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Behind ‘Fighting Piracy’
The guy who probably knows best about piracy around Somali is Andrew Mwangura. He has been involved in many negotiations of ransom payments for captured ships. His view (h/t b real who does a great job in keeping MoA readers informed of the issue):
"Piracy can't be solved by a military solution," Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan branch of the East African
Seafarers' Association, told journalists in Nairobi. "We need to go back to the origin. Don't call them criminals … let's have dialogue, sit down and talk."
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"If you are not going to invite the local community, it is not going to work," he said. "We need to come up with a regional piracy information centre, security in Somalia and a regional action plan on illegal fishing and toxic dumping."
Fishermen began targeting ships in the early 90s, saying they were defending their coastline from illegal fishing and boats dumping toxic waste in Somali waters.
The Somali informal coast guard, aka the pirates, seem to be somewhat successful with regards to illegal fishing. David Axe is currently in Mombasa, Kenya. He writes:
Mombasa itself is safe from pirates: the distance is too great, and the Kenyan navy is out in force. But Mombasa-based shippers, mariners, shipping agents and myriad others who depend on regional sea trade have suffered greatly from the steady rise in Somali piracy in the last decade. Habib Hakem operates a deep-sea fishing company whose boats can range as far as the Somali border. But piracy has put a dent in his trade. Last year he had 60 clients. This year, just 15. He pins the decline on fishermen’s fear of kidnapping.
Habib Hakem may "suffer greatly" now that his illegal fishing business is down. But this is a great success for Somalia's informal coast guard. Others have helped. The Indian navy sunk a Thai trawler which was illegally fishing in Somali waters. They thought it was a pirate mother-ship. It was not, but from the Somali point of view, the Indians hit the right target and created a good deterrence effect .
Fighting the pirates does not make sense from an economic standpoint. Of some 20,000 ships going through the area only some 100 have been attacked this year and only some 40 were actually captured. Nobody was killed. Ransom was payed and the ships went back to the oceans.
Galrahn calculates the cost and benefit for the European Union fleet just sent to 'fight the pirates':
[T]he starting point to estimate the cost of the whole operation should be around $129 million. Other costs associated with a heightened operational tempo could increase the cost by another $20 million or more.
As of the first part of October this year, pirates have collected an estimated $30 million in ransoms in 2008.
It is cheaper to pay the toll the pirates demand, than to fight them. But the EU does not care about the cost or about piracy at all. It is happy it finally managed to launch some military action, even if senseless, without a U.S. lead. The whole idea behind this action is to prepare its population for a more military interventionist and imperial EU attitude.
The U.S. would not have that for long. It now presses for a U.N. resolution to intervene on Somali grounds:
It proposes that for a year, nations "may take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia, including in its airspace, to interdict those who are using Somali territory to plan, facilitate or undertake acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea and to otherwise prevent those activities."
That is carte blache for anyone to kill Somalis. The AP is not shy about the U.S. motive:
Without committing more U.S. Navy ships, the Bush administration wants to tap into what officials see as a growing enthusiasm in Europe and elsewhere for more effective coordinated action against the Somali pirates.
Read: The U.S. wants to use the EU as a proxy force to press its own imperial designs on the Horn of Africa.
The pirates are a nuisance, not a danger to world commerce. They have a grievance that pushes them into the business. If one intends to solve the problem helping Somalis to keep foreign illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping away from their coast would be the best approach.
But no one but the pirates themselves seems to have that intention at all. World powers simply use the issue to press their various designs to snap up African resources.
from a reuters article thursday
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 (Reuters) – The ranks of Somalia’s army and police have been gutted as most soldiers and police officers have deserted, often taking their weapons and vehicles, according to a new U.N. Security Council report.
The chairman of the council’s Monitoring Group on Somalia said on Thursday that this was one of the main sources of weapons and ammunition in Somalia, along with illegal imports from Yemen and purchases of arms for opposition groups with funds from various domestic and foreign financiers.
