Brazen Somali Pirates Hijack Oil Tanker In Indian Ocean Raid

The pirates who operate off the waters of Somalia have captured their biggest prize to date, an oil tanker worth $100 million.

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 Mombasa, Kenya in what Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called "an outrageous act."

The incident is the latest in a series of major acts of piracy around the Gulf of Aden that have cost the international shipping industry millions of dollars and threatened a key global trade route.

Somalia, a failed state, continues to be a major pain for everyone in the region and has worldwide implications. Islamists use the lawless regions to recruit and train new cadres of terrorists and pirates attack the soft underbelly of international trade that passes through the Red Sea on its way to the Suez Canal or from the Persian Gulf.

It's a situation that will only get worse unless and until the pirates are totally and utterly defeated.

That means putting boots on the ground to take out the safe havens from which they operate.

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.

What makes this latest attack so noteworthy is just how far away from Somalia the pirates ranged - 450 miles into the Indian Ocean. The real concern is that the pirates may be changing tactics to go after still bigger prizes, including LNG carriers, which pose a tremendous hazard should they fall into the wrong hands. A fully laden LNG carrier could blow up with the force of a small nuclear weapon.

It's all the more reason that actions must be taken to deal with the pirates operating not only out of Somalia, but those operating in the Indonesian archipelago.

The African Union has been reluctant to take action to stabilize Somalia, the UN has been worthless and keeps urging more fruitless talks, and so far the US Navy, Russian Navy and the Royal Navy have engaged in some operations to thwart pirate attacks or to rescue those ships and crews captured. Action must be taken, and this is probably the quickest and easiest area in which President-elect Barack Obama can dip his toe into foreign policy. Expect some form of multilateral action, which isn't all that different than the current policy with the exception of pressing forward with ground operations against the pirate safe havens.

UPDATE:
The US Navy reports that another ship has been hijacked by Somali pirates. This time, it's a 26,000 ton Iranian bulk cargo carrier.

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 Iran Shipping 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 ICC Commercial Crime Services tracks piracy worldwide. Their weekly updates are here.

UPDATE:
Another ship was briefly hijacked by pirates off the coast of Nigeria. They were released after 30 hours.

UPDATE:
The lede by Drudge notes that world powers claim that they're powerless to act. That's actually a quote from this story, with the relevant quote:

Somali pirates struck again yesterday, seizing an Iranian cargo ship holding 30,000 tonnes of grain, as the world’s governments and navies pronounced themselves powerless against this new threat to global trade.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the US military chief, pronounced himself stunned by the pirates’ reach after their capture of the supertanker Sirius Star and its $100 million (£70 million) cargo. Commanders from the US Fifth Fleet and from Nato warships in the area said that they would not intervene to retake the vessel.

The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, the owner of the ship, condemned the hijacking as an “outrageous act” that required international action.

These countries aren't powerless to act. They are abdicating their responsibility to act. These pirates are indeed terrorists, and there is some indication that they are perhaps middlemen for al Qaeda or other terrorist outfits.

That would fit with my contention that the failure to deal decisively with failed states and the situation in Somalia in particular is resulting a security nightmare.

The solution is to go after the pirates and stop treating this solely as a law enforcement action. The UN Treaty on the Seas has failed to dent the problems facing worldwide commerce as a result of the ongoing piracy. Articles 100 and following deal with what governments can and should do, and yet they are doing nothing of the kind.

Article 100 states as follows:

All States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State.

Well, that means not only stopping the pirates on the seas, but to go after their safe havens within the failed state of Somalia. No one is even suggesting that at this point, despite the overwhelming evidence that the pirates rely upon safe havens inside the country and that taking out these safe havens would reduce the allure of these pirates to continue their actions. An entire economy has sprung up to support the pirates, and to eliminate the piracy, one must undermine that economy as well. The pirates fund the system through the ransoms, but if the results are so distasteful for everyone down the supply chain, the pirates will lose their support.

Meanwhile, Article 105 states as follows:

On the high seas, or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State, every State may seize a pirate ship or aircraft, or a ship or aircraft taken by piracy and under the control of pirates, and arrest the persons and seize the property on board. The courts of the State which carried out the seizure may decide upon the penalties to be imposed, and may also determine the action to be taken with regard to the ships, aircraft or property, subject to the rights of third parties acting in good faith.

In other words, if the US captures pirates and their ships, US law would apply. Similarly, if the Royal Navy captures the pirates, British law applies. Yet, as the Times Online article notes, the British government passed on the men it captured to the Kenyans for prosecution.

These pirates are lucky they were not killed while engaged in their acts of violence on the high seas. For the rest of us, we're watching as the justice system grinds its wheels slowly and can't even begin to figure out how to deal with the problem in an effective manner.