Somalia pirates taking ships- where was the on-board security?

[thehollowmen]

Oh hai everybody
just dropping this link for you

http://www.somalicruises.com/

Somebody has a sense of humour

[The Stranger:Me]

So just wondering. What is an RPG going to do an oil tanker?

[awayatc]

If is would be on an American movie then it would go Hiroshimaha high.....
In the real world however not everything blows up.

Rocket propeled granades are meant to be armour piercing, and only have a very small explosive charge....
A hit in the right spot may see things go KABOOM, much more spectecular then an oiltanker (wil burn) would be a LPG tanker going off......

[Swoop]

The success of the Somali pirates (who have received over $50 million in ransoms so far) has encouraged pirates, and potential pirates, worldwide. The publicity given to the tactics of the Somali pirates has educated larceny minded boat owners worldwide. These guys know that they aren't going to score a multimillion dollar ransom (you need a place to stow the boat during the negotiations, and only the Somalis have that), but now they know there are splendid robbery prospects with these large ships. Slip aboard in the wee hours, mug the crew, grab everything portable and clean out the safe. In a poor country in West Africa or Southeast Asia, the few thousand bucks you get from a robbery like this is a life changer. And the word is getting around that pulling off stuff like this is easier than you think.
In response to the growing piracy threat, maritime security companies are doing a booming business. One Israeli firm, Mano International Security, has specialized in this kind of work for over three decades. But there is competition, usually divisions of larger firms, and business has never been better. The Israeli firm has long supplied plain clothes security operatives for cruise ships. These men, and women, keep an eye on security matters in general, but they have always been trained to deal with pirates, and terrorists. Other firms are trying to get into this corner of the industry, but the Israelis have set a high standard.

There is plenty of new business from the non-cruise ship segment (over 99 percent of the big ships out there). Most of this consists of training officers and senior crew how to deal with pirates. A lot of this is common sense (like posting lookouts 24/7 when in dangerous waters) and the need to teach crewmembers anti-piracy techniques, and carry out regular drills. The lookouts should be equipped with high end optics, which are useful at sea, even when no pirates are about. Ships that can afford it should upgrade their surface radars to a model that is better at detecting small boats.

There are a lot of simple techniques for fighting off pirates. If your lookouts fail to spot the pirates, and they start to board, having stuff ready to toss overboard at the boarding pirates, often works. Firing a maritime flare gun right at the pirate boat will do lots of damage, because these industrial strength flares use magnesium, which not only burns very bright, but also very, very hot. As in hot enough to burn a hole through the bottom of the pirate boat. You cannot extinguish magnesium with water.

Ships are not supposed to carry guns (many ports forbid armed ships to enter), but some ships have taken to putting a few pistols in the ships safe, and keeping quiet about it. Other ships have installed, or the crews have improvised, a water cannon (basically a very high powered fire hose, with a longer nozzle to provide longer range and a more precise stream of water). A more expensive solution (several thousand dollars) is a sonic cannon (that directs a beam of very loud sound at someone hundreds of meters away), which works in most cases.

But the best defense remains speed. Not only can most large ships outrun speedboats on the high seas (where waves slow down small boats more than huge ones), but the big ship can provide even larger waves with its wake, and that can be enhanced by zig-zagging a bit. Security experts also advise captains to deviate from their official course, because the pirates now have informants in various shipping, insurance and maritime affairs organizations, where they obtain the official course for a ship. Pirates try to use this to set up a night time ambush at sea. But deviating a bit on your official course, the pirates will be left waiting.

Generally, the pirates only get lucky when a merchant ship crew gets sloppy.

[Swoop]

Nice to see that all the problems have gone away...