There has been “an 80 percent erosion and attrition in the (interim government’s) security sector, by which over 15,000 soldiers and police had deserted or defected along with their arms, uniforms, skills and vehicles in some cases,” South Africa’s U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo told the council.
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In a four-page summary of the monitoring group’s biannual report for the council, Kumalo also said his committee had observed a “steady disintegration” of the government since he gave the group’s last report to the Security Council in May.
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On the topic of piracy, [Kumalo] described it as a “multimillion dollar industry, with a total of 1,000-1,500 pirates employed, using over 60 small boats and mother ships.”
He added that pirates were invoking “legitimate Somali grievances regarding foreign exploitation of marine resources and degradation of the marine environment, thus gaining community support.” He was referring to illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping in Somali waters.
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Regarding allegations of complicity between Puntland officials and pirates, he said the regional authorities’ steps against the menace were “selective” and that “senior government officials had been so compromised that these measures would be of little consequence.”
though the new rpt is not posted there at this moment, the monitoring group’s archived rpt are found here
el mundo had a bit more on that u.n. rpt & some comments from the conference in kenya as part of their interview w/ puntland’s muse
Northern Somali leader urges more resources to combat piracy
Gen Mahmud Muse Hirsi has no qualms about acknowledging the scant capabilities of his administration. “We haven`t been able to pay the military personnel for the last six months. And do you know how much they earn a month? Fifty dollars (around 40 euros). How do you want us to fight the pirates like that?”, says the president of the Somali territory of Puntland from behind his bulky dark glasses.
The economic logic is overwhelming. In contrast to the hypothetical 40 euros a month, the experts estimate that a pirate earns between 5,000 and 8,000 euros per hijacking. The territory of Puntland, a state which proclaimed itself independent from Somalia in 1998, has a budget of around 8m. The pirates have obtained between 25 and 40m this year.
Based on these premises, the “president” of this territory, where the Somali gangs which operate in the Indian Ocean and in the Gulf of Aden work, acknowledged in an interview with this daily yesterday the “enormous difficulties” his troops face against a network of increasingly well-equipped militiamen.
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Although the leader of Puntland avoids the question, the experts present at this gathering agree that among the new recruits who have joined the raiders on the Horn of Africa is, as a matter of fact, an indeterminate number of ex-members of the coastguard service of that rebel region who were trained by a firm from the United Kingdom between 1999 and 2002. It just so happens that at that time the leader of Puntland was none other than Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad, the current president of Somalia, who the international community supports.
“In 2005, there were only 300 armed pirates. Today there are 1,500 and the majority have been recruited from among the ranks of the coastguards, which means they have extensive maritime knowledge”, explains one local specialist in piracy who did not wish to be identified – an assertion which the region`s coastguard director himself, Abdiweli Ali Tar, corroborates. “It`s true, the majority are ex-coastguards, but also former policemen and soldiers. No-one was paying them, so they went with the pirates”.
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A report written by military staff and specialists under the auspices of the United Nations to which El Mundo had access confirmed that Puntland – whose independence has not been recognized by any international body – has not only “become the epicentre of piracy”, but also that it “has penetrated all levels of society, including the government. There are several ministers from Puntland who are suspected of engaging in piracy”.
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The supremacy of the pirates is such that for the first time they have begun to operate beyond the division of clans which has marked the recent history of Somalia. “That had never happened. The Faina (the Ukrainian cargo ship carrying some 30 tanks hijacked on 25 September) is controlled by three different gangs. Between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the ships held are in the hands of members of intermingled clans”, said the same expert quoted previously.
The conference on piracy has also confirmed the spectacular rise in the amount of the ransoms, which went from around 50,000 euros at the beginning of the 1990s to a minimum of 800,000 at present.
