time, Phillips jumped off the lifeboat and began swimming, according to Defense Department officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the sensitive, unfolding operations.

One of the pirates then fired an automatic weapon, the officials said, although it was not clear if the shots were fired at Phillips or into the air, and he returned to the lifeboat.

The USS Bainbridge, which is several hundred yards away, has rescue helicopters and lifeboats but is keeping its distance, in part to stay out of the pirates’ range of fire.

Its sailors were able to see Phillips moving around and talking after his return to the lifeboat, and the Defense Department officials think he is unharmed.

Negotiations had been taking place between the pirates and the captain of the Bainbridge, who was getting direction from FBI hostage negotiators, the officials said.

U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said U.S. warships also are headed to the area, more than 300 miles off Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast.

“We want to ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days,” he said.

President Obama, who is getting regular updates on the standoff, declined to answer questions about it Friday for a second straight day.

Mohamed Samaw, a resident of the pirate stronghold in Eyl, Somalia, who claims to have a “share” in a British-owned ship hijacked Monday, said four foreign vessels held by pirates are heading toward the lifeboat. A total of 54 hostages are on two of the ships — citizens of China, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines, Tuvalu, Indonesia and Taiwan.

“The pirates have summoned assistance — skiffs and mother ships are heading towards the area from the coast,” said a Nairobi-based diplomat, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

Samaw said two ships left Eyl on Wednesday. A third sailed from Haradhere, another pirate base in Somalia, and the fourth was a Taiwanese fishing vessel seized Monday that was already only 30 miles from the lifeboat.

He said the ships include the German cargo ship Hansa Stavanger, seized earlier this month. The ship’s crew of 24 is made up of five Germans, three Russians, two Ukrainians, two Filipinos and 12 from Tuvalu.

Another man identified as a pirate by three different residents of Haradhere also said the captured German ship had been sent.

“They had asked us for reinforcement, and we have already sent a good number of well-equipped colleagues, who were holding a German cargo ship,” said the man, who asked that only his first name, Badow, be used to protect him from reprisals.

“We are not intending to harm the captain, so that we hope our colleagues would not be harmed as long as they hold him,” Badow said. “All we need, first, is a safe route to escape with the captain, and then (negotiate) ransom later.”

Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent whose Virginia-based firm Clayton Consultants Inc. handles hostage negotiations, told The Associated Press that the presence of other hijacked vessels in the area “could complicate the negotiation strategy underway.”

“We know for certain that they share information. We know they talk to each other. They’re not stupid. They can be very smart,” Cloonan said.

Phillips, 53, thwarted the takeover of the 17,000-ton U.S.-flagged Alabama by telling his crew of about 20 to lock themselves in a room, the crew told stateside relatives.

The crew later overpowered some of the pirates but Phillips surrendered himself to the bandits to safeguard his men, and the Somalis fled with him to an enclosed lifeboat, the relatives said.

Capt. James Staples, a classmate of Phillips at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said he was not surprised by the escape attempt.

“That just shows me that Richie’s still … strong, he’s thinking, he’s alert,” Staples said. “He’s going to take every opportunity he can to, to make the situation a lot better for himself and probably get home as quick as he can.”

At Phillips’ home in Underhill, Vt., family members nervously awaited word on his fate. Sister-in-law Lea Coggio said Thursday a representative of Maersk called to let Phillips’ wife know that food and water had been delivered to the lifeboat.

“I think he’s coping, knowing Richard,” she said. “He’s a smart guy, and he’s in control. ”

Officials at Maersk Line Ltd. offices in Norfolk, Va., did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment Friday.

The Alabama sailed away from the lifeboat Thursday, Maersk shipping line said, and a team of armed Navy SEALs is aboard, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.

It was sailing toward the Kenyan port of Mombasa — its original destination — and was expected to arrive Saturday night, said Joseph Murphy, a professor at the maritime academy whose son, Shane Murphy, is second-in-command of the vessel.

Most of the lifeboats used by ships like the Alabama are about 28 feet long and carry water and food for 34 people for 10 days, Joseph Murphy said. The lifeboats are covered, and Murphy, who was brief by the shipping company, said he suspects the pirates have closed the ports to avoid sniper fire.

Petraeus said the other warships would arrive shortly. U.S. officials said the guided-missile frigate USS Halyburton was among them.

The show of force follows an increase in the number of attacks and the first on a U.S.-flagged ship. The vessels strengthen surveillance of the area and may dissuade pirates from seizing another ship, but there are not enough for a blockade in the danger zone that sprawls across 1.1 million square miles, said a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss operational matters.

