Apr 14 2009
Somalia Coast Pirates Thrive in Power Vacuum
If we do a little research into the Barbary Coast Pirates and the two Barbary Coast Wars, we do find one similarity with today’s piracy problem: a power vacuum.
It was Napolean’s treachery against the Knight of St. John at Malta in 1798 that left a power vacuum in the Mediterranean that enabled a resurgence of the Barbary Coast pirate states of Tripoli, Algiers and Tunis. In similar fashion to the Somali Coast pirates of today, merchant vessels were captured and crewman were enslaved, ransoms were demanded and paid for their release.
You will note that I wrote of the Barbary Coast “pirate states” not just “pirates,” for the problems along the North Coast of Africa lasted for a quarter of a century, and the responsible parties were the governing forces of these little “Regencies” of the Ottoman Empire, which were ruled by what we could today call “warlords” and they continued to operate until the European powers settled differences amongst themselves (War of 1812) and could bring pressure in the form of warships and shore bombardments of Tripolian and Algerian cities. Treaties in 1815 and 1816 ended the piracy problem and subsequent colonial expansion by France and later by Italy separated the Barbary Coast states from the Ottoman Empire.
Today, one of the main problems in countering or dealing with the pirates operating off the coast of Somalia is that there is no government in Somalia that can be held accountable. There is no government entity to negotiate with, no entity to threaten with economic sanctions or “shore bombardment.”
The pirates that operate off the Somalian coast live normal lives amongst the innocent citizens of the villages. The sizable ransoms that have been paid for the release of captured ships and crews keep many of these people alive.
President Obama’s statement that the government of the United States will step up measures to control piracy and protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden and adjacent waterways is of little value if he does not have a target. Most discussions today involve increasing the availability and use of “non-lethal” weapons and deterrents. However, there are some viable targets that could be attacked and disabled: pirate mother ships that enable these “privateers” to operate at extended ranges from shore for extended periods of time.
I think that the technology must exist to “mark” each legitimate merchant ship, electronically, so they can be identified from satellite. Merchants ships could be boarded and “marked” at the choke point off the coast of Djibouti. Then, by satellite, any vessel putting out a heat and noise signal that is not “marked” would be identifiable as a legitimate target for boarding and inspecting, and then engaged militarily if necessary. There are several navy ships of many different countries operating in the area, and the USA, with the technology, could coordinate these “inspections.”
Again I see this pirate stuff with only talk of Somali pirates, give us some info on the other pirates. check out www.democracynow.org from 4-14 and see if you can give us insight into the other pirates the media is not talking about, the ones who are dumping nuclear waste of the somali coast and destroying their fishing. Or is the fact that those pirates are from larger more powerful countrys make their actions acceptable?