The business has been structured in such a way that, according to the document drawn up by military personnel and piracy specialists, the criminals now divide up the bounty with a certain entrepreneurial spirit: “Twenty per cent for the bosses, another 20 per cent for future missions (purchase of weapons, fuel and food), 30 per cent for the armed men and another 30 per cent for the members of the government”, reads the United Nations-sponsored text.
an AP story from wednesday quotes michael weinstein & ties the diaspora into one faction of the hijackings
Somali piracy backed by international network
The dramatic spike in piracy in African waters this year is backed by an international network mostly of Somali expatriates from the Horn of Africa to as far as North America, who offer funds, equipment and information in exchange for a cut of the ransoms, according to researchers, officials and members of the racket. With help from the network, Somali pirates have brought in at least $30 million in ransom so far this year.
“The Somali diaspora all around the world now have taken to this business enterprise,” said Michael Weinstein, a Somalia expert at Purdue University in Indiana. He likened the racket to “syndicates where you buy shares, so to speak, and you get a cut of the ransom.”
Weinstein said his interviews with ransom negotiators and Somalis indicate the piracy phenomenon has reached Canada, which is home to 200,000 Somalis.
John S. Burnett, a London-based author working on a book about hijackings off the Somali coast, said there is no doubt Somali pirates are part of “transnational crime syndicates.” He said information from sources, including people involved in ransom negotiations and payouts, indicates the money goes as far as Canada and capitals in Europe.
“Places like Eyl are getting only a portion of the millions in ransom being siphoned off,” he said. “The Somali diaspora is huge.”
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The pirates acknowledge using foreign help.
“All I can tell you is we have people in Nairobi, Djibouti, we have people in Dubai and many other countries,” said Gamase Hassan Said, a pirate in Eyl speaking by telephone.
Aden Yusuf, another pirate in Eyl, told The AP that foreigners in Dubai, Nairobi, Djibouti and elsewhere help pirates get sophisticated equipment, such as money-counting machines seen at foreign exchange bureaus, in exchange for a cut of the ransom.
Roger Middleton, an expert on East Africa at Chatham House think tank in London, said ransoms in the past have been “channeled to expatriate Somalis around the world.” But pirates appear to be opting for direct cash payouts more often now — bypassing even the hawala tranfer system — because of concerns about scrutiny by governments, he said. In one instance at the beginning of this year, he said, the pirates wanted the money delivered through the Gulf but nobody was prepared to take it.
“That may be an indication that the (UAE) government was stepping up pressure,” said Middleton, whose information comes from private security firms and people party to hostage negotiations.
let’s not go through the whole hawala fiasco again
Posted by: b real | Dec 12 2008 5:44 utc | 9
newsweek: Q&A: Somali Pirate Explains How To Steal Ships
NEWSWEEK’s Rod Nordland interviewed Shamun Indhabur, who is thought to be the leader of the pirates who took the Faina, and the Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker with $100 million worth of oil aboard. The interview was conducted by satellite telephone to the bridge of the Faina, through Somali translator Abukar al-Badri.
on capturing the mv faina
When we intercepted the ship and saw the shipment [of arms], then we thought it was going to Somalia and belonged to the Ethiopians [whose army is supporting the transitional government in Somalia], but the captain told us that it was going to South Africa. Then later we saw that it was going to southern Sudan, after we forced the captain to show us the manifests.
newsweek: What’s the situation on board the Faina now?
shamun indhabur: The middlemen tried to steal some of the money we agreed on [estimated at more than $3 million]. And now we can’t trust them. They’re trying to take the money, and we are the criminals. We can’t accept that.
hmm. if there was any legitimacy to the earlier reported claims by the cia-affiliated michele ballarin of being a negotiator dealing w/ these two ships….
..the European Union is sending an additional naval force. Are you worried about the increased naval presence?
We know the EU and NATO forces are coming, but that is not the solution. The solution is to restore peace in Somalia so that we can have a better life and more job opportunities. I can tell you that sending forces will not stop us going into piracy. They can arrest us if they find us out at sea, they’ve arrested our friends several times, but that will never deter us from this business. The only thing that can stop piracy is a strong government in Somalia.
