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Africa Comments (1)
On the left side of the homepage is a new category box titled 'b real's Africa Comments'. b real posts lots and lots of Africa news items in the comments here, mostly on the countries around the Horn. One can not find such a collection elsewhere and his work deserves a permanent link from the homepage.
There will be a new thread for Africa Comments when the older one has 50 or so comments. The newest one will always be the top one linked in that category box. Of course everyone is welcome to add relevant thoughts, news or cheers for b real in those threads.
So what are all these navies really doing around the Horn of Africa? We are told they are there to protect against piracy. Somali fishermen tell a very different story.
From b real's latest item in the older thread.
SOMALIA: Getting tough on foreign vessels to save local fishermen
NAIROBI, 2 April 2009 (IRIN) – Somalia has revoked fishing licences for foreign vessels and is planning a new law to regulate fishing in its waters, a minister told IRIN on 2 April.
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Abdullahi Sheikh Hassan, head of a fishing cooperative in the southern coastal town of Merka, told IRIN that livelihoods were being destroyed. "Fishing is the only thing we know and without it we have nothing," he said, adding that lack of support, combined with the foreign fishing vessels, was ruining fishing communities.
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Reports of crews of foreign-owned ships harassing and intimidating local fishermen had been made by Somali fishermen.
"They are not only taking our fish, but they are also stopping us from fishing," said Mohamed Abdirahman, a fisherman in Brava, 200km south of Mogadishu. "They have rammed boats and cut nets.”
He said a number of Somali fishermen were missing and presumed dead after encounters “with these big ships”.
Abdirahman said the number of foreign ships in the south had increased after they were chased from the north by pirates. He said the foreign ships were now being protected by the navies of their countries and “do whatever they want to us”.
Local fishermen go out late at night to set their nets, but discover in the morning that they have been cut or stolen. "They are no longer satisfied to take our fish, but they are forcing us to abandon fishing altogether," he said.
He claimed some of the foreign navies were treating Somali fishermen as if they were pirates and had occasionally opened fire on Somali fishing boats.
"We are forced to avoid going far and stay within sight of towns to avoid them and this means our catches are much smaller," Abdirahman said. "We are being driven out of business by foreign vessels protected by their navies. Who is protecting us? Our existence depends on the fish."
He said the international community was only "talking about the piracy problem in Somalia, but not about the destruction of our coast and our lives by these foreign ships".
We uzed to have massive catches of big fat shrimp so juicy we barbied them on the back deck in boat tie-ups at the end of the day, until the big catcher processors showed up and within just a few years, you could drag any of the old rockpiles and get hung up on their nets, get maybe only the purse half full of trash fish, they were all gone, the spots, the coons, just tiny pinks as small as your thumb nail. So we switched to gilling, we used to have massive catches of herring, the water as far as you could see milky white with the milt and fish scales, schools the size of football fields swimming under the boat, saw boats sunk their nets were so full, until the big seiners showed up with their fast shallow-bottom jimmy’s and spotter planes and scooped everything up quick. So we switched to long line but huge bottom trawlers took us out before we’d even started, sometime cutting the groundline in two or three places, so you lost all your gear in the middle and they just laughed. So we switched to pot fishing and that was good for awhile, got to see pots so full of crab we had to pry them out, one winter we loaded up on the Bering, but then the big 300-pot fleets come up from Seattle and fished everything out, all we got was octopus and sand fleas in our gear, a time or two a pot stuffed with garbage and welded shut by the mikc fukcers. The Fed fisheries head guy asked me one day hey, how’z the crab fishing going out west, like he was my friend, an’ I told him the free-for-all had played out with the Zodiacs and we was all scratching for hair crab to make our boat payments. He kinda got a shocked look on his face, and ran back to the cop shop, but they never did put on any limits, fukcin’ fish cops, so many State and Fed biologists up your ass but they wouldn’t protect the fisheries, until the shrimp was all gone, the herring was all gone, the salmon was all gone, the cod and ground fish was all gone and the crab was all gone. All gone. I bet he’s still got his fat job and his desk and his fat pension, but we lost everyting. Same everywhere that’s sold their fishing rights to the rapist foreign fleets for fat kickbacks to the fat-cat bastards running the Capitol, their fancy cars and kids going off to Harvard, scratching their balls while we scratch and nothing but Spam and Ramen noodles and Coke to eat, all the tuna and mahi that used to run in schools, all the wahoo, the parrot fish, gone long time. Long time. Then here’s the Feds and State lettin’ the sardine factory fleets scoop up our forage fish feeds the salmon and sell them off to Australia to fatten the blue fin for Japan! So we got no more salmon mow ’cause they got nothing to eat by candlefish and krill, ‘n they closed the salmon season and blames it on us fisherman, god dam them to hell, their hatcheries are pushing out the native salmon, so full of disease, but Feds say hey built more hatcheries, an’ the joke’s all the native salmon wuz wiped out by the irrigators back when the land was stole from the natives, they repopulated from hatchery stock, but the State biologists gotta claim its all native endangered sooz they keep their jobs! Everyting so fukced up now, you can’t shit but go blind.
