Is there a racial, cultural or religious bias to reporting on piracy?

One of the downsides to my work looking into global piracy and presenting it to the public is the negative feedback I sometimes receive. It's an occupational hazard of putting yourself out there, that those who disagree with your perspectives will rant back, usually anonymously.

For the most part the haranguing comments I receive are quickly delegated to the trash bin, owing to the often ill-informed nature they present. (Advice to my critics: slow down, take a deep breath, and compose your thoughts. Bad punctuation and grammar, run-on sentences and the random use of CAPITALIZATION undermine anything you have to say.)

At any rate, I do give these missives some thoughts, even before deleting. I recently received one that was surprisingly well-written. Here's what was emailed to me:

"'Terror' on the seas? How subtle. It must irk you some, when your intellectual contortions to flatly blame piracy on Islam are contested so aptly in real media sources. What is your background, anyway? Maybe we can find a source for your obsession with attributing the worlds ills to black people. I mean muslims."

That I am blaming all the world's ills on black people is an odd sentiment, but there you go. As for piracy, it is not confined to Africa, not by a long stretch. And as anyone who has followed my postings here should know, I have never blamed piracy on Islam. Indeed, I have not even blamed it on the Somali people (see my post from last month, for instance). Islam has absolutely nothing to do with the pirates operating from Somalia, Indonesia or Nigeria, or anywhere else where there is an Islamic community. The Muslim mariners I have met in East Africa who have been held hostage by pirates were not given any reprieve because of their religion. The Malaysian fishermen I spent time with in the Strait of Malacca endure endless attacks from Indonesians who share their faith.

Pirates care little whether one is Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist. Be they Asian, African or American, these brigands are criminals who prey on the weak, whether that is foreigners or their own people. Religion? It is unimportant.

The only bias that I bring to my work is that of my concern for the plight of those affected by piracy. This includes mariners of many faiths and cultures, as well as ordinary people ashore in various nations.

Another busy weekend for Somali pirates

There were a number of incidents in the seas off East Africa the past few days, including the hijacking of a European-owned bulk carrier and a UAE-owned cargo ship, both on Saturday. (There is some confusion about the bulker ownership, with sources like the BBC reporting it to be British-owned, while AFP says it is Greek-owned with a British shipping agent. Fairplay reports today that it is British. The crew are all Ukranian and the vessel was seized some 250 n.m. southwest of the Seychelles.)

On Sunday, French naval forces captured 11 suspected pirates in waters about halfway between Kenya and the Seychelles, seizing a 10-metre long vessel - probably a mother ship - and two smaller skiffs. According to Fairplay, "further treatment of the suspects is yet to be decided."

Finally, a South Korean warship came to the aid of a North Korean freighter that was being stalked by pirates in the gulf of Aden. The Times Online says that snipers in a South Korean naval helicopter helped scare off the attackers, a remarkably rare event when you consider that the two Koreas are still technically at war with one another. (This brings to mind an incident back in November of 2007, when a US Navy destroyer responded to a distress call from another North Korean vessel that had been boarded by pirates.)

It's interesting to note the activity in the waters around the Seychelles, an area of sea that is not a prone to the summer monsoon winds that plague the northern part of the region. Might Somali pirates be thinking of shifting more of their operations into this part of the Indian Ocean in the coming months, to avoid any weather-influenced disruptions?

Meanwhile, the naval elements currently patrolling the western side of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden look to be extending and augmenting their missions. Canada has announced that HMCS Winnipeg will be staying in the region until early June as part of the frigate's commitment to Standing NATO Maritime Group One. And a Greek frigate has arrived to join with the European Union Naval Force ATALANTA. That force now comprises 8 frigates, a patrol boat and two support vessels from spain, Germany, France, Italy and Greece.

Photos below are of HMCS Winnipeg and are from the DND Combat Camera team. Take a look at the last one, in particular. It gives you an excellent view of a pirate skiff and their boarding gear.

HMCS Winnipeg in the Indian Ocean
(photo: Warrant Officer Carole Morissette, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)

Canadians rarely forget the hockey playoffs, even when patrolling the Gulf of Aden

(photo: Warrant Officer Carole Morissette, CF Combat Camera)

Pirate skiff, Gulf of Aden, April 18, 2009
(photo: MCorporal David Tillotson, Air Detachment HMCS Winnipeg, CF Combat Camera)

Terrorist threat may be growing in Somalia

Various media outlets like MSNBC are carrying an AP report that has a number of informed sources saying there is evidence that Islamist militants are filtering into Somalia from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan and elsewhere in southwest Asia. The head of Africa Command, U.S. general William "Kip" Ward, tells AP that, "There is a level of activity that is troubling, disturbing," adding that, "When you have these vast spaces that are just not governed it provides a haven for support activities, for training to occur."

The number of foreign fighters who may now be in East Africa is thought to total just two or three dozen, but their arrival could herald the start of a new facet in the global war on terror. The idea that Somalia could become the new Afghanistan in East Africa, so to speak, has been discussed for some time. However, as the BBC's Rob Watson wrote last May, there are a number of fundamental differences between the two countries, not the least of which is the opposition that many Somalis have to extremist Islamist groups like al-Shabaab, as well as to foreign fighters arriving there.

Nevertheless, al-Shabaab appears willing to work with outsiders, such as al-Qaeda, in order to further their efforts to gain political control over larger parts of Somalia. If the news that foreign fighters are already in the country are true, this certainly adds another layer of complexity to the threats that Somalia poses to us.