The most friendly forces in Somali waters are the U.S. forces. They arrest us and release us, because they know we are not going to hurt them. But the French and the Indians treat us badly and sometimes they don’t know what they’re doing. The Indians sunk that Thai boat [a fishing vessel reportedly taken over by pirates this month] and said it was pirates, but I tell you there was not a single pirate on that boat.
the quip re the u.s. brings to mind that article by the british reporter, aidan hartley, who wrote
in recent months I have heard repeated allegations that US Navy ships have enjoyed friendly relations with pirates off Puntland.
In one story, pirates were invited aboard a US Navy ship for a cup of coffee and a smoke, while the Americans showed gang members national flags of ships that should be left alone.
wrapping the newsweek interview
How are the Somali pirates organized? Do you all coordinate your actions?
The pirates belong to different groups, but we have umbrella groups. There are two main groups, one in Puntland and the other in south and central Somalia, which is my group. I am a member of the seven top committee members in south and central. We are a group of men with norms and terms, and we respect them.
The pirates holding the Sirius Star have threatened to dump its oil if their demands are not met. Is that a serious threat, and do they realize how much damage that could do not only to Somalia but other countries as well?
Those holding the Sirius Star and the MV Faina I’m aboard now, we are the same group. And we know the risk of spilling the oil shipment. But when evil is the only solution, you do evil. That is why we are doing piracy. I know it is evil, but it is a solution.
there is quite a bit of useful information on the different groups in the u.n. monitoring group on somalia’s dec 10 rpt which can be accessed from the second link in #9 above
Posted by: b real | Dec 19 2008 6:13 utc | 26
not sure what’s actually been said, but al jazeera is running a story that quotes a fighter supposedly from al shabaab making some wild boasts that couldn’t come at more opportune time, for the u.s. that is!
Somali fighters warn Western powers
In Marka, just 90km from the capital Mogadishu, Ibrahim Almaqdis, one of the fighters, told Al Jazeera: “We wish to tell Bush and our opponents our real intentions.
“We will establish Islamic rule from Alaska and Chile to South Africa, Japan, Russia, the Solomon Islands and all the way to Iceland, be warned, we are coming.”
the story also quotes abu mansur.. well, actually here’s how the article announces him
“We are fighting to lift the burden of oppression and colonialism from our country … We are defending ourselves against enemies who attacked us,” Abu Mansoor, the leader of al-Shabab, said.
abu mansur is not “the leader of al-shabab”. he is the chief spokesperson for al shabaab and is also commander of forces in two regions – bay & bakool.
AJ is disseminating, at the least, misinformation on this.
and there’s a related article they have up —
Somali fighters undeterred — intended to provide a bit more depth on al shabaab which states
Little is known about the al-Shabaab but it is considered to be a well-organised, hierarchical organisation that really means business
contrast that to the dec 10 u.n. monitoring group on somalia assessment (linked earlier)
Shabaab military organization is collective, decentralized and fluid, leaving considerable autonomy with local commanders. As a result, regional commands appear to operate independently of one another, and there is often evidence of friction between them.
now that’s more in line w/ what one would expect from a guerrilla mvmt
again, maybe abu mansur & a fighter did make some reckless stmts to the press – it’s certainly happened before. however, the AJ staff are themselves irresponsible in trying to conflate any such stmts w/ the whole of the mvmt.
Posted by: b real | Dec 19 2008 21:02 utc | 27
following yusuf’s resignation, the “UN Political Office for Somalia”, commonly known as UNPOS — which is pretty much on-the-mark when you interchange that other common usage of ‘POS’ (i.e., ‘piece of …’) — has a press release all ready to go, entitled UN Special Representative for Somalia: “A new page of Somalia history is now open”.
ould-abdallah & his supporters obviously consider this “new page” a chance to spin the situation in somalia to their advantage
UN Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, said in response to the President’s decision that “a new page of Somalia history is now open.
“Indeed President Yusuf has taken his courageous decision on his own and in total independence. I have no doubt that members of his family, his friends and allies support this decision,” Mr. Ould-Abdallah said.
