Danger at Sea: When Pirates Become Islamists
Al-Qaeda-backed jihadists are about to overrun a key pirate stronghold in Somalia — when they do, expect the country to explode.
When do pirates become hardcore Islamists? Very soon. At least that is what I predicted a few weeks back on PajamasTV, discussing the situation off the coast of Somalia with PJTV host Bill Whittle and fellow commentator and military strategist Austin Bay.
The best unfortunate model of how pirates become jihadists is Abu Sayyaf — the State Department-designated terror organization in the Philippines. Decades ago, Abu Sayyaf was called the Moro National Liberation Front — a regional band of violent Muslims who wanted to separate from the predominately Catholic Philippines. Enter the jihadists from Afghanistan with the idea of dying by the sword. Abu Sayyaf began blowing up ferries and kidnapping and beheading people in the name of global jihad.
The situation in Somalia is heading in that same direction. The crisis there has continued to deteriorate all month, with fighters from the terrorist organization al-Shabaab gaining control of town after town. “They’re expanding their reach,” Jennifer Cooke, head of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the Voice of America. With this reach comes al-Qaeda’s ideology. “They’ve seized a number of key port towns — Merka, Kismayo — and are really driving the chaos that is engulfing Mogadishu at this point.”
As soon as the jihadists seize Eyl the situation will become drastic for the fate of the hostages held there. Eyl is pirate central, the port city where the crews and their ships — including a Ukrainian cargo vessel laden with arms and a Saudi supertanker with two million barrels of crude oil on board — are being held. If the pirates come under the al-Shabaab sway, they will likely shift from wanting booty to wanting blood. This is the way of the jihadist’s sword.
On Tuesday, the United Nations is holding a meeting on piracy. A draft resolution has been circulating among members, one which proposes to allow countries to chase pirates onto Somali soil. But the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, told the Associated Press this was a bad idea because civilian casualties “cannot be overestimated.”
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Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation and intelligence. She blogs at TheAviationNation.com and is working on a new book for Little Brown and Company.
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21 Comments
1. Blackhawk gunner:Bill Clinton withdrew from Somalia during the first stages of combat.
I do agree that it was a UN peace mission to feed the starving children.
But Somalian warlords and bin Laden wanted this control,
now they are begging for help from the UN to stop the Muslim hoard from taking control.
We have fought the warlords and are looking forward to their destruction.
I hope the Muslims take over,
and drag the warlords bodies through the streets.
Sharia law is the only thing that could control these freaking thugs.
There will be a lot of Somalian pirates walking around without hands and tongues, and that will be a good thing.
Dec 16, 2008 - 5:00 am 2. Craig:“The word around Washington is that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to bring to the United Nations table a Bush administration proposal to send peacekeepers to Somalia to stop piracy and stave off the rise of the jihadists there.”
Yah…send U.N. Peacekeepers, that’ll show the world. They’ve been so successful everywhere else: Lebanon, Congo, Haiti, Algeria, Sudan…the list is endless. Anymore success and we’ll either breakout into WWIII or host annual Pedophile Conventions.
The word around Washington should be: Bomb the crazy bastards into submission.
Dec 16, 2008 - 5:23 am 3. The Anti Jihadist:The only way to deal with the Somalis is to go ‘old school,’ namely as follows:
Shoot on sight.
Shoot first.
Shoot to kill.
Keep shooting.
But no one is willing to do this, not even the Russians. Certainly not the US, EU or UN.
Dec 16, 2008 - 5:54 am 4. trangbang68:Talk about inconsequential crap hole countries. Hammer the pirates and jihadis from the air. I wouldn’t put a single American boot on that wretched ground again. Obama will likely do nothing anyways. Bush I punted it to Clinton to screw up. Bush II needs to pass on that.
Dec 16, 2008 - 6:03 am 5. Ann:This is becoming the most ludicrous illustration of everything that is wrong with the PC reluctance to use force for any reason, anywhere.
So now we have out of control piracy that no one apparently has the will to stop, soon to be infected with jihadists that no one has the will to stop–and now the United Nations HAS A PLAN!!