Posted by: Barnacle Bill | Apr 4 2009 3:33 utc | 9
thanks b for kicking this off. apologies for not being able to deliver actual thread top-posts at this time. and thanks all for the interest & encouraging words. don’t hesitate to contribute to these threads.
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a couple of excerpts from ecoterra international‘s april 2nd somali marine & coastal monitor (SMCM) update
re IUU’s being protected by the int’l flotillas off the coast of somalia
The coastguard of Puntland has arrested two illegal fishing vessels. Reports speak of one Korean and one Japanese tuna vessels.
The Spanish associations of fishing vessels that target tuna in the Indian Ocean are demanding that the European bloc extend its anti-piracy operations and control zone to the south-east of Somalia for added fleet protection.
Problem is only that Spain does not respect the Somali EEZ, Spanish owned vessels have been poaching in Somali waters for years, and that many Spanish owned vessels (around 200) operate under a flag of convenience, which Spain feels not responsible to discipline.
According to the Spanish Fishing Confederation (CEPESCA), the 50 European tuna fishing vessels are taking refuge in the Mozambique channel under threat of pirate attacks, which have shifted south to areas that include Seychelles´ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
In light of the new situation, CEPESCA Secretary General Javier Garat has asked the Secretary of State for the European Union (EU), Diego Lopez Garrido, to shift the operational range of the Atalanta Operation to the south and east of Somalia, in order to protect the tuna fishing fleet besieged by pirates, who have rerouted to the south-east.
Leaders from the National Association of Freezer Tuna Vessel Owners (ANABAC) and the Big Frozen Tuna Vessels Producers Association (OPAGAC) have also sent written requests to the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs for the establishment of a secondary Atalanta Operation command centre in Mahe, Seychelles, or Mombassa, Kenya, that would bolster protection of tuna fishing vessels from Spain and the EU that operate off southern Somalia.
OPAGAC managing director Julio Moron [!!!] backed Spain´s request for the modification of protection coverage offered by the Atalanta Operation, which was launched by the EU to keep up defense maneuvers of merchant ships that cross the Gulf of Aden against pirate attacks.
“[The EU fishing fleet] is now neglected, after the displacement of the pirates to the very zone where they operate”, affirmed CEPESCA in a press release.
Meanwhile, ANABAC managing director Jose Angel Angulo emphasized that the situation for vessels has worsened in the last few weeks. Pirates followed them to the south of the equator, in the EEZ of the Seychelles, next to the Comoros Islands and in front of the coast of Kenya and Tanzania, to more than 500 nautical miles (1,000 kilometers) off the Somali coast, he explained.
The Community tuna fishing fleet – now totaling about 50 vessels – has been cut by 20 per cent over the last two years due to the threat of piracy.
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Unsustainable exploitation of marine resources in Africa´s oceans is occurring on a massive scale, causing the collapse of fisheries, the loss of critical ecosystems and the extinction of marine wildlife. A large part of the problem is unreported and illegal fishing by foreign fishing companies. It has been estimated that the market value of fish caught illegally in Africa by commercial fishing companies could be as much as $1 billion every year. Due to this gross over fishing, small scale fishing is under sever strain. The economic and social consequences for coastal communities is a major concern throughout the continent.
in the previous thread i pulled a quote from time of andrew mwangura saying that the pirate gangs were moving south on account of the increased force projection in the area. i’m guessing that time selectively quoted him on why the shift to the south is taking place. my guess would be that the answer also lies in where the tuna are at this time of year. or at least the tuna fleets.