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“I am very pleased by the organized manner in which the President has resigned.”
i harbor no sentiment for yusuf, however “courageous decision on his own” is quite a stretch considering the report linked earlier of the pressure put on him by jendayi frazer’s option of war crimes prosecution under the ICC if he chose not to resign
the push now will be to make it look like the djibouti agreement has legs, scapegoating yusuf as the core obstacle
reality on the ground, however, will be a bit tougher to swallow
also today, jeffrey gettleman subtly crafts the NYT coverage to support the “new page”, largely through omission of the key actors in booting yusuf
Resignation of Somalia’s president offers opportunity
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalia’s combative former warlord of a president who has been widely blamed for his country’s deepening crisis, resigned Monday, casting Somalia into a deeper political abyss, but at the same time possibly creating an opportunity.
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His exit will most likely kick off an intense, clan-based scramble for his post, which in reality has become increasingly irrelevant as the government has veered toward collapse. Somalia’s transitional government controls only a few city blocks, and it has been continuously beset by poisonous infighting.
Earlier this month, Yusuf, who has been president since 2004, tried to dismiss Somalia’s prime minister, but the Parliament refused. Several of Somalia’s neighbors, including Kenya, then threatened to impose sanctions on Yusuf and his family, accusing him of being an obstacle to peace.
“including kenya” is literally correct, but why no mention of ethiopia’s lead on this? ethiopia is the primary foreign agent involved in the entire affair – the TFG is essentially ran by ethiopia, yusuf was their guy for the longest time, the sanctions clause originated out of addis ababa, and it has been the ENDF keeping the TFG alive in those “few city blocks” it controls. kenya is a bit player in this. but why also no mention of jendayi frazer’s meeting w/ yusuf last monday?
also in gettleman’s article
Over the weekend, fighting broke out between moderate and radical factions in the first obvious sign of tensions within Somalia’s Islamist community.
On Sunday, a powerful, newly militarized Islamist group declared a “holy war” against the more militant Islamist factions, and it seems to have the muscle to back up its threats. The group, the Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama, killed more than 10 fighters from a rival Islamist faction that was known as one of Somalia’s toughest in fighting over the weekend.
The group called on its followers to “prepare themselves for jihad against these heretic groups,” referring to some of the more hard-line factions and “to restore stability and harmony in Somalia and achieve a genuine government of national unity.”
Many analysts had been predicting exactly this would happen: that as Somalia’s transitional government disintegrated, the Islamist insurgents of varying agendas would begin to slug it out themselves.
saying this is the “first obvious sign of tensions” is a ridiculous stmt unless one is completely new to the topic. there have been obvious rifts of all sorts w/i the opposition, from the ideological to numerous firefights over the past two years
rather, what “first obvious” may refer to is the payoff from the rumored “awakenening council” operations which i have pointed out previously, where attempts were being made to recruit militias to engage al shabaab in support of the compromised wing of the ARS, which has now reportedly joined forces w/ forces from the TFG to provide protection for the govt inside mogadishu
Posted by: b real | Dec 29 2008 20:07 utc | 53
an example of scapegoating yusuf, taking advantage of the “new page”
bloomberg article on yusuf’s presidency mentions some content from the december 10th u.n. monitoring group on somalia (MGS)
Somalia’s government was also plagued by corruption and mismanagement and currently controls only parts of Mogadishu and the southern town of Baidoa. A printing press for producing Somali shillings was kept inside the compound of Yusuf’s presidential palace in Mogadishu, according to a report released by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia this month.
The report cited a senior official from Somalia’s central bank saying the bank had no control over the printing press, and noted that the central bank and Finance Ministry “appear to exist in name only.”