It is a foregone conclusion that when the United Nations plan fails for lack of force, they will commission the United States to go and fight the battle for them. Then–let me see–THEN the United States will be left to go it alone. American military will die. The whole world will hate America because of what they have done to the poor Somalian people.
Posts 1, 2 and 3 both hit the nail on the head.
It would appear that our policy makers have decreed that there actually is nothing worth dying or killing over anymore, unless the United Nations asks us to do their dying and killing. Why don’t we go back to our original plan? We are willing to die for OUR COUNTRY, and will happily kill those who THREATEN OUR COUNTRY? (Of course, this gets us into the whole terribly complicated issues of being a sovereign nation, guarding our borders, killing our enemies (on sight), etc…and we know the PCs will get all neurotic if they are required to go there. Oh well, bambi will talk to the pirates and I suppose everything will quiet down…he’s probably on retainer from the Untied Nations already)
Dec 16, 2008 - 6:13 am 6. Tony R:“…The pirates are about to become jihadists and Somalia is about to explode.”
Good. Lets hope it’s a big explosion and the whole rotten country “does an Atlantis” and sinks. That would be a step in the right direction for civilisation.
Dec 16, 2008 - 6:26 am 7. Jewel:Jihadist piracy has a long history. From the corsairs cruising the coastlines of Europe and stealing the inhabitants, to stealing ships and their crews. This is sanctioned by their koran and it is one part of jihad. Even against other Arab or Muslims. There’s always some sort of loop hole.
Dec 16, 2008 - 6:34 am 8. Saltherring:It’s long past time for some of our “allies” to step up. Germany, France and Japan can take care of this one. Re-direct funding from feel-good social programs to pay for the ships, planes and land forces to become a player in establishing and maintaining peace in places like Somalia. The US military and taxpayer have done enough. What say you, “allies”? You’ve shown in the past that you understand how to build a military, and in the case of Germany and Japan, how to fight to the death. Come forth, the world is waiting….
Dec 16, 2008 - 7:20 am 9. RJ:When a country transforms its military into a police and social restructuring operation/force, why would you expect a solution to such problems?
If a thrown shoe then has followed thousands marching in streets within a country where just a few years ago the perp would have been shot two minutes after his first heave ho…
Cluster bombs were created for valid reasons. Those reasons now denying their use are just as valid?
I don’t think so.
Send our American lawyers to do our fighting first. After they are wiped out we will have their families clamoring for revenge!
Then the real war will be undertaken toward those who use their left hands for wiping the best part of them!
Dec 16, 2008 - 7:28 am 10. Tinfoil Hatter:How many American flagged ships have been taken or threatened by these pirates?
So, why should the American Navy, and American resources be used to subsidize the profits of fly-by-night shipping companies and their flag-of-convienence Protecting Powers? Frankly, this is the problem of the Bahamas, Panama and Liberia.
If we want to help, here’s a suggestion. Use Somalia as a aerial bombing range and Naval Gunfire range now that RFK Jr., Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have run us out of Vieques.
Dec 16, 2008 - 9:18 am 11. tim maguire:TH, I sort of agree. The U.S. Navy has the job of protecting the world’s sea lanes and gives itself a carte blanche to move about the world because of its unique duties.
However, most of the ships are not from the nations whose flags they fly. They choose their flags mostly for tax reasons–it’s cxheaper to register in Liberia than in the US. So why should we spend taxpayer dollars protecting what are in essence tax cheats? Let them go to Liberia or Monrovia or wherever for help since that’s who they’ve pledged themselves to.
Dec 16, 2008 - 9:28 am 12. AnninCA:Just let India sink the ships.
Dec 16, 2008 - 9:36 am 13. RG:America should protect our ships and that is it. I am very tired of doing the dirty work of the world and getting kicked in the teeth for it. Screw’um. And pull our troops out of Germany and Korea while your at it…Oh, and punt the U.N. out of here too…
Dec 16, 2008 - 11:37 am 14. Bilgeman:TH:
“How many American flagged ships have been taken or threatened by these pirates?”
Hardly any. There’s hardly any US flagged ships LEFT on the High Seas anymore.
Those in that region are usually on military charter, and therefore have arms to defend themselves with.
