The prosecution’s piracy expert acknowledged Wednesday that it was “not uncommon” for pirates to hijack fishing vessels and use them in attacks on merchant vessels, which could bolster the defense’s argument that the five Somalis charged with piracy were kidnapped and forced into the act.
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Showing posts with label pirate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pirate. Show all posts
18 November 2010
25 November 2009
18 November 2009
28 October 2009
Pirates pose threat to private yachts
Vast cargo ships and supertankers are the vessels most highly prized by the pirates who operate off the coast of Somalia, but a number of privately owned yachts have also fallen victim to them.
Le Ponant was seized off the coast of Somalia. Photograph: French defence ministry/AFP/Getty Images
Le Ponant was seized off the coast of Somalia. Photograph: French defence ministry/AFP/Getty Images13 October 2009
CNN: French military fends off Somalia pirate attack
The French military fended off a pirate attack on two fishing boats, hundreds of miles off the coast of east Africa, a French Defense Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
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21 November 2008
'Experts' lead Saudi tanker talks
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Negotiations between Somali pirates and the owners of a captured Saudi tanker are being conducted by a multinational specialist firm, the BBC has learnt.
A reported figure of $25m (£17m) for the MV Sirius Star was denied by the company, which specialises in kidnap and ransom talks, shipping sources say.
Shipping industry experts expect the ransom for the tanker, its 25 crew, and $100m cargo of oil to be much higher.
Regional leaders at crisis talks have appealed for international help.
Senior officials from countries bordering the Red Sea, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia, met in Cairo and called for political, humanitarian and economic help from the international community.
Egypt's Deputy Foreign Minister, Wafaa Bassem, said Somalia had to be helped by the international community to stop it becoming a "magnet for pirates".
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The captured tanker and its crew, which includes two Britons, are being held near the Somali port of Harardhere.
The BBC's Frank Gardner says the crew are believed to be being well treated while intensive discussions are being held by their captors over how best to proceed.
He says the Somali pirates are said to be stunned at the huge size of their catch and some want it to be treated as being worth the same as 10 ships.
Others, he says, are arguing for a quick deal at a reasonable price, aware that they may already be attracting unwanted attention from warships patrolling the area.
In a rare victory against the organised gangs, the Indian navy earlier said it had sunk a suspected pirate "mother ship" after it failed to stop for an inspection in the Gulf of Aden, several hundred kilometres north of the location where the hijackers boarded the Sirius Star.
Escort plea
Correspondents say the pirates who seized the Sirius Star on Saturday are a sophisticated group with contacts in Dubai and neighbouring countries.
Money from previous hijackings has been used to buy new boats and weapons as well as develop a network across the Horn of Africa.
On board a Nato warship heading towards Somalia
Shipping companies are now weighing up the risks of using the short-cut route to and from Europe via the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.
However, travelling around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope would add several weeks to average journey times and substantially increase the cost of goods for consumers.
Maersk, one of the world's biggest shipping firms, announced on Thursday that some of its fleet, mainly tankers, would no longer use the Gulf of Aden unless there were more naval escorted convoys.
BBC Africa editor Martin Plaut says there is currently no formal system of convoys in the area.
Indian and Russian ships are working independently in the region, while Nato and the US Navy are working together, advising merchant ships that they are in the area and can protect them.
Other warships are escorting World Food Programme ships carrying aid destined for Somalia, and merchant ships can travel with them as long as they do not slow them down.
A naval taskforce is due to be sent by the EU in December.'World only cares about pirates'
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Ex-Somali Army Colonel Mohamed Nureh Abdulle lives in Harardhere - the town closest to where the hijacked Saudi oil tanker, Sirius Star is moored. He tells the BBC, via phone from his home, that the town's residents are more concerned about the apparent dumping of toxic waste than piracy.
The Harardhere-born military man advises the town's elders on security matters and is in his fifties.
Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991 - when its last national government was forced from power.
The super-tanker is close to our coast. It is a very, very long ship. Some time ago we had our own problems of piracy in our town but that has not happened lately.
The people who have been hijacking these ships in our seas are not from our region. We do not know any of the guys on the super-tanker and they haven't made any contact with us.
You know, our problem is not piracy. It is illegal dumping.
These problems have been going for sometime and the world knows about it. The Americans have been here in the region for a long time now - they know about the pollution.
Instead, no, the world is only talking about the pirates and the money involved.
Mysterious illnesses
Meanwhile, there has been something else going on and it has been going on for years. There are many dumpings made in our sea, so much rubbish.
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It is dumped in our seas and it washes up on our coastline and spreads into our area.
A few nights ago, some tanks came out from the high sea and they cracked it seems and now they are leaking into the water and into the air.
The first people fell ill yesterday afternoon. People are reporting mysterious illnesses; they are talking about it as though it were chicken pox - but it is not exactly like that either. Their skin is bad. They are sneezing, coughing and vomiting.
This is the first time it has been like this; that people have such very, very bad sickness.
The people who have these symptoms are the ones who wake early, before it is light, and herd their livestock to the shore to graze. The animals are sick from drinking the water and the people who washed in the water are now suffering.