The same report found that a $32 million donation from Saudi Arabia for a 2007 peace conference in Somalia had been misappropriated by Yusuf’s office.
i’ve linked articles earlier in the year on the widely-reported counterfeiting that was going on in puntland. the TFG & puntland regimes were trying to make bank there for a little while. there was a crackdown by some mullahs, resulting in a truckload of phony shillings set ablaze. haven’t seen any reports on counterfeiting in the media there since, though i wouldn’t be surprised that it continues on in some scale.
here’s what the MGS rpt says about stories of a printing press in the presidential compound
198. For example, a senior official of the Central Bank of Somalia interviewed by the Monitoring Group stated that a printing press for Somali Shillings, with no links to the Central Bank, is kept at the compound of the President of the [TFG] — a claim that the Monitoring Group has heard independently corroborated by several sources.
now if the TFG had a printing press to print all the money they wanted, how is it there were so many problems paying out salaries to TFG security personnel, which has been an oft-cited reason for their high rates of defection and/or looting of the bakara market, selling weapons & uniforms in the markets, setting up protection rackets, etc…? could be that the press was there, however it was made basically worthless since the local businesses would refuse to launder their phony paper.
on the $32 million donation, the MGS rpt also had a short case study on that money which the previous PM gedi raised for one of the bogus national reconciliation conferences. it accounts for total expenditures of $3,665,000 related to military spending, which it finds in violation of the u.n. arms embargo (and the rpt essentially acknowledges that everything going on inside somalia falls into that category) and leaves it at that, w/ no mention of accounting for the remaining $28,335,000 million. this is quite clear in the paragraphs of that case study which state:
202. In February 2008, the Monitoring Group wrote to the Somali Office of the President, which had authorized the expenditures, seeking clarification of the documents, which appeared to represent violations of the embargo.
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203. The attempts of the Monitoring Group to obtain additional information from Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and current Minister of Finance Mohamed Ibrahim Habsade have also been futile. In addition, efforts by the Embassy of Saudi Arabia to obtain further clarification on the outlined military expenses by the [TFG] authorities have not borne any results. In the absence of information to the contrary, the Monitoring Group has no choice but to conclude, on the basis of the prima facie evidence, that the Office of the [TFG] President authorized the misappropriation of a significant portion of the Saudi donation for Somali reconciliation, in a manner intended to either openly violate or circumvent the arms embargo.
yet the bloomberg article misleadingly that
The same report found that a $32 million donation from Saudi Arabia for a 2007 peace conference in Somalia had been misappropriated by Yusuf’s office
if you remember back to the days of the previous PM gedi’s rifts w/ the president yusuf, there were multiple reports that gedi pocketed the majority of that money for himself & the u.s. allowed him to walk w/ it if that’s what it took to get him to resign so that they could get nur adde into office in his place.
one example of that reporting at the time was this feb 9, 2008 special report by steve bloomfield in the independent, which told readers
President Yusuf and his prime minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, never really got on. The final straw was a row over a donation of $32m Saudi Arabia made to the government for a national reconciliation conference. Gedi kept most of the money for himself. Frustrated by the impasse, the Americans took control. Gedi was summoned to Addis Ababa where he spent two days locked in meetings with US and Ethiopian officials.
In return for stepping down, Gedi was given asylum in the United States and was allowed to keep the remains of the Saudi money.
a little different story on the money than bloomberg presents
Posted by: b real | Dec 30 2008 6:15 utc | 57
itar-tass: Faina ship seized by pirates has enough food, running out of fuel
Somalia pirates that seized the Faina M/V want to negotiate with the ship owner, not with a British law firm it has appointed as its representative, Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin editor-in-chief Mikhail Voitenko said earlier after a telephone talk with the editor-in-chief of a website of the biggest Somalia community abroad.
“As far as the Faina is concerned, I was told there is water and food, but fuel supplies are running out. The physical condition of the crew is satisfactory, but they are depressed morally, and the pirates are trying to pep them up,” he said. “The pirates can’t wait to leave the Faina. They are tired of it just as it is of them. And I was also told that the ideal solution for the pirates is to bring the money aboard the ship,” Voitenko said. The Faina carrying weapons has set a record in terms of “entanglement and confusion in the talks on release,” he noted. “Such confusion surrounds only the Faina,” Voitenko said, adding that “a large amount of time has been spent to remove obstacles in the talks.”