The Somali, (and the Indonesian/Phillips Channel), piracy problem could be conclusively solved very quickly by allowing merchant ships to carry automatic weapons of sufficient caliber to put paid to any boarding party while they’ve not yet made fast.
And hew back to the long-held Admiralty Law holding that pirates are “Enemies of All Humanity”, and therefore given no quarter or protections.
The chance of that coming to pass are nil, since governments get stupid about “foreign” ships with guns and ammo aboard, and the world’s Navies are well aware of how quickly we could “break their rice bowl” if we were armed and unfettered to defend our ships.
So YOU, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, get to foot the bill for the frigate or destroyer to ride escort, yet never actually be at hand when pirates strike.
(And fwiw, I’ve been aboard when one of my ships was hit by pirates…at Bangladesh. They snuck on and stole some old mooring lines, and then skedaddled.)
Dec 16, 2008 - 4:26 pm 15. myth buster:Or let them pay us escort fees.
Dec 16, 2008 - 7:22 pm 16. Rationalitate:It was international intervention that caused this crisis in the first place. The Islamic Courts Union was much more moderate than the al-Shabaab Islamists that replaced them in the wake of the US-sponsored Ethiopian invasion. (And I probably don’t need to remind anyone of how miserably the last direct US invasion of Somalia ended up.) Somalia is just another front on the failed US war on terror. As in Iraq, the war has increased the presence and influence of radical Islam.
Somalis are moderate Muslims, and are unique among cultures in their extreme intolerance of government of any kind – Somalia’s anarchic period was the most peaceful and prosperous in a very long time, as the traditional Somali legal code is an adequate (and seemingly superior) replacement of the traditional western concept of the state. Leave them alone and the Islamists, too, will be toppled.
Dec 17, 2008 - 1:00 am 17. robotech master:Their are alot of issues with this issue.
First really the only fix for the problem is to let the boats arm themselves…however this is the one thing that few countries and most of all the UN will refuse to do.
The UN has passed a number of rules and regs and having armed crews/mercs on board is a huge issue with them. Plus the legal issues of doing battle in coastal waters means that 3rd world governments could imprison and impound boats defending themselves from pirates. The 3rd world would have get legal fun taking over ships.
The argument of the “fly-by-shipping” is mostly BS… pirates will get around to attacking other targets once the easy stuff dries up… and even better since by that time they will have made alot of money and will be much better armed and trained to fight defended ships.
As for escort… not enough navy ships in the world to escort even 10% of the worlds shipping.
The world government idea(UN), lack of tolerance by nations to arms and the simple reality of them still being needed on a day to day basis means that ship crews will suffer…
Dec 17, 2008 - 8:26 pm 18. Annie Jacobsen:On Tuesday, the United Nations authorized the use of force on land in Somalia to deal with the pirates. Anyone country that tries this will almost certainly run into Al-Shabaab. What will happen next?
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – “The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a US resolution authorizing for the first time international operations against pirates on land in Somalia.
The text, co-sponsored by Belgium, France, Greece, Liberia and South Korea, is the fourth approved by the council since June to combat rampant piracy off Somalia’s coast.
Resolution 1851 authorizes for one year states already involved in fighting piracy off Somalia to “take all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia” to suppress “acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea.”
Unlike previous resolutions, the current text empowers states combating piracy to conduct operations on land in Somalia.”
Dec 18, 2008 - 8:23 am 19. Bonnie_:Under the weak and unwilling new President, there will be no American response. There will be many more acts of piracy, many murders, and the UN will continue to pass useless resolutions.
Oh, and the American media will gloss over the atrocities. Any one want to take a cruise?
Dec 18, 2008 - 10:23 am 20. Doc99:The United States first became a world power by taking on the Pirates of the Barbary Coast. What the heck happened? Does “Hang ‘Em From the Highest Yardarm” ring a bell? Arrrrrgghhh!
Dec 19, 2008 - 7:41 am 21. deguello:Hey’here’s a solution for our economy,and employment for the pentagon’s naval toys:piracy! Lease navy ships to the Somalis and to blackwater for piracy operations,and skim off 30% of the profits. A few pirated supertankers,and presto! no energy problems!
Dec 19, 2008 - 10:00 am