back to puntland, on land, and recent news on the CIA & the PIS & renditions
18 members of the US-financed and masterminded Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS), established as a rather independent security outfit during the reign of former Puntland President Adde Musse, who holds a Canadian passport, were seriously injured by attacking al-Shabab fighters at Lanta Hawada in the separated north-eastern Somali region. Local witnesses reported that a US-helicopter made two flights to evacuate the wounded officers and also took one wounded al-Shabab fighter. The PIS had recently arrested over 15 foreign insurgents from Syria, Irak and other Muslim countries operating with al-Shabab. Allegedly, the captured foreigners had been handed over to US forces and their whereabouts are unknown. Earlier a Sheikh, who had returned from Kismayu in southern Somalia was also arrested by the PIS, but then let off again when al-Shabab had threatened to attack. According to local reports the vast majority of Puntlanders opposes the ungoverned activities of the PIS men in the region, who are said to get paid and supplied by a special flight from Djibouti every Tuesday in return for intelligence and counter-terrorism activities.
earlier in the week, in an interview w/ the new president of puntland, abdirahman mohamed farole, radio garowe reported
He expressed regret at the loss of life following an incident in the port city of Bossaso, where Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS) soldiers arrested a local cleric last week, sparking riots.
“Puntland security is the responsibility of security forces paid by the Puntland government. There are other security agencies, who are paid from elsewhere,” President Farole added ambiguously.
The PIS has secretive ties to Western intelligence agencies, especially the American CIA, with widespread reports indicating that PIS soldiers are paid, trained and equipped by the CIA.
President Farole said the loss of life was “unfortunate” during the Mar. 23 incident, but indicated that a committee was set up to report on the incident. Further, the arrested cleric, Sheikh Osman Shire, was transferred from the PIS over to Puntland’s local police force where he is currently under investigation.
Posted by: b real | Apr 4 2009 6:20 utc | 10
sos – “domestically-sourced”? was it? norfolk to mombasa via the port of salalah?
daily nation:
Deputy captain Shane Murphy said they freed the pirate in exchange of [captain Richard] Phillips, but the bandits stuck with him demanding fat ransom.
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Mr Philips is the first American to be held hostage by Somali pirates in recent history, and the move may add a different dimension to sea banditry in the Horn of Africa.
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Apparently, the pirates met their match in the crew. They were unaware that the Americans had trained in anti-piracy tactics at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
The academy has been training cadets for two years in these tactics in anticipation of the moment that a US vessel would be boarded by pirates.
Mr Murphy and Mr Philips are graduates of the academy. And guess who was their teacher? Murphy’s father, Joseph, an expert in anti-piracy tactics.
So even as they set out on their journey, they were well prepared for an attack by pirates.
“These waters are infested with pirates that hijack ships daily,” Mr Murphy wrote on his Facebook page recently as he sailed between Oman and Kenya. “I feel like it’s only a matter of time before my number gets called.”
Mr Murphy boarded the Maersk Alabama after delivering a lecture on fighting piracy at the academy three months ago.
hmmm. that facebook entry, which would fit into the period of the stop in djibouti, sure sounds like a ruse. “infested” and “everday” are certainly gross exaggerations coming from what one should expect of someone w/ that background.
two excerpts from ecoterra international‘s april 9 SMCM update:
re the maersk alabama
The 155-metre (511-foot) vessel had been due to dock in the Kenyan port of Mombassa on April 16. The hijacked boxship is run out of the huge merchant and naval base of Norfolk by Maersk Line Ltd., a division of Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and was carrying emergency relief to Mombassa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, but analysts wondered, since relief food is usually shipped as bulk and not by a rather expensive container-ship.
on figures for this year
For 2009 the account stands at 52 averted or abandoned attacks and 14 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as one wrongful attack by friendly fire on the side of the naval forces.
from the april 6th smcm update:
A Taiwan-flagged fishing vessel was sea-jacked this morning from the EEZ of the Seychelles, a maritime official from the Seychelles confirmed to Ecoterra. The Taiwanese vessel WIN FAR No. 161 was attacked by presumed Somali pirates and it is assumed that the vessel and her 29 crew will be taken to the Somali coast. Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for America’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, confirmed 29 hostages to AP. The actual crew list has not yet been presented. The Seychelles government said it received a distress call saying that a Taiwanese fishing vessel, the MV Winfar 161, and its 29 crew was hijacked in its exclusive economic zone, north of Denis island.