Isolated
We are people who live in a very remote town and here, we are isolated; we only rely on God.
This town is close to the sea. It is a very old town which has a mixture of Somali clans. It is not big but it has a well-knit community.
Our community used to rely on fishing. But now no-one fishes. You see, a lot of foreign ships were coming and they were fishing heavily - their big nets would wipe out everything, even the fishermen's equipment. They could not compete.
So the people here began farming and keeping greater numbers of livestock. Like in any other Somali town, all one can do is rely on oneself.
But now we have these medical hazards.
What can we do about it?
19 November 2008
Somali strategy could spur Asian pirate attacks
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By Andrew Marshall - Analysis
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - In high seas and heavy rain, the supertanker Kasagisan was steaming through the Malacca Strait in February when it was suddenly surrounded by six small boats.
The crew of the vessel, heading from Saudi Arabia to Japan with a cargo of oil, sprayed the pirate boats with the tanker's fire hose, sounded its sirens and initiated evasive maneuvers.
With the weather worsening, the pirates retreated. But the botched attack, one of at least 71 actual or attempted incidents of piracy in Asia recorded by shipping monitors in the first nine months of 2008, shows it is not only Somali pirates who have the audacity to threaten even the world's biggest tankers.
The Strait of Malacca between peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra is among the world's busiest shipping lanes, used by more than 70,000 ships in 2007, including vessels supplying about 80 percent of the energy needs of Japan and China.
Piracy in the Strait became so serious that in 2005 the Joint War Committee of the Lloyd's Market Association added the area to its list of war risk zones, sending premiums sharply higher. Concerted efforts by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to tackle piracy helped slash the number of attacks in subsequent years.
But with Somali bandits attacking ships off Africa with impunity and netting huge profits, the risk is that their example could be followed by Asian pirates eager to reap similar wealth.
"I am sure that a lot of criminals and criminal syndicates in Asia are watching events in Somalia with great interest," said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.
"The Somali pirates are making so much money, and have been facing very low risk. Any time you have an activity that is low risk but with huge rewards, that will encourage criminals."
Data compiled by the Singapore-based Information Sharing Center of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) show a general downward trend in piracy in the region since 2003.
But India, Vietnam and the Philippines saw an increase in attacks this year compared to 2007. And the past few months have seen several attacks around the Malacca and Singapore straits, mainly targeting tugboats towing barges.
PIRATE HAVENS
So far, Asian pirates operating around the Malacca Strait lack a secure base like the Somali town of Eyl.
"Countries in Asia have functioning governments," Choong said. "In Somalia if somebody hijacks a ship, they can get away with it. In Asia, where would you go? If you hijack a ship you would be hunted down and arrested."
But there are plenty of potential pirate havens. East of the straits, Indonesia's remote Anambas islands have seen an upsurge of pirate activity. Further east, the islands of the southern Philippines are dotted with the bases of Muslim insurgents.
This makes the Sulu and Celebes seas a piracy flashpoint -- threatening the Makassar Strait between Sulawesi and Borneo, increasingly used by Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) like the Kasagisan -- and the Sirius Star seized by the Somalis this week."The Sulu and Celebes seas have become notorious for illegal maritime activities such as smuggling, piracy and trafficking in illegal narcotics, guns and people," said Ian Storey, a fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, in a research note. "In short, the seas have become an ungoverned maritime space."
A particular concern of security analysts is that militant groups like the Abu Sayyaf group in pirate-infested Jolo and Basilan islands and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao, which have already used piracy to help fund their operations, decide to emulate the Somali strategy.
There is already a precedent.
In 2000, the Abu Sayyaf Group seized 21 people, many of them Western tourists, in a raid on a resort in the Malaysian island of Sipadan. More than $10 million was paid for their release.
A year later three Americans and more than a dozen Filipino tourists and resort workers were captured in a seaborne raid on Palawan in the Philippines. Two of the Americans were killed -- one of them beheaded -- and other hostages were held for ransom.
A further risk is that Asian pirates turn their hand to terrorism. Reports that al Qaeda-inspired militants were planning more attacks on global shipping, and even considering seizing a large ship to use as a "floating bomb," played a role in designation of the Malacca Strait as a war risk zone by Lloyd's.
The strait was taken off the war risk list in 2006. But an upsurge in piracy -- or a terrorist attack -- could change that.
"Even one terrorist attack in the Strait of Malacca likely would send insurance rates skyrocketing," Storey said.
"International pressure, the spectre of maritime terrorism, the efforts of regional states, and support from external powers have done much to improve security in southeast Asia's maritime domain," he said. "But much remains to be done."
(Additional reporting by Jalil Hamid and Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala Lumpur; editing by John Chalmers)
Pirates Exploit Confusion About International Law
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On Saturday, off the coast of East Africa, pirates seized their largest catch ever: a giant Saudi-owned oil tanker called the Sirius Star. The brazen attack came on the heels of the capture of a Ukrainian vessel (loaded with armaments destined for Kenya) by Somali pirates in September. Humanitarian food shipments into Somalia have had naval escort for nearly a year -- evidence of how much the security of sea-lanes has eroded. Media reports suggest that Somali pirates have already attacked more than 80 ships in 2008.