Ordinary Somalis turning against pirates?

The Christian Science Monitor and the BBC are reporting that some Somalis have formed vigilante groups to fight back against pirates in the northeastern part of the country. It is claimed that 12 individuals and two boats have been taken by the vigilantes, who are angered by the activities of pirates in their waters. It is possible that the suspects could face the death penalty if convicted by the local authorities.

Actions like this should be a reminder that not every Somali is a pirate or a pirate supporter. Far from it. Pirates have had a dire impact on the people living there, intercepting aid shipments and deflecting international attention from the plight of the ordinary Somalis.

But, more importantly, this should help to put to rest the myth that is making the rounds, the one that says pirates are trying to protect the fishery and the defend the ability of Somalis to make a living from the sea. As I've said before, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing off the Somali coast is an issue, absolutely, as is the dumping of toxic waste. However, the idea that pirates are some sort of Robin Hoods is baseless. With the weaponry they have used in attacks on vessels, these pirates could easily have protected their own fishermen had that really been of interest to the criminals. You don't attack UN World Food Programme-chartered ships if you're protecting your own people. You don't capture families on yachts. And you don't target cruise ships.

None if this has anything to do with "protecting" the Somali people. It is a lie that needs to be refuted, not supported.

Russian navy captures 29 suspected pirates

Well, it must be somewhat crowded aboard the Russian navy destroyer Admiral Panteleyev tonight. AFP reports that the warship's crew captured 29 suspected pirates off the Somali coast earlier today, along with seven Kalashnikovs, a number of handguns and equipment that included satellite navigation devices. No word on what the Russians will do with the suspects, but this is biggest group ever apprehended.

Meanwhile, a Russian tanker was attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Monday afternoon. According to the Moscow Times, the crew of NS Commander - 23 Russian nationals - repulsed two attempts by pirates to board their vessel, using fire hoses against automatic weapons and RPGs.

Further south in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles took custody of nine pirates suspected of attacking the cruise liner Melody the other day. They had been apprehended by a Spanish frigate.

Note on the Admiral Panteleyev: The name of the warship is sometimes given as Panteleev or other variations, the discrepancies arising from the translation from Cyrillic to English. The vessel is an anti-submarine destroyer laid down in the early 1990s (Udaloy-class). This class is sometimes mistakenly referred to as frigates, because the class project was designated "frigate bird" by the Soviets.

Armed guards help repel attack on Italian cruise ship

Word is that the Italian liner MSC Melody, with about 1500 passengers and crew aboard, was attacked by pirates earlier today while sailing in the Indian Ocean off east Africa. The vessel's captain told the BBC that liner was sailing about 180 miles north of the Seychelles when a skiff approached with six pirates aboard. They fired, in his words, some 200 rounds at the ship in an attempt to stop her. The Telegraph reports that Israeli security guards hired by the liner's owners apparently opened fire on the pirates and helped repulse the attack. The Melody was on a cruise from Durban, South Africa, to Genoa, Italy, at the time of the attack. No one aboard was reportedly hurt in the incident, and the liner is en route to Aqaba, in Jordan, escorted by a Spanish warship.

Meanwhile, a German merchant ship was seized by another group of pirates and, in a third incident, a Yemeni oil tanker was also captured, though two of the attackers were reportedly killed as Yemeni Coast Guard personnel fought with them.

The discussions about putting armed guards aboard vessels has just gotten more serious.

Terrorism and piracy in Somalia

The US Naval Institute blog has a piece from last week pondering the connections between pirates operating in the seas off Somalia and the potential that it is funding extremist groups, something I've talked about before here. The author, Galrahn, talks about recent comments attributed to an al-Qaeda supporter, Sa’id Ali Jabir Al Khathim Al Shihri (aka Abu Sufian al-Azdi), calling upon Somali 'jihadists' to attack foreigners - he calls them crusaders - in the seas off East Africa. (Shihri was incarcerated in Guantanamo for six years before being sent back to Saudi Arabia last year, only to reappear spouting these purported comments.)

Galrahn wonders if the rise in pirate incidents off Somalia last autumn could be tied to the efforts of Somali Islamists - namely al-Shabaab - to hook up with al-Qaeda, efforts which began at about the same time. It's an interesting perspective, though I would offer that most of the pirates who may allied with al-Shabaab operate in the southern part of the country, not within the Gulf of Aden (GoA) region. Most of the folks in Somaliland and Puntland, the two areas in the north that abut the GoA, appear to have little desire to see Islamist rule imposed along the lines of that al-Shabaab espouses. And the upsurge of pirate incidents that came in August and September may also be attributed to the end of the summer monsoon season, a period over the the summer months in which those seas become somewhat rough and see many pirates take a breather from attacking in their small craft.

EagleSpeak has commented a number of times about the influence of weather patterns in the seas of the Horn of Africa on pirate attacks in those waters. And it's certainly true that we see patterns where attacks go down when the weather turns rough. This is one reason we're seeing so much activity off Somalia right now, because the pirates are trying to 'harvest' as much as they can before the monsoon winds begins to blow in a couple of months.

Nevertheless, I still think that we need to be vigilant about the threat of piracy funding extremist groups. Somalia has the potential to become the Afghanistan of Africa, something that few desire to see occur.