Transport Minister Joel Morgan said military forces had been deployed to intercept the pirates, amid reports that three more Taiwanese ships were trying to escape capture. The sea-jacked vessel is owned by WIN UNI MARINE from Taiwan (Island-China) – a company which operates their vessels usually under flag of convenience and as no ITF agreement, which guides the working conditions and safety. According to the Seychelles’ official the ship has a valid fishing license from the Seychelles. It is not yet known if the vessel was on its way back from fishing in Somalia, but numerous Taiwanese trawlers and long-liners have been observed in the past to venture into Somali waters and poach the high-valued tuna. The FAO proposed plan of action, whereby fishing vessels have to declare from where they caught their catch when entering a port of convenience to off-load has not yet been implemented in the region.
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The Greek fishing vessels FV GRECO 2 and FV GRECO 4 with mainly Korean crew are still under police custody at the Puntland harbour of Bossasso while further investigations are underway. These will have to clarify if fishing licenses issued for 40 tonnes of tuna for each vessel were actually legally and factually issued and were valid or not. In any case each of the vessels was found with about 450 tonnes of tuna and other marine species.
from the april 4th smcm update
the intial rpt on those two fishing vessels
Security forces in northern Somalia’s Puntland region seized two Greek fishing vessels after a gun battle on Thursday and accused them of fishing illegally in its waters. Puntland’s Security Minister Abdulahi Sa’id Samatar confirmed that the security team attacked the boats on Thursday because they believed they did not have a valid fishing license. However, the fisheries minister of the semi-autonomous Puntland region, Mohamed Saleh, first had tried to shield the illegal vessels. Abdiweli Ali, the head of the Puntland coastguard, told reporters his men had been carrying out a routine check off the Horn of Africa before one of them was injured in the shoot-out at sea. “We wanted to know the legitimacy of these two ships, but as we approached they opened fire on us”, Ali said. “We defended ourselves. One of our soldiers was injured. Their fishing licenses were expired, and that is why they fought us”. Somali authorities have long accused European fishing fleets of illegally trawling their waters — which are also roamed by pirate gangs who hijacked dozens of vessels last year. The Greek ships FV GRECO 2 and FV GRECO 4 with mainly Korean crew are now in police custody. The GRECO 2 was already arrested once before and the monitoring group on arms of the UN Security Council never received a reply on the formal request asking if a ransom was paid for her release.
Receipt of such information would enable the UN Monitoring Group to ascertain whether ransom payments were used for the purchase of weapons. These notorious fish poachers are owned and operated by the Greek company GRECO Ltd. FV GRECO 4 under PANAMA FLAG is likewise illegally in Somali waters and GRECO Ltd. operated there also the F/V ASSOS under Cambodian flag. All crew of the presently arrested vessel are said to be from Korea and under police custody on their boats.
re puntland’s role
The president of Somalia’s semiautonomous region of Puntland, Abdirahman Farole, has appointed a three-member committee to investigate a deadly incident involving a private coastguard company, Radio Garowe reports. The committee is composed of three ministers, namely: Minister for Planning Minister and International Cooperation, Mr. Farah Adan Dhala; Deputy Finance Minister Abdi Qowdan; and Dr. Abdi Hassan Jum’ale, the State Minister for Democratization Process and Federal Relations. The new committee has been tasked with reviewing licenses issued by the Ministry of Fisheries to ensure legality and to review the contract between the Puntland government and Som-Can, a private coastguard company licensed by the former administration of Gen. Adde Muse. Also under review will be Som-Can personnel, including soldiers on board its gunboats, some of whom have allegedly been accused of links to piracy. Puntland’s Ministry of Fisheries has awarded fishing licenses to foreign trawlers over the past ten years, while most times ignoring legal procedures and Somali as well as International law. In recent years, Puntland has become a major hub of pirate operations off the Somali coast, with a surge in piracy linked to illegal fishing and toxic dumping, some of which is attributed to foreign vessels with ‘licenses’ issued by the Puntland Ministry of Fisheries. Somalia’s coast is famous for fish like red snapper, barracuda, shark and tuna. As the world’s appetite for fish increases and fish stocks dwindle worldwide, Somali waters are increasingly attractive to foreign fishermen.