These are unprecedented and dangerous developments. Suppressing piracy and the slave trade, accomplished by the last quarter of the 19th century, were among mankind's great civilizing achievements. These were brought about by major maritime powers such as Great Britain and the United States. Indeed, in the American republic's earliest days, President Jefferson dispatched the infant U.S. Navy to confront the Barbary pirates, both on shore and at sea.
By the 1970s, as a part of a growing chaos in parts of Africa and Asia, incidents of piracy began to pick up. But it was not until the 21st century that piracy has experienced a meteoric rise, with the number of attacks increasing by double-digit rates per year. Last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, 263 actual and attempted pirate attacks took place. Large maritime areas have now become known as pirate heavens, where mariners can expect to be routinely molested. The Victorian self-confidence that drove pirates from the seas is gone.
Twenty-first century economics being what they are, the pirates have been more interested in the payment of ransom by anxious owners and insurers than in the vessels or their cargoes. Piracy is nonetheless a vicious and violent activity that exposes the world's merchant mariners to additional risk of death or injury. Even more fundamentally, the dramatic surge in piracy is, like terrorism, part of a broad challenge to civilization and international order.
Experience -- especially that of colonial America -- suggests that a few sporadic antipirate efforts will not be enough to solve the problem. Only a dedicated naval campaign, along with a determined effort to close the pirates' safe havens, will succeed in sending piracy back to the history books.
There has been some progress on this front. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has dispatched a formidable multinational force -- including British, Italian and Greek ships -- to join the American, French, Canadian and Danish vessels already cruising off Somalia's vast coastline. France has also aggressively pursued pirates, freeing captured vessels and hostages.
Capturing pirates is not the critical problem. Rather, the issue is how to handle those in captivity. Traditionally, pirates fell within that category of illegitimate hostiles that once included slave traders, brigands on the roads and, in wartime, unprivileged or "unlawful" enemy combatants. As Judge Nicholas Trott, presiding over a pirate trial, explained in 1718: "It is lawful for any one that takes them, if they cannot with safety to themselves bring them under some government to be tried, to put them to death." This law, of course, has changed since the 18th century. Pirates, brigands and unlawful combatants must now be tried before they can be punished.
One solution would be for the capturing state to press charges based on the much misunderstood and abused principle of "universal" jurisdiction. This is the notion that any state may criminalize and punish conduct that violates certain accepted international-law norms. Although its application in most circumstances is dubious -- there is very little actual state practice supporting the right of one state to punish the nationals of a second for offenses against the citizens of a third -- piracy is one area where a strong case for universal jurisdiction can be made (if only because piratical activities often take place on the high seas, beyond any state's territorial jurisdiction).
Moreover, given the nature of naval operations, discerning who is a pirate is usually a much easier task than separating Taliban and al Qaeda members from innocent bystanders. This fact, all things being equal, should make the task of prosecuting captured pirates an easier process, both from a legal and public-relations perspective.
The key problem is that America's NATO allies have effectively abandoned the historical legal rules permitting irregular fighters to be tried in special military courts (or, in the case of pirates, admiralty courts) in favor of a straightforward criminal-justice model. Although piracy is certainly a criminal offense, treating it like bank robbery or an ordinary murder case presents certain problems for Western states.
To begin with, common criminals cannot be targeted with military force. There are other issues as well. Last April the British Foreign Office reportedly warned the Royal Navy not to detain pirates, since this might violate their "human rights" and could even lead to claims of asylum in Britain. Turning the captives over to Somali authorities is also problematic -- since they might face the head- and hand-chopping rigors of Shariah law. Similar considerations have confounded U.S. government officials in their discussions of how to confront this new problem of an old terror at sea.
In the last few years, France determined to return its pirate prisoners to Somalia based on assurances of humanitarian treatment. The U.S. has, of course, rendered terror prisoners to foreign governments based on similar assurances, and only time will tell whether they are genuine. An equally important question is whether the transfer of captured pirates to local authorities will result in prosecution at all. In many areas, local governments may be subject to corruption or intimidation by strong pirate gangs.
One thing is certain: As in the war on terror, the new campaign against piracy will test the mettle of Western governments. It will also require them to balance the rights of lawbreakers against the indisputable rights of the law-abiding to not live their lives in danger and fear.
Messrs. Rivkin and Casey are Washington, D.C., lawyers who served in the Justice Department under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Indian warship destroys suspected pirate ship off Somalia
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On Tuesday, pirates off Somalia's coast seized an Iranian-owned and Hong Kong-flagged freighter carrying 35 metric tons of wheat and a crew of 25, a Greek freight ship with a crew of 23 and a Thai fishing boat and its crew of 16. The ships, crew and cargo are typically anchored off the Somali coast and ransomed for huge sums of cash.