December 25 was three months since the seizure of the ship. The company Waterlux, the owner of the Faina asked US businesswoman, Michelle Lynn Ballarin, who is also known among Somali pirates as Amira, to stop interfering in the talks on the release of the ship and its crew.
The company appealed to US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor to interfere and help.
actually, the letter was addressed to the POTUS – see #46 on previous screen
so you’d think the state dept would be clued in on it – right? i mean, ambassador taylor would pass that info right on to his superiors, and since it specifically addressed the president…
well, the state dept spokesman is playing dumb
DoS daily press briefing from dec 23rd
QUESTION: Somalia? Pirates? Looks like there is a new twist in this saga of the high-jacked Ukrainian Vessel, MV Faina. There are numerous press reports stating a certain U.S. businesswoman, a CEO of the private security company Select Armor, whose name is Ballarin, I believe, is trying to negotiate with the pirates. The owner of the vessel, of the MV Faina, published an open letter to U.S. Ambassador in Kyiv yesterday, asking U.S. Government to interfere, because they say that her efforts basically undermine the process of trying to release the vessel. Anything on that? Where are you – what are you going to do in this situation? Have you seen this letter?
MR. MCCORMACK: I’m not – yeah, I’m not aware of these particular efforts.
QUESTION: Is she somehow representing the U.S. Government?
MR. MCCORMACK: Not to my knowledge. Not to my knowledge, no.
QUESTION: Well, are you going to do anything about it?
MR. MCCORMACK: I’m not sure that it’s within our purview to do anything about it. I’m sure we’ll take a look at it. I’m not aware of the reports that you refer to.
and speaking of taking a look at it — not necessarily the faina, though it is owned by an israeli national — thought this was interesting, but not unusual when you can look at the google map views to see we’re all being watched from space
Pirates Are Being Watched from Space
Disjoined attempts of different countries aimed at curbing pirates do not yield desired effect though up-to-date techniques of satellite imagery of Earth from space allow receiving remotely detailed information on activities and infrastructure of pirate groups.
Thus, the Israeli company-operator ImageSat International N.V. utilized highly-detailed small satellite EROS B to receive a series of images with spatial resolution of up to 0.7 m featuring the area offshore Somalia where vessels seized by pirates are clearly seen.
The company ImageSat Int. provided ScanEx RDC with satellite images showing villages and bases of pirates on the coast of Somalia, moorings of their speedboats and motorboats.
The capabilities of the up-to-date EROS B satellite hardware allow detection of the entire infrastructure of the Somali pirates. But the situation with the pirates reflects the paradox of our times: enormous technical capabilities are not utilized for finding solutions to regional political and economic issues.
the entire infrastructure? who you trying to fool, fool? your customers or yourselves?
also of interest, dr. muhammad shamsaddin megalommatis’ latest posting on the faina & related HOA piracy news @ american chronicle (h/t for the DoS link btw) expands a bit on israel’s interests in watching over the red sea region
Somalia perches on the most important maritime channels in the world. Through this passageway passes Arab oil on its way to European and American markets. It is also a relatively inexpensive route for the shipment of Western industrial products to Asia and Africa. The maritime channel has special strategic significance for Washington and Israel. For the former, it serves as the vital link between the US’s Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and its Fifth Fleet stationed off the coast of Bahrain and its Seventh Fleet in the Indian Ocean. Tel Aviv, meanwhile, has not forgotten that Egypt together with Yemen closed the Bab Al-Mandeb upon the outbreak of the 1973 October War, which came as an additional blow to Israeli and international shipping with the closure of the Suez Canal following the Israeli occupation of Sinai in 1967. Israel has been pressing for the internationalisation of the Red Sea. With its ships no longer confined to a narrow lane as they pass to and from the port of Eilat, it would have much greater maneuverability in those waters as well as the opportunity to secure supply lines for its naval units. There is no overstating what a military advantage this would bring to the Hebrew state and what a threat this would pose to Arab national security.