on the IRIN story that b highlighted in the top post & the TFG minister’s stmt about enacting legislation to protect fishermen & fish populations
Ecoterra Intl. wholeheartedly supports and accompanies this move, ending times where the international fishing mafia with impunity and by cruelly abusing the poverty of the people as well as local criminal power-structures ripped the only remaining renewable natural resource from the Somalis. The stern action is essential to revive Somalia’s plundered stocks of fish, especially of tuna and shark, as well as of rock-lobsters [someone reached in and grabbed it – it was a rock lobster!], which so far have made only the foreign fleets and a few local barons wealthy. Tuna from Somali waters is famous, because it has the lowest mercury-level of any yellow-fin tuna population worldwide. Somali fisheries – freed from criminal networks and forced sub-standard methods – have now the chance to rise to a world-class role-model for controlled, sustainable, socially just and fair-trade best practice in fisheries management and marine ecosystem protection.
The navies patrolling the Somali waters based on several UN resolutions can now no longer close their eyes and have to live up to their promises by also defending the Somali waters from illegally fishing foreign vessels within the 200nm Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Somalia. In light of the serious negative social, economic and environmental impacts of the persistent over-exploitation of marine resources of Somalia such protection by the navies is much more important than the staged escort of food-deliveries, which in any case will not be robbed, because Somalis have to deposit a bank-guarantee for any food-shipment distributed to the needy in the country before it is sent by the World Food Programme. A properly regulated fishing industry is in any case the better option to create food security for Somalia than the millions of dollars wasted by the global navies flying the false flag of humanity.
one more
The illegally fishing Iranian fish-factory vessel “SAFARI” with 14 Iranian crew on board, captured at first for illegal fishing was – after a tug of war between authorities, coastguard and businessmen had ensued – used by her captors as mother-ship for piracy targeting merchant ships. During a takeover of another hi-jacked vessel only three armed Somali guards remained on the Iranian vessel and they were subsequently overpowered by the crew. The crew of the Iranian vessel then bound the three Somalis and escaped with their ship and loot of lobster and fish to Yemen, where the three Somalis were handed over to the authorities.
Posted by: b real | Apr 10 2009 5:12 utc | 36
reuters:
The pirates are demanding $2 million for his release and a guarantee of their own safety, a pirate source said.
The source told Reuters from the Somali fishing port of Haradheere that another group who hijacked the 20,000-tonne German container vessel, the Hansa Stavanger, a week ago were heading to the scene of the standoff.
“Knowing that the Americans will not destroy this German ship and its foreign crew, they hope they can meet their friends on the lifeboat,” said the pirate, who has given reliable information in the past but asked not to be named.
The German ship was seized off south Somalia between Kenya and the Seychelles and has a crew of 24.
Officials in Washington confirmed that reinforcements were nearby. The frigate USS Halyburton, equipped with guided missiles and helicopters, and a German frigate had arrived in the area of the standoff, they said.
The USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, was also heading for the lifeboat’s general area, mainly in case its medical facilities were required.
uh huh
voa: Somali Piracy – An Overstated Threat?
While the piracy problem off the Somali coast is getting a lot of media attention, exactly how big a threat to maritime safety do the pirates pose?
John Patch is an associate professor for strategic intelligence at the US Army War College and a retired Navy surface warfare officer and career intelligence officer. He’s written an article – appearing on the US Naval Institute website – on Somali piracy. His comments are not to be taken as official US government policy.
In an interview with VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua, he says the Somali piracy problem may be overstated.
“Even with the incident of a US-flagged vessel taken, there’s quite a lot of hype involved. World opinion and sometimes US opinion as well is often driven by passion, incidents of the moment and US pride. And we’ve got to be careful about formulating policy on those kinds of things,” he says.
Do statistics support an increase in Somali piracy activity? Commander Patch says, “Are the numbers up, numbers down? That’s kind of debatable. The data behind the actual seizures is very varied. For example, if they have an approach by a small boat in the middle of the night, sometimes, with no actual piracy incident, that’s still counted as an incident…. I’m not so sure that piracy is actually escalating out of control right now. My sense is, with the naval task force in the Gulf of Aden escorting daily many, many ships with safe passages, you’ve got to compare the number of piracy incidents to the actual safe passages and you’ll see that the instances are still very low.”