June 17, 2009: Piracy continues to thrive in Puntland up north. Although 111 pirates are awaiting trial in Kenya, many more have been caught and released by warships, because the new "Law of the Sea" does not deal with pirates (which were believed to be a thing of the past), and each nation has its warships deal with pirates differently. Most just let them go. Thus the anti-piracy patrol off northern Somalia is seen as a nuisance by the pirates, not a threat. In the first half of this year, pirates took 30 ships, compared to 40 for all last year. But the pirates fail in nearly twice as many attacks (because of the increased naval patrols), compared to last year. Some pirates are going much farther from shore to find targets. The anti-piracy patrol has, in effect, increased the cost of capturing a ship, but not made piracy unprofitable. Somewhat less profitable, but still very profitable. The pirates are always coming up with new ways to deal with the naval patrols. The latest trick is to use people smuggling to provide cover. Smuggling Africans to Yemen has remained a big business in northern Somalia, and now the pirates are using some of these refugees as human shields, or just camouflage.
Meanwhile, further south, the Islamic radical groups are implementing, or at least announcing, their goals. Video, either in movie theaters or via DVDs, is now forbidden. Televisions are only to be used to watch approved news and religious shows. Also banned are smart phones (which can store and play video or music). Foreign aid organizations have been ordered to halt education programs, which the Islamic radical groups will replace with religious based ones.

In addition to conquering Ethiopia's Ogaden province (whose population is mostly ethnic Somali), the Islamic radicals also plan to cut access, for infidels (non-Moslems) to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. This would mean replacing the pirates now up there, with seagoing terrorists. Then there are new threats to "invade" Kenya if Kenyan troops are not pulled back from the border. The Islamic radicals want free access to the Somali refugee camps, and for smuggling, and the increased Kenyan army presence along the border is making that difficult. The Kenyans cannot ignore the invasion threat. Somalis have been raiding across the border for centuries, and sometimes the raids were large enough to qualify as an invasion.

Ethiopia has been battling Somali raiders for centuries, and have increased their cross border military patrols, as the Somali Islamic radicals talk more of taking Ogaden. The Ethiopians know how the Somalis organize their raids (or invasions, which is what large raids are). The Somalis come looking for loot, and to kill the few non-Somalis in the area. If the Ethiopian troops do not counter-attack (which they almost always do), Ogaden becomes part of Somalia, for a while, anyway. The Ethiopian patrols into Somalia are seeking out preparations for these raids, and such information is always easy to discover if your troops can enter Somali towns and villages along the border. Once the Ethiopians know where the raiders will assemble along the border, they can disrupt yet another raid before it gets going.

The Ethiopians are not the only ones who cross the border. American Special Forces operators have people in the country collecting information, and an increasing number of known al Qaeda members are being detected. Some of these guys were earlier spotted in places like Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. Why go to a chaotic place like Somalia? Apparently because it's the least worst choice for al Qaeda operatives these days.

The Transitional Government, with the help of foreign money, has recruited the first 500 men for the new coast guard. Training will take up the rest of the year, in and around Mogadishu. If the Somalis can hold their new navy together until then, armed boats will be provided, and patrols will commence. It's a long shot that this effort will succeed. There are so many obstacles. Corruption could see most of the money (for pay and supplies) disappear. If the armed boats get to sea, the sailors could prove unable to defeat the pirates, or might turn to piracy themselves. But if it all works, this would be the end of the Somali pirates. For Somalis, the new navy would also mean the end of foreign fishing trawlers (really big fishing ships) that have been illegally taking most of the fish available off the coast. This has been going on since the government disappeared in 1991 (during a tribal rebellion that has still not ended, or installed a new government).

Although it's long been known that food aid sent to Somalia is subject to theft (by bandits or warlords), the UN has now discovered (via TV reports and interviews with culprits) that Somali UN employees are openly selling food, by the truckload, to Somali merchants, and that lots of this food, marked "not for resale" is available in markets throughout southern Somalia. This is done by allowing the merchants to establish fictional refugee camps, which are then sent a portion of the food aid each month. The UN moves 45,000 tons of food aid into southern Somalia (from Kenya) each month. There are now naval patrols off the Kenyan coast to protect the ships carrying the food aid (mostly from the U.S.) from pirates. But the truckers have to be paid extra to cover the cost of bribes demanded by warlord roadblocks encountered between the Kenyan border and the refugee camps. Over three million Somalis depend on this free food to survive. The corruption within the UN Somali staff is partly the result of attacks on UN staff inside Somalia. Because of this, most non-Somali UN staff have been pulled out of the country. Somali UN staff that do not go along with the food sales, are threatened with kidnapping or murder by the warlords and bandits. But for some of these officials, just the prospect of making more money was all the incentive needed.

