The Somali pirates – who apparently are better at seizing ships than they are at driving them – are not intimidated by the president’s promise to suppress them:
Somali pirates fired grenades and automatic weapons at an American freighter loaded with food aid but the ship managed to escape the attack and was heading Wednesday to Kenya under U.S. Navy guard, officials said.
Despite President Barack Obama’s vow to halt their banditry and the deaths of five pirates in recent French and U.S. hostage rescue missions, brigands seized four vessels and more than 75 hostages off the Horn of Africa since Sunday’s dramatic rescue of an American freighter captain.
The Liberty Sun’s American crew was not injured in the latest attack but the vessel sustained some damage, owner Liberty Maritime Corp. said…
“We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets. Also bullets,” crewman Thomas Urbik, 26, wrote his mother in an e-mail Tuesday. “We are barricaded in the engine room and so far no one is hurt. (A) rocket penetrated the bulkhead but the hole is small. Small fire, too, but put out…”
The USS Bainbridge responded to the Liberty Sun’s call for help but the pirates had left by the time it arrived five hours later, Navy Capt. Jack Hanzlik said.
I read somewhere in the last week – I disremember where – that while those who use the sea in international commerce believe they ought to have the liberty of the sea, the pirates believe (with at least equal fervency) that they have the right to disrupt that commerce for their own gain, their “country” being bereft of either much in the way material resources or social capital, at least as it is elsewhere reckoned. Not to mention the fact that all the taxi cab driver positions in Sandy Eggo are pretty much filled, capacity being what it is, what with Our Struggling Economy.
“Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land,” Omar Dahir Idle told The Associated Press by telephone from the Somali port of Harardhere.
Which, we can play it that way too.
Although there’s talk of tipping it the 19th century and laying waste to pirate havens ashore, I don’t believe it will come to very much. Offshore bombardments with 5″ guns are all very well and good (until the damn things jam), but there’s scarcely anything ashore worth hurling a TLAM at and hosing them down with helicopter gunships sends the wrong signals pretty much everywhere. Even if we could stand the heat for what would have to be rather indiscriminate slaughter of desperately poor people of color, the pirates being all mixed in with the locals, which I don’t believe we can.
And the appetite for smoking out the rat’s nest with boots on deck cannot be very great these days. Going in heavy means replaying the Mog back in ’93, and sending small teams of operators in unsupported is probably out of the question as well – our guys don’t blend.
Oh, a punitive raid by a Marine Expeditionary Unit is probably within the limits of a do-able do, but nothing long-term can be much effected by such a limited campaign, and anyway we seemingly cannot resist the temptation of trying to fix whatever we leave broken in our wake, which is a pretty tall order in Somalia.
So, despite the fact that it’s much better to go after hornet nests than individual hornets, this will probably have to be done “from the sea,” a thing for which our Navy – God bless it, and keep it whole – is woefully under-equipped, our ships being so few and the ocean so very vast. The international merchant marine force is probably unwilling to defend itself actively, liability being such a great concern should something go awry, not to mention the reticence of foreign ports to allow permanently armed merchant ships come and go as they please.
I’ve said it before, and believe it to be true: There’s a private sector answer, to what is essentially a private sector concern. Letters of Marque, issued to private security detachments embarking from mother ships at either end of the perilous passage. Shipping companies would have to pay, but it would probably be less than they pay to Lloyd’s of London for insurance, and a great deal less than what they’d pay in ransom money should their ships be siezed. Helicopters – or even small UAVs – carrying FLIRs could be used to extend the ship’s sensor range for positive ID of RPG- and AK-carrying “fishermen” in skiffs, while a deployable, cuppola clad Ma Deuce or two ought to be dissuasive to anyone who gets inside the helo/UAV arc. Only pirates are killed rather than mouse poor civvies ashore, and merchant mariners would have to “pay to play.”
We’d still have to sort out liability for the privateers, but the issuance by Congress of Letters of Marque is constitutionally protected, and not denied the US by the Declaration of Paris, since we are not signatories.
I’m sensing a business opportunity here, is all.
Didn’t Blackwater (or Xe depending) develop an exclusively maritime ops branch?
If you need a loach pilot when you start that venture, give me a call, Lex…
Lex … Two minds with but a single thought, etc. I was thinking last evening that we should take a lesson from the past and license privateers to operate under our flag to protect our merchant ships. It was a good idea then, and it might be a good idea now.