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Some have suggested a very targeted military response, such as destroying the pirate mother ships or the pirate leader mansions built from ransom money. Patch advises caution there as well.
“If there was any kind of effort to move ashore, if I was making any recommendations, it would be to ensure it’s a multi-lateral approach…sanctioned by the UN. That is, very clear and specific information on what the objective is that you’re going after…. Imagine the ramifications if we hit the wrong house, the wrong village and we have 50 dead Somali civilians on our hands. That is an issue that might result in much worse situations and, frankly, a policy outcome that the US doesn’t necessarily want,” he says.
here’s patch’s article, from last december. i believe i linked to it at the time
The Overstated Threat
Armchair admirals and politicians are quick to shake their fists, avowing, “Something must be done.” Maritime industry is quick to follow, with unsettling incident accounts and dire financial projections. Yet, more informed analysis of piracy reveals that the impact in blood and treasure is altogether minimal.
Indeed, common misperceptions abound. While maritime piracy incidents capture media attention and generate international calls for action, the piracy threat is in fact overstated. It is nothing more than high-seas criminal activity, better addressed by law enforcement agencies than warships. As a localized nuisance, it should not serve to shape maritime force structure or strategy.
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The International Chamber of Commerce’s non-profit International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Center also has a relatively loose definition that allows incidents both within and outside 12 nautical miles to qualify as piracy.11 For instance, the IMB records reports of perceived small boat shadowing in high-threat areas as attempted pirate attacks, even though incident specifics are almost never confirmed. Similarly, an attempt by Greenpeace to board or thwart legal maritime activity also falls under the IMB piracy definition. Piracy data over different periods can also appear to support differing conclusions. Statistics for the past decade show a relatively consistent number of incidents per year, suggesting no increase, but a regional spike in one area can be hidden by a drop in another—Somalia versus the Strait of Malacca, for example.12 Prudent maritime analysts should scrutinize piracy reporting, data, and statistics; claims that piracy is “spiraling” are usually unsubstantiated.
A second concern with IMB reporting is possible bias. Its Piracy Reporting Center seeks to raise awareness of hotspots, detail specific attacks and consequences, and investigate piracy incidents and armed robbery at sea and in port. While a noble cause endorsed by the United Nations, the center’s raison d’etre is trumpeting the “piracy threat.” Just as well-intentioned humanitarian aid groups occasionally exaggerate the scope or intensity of a crisis for effect—to draw more international attention and resources—so, too, is the IMB vulnerable to bias. Further, the bureau is almost exclusively funded by maritime shipping companies and insurers, with vested interests in keeping piracy in the headlines.13 Profit-oriented businesses loathe implementing costly preventive measures, naturally preferring that international organizations, national law enforcement agencies, and armed forces take care of the problem instead.
The international shipping industry thus has a specific interest in exaggerating the global threat of piracy. Apparently capitalizing on the heightened 2008 media attention on Somali piracy, shipping organizations from all sides of the industry issued in September what they described as “a crisis call” to the International Maritime Organization and the UN to take “real and immediate action” to tackle piracy in Somalia, urging more nations to commit naval vessels to the area to deal with the threat.
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In its current form and scope, piracy threatens no vital U.S. national security interests. It is in no way comparable to legacy threats that shape national strategy, such as terrorism or weapons of mass destruction proliferation. Hence, it is inherently disingenuous to inflate the piracy “threat” to justify either force structure or maritime strategic underpinnings.
As such, maritime policy and strategy deliberations and crisis course of action planning efforts should consider this reality. In this context, more U.S. anti-piracy options emerge—including no military response at all. America has long championed freedom of the seas, but it is perchance time that the many flag states and private companies enjoying the benefits of the global maritime commons contribute to the costs of keeping it secure. Because the U.S. Navy lacks the resources to effectively accomplish even a fraction of its assigned missions, treating piracy for what it is—criminal activity—should lessen the demands on an already overtaxed American Fleet.
Posted by: b real | Apr 11 2009 4:33 utc | 55
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