Somali Pirates Continue Harassing Shipping

Not only have they continued their attacks, but they have again attacked the Maersk Alabama, a ship that was briefly siezed by pirates earlier this year and whose captain was held hostage for several days before US Navy SEALs rescued him and killed three of four of his captors.

The Maersk Alabama repulsed the attack by firing back at the pirates.

The United States Navy Central Command said four suspected pirates in a skiff came within 300 yards of the Maersk Alabama at 6.30 a.m. Wednesday about 600 miles off the northeast coast of Somalia as it headed for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

But a security team on board the Maersk Alabama responded with small-arms fire, long-range acoustical devices painful to the human ear and evasive maneuvers to thwart the attack, the navy said in a statement.

“Due to Maersk Alabama following maritime industry’s best practices such as embarking security teams, the ship was able to prevent being successfully attacked by pirates,” said Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, the commander of the Central Command. “This is a great example of how merchant mariners can take pro-active action to prevent being attacked.”

No injuries or damage were reported, the Navy said.

That comes after a captain of a hijacked chemical tanker reportedly died of gunshot wounds inflicted when pirates seized his ship off the Seychelles Monday.

Piracy continues to be a huge problem, and ransoms are a big reason. Yesterday, the Spanish apparently paid $3.5 million to secure the release of a Spanish crew.

The pirates had threatened to kill the Spanish crew unless Spain agreed to release two pirates captured by its navy a day after the Alakrana was seized. A Spanish court on Monday indicted the two pirates for kidnapping and armed assault, charges that could allow Spain to deport them. News of the sailors' release emerged as the European Union said it would consider expanding its anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia as pirates venture further south to attack commercial vessels.

The EU's mission off the Horn of Africa will not diverge from its objectives, though officials may agree on changes, the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, told reporters after a meeting of the bloc's defence ministers in Brussels.

''If the pirates move south, we'll have to see if some adaptation can be done,'' Mr Solana said. The EU force, consisting of eight warships and four surveillance planes supplied by eight countries, has been operating off Somalia since December to protect commercial trade.

Typically, pirates press for ransoms totalling millions of dollars in return for freeing crews.

By continuing to pay ransoms, it makes attacking shipping all the more attractive to the Somali pirates and the risks are mitigated by the huge paydays.

Moreover, there continues to be evidence that the pirates are in cahoots with the Islamists who are busy trying to control Somalia and who may have affiliations with al Qaeda. Indeed, there are reports that al Qaeda has been urging the Somalis to continue their high seas terror campaign.

While there are links between the Islamists and the pirates, some believe that the clan allegiances are more important, even as they recognize the threat posed by such links.

Militant Somali Islamist groups such as Hizbul Islam and Al Shabab – who control most of southern Somalia and most of the capital city of Mogadishu – may share a hard-core Islamist ideology with the Al Qaeda militants loyal to Osama bin Laden. But the larger portion of Somali society – and certainly those who make up Somalia's business sector and even its many armed militias – make their crucial decisions based on clan rather than on religion. In a society where nearly everyone is a Muslim, blood relationships are a firmer basis than ideology for deciding whom to trust, whom to hate, whom to do business with, and whom to fight.

"While it is true that Al Qaeda has penetrated into parts of Somalia, it is another thing altogether to prove a link between piracy and Al Qaeda," says Ms. Roque. "For the pirates, it is in their interests to have money and it is in their interests to have prisoners captured by the French to be released. This is an economic decision."

Then, there's the issue of prisoner swaps - capturing crews and passengers and hoping to exchange them for pirates captured by various navies operating in the waters off Somalia.

The world navies refuse to take steps to put the piracy to an end, and that includes zero tolerance for any piracy. It means a cessation of ransoms and instead demanding the unconditional release of the captured ships and their crews/passengers.

Captured Somali Pirate Was Ringleader, Not Dupe

You don't say. Crew members of the Maersk Alabama have gone on the record saying that Wal-i-Musi (aka Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse), the Somali pirate captured by the US Navy in connection with the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips, was not merely some guy along for the ride, but was the leader of the group.

That directly contradicts claims made by his supporters yesterday.

Crew of the Maersk Alabama say he was the leader.

[ATM "Zahid"] Reza said he was steering the Maersk Alabama when it was attacked April 8.

"When I first saw him, he carried himself as the leader. He was asking for directions, how to start (the) engine, and asking for all the crew," Reza recalled of Muse.

Muse spoke in broken English, and mostly spoke to the captain, Reza said.

"He was surprised he was on a U.S. ship. He kept asking, 'You all come from America?' Then he claps and cheers and smiles," Reza said.

Reza, who immigrated to the U.S. from Bangladesh in 1999, said Muse was friendly and smiling at first.

"He was the one who was nice to us because two of the other pirates tried to shoot us and he stopped them from shooting," Reza said.

But Muse eventually lost his patience as other pirates failed to arrive, Reza said. Reza and his shipmates lured Muse into a darkened engine room.

During a noisy struggle there, Reza stabbed Muse in the hand with a knife.

Well, now we know how Muse got injured in the first place and why he was on board the USS Bainbridge when the snipers finally freed Capt. Phillips and killed three of the pirates holding him.