The scourge has become a major headache for shippers facing increased insurance and security costs. Already a major Norwegian shipping firm announced that it would no longer sail through the Gulf of Aden, directing its freighters and tankers to take a circuitous route around Africa to avoid the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the oil-rich Arabian peninsula.
The move would incur "significant" extra costs, which would be passed on to customers and consumers.
"We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," Terje Storeng, the president and CEO of Bergen, Norway-based Odfjell said in a news release. "Odfjell is frustrated by the fact that governments and authorities in general seem to take a limited interest in this very serious problem."
The U.S. military said it could take only limited steps to intervene and thwart pirates. Maritime experts say international law on jurisdiction regarding pirates is murky, with naval forces clearly permitted to attack pirates only when a commercial ship is under assault.
But New Delhi has apparently taken a different approach. Last week, Indian marine commandos on a helicopter swooped in on the scene of a hijacking to fend off pirates assailing an Indian commercial ship. Two suspected pirates were killed in a shootout with British commandos defending a Danish vessel this month.
In the latest incident, New Delhi said the Tabar tried to stop a suspected pirate vessel about 300 miles southwest of the Omani city of Salalah on Tuesday evening. Instead of allowing the sailors to inspect the ship, the alleged pirates threatened to "blow up the naval warship if it closed on her," the statement said.
"Pirates could be seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers," the statement said.
The pirates opened fire, the news release said, and the Tabar, a 400-foot warship, fired back. Fire and explosions erupted on board the suspected pirate ship, possibly the result of ammunition going off, the military said.
As the boat sank, some of the pirates escaped on high-speed rafts, the news release said.
More than 90 ships have been hijacked by pirates this year off the Horn of Africa. Since it arrived in the Gulf of Aden this month, the Tabar has escorted about 35 ships through the "pirate-infested" waterway, the Indian government said.
The piracy epidemic has captured the imagination of a public enamored with the romantic image of swashbuckling seamen of yore, engaged in swordplay and barking out orders to fellow buccaneers. But experts say today's pirates are tough young criminals armed with AK-47s and dressed in camouflage.
Storeng, the chief of the Norwegian shipping company, described modern piracy as "ruthless, high-level organized crime."
Daragahi is a Times staff writer.
EPA/STR
The Indian Navy ship Tabar is shown escorting another vessel in this file photo.
India says the military vessel opened fire after coming under attack and that some of the pirates escaped on high-speed rafts as their boat sank.
Reporting from Beirut -- An Indian warship patrolling the treacherous waters off the Horn of Africa destroyed a suspected pirate ship late Tuesday, at least the second time in a week that India's armed forces have unleashed military force to combat piracy amid a surge in maritime lawlessness.
According to a news release issued today by the Indian Defense Ministry, the Tabar opened fire on a pirate ship after it came under attack Tuesday evening, leaving the burning vessel to sink. There was no mention of rescuing or capturing its crew.
According to a news release issued today by the Indian Defense Ministry, the Tabar opened fire on a pirate ship after it came under attack Tuesday evening, leaving the burning vessel to sink. There was no mention of rescuing or capturing its crew.
Along with the U.S., Russia and European nations, India is among the naval forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden, a major shipping lane between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Concern over piracy surged after audacious bandits Saturday hijacked a gigantic 1,000-foot tanker loaded with at least $100 million worth of crude oil and moored it near a pirate's haven off the coast of Somalia.
The pirates aboard the tanker, the Sirius Star, today demanded money in exchange for the $120-million ship, its crew and cargo.
"Negotiators are aboard the ship and on land," a suspected pirate calling himself Farah Abed Jameh, described as one of the bandits who hijacked the Saudi tanker, said in an audiotape aired by the Arab-language Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite news channel.
"Once they agree on the ransom, it will be taken in cash to the oil tanker," he said, without specifying an amountThe pirates aboard the tanker, the Sirius Star, today demanded money in exchange for the $120-million ship, its crew and cargo.
"Negotiators are aboard the ship and on land," a suspected pirate calling himself Farah Abed Jameh, described as one of the bandits who hijacked the Saudi tanker, said in an audiotape aired by the Arab-language Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite news channel.
On Tuesday, pirates off Somalia's coast seized an Iranian-owned and Hong Kong-flagged freighter carrying 35 metric tons of wheat and a crew of 25, a Greek freight ship with a crew of 23 and a Thai fishing boat and its crew of 16. The ships, crew and cargo are typically anchored off the Somali coast and ransomed for huge sums of cash.
The scourge has become a major headache for shippers facing increased insurance and security costs. Already a major Norwegian shipping firm announced that it would no longer sail through the Gulf of Aden, directing its freighters and tankers to take a circuitous route around Africa to avoid the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the oil-rich Arabian peninsula.
The move would incur "significant" extra costs, which would be passed on to customers and consumers.
"We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," Terje Storeng, the president and CEO of Bergen, Norway-based Odfjell said in a news release. "Odfjell is frustrated by the fact that governments and authorities in general seem to take a limited interest in this very serious problem."