The fighting continues in Mogadishu, but at a decreased level. The Islamic radical militias, like al Shabaab, have been defeated, for the moment. Al Shabaab is recruiting and arming more children (young teenagers), and planning more attacks. In the last five weeks, over 120,000 civilians have fled Mogadishu, to avoid the trigger happy gunmen fighting for control of city neighborhoods. Since early May, fighting in Mogadishu has left over a thousand people dead or wounded.

June 12, 2009: For the first time, Somali pirates seized a cargo ship off (about 100 kilometers) the coast of Oman. The German owned ship was taken back to Puntland, where it will be held for ransom.

[Swoop]

The Somali pirates who seized a Spanish tuna boat last week, are demanding that two of their men, who were captured by a Spanish warship (while going, via speedboat, from the captured tuna boat to shore), be released before negotiations can begin for the captured tuna boat. The Spanish are refusing to go along with that, and are threatening to use commandos to rescue the tuna boat and its 36 man crew. The Somalis, and their supporters, claim that the fishing boats are illegally plundering Somali fishing grounds. But the tuna boats are way off the coast, in international waters. In fact, the pirates are now, according to Interpol, run by criminal gangs. Most of the ransom money goes to gang leaders and middlemen (the negotiators and, foreign specialists and those who deliver the cash). The average pirate, who took the ship, walks away with about $10,000. Many other pirates receive a monthly salary, to keep them going in case they get lucky. The gangs have bought better equipment (GPS, satellite phones, night vision devices, higher quality weapons and, speedboats, outboard engines, boarding gear) for the pirates, but the Somalis involved are mainly cheap labor. Some of the key people in the gangs are foreigners from the large criminal gangs (often run by Indians or Pakistanis, as well as local Arabs) based in the Persian Gulf. The anti-piracy patrol of foreign warships have foiled an average of ten attacks (on merchant ships) a month so far this year. Fewer ships are being taken, but the pirates are still a big threat. Ship owners end up paying an average of seven million dollars for each ship taken. The ransom is less than a third of the cost, the rest goes to lawyers, negotiators, payments to crews and their families and so on.

Al Shabaab is increasingly applying Sharia law in areas they control. This is most visible in the public floggings, executions and amputations of hands and feet of thieves. Many Somalis appreciate this attempt to restore order, but Somalis on the receiving end belong to large families, which now seek revenge from the Islamic radical groups. This is a major reason why it is so difficult to maintain order in Somalia. Al Shabaab is increasingly running into factionalism and violence among their followers. Running any organization in Somalia is like herding cats; big, nasty cats armed with automatic weapons.

The Transitional Government has been recruiting policemen and soldiers for the new security forces (with cash for equipment and salaries provided by foreign aid) in northern Kenya, among the many ethnic Somalis (including refugees) living there. Al Shabaab has threatened violent retribution against Kenya unless the recruiting stops. Kenya has refused to comply, and nearly 200 men have been recruited so far. Foreign trainers are moving recruits to camps in Djibouti, where months of instruction will, it is hope, produce disciplined and loyal police and soldiers. Past attempts at this had failed, as the trainees eventually turned into bandits or gunmen for warlords.

13 October, 2009: Twice in the last few days, French marines fired on speedboats full of Somali pirates, who were threatening a French tuna boat some thousand kilometers east of the Somali coast. Some 60 of these marines are stationed on ten French tuna boats. Dozens of large European tuna fishing ships are operating in the area, and at least one Somali pirate mother ship is in the area as well.

[Swoop]

Now venturing far and wide!
Not that the public knows anything about this though...

29 October, 2009: The Transitional Government admitted that it had recruited 1,500 ethnic Somalis in northeastern Kenya (where there are several hundred thousand Kenyans who are ethnic Somalis and 300,000 Somali refugees) and training them to be Somali government police. This is a major effort by the UN to produce a reliable police force to counteract the al Shabaab gunmen. It's been difficult getting enough men to join up, as al Shabaab has a fearsome reputation. So teenagers are being told to lie about their age, and Somalis in prison being recruited as well.
Several Reaper UAVs have begun flying maritime patrols from the Seychelles islands (which are 1,500 kilometers east of Somalia). The intense international naval patrol in the Gulf of Aden has made it very difficult to hijack ships there, so the pirates have taken stolen fishing ships (acting as mother ships towing or carrying two or more speedboats) and gone east to the Seychelles. There, the pirates have seized several ships. The anti-piracy patrol has shifted resources to the Seychelles, but needs aerial reconnaissance to find the mother ships.