This is going to make it even more difficult for Ron Kuby to defend this guy. Kuby's a good lawyer, but Muse is not going to walk. He was caught literally red-handed.

Kuby's trying to torture a reading of international law claiming that the US was somehow violating a truce of warfare in high seas.

Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said he has been in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the Somali.

"I think there's a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas," said Kuby. "This man seemed to come on to the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate. He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age."

As noted yesterday, age is not a problem since it's been shown he was at least 18 years old. While Musi may have boarded under a flag of truce, his compatriots continued to threaten Capt. Phillips and the US Navy is obligated to protect the life of the American captain. The US Navy owes a pirate nothing but the business end of a gun or missile.

Somali Pirate's Jolly Adventure To New York

The United States captured a Somali pirate during the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama. The pirate, Abduhl Wal-i-Musi, was escorted back to the US to stand trial. He's now in New York standing trial on multiple charges stemming from his actions to attack the Maersk Alabama and taking the captain and crew hostage.

He was front-cuffed and chained to the agents. At first, he was stern-faced, before flashing a smile for the photographers.

His blue, rainproof jumpsuit hung baggy on his thin frame -- all in one piece, including the footies, like a child's pajamas.

He didn't answer questions.

Wal-i-Musi is expected to face a federal magistrate in Manhattan by this afternoon, according to official sources.

There, he will likely learn he faces kidnapping and other charges carrying a maximum of life in prison, the sources said.

He has a lawyer with the help of the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center, its director, Omar Jamal, said today.

Jamal says Muse, whose parents say is 16, does not speak English and is confused at his circumstances.

Wal-i-Musi was the hapless pirate in the lot -- jumped, stabbed and tied up by his would-be captives in the early moments of the attack.

He's confused at his circumstances? I'd say that he got off lucky. He's lucky he wasn't killed along with the other three pirates holding Capt. Phillips because he sought medical attention for wounds on his hand courtesy of the USS Bainbridge. He's lucky that the US has a justice system far more compassionate than the Somali pirates, who repeatedly attack shipping with the intent to collect ransoms.

What exactly is Musi confused about? He was involved in piracy. Is the Somali Justice Advocacy Center claiming that Musi didn't know that he was engaging in piracy and violating international law? Ignorance of the law is no defense. It's basic common sense that you don't go and attack ships, threaten crews with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades and other weapons, and kidnap crews to hold them ransom. Yet, Musi was in with this particular crowd. It's what they do.

UPDATE:
Apparently Musi isn't 16, but 18. The parents spoke with the judge by phone and said as much. Musi will be treated as an adult. So much for the claim that he was a juvenile.

Pirates in Waiting Game With US Navy?

The Maresk Alabama was attacked yesterday and pirates attempted to take the ship over before the American crew thwarted it. However, the pirates managed to escape, taking the captain with them. Now, a US Navy destroyer is shadowing the unpowered lifeboat with the pirates and captain on board.

The pirates took Capt. Richard Phillips as a hostage as they escaped into a lifeboat Wednesday in the first such attack on American sailors in around 200 years.

Kevin Speers, a spokesman for the ship company Maersk, said the USS Bainbridge had arrived off the Horn of Africa near where the pirates were floating near the Maersk Alabama.

"It's on the scene at this point," Speers said of the Bainbridge, adding that the lifeboat holding the pirates and the captain is out of fuel.

"The boat is dead in the water," he told AP Radio. "It's floating near the Alabama. It's my understanding that it's floating freely."

Speers said the company "is grateful" for the support it has received from the military establishment and the federal government. He also said that "the safe return of the captain is our foremost priority."

I'm sorry, but why is the Navy playing a waiting game?

Four pirates are holding Capt. Phillips.

So, what was the US ship carrying? How about food aid for starving people in Somalia, Uganda and Kenya.

Smerdon says the WFP cargo includes more than 4,000 tons of corn-soya blend for malnourished children and mothers in Somalia and Uganda and nearly 1,000 tons of vegetable oil for refugees in Kenya. Smerdon says there are many more containers of food aid belonging to the U.S. Agency for International Development and other agencies.

"We need to keep a constant pipeline of food coming both to Somalia and to other countries in the region," said Smerdon. "Otherwise, we have to cut rations and people will go hungry. Basically, this amount of food would feed hundreds of thousands of people for a month. It is only a part of the basket of food we give people in the region. But it is an important part."

The Maersk Alabama was scheduled to arrive in Kenya on April 16. But, early Wednesday, the Danish-owned, American-operated ship was seized nearly 500 kilometers off the coast of Somalia by four armed hijackers. The hijacking was the first of its kind involving an American crew in modern history.

Of course, the solution to piracy was found long ago. The US Marine Corps found its inspiration on the Shores of Tripoli fighting the Barbary pirates. Taking the fight to the home bases is the way to stop the pirates, and yet the world seems all too interested in the legalisms of the situation to realize that the world navies have always had the power to act.

It's what I've been saying for quite some time.

UPDATE:
Tigerhawk (no relation) elaborates on effective deterrence and taking the fight to the pirates. The Royal Navy and US Navy both have anti-piracy missions in their long institutional DNA, and there's no reason that both can't do the same once again.