The U.S. military said it could take only limited steps to intervene and thwart pirates. Maritime experts say international law on jurisdiction regarding pirates is murky, with naval forces clearly permitted to attack pirates only when a commercial ship is under assault.
But New Delhi has apparently taken a different approach. Last week, Indian marine commandos on a helicopter swooped in on the scene of a hijacking to fend off pirates assailing an Indian commercial ship. Two suspected pirates were killed in a shootout with British commandos defending a Danish vessel this month.
In the latest incident, New Delhi said the Tabar tried to stop a suspected pirate vessel about 300 miles southwest of the Omani city of Salalah on Tuesday evening. Instead of allowing the sailors to inspect the ship, the alleged pirates threatened to "blow up the naval warship if it closed on her," the statement said.
"Pirates could be seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers," the statement said.
The pirates opened fire, the news release said, and the Tabar, a 400-foot warship, fired back. Fire and explosions erupted on board the suspected pirate ship, possibly the result of ammunition going off, the military said.
As the boat sank, some of the pirates escaped on high-speed rafts, the news release said.
More than 90 ships have been hijacked by pirates this year off the Horn of Africa. Since it arrived in the Gulf of Aden this month, the Tabar has escorted about 35 ships through the "pirate-infested" waterway, the Indian government said.
The piracy epidemic has captured the imagination of a public enamored with the romantic image of swashbuckling seamen of yore, engaged in swordplay and barking out orders to fellow buccaneers. But experts say today's pirates are tough young criminals armed with AK-47s and dressed in camouflage.
Storeng, the chief of the Norwegian shipping company, described modern piracy as "ruthless, high-level organized crime."
Daragahi is a Times staff writer.
Pirates hijack Thai fishing boat off Somali coast
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Kuala Lumpur - Pirates have hijacked a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members off the coast of Somalia, bringing the number of pirate attacks in the troubled region to 95 this year, a maritime watchdog said Wednesday.
Kuala Lumpur - Pirates have hijacked a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members off the coast of Somalia, bringing the number of pirate attacks in the troubled region to 95 this year, a maritime watchdog said Wednesday.
The vessel, which was seized Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden, had made a distress call late Monday as it was being chased by pirates in two speedboats, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.
However, the phone line got cut. The Thai boat was heading for the Middle East, said Choong. He said the fate of the crew members remains unknown.
18 November 2008
Iranian-Operated Cargo Ship Hijacked Off Somali Coast
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The U.S. Navy says a cargo ship has been hijacked off the Somalia coast — the latest in a series of attacks by pirates operating out of the African country.
Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet says the 26,000-ton bulk cargo carrier was attacked Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden.
She says the ship was flying a Hong Kong flag but is operated by the Islamic Republic of IranShipping Lines.
The status of the crew or its cargo were not known. Campbell says the ship is likely heading toward an anchorage site off the Somali coast.
The ship's name or other details were not immediately known.
The wheat-loaded Delight, bound for Iran, had 25 crew members on board and was captured off the coast of Yemen, Reuters reported.
The hijacking comes just days after a Saudi oil supertanker was hijacked and anchored off a Somali port.
The ship was carrying wheat to Iran's Bandar Abbas port, Reuters cites a Chinese news agency as reporting.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Pirates seize Saudi supertanker
An undated photo of the Sirius Star tanker. (Newsis; Daewoo shipping yards via AP)
By Robert F. Worth and Mark Mcdonald
Published: November 18, 2008
Published: November 18, 2008
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia: A hijacked Saudi-owned supertanker carrying more than $100 million worth of crude oil is approaching Somali waters where it is expected to anchor so that negotiations can begin on the release of the vessel and its 25 crew, United States navy officials said Tuesday.
The vessel, the 1,080-foot Sirius Star, is the largest ship ever seized by pirates — about the size of an aircraft carrier — and was captured off the coast of Kenya.
"At this time we believe the ship is just off the Somali coast," said Commander Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, stationed in Bahrain. "We don't have a specific indication that the ship is at anchor, but if it follows the pattern of previous attacks, that's what will happen and negotiations will begin between the pirates and the owners of ship."
Although the supertanker's exact location near the Somali coast is not clear, in the past most pirates have brought hijacked vessels to a stretch of coastline between Eyl in the north to the Harradera region to the south, Campbell said in a telephone interview.
The hijacking follows a string of increasingly brazen attacks by Somali pirates in recent months, but this appeared to be the first time that pirates have seized a loaded oil tanker.
Asked about a possible naval intervention, Campbell said: "Once the attack takes place, this is a hostage situation, and there are 25 crew members on board that ship. As with any hostage situation, there has to be concern for those individuals." Negotiations with pirates have often taken weeks or even months. A Ukrainian vessel hijacked in September, loaded with tanks and other heavy weapons, is still being held at Hobyo on the Somali coast, where the ship's crew remain captives, Campbell said.
The International Maritime Bureau, the global clearinghouse for piracy reporting, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has seen a sharp increase in maritime piracy this year.