Because the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden are integrally connected with the Bab Al-Mandeb, the Red Sea and, some would add, the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aqaba, those powers are keen to see immediate results in these vitally strategic waters. Indeed, the Western drive to form an international naval force in the Red Sea is, perhaps, the most salient proof that the internationalisation of the Red Sea is coming and only waiting for the Western powers and Israel to reach an accommodation over their shares of the pie.
[more…]
Posted by: b real | Dec 31 2008 5:31 utc | 61
US envoy-designee to UN skeptical of Somalia force
WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – The proposed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations voiced strong skepticism on Thursday over the merits of a U.N. peacekeeping force in Somalia and said the incoming Obama administration would closely examine the plan.
Earlier this week, the outgoing Bush administration circulated a draft Security Council resolution that would firm up a plan to deploy a U.N. peacekeeping force in war-torn Somalia to replace an existing African Union force.
That plan, which African countries have long been calling for, has been supported by outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but U.N. officials and some Security Council members have objected the situation is too dangerous.
the general consensus is that there is no peace to keep. for one, there has been no real peace agreement between the actual parties to the conflict, and the djibouti agreement has once again been shown to be worth nothing more than the paper it was written on.
“This (Somalia) is an enormously difficult and important challenge that the international community faces,” Susan Rice said at a Senate committee hearing to confirm her designation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Asked by Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, whether she thought a proposed U.N. force had any merits, Rice said such a move would have to be very carefully weighed.
“I am skeptical too, about the wisdom of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia at this time,” said Rice, who is no relation to the outgoing secretary of state.
ethiopian troops have abandoned their bases inside mogadishu, turning over confiscated weapons caches to TFG security forces (how many are left?), which is most likely in violation of the arms embargo
various insurgent forces have moved in to take over the police stations and secure neighborhoods. these include forces loyal to the ARS-djibouti faction, the ICU, and al shabaab. while the western media is reiterating the talking points concerning a power “vacuum” in the city — for instance, a cnn headline reads “‘Terror group’ joins Somali capital takeover” — so far everything is proceeding relatively smoothly, according to somali media.
even the u.n.’s IRIN media service acknowledge such
Meanwhile, the last Ethiopian troops left the Somali capital on 15 January. “There are no Ethiopian soldiers in Mogadishu today [15 January],” said Abdi Haji Gobdon, the government spokesman. “They left peacefully and there were no major incidents.”
A local journalist told IRIN there had been no clashes among the various insurgent groups and between them and government forces, as many had expected.
“Up to now, the much talked-about fighting between Somali groups has not happened and many residents are holding their breath and praying that things stay the way they are,” he added.
this should be good news for most people, and it was hardly unexpected, but apparently it’s not going down well w/ at least one puppet of addis ababa
Mogadishu governor says ‘Djibouti peace deal was disrupted’
MOGADISHU (Sh. M. Network)-The newly elected governor of Banadir region, Mohamed Osman Ali (Dhagah tuur) has held a press conference in Mogadishu and said that the Djibouti peace deal has been disrupted by what he called unknown groups on Thursday.
Mr. Dhagah-tuur, Mayor of Mogadishu and governor of Banadir region has said in the press conference he held in his home in Mogadishu that the Djibouti agreement has failed adding that unknown groups those were not part of the Djibouti peace deal have taken control of the Somali capital Mogadishu.
“The promise was to replace the vacated bases of the Ethiopian troops to a joint forces of AU peace keeping (AMISOM), ARS and TFG but it did not happen so far.,”Dhagah-tuur said.
Mr. Dhagah-tuur has lastly requested from the international community to interfere the current problems of Somalia so as to keep the security and reiterated that unfamiliar groups have seized the capital and bases where the Ethiopian troops moved.
The statement of the governor Mr. Dhagah-tuur comes by a time Islamist forces loyal to the United Islamic Courts took over the control most of the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Posted by: b real | Jan 15 2009 21:45 utc | 99
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