But don’t let the Democrats know. They would want us to take Somalia in to raise so they could feel good about their generosity with other people’s money, and we know how badly that works now and has worked before.
Back when I was a kid, we used to play a game called “Keep Away.” If I recall correctly, and it has been more than 70 years, the object was to keep the enemy away from our possessions, not give them the products of our labors.
Ahh, well … plus ca change …
Marianne
Besides UAVs this whole thing–vast area to be covered, minimal scarce resources, etc.–cries out for blimps. Huge loiter time, area coverage, and relatively cheap to operate as well as effective. Efficient AND effective=Nirvana for bean-counters and warriors alike. Both and/or either armed and recce/ELINT versions would work well, IMHO. Could be used as on-scene cmdr abcc for joint ops as well. (‘Course you’d have to find an Admiral who doesn’t mind a lot of time cruising around in blimps twiddling his thumbs 99% of the time for THAT role)
Heh — Rush just mentioned Letters of Marque and Reprisal on his show…
The idea is making the rounds, it seems. Maybe some actual action will happen sometime soon.
Nah, prolly not. But at least people are talking about it in multiple places.
Re: Ltrs of Marquis.
There are some modern precedents here. The first usable field operable UAVs came from off the shelf parts from the civilian side of things. Maybe time for innovation and creative juices by the civilian ship building and wpns community unencumbered by heavy-duty govt bureaucracies.
I said some years back, and I will reiterate it, that, should a fellow have some investment money (and Lord! i wish i did for this) that he could devlo; a Maritime Security Company. My concept is to base it on the civilian vessel itself, rather than on a separate hull.
Security team housing and equipment areas could be constructed from standard steel containers and fitted onto the deck of the Merchant hiring the team. All they would require is fittings for electricity, fresh water and sewage/refuse. No one from the team would have to enter any of the ship’s compartments, etc, unless invited by the Captain of the vessel.
The Security team Module would look like any other shipping container, thus providing visual security. FLIR units could be attached to the top and operated from within, as could other sensors.
If the vessel is approached or attacked, the team could respond with whatever force the Team Leader considered appropriate to resolve the situation.
Upon reaching it’s destination, or even before entering port, while in International Waters, the modules could be lifted off, along with the Security team, and sent to a Mother Ship where they could then refit and replenish and be available for further tasking.
Anyway, that’s my idea. I wish I could line up investors
AW1Tim/
I see those long, Maine winters have given you plenty of time to ponder and/or cogitate…..you just might be dangerous….I’d better send a note to Janet..
Interesting idea…although I see some difficulty in finding the appropriate individuals/dead enders willing to be… as that wag Chuck Yeager said of the early astronauts… ” spam in a can”. Best
Easy on the “deadender” bit, Snake, AW1Tim will probably be one of the 1st volunteers to test out his own theory!
Sort of a Blackwater in the water.
I agree w/ Snake: Investors may not be as problematic as staffing.
Heck, just look for some former Jarheads to use; we already spend months at a time onboard naval vessels eating ’til we’re tired then sleeping ’till we’re hungry – how would this be any different? Just make sure they have a good gym to use…
Re: Piratical Matters
With respect, I would suggest that your host might be overthinking the issue.
The solution is to be found in yesterday’s Globe and Mail, Canada’s newspaper of record:
“Pirates have to be prosecuted in the courts of the countries whose interests are being harmed, then imprisoned in those countries’ jails – though what is to be done with them when they have served their sentence is a conundrum”.
Conundrum. Right.
You must surely know that, in the Peoples’ Socialistic Democratical Republish Place to your immediate north, the sentencing rule is “Serve a Third” (or less).
With the imminent and inevitable legalization of polygamy by the good ladies of our Supreme Court, the happy ex-pirates will quickly be reunited with all four wives and 27 children on welfare in the city of Toronto (which currently pays $40k annually for a family of four).
You in the back row. Yes you. Stop laughing. This is not a joke.
By way of illustration, a guy named Yves Lavigne confessed to 43 contract killings for the Quebec Hell’s Angels in the 1980′s. He was out on parole in seven (7) years. Since then he ain’t killed nobody what didn’t deserve it.
So this whole pirate thing is simple, right? You got to be nice to them then they be nice to you.