Noel Choong, head of the piracy reporting center at the bureau, said Tuesday that 88 ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Aden alone this year. And 14 hijacked ships remain in the gulf — the heavily armed hijackers still on board, with the crews, cargo and the vessels themselves being held for ransom.
"They're still at sea and still negotiating," he said, noting that as ransom payoffs have risen, pirates have raised their demands. "They know the going rate."
Only a few years ago, the average ransom was in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now payments can range from $500,000 to $2 million.
The pirates' profits are set to reach a record $50 million in 2008, Somali officials say. Shipping firms are usually prepared to pay, because the sums are low compared with the value of the ships.
The attack on the Sirius Star took place despite an increased multinational naval presence off the Somali coast, where most of the recent hijackings have taken place. The pirates, often armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, travel in speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment.
The supertanker was hijacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, navy officials said. That is far to the south of most recent attacks, suggesting that the pirates may be expanding their range in an effort to avoid the multinational naval patrols now plying the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.
"I'm stunned by the range of it," said Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference in Washington. The ship's distance from the coast was "the longest distance I've seen for any of these incidents," he said.
The vessel was headed for the United States when it was seized, Reuters reported.
Maritime experts recently have noticed a new development in the gulf — the pirates' use of "mother ships," large oceangoing trawlers carrying fleets of speedboats that are then deployed when a new prize is encountered.
"They launch these boats and they're like wild dogs," said Choong in Kuala Lumpur. "They attack the ship from the port, from starboard, from all points, shooting, scaring the captain, firing RPGs and forcing the ship to stop."
There are some countermeasures the merchant ships can use when approaching pirates are spotted. Fire-retardant foam or huge blasts of water can be sprayed from the ship to douse the would-be hijackers.
Once pirates get aboard, however, the ship is theirs, because crews on commercial vessels are rarely armed, according to Choong and other maritime experts. "They are not mentally or physically fit enough to handle weapons," he said.
Nor do many ship owners use armed contractors — seagoing mercenaries — to fight or ward off approaching pirates. Experts said crew safety and insurance liability were overriding concerns of captains and owners.
"We do not advocate this, having armed escorts on board," said Lee Yin Mui, assistant director of research at the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships at Sea. Known as ReCAAP, the 16-nation network is based in Singapore.
"Armed escorts could only escalate the situation," she said, "and perhaps trigger off heavy crossfire."
The Sirius Star is owned by Vela International, a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia-based oil giant Saudi Aramco. Its 25-member crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland, and Saudi Arabia, the United States Navy said.
Robert F. Worth reported from Jidda, Saudi Arabia, Mark McDonald reported from Hong Kong and Alan Cowell contributed from Paris
Pirates Anchor Supertanker off Somalia
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An undated photo of the Sirius Star in South Korean waters.
The Sirius Star's crew of 25, including British, Croatian, Polish, Filipino and Saudi nationals, are reported to be safe, according to Dubai-based Vela International Marine.
"Our first and foremost priority is ensuring the safety of the crew," said Vela President Salah Kaaki. "We are in communication with their families and are working toward their safe and speedy return."
The Saudi-owned vessel was seized on Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of
The incident is the latest in a series of major acts of piracy around the
The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said it was not expecting to send ships to intercept the tanker. NATO also said it would not divert any of three ships currently in the 
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, speaking during a visit to
U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet Cmdr. Jane Campbell said the tanker -- flagged in
A multinational naval force including vessels from the
The burgeoning piracy crisis has flourished in lawless
"It was attacked more than 450 nautical offshore of
Oil industry insiders say a tanker of the Sirius Star's size can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil, and the ship's operator says it is fully laden.
South Korean officials said on Sunday that armed gunmen hijacked a Japanese freighter and its 23-member crew off the coast of Somalia. The hijacking came as the Korean government was considering sending a warship to join those of other countries to combat piracy in the area.
A Russian patrol ship also thwarted an attack on a Saudi vessel.
Eleven vessels are currently being held by pirates hoping to secure ransoms for their release, according to AP. They include the MV Faina, which was hijacked along with 20 crew and a cargo of weapons and T-72 tanks.
Ninety percent of ships in the area are using a guarded corridor and there had been no hijackings inside the zone since it was set up on August 22, Danish Commodore Per Bigum Christensen told AP last week.
Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year.
Meanwhile, a Norwegian shipping firm has ordered its vessels to avoid the waters off the Horn of Africa and criticized governments for failing to curb the wave of piracy.
The decision by the maritime company Odfjell SE means its 90-plus ships will take the additional time and expense to sail around the southern tip of Africa instead of going through the Suez Canal, a shortcut for mariners for nearly a century and a half.
17 November 2008
Pirates seize Saudi tanker off African coast: US
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DUBAI (AFP) — Pirates on Monday attacked and took control of the Saudi-owned very large crude carrier Sirius Star off the east coast of Africa, a spokesman for the US Navy 5th fleet said.
"The vessel is under the pirates' control," the spokesman told AFP following a statement saying that the tanker, which is owned by Saudi Aramco, came under attack more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya.
The ship carried 25 crew members from Croatia, Britain, Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia, the statement added.