The Alabama was the sixth vessel in a week to be hit by pirates who have extorted tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Reasons include fear of escalation and gun laws that vary by country

Associated Press
updated 1:54 p.m. PT, Thurs., April 9, 2009
MSNBC

NAIROBI, Kenya - Crews have held pirates off with Molotov cocktails, crates of rubbish and oil drums. They’ve electrified handrails, sprayed attackers with high-pressure fire hoses and simply kicked the pirates’ rickety ladders overboard.

But owners of ships plying the pirate-infested waters off Somalia’s coast have balked at having firearms onboard, despite an increasing number of attacks where bullets pierced hulls or rocket propelled grenades whooshed overhead.

The reason is twofold: Owners fear pirates would be more likely to continue shooting once on board if they confronted weapons, and the company might be held liable for deaths or injuries inflicted by someone on the vessel.

“There’s basically resistance to the idea of armed guards because of the risk of escalation … possible harm to the crew,” said Neil Roberts, a senior technical executive at Lloyd’s Market Association, which provides support to underwriters with Lloyd’s, the largest maritime insurance marketplace in the world. “Most ship owners don’t encourage it.”

The brief taking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama by pirates Wednesday has again highlighted the issue of protecting vessels traveling the waters off the Horn of Africa. The American crew was able to wrest control of the vessel from the pirates without weapons, but the captain was taken hostage as the hijackers escaped, leading to a standoff with the U.S. Navy.

While the American government supports putting armed guards on ships as one of many preventative strategies, the British have been more reticent, expressing fears over possible court cases and the lack of clear, standard rules of engagement.

The International Maritime Organization suggests using unarmed security consultants to train crews and advise captains on evasive maneuvers or vulnerable areas of the ship, but it discourages the use of armed guards. Not only is the legality of engaging possible pirates unclear, the group said, some ships carry explosive cargoes like chemicals or gas which a stray bullet could turn into a fireball.

In a case last November, a pirated Thai vessel being used as a mother ship was sunk by the Indian navy after it came under fire. Of the fifteen sailors being held hostage onboard, only one survived.

Crews often outgunned
Graeme Gibbon Brooks, founder of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Ltd., said his company did not provide armed guards although they were often asked by clients for advice on a firm to hire.

He noted that one of the biggest problems with carrying weapons is that ships may often be outgunned. Pirates tend to use long-range assault rifles capable of firing up to 600 rounds a minute, he said, whereas sailors or guards carrying weapons must satisfy the laws of both the ship’s flag carrier and the nations where the vessel will dock. Many countries will only allow shotguns — traditionally used for bird control — with a much shorter range than the pirates’ weapons.

“Essentially in that situation you’re getting into a sword fight armed with a dagger,” Brooks said.

Ship owners have shown little appetite for more serious weaponry. Last October, the American firm XE — then known as Blackwater — offered a ship fitted with helicopters and armed guards for escorting vessels past the lawless Somalia coast. But spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the company, had had no takers so far. Blackwater, which provided private security in Iraq, is under investigation for its role in the fatal shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.

Nonlethal weaponry, like long-range acoustic devices, which blast a powerful wave of sound at attackers, also have their drawbacks. The devices came under scrutiny last year when three security contractors were forced to jump overboard after pirates overran the ship despite the devices. The two Brits and one Irishmen were fished from the sea by a naval helicopter while pirates made off with the vessel.

Statistics were not available on the number of attacks in which firearms have been used in the taking of ships off the coast of Somalia, but observers said the pirate were becoming more violent.

A Nairobi-based diplomat, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, used yesterday’s gunfire aimed at the Maersk Alabama as an example.

Ship bridges are targets
“The captain was under fire as he was making his mayday calls,” he said. “Pirates regularly machine-gun the bridge of ships or fire a (rocket propelled grenade) at it to encourage the captain to stop. … This has become more common since mid-last year.”

Security consultant Crispian Cuss at London-based Olive Group said his company prefers using non-lethal evasive maneuvers to elude pirates. But, he said, having armed guards onboard — which his company provides — can be a useful deterrent since pirates were more likely to seek easier prey if they were fired on

Once pirates are onboard, however, there is usually little crews can do to resist, despite the dramatic standoff between American sailors onboard the Maersk Alabama and their Somali attackers. Having the crew lock themselves in a safe area — usually a room with a steel door that opens from the inside and has access to water, electricity and provisions — has only a limited impact, said Cuss.

“It’s not desperately recommendable because then you lose the ability to control the vessel,” Cuss said. “If someone has a gun and he’s onboard your boat, just do what he tells you.”

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