China refused commando assistance from the U.S., Britain and France after a Chinese cargo ship was seized last week, off the Seychelles islands. This, despite the Chinese government saying they would promptly do something about rescuing the Chinese crew and their ship. But the Chinese were unable to intercept the cargo ship before it got from the Seychelles to Somalia. Now China is hoping to enlist the help of tribal elders in the area where the Chinese ship is being held.

Somali pirates are threatening to kill the crew of the cargo ship Ariana, held for five months and running out of fuel. The owner has refused to pay the ransom the pirates are demanding, so the pirates are threatening violence.

The Transitional Government says it will eliminate piracy within two years. Few people believe it. Puntland, however, has been trying and convicting pirates handed over to them by the anti-piracy patrol (along with cash to pay expenses and encourage prosecution.) But Puntland is not expected to keep convicted pirates in jail for long.

There is fighting daily in Mogadishu, as al Shabaab tries to intimidate AU peacekeepers into backing off and ceasing providing security for the Transitional Government. So far, the terrorists have been unsuccessful, but there are a dozen or more casualties each day.

The Arab League has tried, and failed, to broker peace talks between al Shabaab and the Transitional Government. The Arab League has not had much success in negotiating with Islamic terror groups.

28 October, 2009: A European warship operating off the Seychelles, captured seven of the ten pirates who had recently hijacked a British sailboat and its crew of two. The three remaining pirates are on the sailboat, taking it to a village on the Somali coast. All ten pirates had spotted a French fishing ship, and seven of the pirates took off in their speedboat to try and capture the French vessel. But there were armed security guards on the French ship, who fired on the pirates. Then, a nearby warship came by and captured the seven pirates.

27 October, 2009: Al Shabaab shut down another foreign aid group (ASEP), accusing the organization of spying on the Islamic terrorists. Previously, al Shabaab had shut down CARE, MSF and MercyCorps. Other aid groups can make up for some of the lost aid, especially food. Most of the food is supplied by the United States, and it feeds the terrorists as well as starving civilians. The terrorists and bandits also steal a lot of the food, and sell it in local markets.

24 October, 2009: Al Shabaab is now holding public executions of suspected spies. Two young men were killed today, after being held and tortured for three months. Al Shabaab is concerned about the increasing threat of attacks by American special operations forces based in nearby Djibouti. The Americans seem to be well informed about who is who and where they are.

A British yacht (a sailboat, actually) left the Seychelles on the 22nd, carrying a British couple (in their 50s). Now Somali pirates claim to have seized the boat and are demanding ransom. That may be a problem, as the couple are not rich, and the sailboat is their main asset.

23October, 2009: Al Shabaab continued to fire mortar shells at the presidential palace (guarded by AU peacekeepers). Annoyed at the continued mortar attacks, the AU troops fired about three dozen rockets at the mortars (which set up in the sprawling Bakara market, hiding among civilians). The rocket attack killed over 20 people, and enraged al Shabaab, which thought they were immune from attack because they used human shields. Al Shabaab is unaccustomed to this kind of retribution. So al Shabaab told Uganda and Burundi (who supply the peacekeepers in Somalia) that there would be Islamic terror attacks on the capital cities of Uganda and Burundi. Uganda taunted al Shabaab right back, promising them a rough time if they even attempted to make any attacks inside Uganda.

[Swoop]

Just to let you know that this has not gone away. Shipping cost increases should have been obvious.