The 318,000-tonne vessel, launched earlier this year, is flagged in Liberia and operated by Vela International.
The International Maritime Bureau has reported that at least 83 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January, of which 33 were hijacked. Of those, 12 vessels and more than 200 crew were still in the hands of pirates.
Last week, the European Union started a security operation off the coast of Somalia, north of Kenya, to combat growing acts of piracy and protect ships carrying aid agency deliveries. It is the EU's first-ever naval mission.
Dubbed Operation Atlanta, the mission, endorsed by the bloc's defence ministers at talks in Brussels, is being led by Britain, with its headquarters in Northwood, near London.
Pirates are well organised in the area where Somalia's northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which an estimated 30 percent of the world's oil transits.
They operate high-powered speedboats and are heavily armed, sometimes holding ships for weeks until they are released for large ransoms paid by governments or owners.
NATO warships, along with ships and aircraft from several other nations have been deployed in the region to protect commercial shipping.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.
Hell and High Water for Filipino Seamen
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Somali Pirates Free Ship, Seize Another
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| 16 November 2008 |
Somali pirates have hijacked a chemical tanker with 23 crew members on board, soon after releasing another ship for which they received a ransom.
The South Korean foreign ministry says pirates seized theChemstar Venus and its crew of five South Koreans and 18 Filipinos off the coast of Somalia late Saturday. The ship is owned by a Japanese company. There has been no word on the condition of the crew.
The hijacking came shortly after pirates freed another Japanese-owned chemical tanker, the Stolt Valor, on Saturday. Indian officials say all crew members aboard that ship are safe, including 18 Indians, two Filipinos, a Bangladeshi and a Russian.
Officials say a ransom was paid to the pirates, who seized the ship in September.
In a separate incident, Russia's navy says its forces prevented the seizure of a Saudi-owned vessel during a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden Saturday.
Russian officials say a navy warship was guarding three cargo vessels through the Gulf when it received a distress call from the Saudi ship, Rabih. Officials say navy forces repelled the pirates, who were approaching the Saudi ship on speedboats.
International Maritime officials say at leaset 83 have been attacked off Somalia this year, with 33 of them hijacked. The pirates are currently holding about 11 ships, including a Ukrainian cargo vessel carrying 33 tanks.
Somalia's interim government is fighting a strengthening Islamist insurgency, and does not have forces to patrol its territorial waters.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
14 November 2008
Two pirates die in shoot out with Royal Navy
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Boats from British frigate encircle pirate dhow prior to shoot out in which two pirate suspects were killed
November 12, 2008
The U.K. Royal Navy looks to be taking advantage of new rules of engagement that allow it to be "more robust" in dealing with pirates. It has shot and killed two of them. Here's the official version of events from the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
HMS Cumberland whilst conducting routine Maritime Security Operations in the Gulf of Aden on November 11, had course to board a Yemeni flagged dhow, towing a skiff which they had reason to believe had been involved in an attack on the Danish-registered MV Powerful earlier in the day.
Various non-forcible methods had been used in an attempt to stop the dhow but they were unsuccessful. Sea boats were launched to circle the dhow in an attempt to encourage it to stop-- these boats were fired at from the dhow and the crews returned fire in self defense. The dhow crew subsequently surrendered and a compliant boarding followed. It was then clear that two personnel, believed to be pirates, had been shot and killed.
A Yemeni national was also found injured and later died, despite receiving emergency treatment from the ship's doctor. It is unclear whether his injuries were as a result of the firefight or a previous incident involving the pirates.
An MOD spokesman said:
"Yesterday a crew from the frigate HMS Cumberland boarded a foreign flagged dhow, believed to be Yemeni, which had been positively identified in an earlier hijacking attempt on a Danish vessel. Prior to boarding, boats launched by Cumberland to intercept the dhow were involved in an exchange of fire. Two foreign nationals, believed to be Somali pirates, were shot and killed in self defense. A Yemeni national was also found injured and later died, despite receiving emergency treatment from the ship's doctor. It is unclear whether his injuries were as a result of the firefight or a previous incident involving the pirates. As with all shooting incidents, a post shooting incident investigation is currently being conducted."
TURKISH SHIP TAKEN
In a separate incident, however, pirates succeeded in hijacking a Turkish-flag chemical carrier, the Karagol, with 14 crew aboard, 16 miles off Aden. Though another Turkish owned ship, the Yasa Neslihan, is already being held by the pirates, the Karagol is the first Turkish ship flying the national flag to be seized. It is owned by YDC Denizcilik A.S., a company in which ruling AK Party Istanbul deputy Hasan Kemal Yardimci reportedly has an interest.
From cutlass to AK-47
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The fight against piracy is a thread running through naval history
| By Angus Konstam |
The Royal Navy this week shot dead two Somali pirates after intercepting a boat in the mouth of the Red Sea. But Britain's battle against international piracy goes back a long, long way.