So we make a deal. You guys arrest the little buggers then ship them up here. We take it from there.
Thought I’d give you fellas the Canadian perspective on this stuff.
Gee, thanks a lot EDGAR, I feel SO much better now that the realities of life (such as it is/they are) in “The Great White UP” have all been ‘splained to me now….
Egads… who of thought one existed in the Great White North…clearly my kind of Canuck…a serendipitous event indeed…Best
Install a retractable razor wire fence about midway down the freeboard all around the hull. That might slow them down.
Why not deploy a CVBG to the area to quarantine the entire nation. Any vessle outside of say 6 NM from Somalia and not in the data base of legitimate shipping will be subject to sinking on sight. That should drive the liberals bat s**t.
XAIRBOSS/
I’ve been meaning to say this but kept forgetting. You know, looking at your picture here in front of me I never really realized what a TRULY HANDSOME guy you are!!
Yeah, vulnerable shipping, vast ocean, small navy. It seems to me that we were presented with this very same issue a65 years or so ago.
What ever happened to the idea of escorted convoys?
There’s activity in Djibouti that may already be pursuing this eventuality (Letters of marque). At least one Blackwater-like firm has been ramping up for over 6 months. Think aerial. Think unmanned.
Re: # 10, Convoyboy
My father and 4 of his many, many brothers volunteered in ’41. Two army, 2 airforce, 1 navy.
They were French Quebec guys, perfect English, no accent in either language.
The smart guy, the genius, was my uncle Rolland who did navy. Corvette on the Murmansk run in December; water down the stack more than once.
He was a boy of 18 and seasick for long enough to lose about 88% of his body weight. He stuck it out for the entire duration, came home a man.
My Dad was artillery, met my mother on the south coast of England in Brighton, she came over in October ’44, had me in January ’45.
The other bros did just fine; there is a striking photo of all 5 in uniform from the Montreal papers in ’41. Not all the French guys ran away and hid in the woods.
My uncle Rolland got froze and nearly drowned and my Dad got the English Rose ( and she was a beauty let me tell you; she’s 84 today)
So what I really want to know is:
Who is smarter, Navy guys or Army guys?
Excuse me; I meant # 11 Daveg.
Convoy reference reminded me of uncle Rollie and the Corvette.
Not my fault about who’s smarter but I suppose I’m banned from the site anyway.
Ain’t fair.
I have to vote for the USAF being, perhaps not a smarter or better choice, but having the wisdom to listen to his WWII ETO combat vet Father who told his middle-born: Do not join a branch of the service where you have to dig foxholes.
I inferred that digging a foxhole in frozen ground, sleeping outdoors in the middle of a rather harsh winter, with German artillery as a constant companion, was not very much fun.
Spending long periods of time at sea was not appealing to this landlubber, so, kind of limited my choices
Plus my recruiter kept all of his promises (o.k., I made that part up)
Ron Snyder/
LOL! Sounds like your Dad was in the same foxhole as mine! He once told me: “Son you haven’t lived until you’ve spent five days and six nights in a fox-hole in Germany in winter under constant arty bombardment, with two feet of snow on the ground, a freezing rain, and six inches of ice-water covering your feet!” LOL. That’s when I KNEW I was joining the AF!
That’s what Teller invented the hydrogen bomb for.
The Pirate problem is solved. Hillary just announced that she is freezing their assets.
Coco, I’m sure the pirates are headed to shore this very instant, vowing they will never go a buccaneering again. Why didn’t we think of this before?
2 words: aluminum overcast.
No need for TLAMs when you have hundreds of Vietnam era 750lb bombs in stock that are just designed to be dropped from B-52s.
And the old rule that anyone condoning terrorists is a terrorist supporter is a terrorist can easily be extended to pirates as well.
Thus the entire town that houses and supplies a pirate crew becomes a legitimate target.
I suspect you only need to hit a few towns like that, about evenly spaced around the area of operations (keep in mind that there’s no highspeed communications on the ground there) to get the message across.
Hit them all at once, one box of 4 B-52s carrying a full load of HE and incendiaries each per town.
Shouldn’t take more than a few dozen bombers, and in one night the pirate coast is no more.
And I think you can even get the Russians and Chinese to help out, they’re sure to want target practice for their Badgers which haven’t seen much use in recent years.
Food Aids are badly needed by third world countries like in Africa in Asia..~”