27 April, 2011: Piracy is a booming business in northern Somalia, and no one has a workable plan to deal with it. For the first three months of this year, there were 97 attacks on ships by Somali pirates. In the first three months of 2010, there were only 35 attacks. The pirates are going farther out to sea to seek more lucrative targets. This year, for example, 38 percent of the attacks have been on oil tankers (which yield the biggest ransoms). Many of these ships are now carrying armed guards or hiring armed ships as escorts. In response, the pirates are now operating as far east as the west Indian coast, stealing ocean going fishing ships and small freighters to use as mother ships (for the speedboats that carry out the actual attacks). Most ships treat the pirates as a small threat. That's because over 30,000 ships pass through the pirate infested waters each year. At current rates, that means each merchant ship passing through the area has a 1.3 percent chance of being attacked (and less than half as much risk of being captured). But the additional security measures are costing shipping companies over $7 billion a year, and less than five percent of this is for ransoms. The money is attracting more and more pirates, and the cost to shipping companies is expected to double in the next few years. The only known solution for this sort of thing is to invade, and take control of the coast. But so far, the sea-going nations are not willing to pay the price, in lives and money, for that kind of solution.
Efforts to train and arm a coast guard in Puntland and Somaliland have run into a lot of resistance from the UN, and some member nations. The problem is the corruption. The pirate gangs already have many Puntland officials on the payroll, and would bribe any anti-piracy force as well. There's also a real fear that a Puntland Coast Guard might turn into pirates. That sort of thing has happened before. Puntland has eagerly accepted millions of dollars in foreign aid, meant to be used to deal with piracy. But the pirates are still there, well armed and flush with cash. Given a choice between a bloody fight, and some more payoffs, Puntland politicians seem to be going for the cash.
Starvation deaths are becoming more common in drought-ridden central and southern Somalia. Al Shabaab controls much of this area, and has banned most foreign aid efforts (as not "coming from God”.). The lack of food aid is leading to growing starvation. Aid groups are willing to pay al Shabaab, but the Islamic radicals keep asking for more money and goods. Al Shabaab has tried to ban the aid groups entirely, but that created unrest even among some of their armed followers, whose families were often dependent on foreign food aid, and extra cash. In effect, the aid groups are major suppliers of food and cash to al Shabaab, and justify it because it saves lives.
24 April, 2011: The TNG (Transitional National Government) delayed UN mandated parliamentary elections until next year. These elections were supposed to be held by August, but the TNG says that al Shabaab and other disruptive groups have to be shut down first. The TNG is seen as very corrupt, and more interested in stealing foreign aid than in bringing good government to Somalia.
22 April, 2011: Kenyan police arrested three men at the Somali border, after finding bomb making material in their vehicle. On Somalia's Ethiopian border, several hundred al Shabaab gunmen suddenly rolled into the town of Dhusamareb, which had been taken from al Shabaab two years ago. The locals insist they will take back the town soon.
21 April, 2011: South Korean commandoes boarded a container ship that had been taken by pirates, and found the pirates had fled. That's because the crew had gone to a safe room and shut down the engines. In such situations, the pirates assume that the crew has called for help from a warship, which will probably arrive shortly and kill or arrest any pirates they find on board.
Al Shabaab seized nine foreign medical specialists running a clinic 20 kilometers south of Mogadishu. An al Shabaab court sentenced the doctors and nurses to 10-15 days in jail. This was apparently another ploy to extort more cash or other goods from foreigners.
20 April, 2011: An armed helicopter, apparently from a warship beyond the horizon, was seen firing on and destroying a pirate mother ship off the coast of Puntland. The international anti-piracy patrol has become more aggressive in seeking out and destroying these mother ships. Pirates are usually given an opportunity to surrender, and they usually do, because they know they will be deposited on the Somali coast (without weapons, but at least alive).
19 April, 2011: India revealed that it had sent a frigate to the Somali coast, to get close to a ship holding seven Indian sailors who had been ransomed, but were still being held to try and force India to release 120 Somali pirates that had been captured off the Indian coast.
16 April, 2011: Fighting in Mogadishu has, over the last two days, caused nearly a hundred casualties. Many were the result of peacekeepers and al Shabaab firing artillery or mortars at each other.
In the Puntland town of Galkayo, gunmen went into two pro-al Shabaab mosques and opened fire. Six people died and dozens were wounded. This appears to have been retaliation for the use of a car bomb, earlier in the day, to kill a moderate (Sufi) Islamic leader and government official. The Puntland government sent more police to the town, to try and halt the growing violence between Islamic radicals and moderates.
15 April, 2011: Pirates released a tanker, after the ransom was paid. But seven of the eight Indians on the 15 man crew were not released. The pirates are demanding that India release 120 pirates held in India, if they want these seven Indian sailors freed. This has outraged the shipping companies, who expect the pirates to keep their promises to free ships and sailors once the ransom has been paid.

[Latte]

Where's the discovery channel, this'd make great Reality TV viewing