Anyone who thinks piracy is something from the past should really think again. Piracy never really went away. After all, piracy is nothing more than robbery on the high seas. And like any criminal activity, it thrives in places where law and order is lacking or where opportunist criminals think they can get away with it.
|  A typical piratical encounter  |
Enlarge ImageThis week the Royal Navy did its bit in the international fight against the pirates off the Horn of Africa. But the involvement of the armed forces in the suppression of piracy is hardly a new phenomenon.
As early as 67 BC, the Roman Senate decided to deal with piracy in their waters. It granted the distinguished military leader Pompey the dictatorial powers, an immense budget, and the command of over 120,000 Roman troops, supported by a fleet of 500 warships. His orders were to clear the Mediterranean of pirates - a task he achieved with spectacular speed and efficiency.
The equivalent today would be if the US government diverted half its annual budget and most of its armed forces to combat piracy on the high seas. The Romans clearly took the threat of piracy very seriously indeed.
As for the Royal Navy, its warships have conducted regular anti-piracy patrols for centuries, from the mid-17th Century until the eve of World War II. During the "Golden Age of Piracy" - 1700 to about 1725 - the main trouble spots were in the Caribbean, America's Atlantic seaboard and off the West African coast.
Infested waters
By 1718 the British government was so alarmed by the rise in pirate attacks that it ordered the Admiralty to deal with the problem.
As well as Royal Navy patrols of pirate-infested waters, ships were sent to actively hunt down the pirates in their lairs. During this anti-piracy offensive there were some spectacular successes.
|  While piracy could be contained, the problem never went away  |
In November 1718, two small vessels under the command of Lieutenant Maynard cornered the notorious pirate Blackbeard off an island in North Carolina's Outer Banks.
In the short, brutal hand-to-hand fight that followed, Blackbeard was cut down by a British sailor and Maynard returned to his base in Virginia with the pirate's grizzled head swinging from the bowsprit of his ship.
This success marked a turning point in the war against piracy. As the waters of the Americas were tamed several of the surviving pirate crews crossed the Atlantic to hunt in the safer waters of the West African coast. Inevitably, the navy followed.
Mass hanging
In February 1722, Captain Challoner Ogle, commanding HMS Swallow, captured the pirate ship Great Ranger after a two-hour sea battle fought off the coast of what is now Nigeria. Five days later he was in action again, this time fighting the celebrated pirate Bartholomew Roberts and his pirate ship Good Fortune. Ogle was lucky - "Black Bart" was cut down by the first broadside, and his crew quickly lost heart.
Captain Ogle's double victory resulted in the mass hanging of his pirate prisoners in front of Cape Coast Castle and the complete eradication of piracy in west African waters.
 This was considered a successful piece of maritime law enforcement |
This early 18th Century campaign against piracy was played out on a global stage and by its end the sea lanes were considered safe once again.
Other later anti-piracy operations were carried out on a smaller scale as fresh waves of piracy came and went. Royal Navy warships hunted down pirates off the Cuban coast during the 1820s, around Singapore in the 1830s, and in the bays and inlets around Hong Kong in the late 1840s.
By the early 19th Century piracy had become endemic in the Far East. For the best part of a 100 years pirate-hunting was one of the Royal Navy's main tasks in these dangerous waters. While piracy could be contained, the problem never went away.
The persistence of this problem was demonstrated by the Sunning affair, which the Illustrated London News of 18 December 1926 called "the most sensational instance of piracy for over twelve years".
 The fight against piracy was an international headache in the 18th and 19th Centuries |
A month earlier, some 40 pirates disguised themselves as passengers and took passage on the British streamer Sunning, bound from Shanghai to Canton. They hijacked the ship, threw four crewmen overboard, and ordered the rest to sail the steamer to a remote anchorage.
Amazingly the crew broke free, and arming themselves with revolvers they seized the bridge and held it against all-comers. Unable to recapture the bridge, the pirates set fire to the ship.
Fortunately the gunboat HMS Bluebell came to the rescue, and a boarding party was sent over. The fire was put out, the pirates captured, and the Sunning was towed to a safe port. The incident was part of a miniature pirate crime wave which plagued the Chinese coast from 1926 onwards.
To counter it the Royal Navy deployed a squadron of gunboats in Chinese waters, and spearheaded the international community's war against the pirates. The crime wave lasted until 1935, when the navy finally managed to eradicate the last of these pirates. This is almost exactly the situation facing the international maritime community today, in the waters of the Red Sea.
 Bartholomew Roberts was feared by merchants across the Atlantic |
The trouble with our view of piracy is that the word has become romanticised. It conjures up images of Jack Sparrow rather than someone wielding an AK-47. The hard-edged reality of modern piracy involves murder, kidnapping, extortion and rape.
Historically, piracy was best countered by a combination of naval patrolling and the enforcement of law and order on land. In other words, by increasing the pirates' risk of capture at sea, and by depriving them of a safe haven. The state of near anarchy in Somalia makes the job of enforcement at sea all the more important.
Fortunately the Royal Navy has had several centuries of experience dealing with crime on the high seas, and as the sailors of HMS Cumberland demonstrated this week, it still has the skills and firepower needed to cope with this new resurgence of piracy.
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