OT - Piracy

[Abbott Shaull]

Hmmmm, if you get caught in the act of piracy and the navy double taps you, then capital punishment can be said to have worked, at least in your case!

On the other hand, there is no doubt that the Somalia pirates are doing this for two reasons:

First, the conditions in Somalia, with the complete breakdown of any sort of government, and the loss of all infrastructure is creating the conditions that encourage piracy. Until the various governments get off their collective fat asses and come up with meaningful assistance, the situation will simply get worse.

Second, the Somalia pirates have discovered the great weakness of the developed nations, the lack of will to do anything to resolve the problem. The "put a bandaid on it and forget about it" approach fails to protect the innocent, punish the guilty and put a final end to the problem. Until something is done to help Somalia, then the piracy patrols will continue, more innocent lives will be lost and another generation of pirates will be created.

Based on what I'm seeing on the boob-tube and reading in the various papers and journals....I just don't see any drive on the part of the various political parties to do anything other than bad mouth each other, come up with creative new ways to tax the people, and develop even more creative ways to spend tax revenue on, shall we say, rather brain-dead projects

As I pointed out the my original reply it takes care of the immediate situation, and I have to totally agree with the rest of your post...

[Abbott Shaull]

Another aspect of this is that the pirates themselves have generally treated any hostages very well, including supplying familiar foods for them if they are European and so on. The Somali's understand well enough that if they treat the hostages well then some shipping company with a big fat wallet will suck up the insurance premium and have their insurance company pay the ransom to get their people back.
If the Somali's treat the hostages like shit or kill a few of them, the pirates figure the rest of the world is likely to start sending in some special forces to give them a kick in the bollocks. It also means that the general public might start putting pressure on the various governments to actually do something serious about the piracy.

You have hit the head of the nail. They have realize as long as they treat relatively humanely and not needlessly, they will be allowed to keep on with their piracy. So it business as normal, they know once they start carelessly killing people public opinion will turn against them, and their will be more people out their willing to kill them instead of giving up their ship, and wait for the ransom to be paid. Not only that if they start killing people needlessly, then things will be done to help Somali properly and many of the crews will no longer be so willing to go out. So they need to keep things civilized to keep status quo.

[Abbott Shaull]

I've always felt that a combination of air strikes against the pirates' lair and special operations raids might do the trick. The only thing that's going to work at this point is to kill the pirates and destroy their support infrastructure -- ruthlessly.

Paul there so much a part of me that wants to scream, 'Right on!'

The main thing one has to remember is Somali is failed State. With that said, doing air strike and special operation raids will only give them a wild card, and really they have shown they will used it in the past.

Ironically it has taken away of the piracy that still continues in some of the Pacific Sea lanes and they are much more vicious. Just amazing the stories the Insurance Companies want to make public. At least with this option the cargo and for the most part the people are making it to there final destination. Where as out in the Pacific the stuff usually ends up on the black market.

Just some thoughts.

[Legbreaker]

And you can bet the insurance companies aren't just bending over and taking it. Those payouts get repaid to them with interest through higher premiums to all. The transport companies pass on the higher costs to the consumer - that's you and me people!

No wonder the price of living continues to climb....

[Adm.Lee]

Anyways - this problem has some similarities to the pirates of the barbay coast and all that I will let some the Yanks educate me on that if any are willing.

Nah, not really; I was just reading on that. The Barbary Pirates were sailing under the flags of various Barbary princes (the Sultan of Morocco, Bey/Dey of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli). These princes would demand tribute payments (money and sometimes ships) from other countries, or else they would declare war. Interestingly, the accepted form for declaring war would be to chop down the nation's flagpole at its consulate. Then his ships (naval and privateers) would seize all the merchant ships they could, imprisoning the crews until a new tributary treaty was made.

Normally, a country would pay up as a cost of doing business in the Mediterranean. Sending a squadron of warships along with the negotiators would be a useful way to decrease the payment demanded.

The Barbary Wars, as sometimes known here, took place when Tripoli started one of these wars, and the USA didn't want to pay. We did end up paying some money, but not for tribute, just to get back the crew of the USS Philadelphia. In the meantime, the Navy bombarded the city a few times, captured some of the privateers and instigated a revolt that captured the city of Derna.

So, that meant that there was a legally recognized power behind the "pirates"-- really privateers-- and that there was someone to negotiate with, who could stop the raiders. I don't see that in Somalia. As I understand it, there are pirate bosses with their own militias, but there are so many that a country (or group of countries) can't shut off the pirates by talking to any one of them. They are more like crime bosses than princes. You would need to take control of all of their ports, and then find real jobs for all of the ex-fishermen who turned pirate when their fishing grounds were wiped out.

[headquarters]

agreed

The various princes as you say , were considered bonafide soveriegns - at least to some extent- by other nations.They also hade the mantle of privateers and thus some sort of legitimacy. (Abolished in the 1850s I think)

I was thinking more of the whole pirates capturing ship and crews and demanding ransom aspect.

I would be surprised if there isnt already secret dealings taking place between pirate lords and shipping reps about tribute/protection as we speak...

As for the fine line between a crime boss and a prince .. I think the local powers that be in the pirate areas of Somalia are closely connected to whatever warlord or other is currently considered the head honcho there. If not indeed they are the same guys. The stream of money would see to that. Revenuesources arent exactly plentiful there.

If the situation is allowed to continue ( and it likely will), there might develop cartels in Somalia that institutionalize the piracy and thus making negotations more similar to what you describe the Barbary coast privateers were like. But in the current confused situations I guess you are right that you cant buy your way out - even if I am thinking that there are attempts made.

As for piracy in General, I have been interested in the subject for years. Apparently only a small percentile is reported.Filing a report means delays and cost increases making most grab and run jobs on the water a relatively safe business.(At least that used to be the situation in the Pacific and South Atlantic until recently).

Nah, not really; I was just reading on that. The Barbary Pirates were sailing under the flags of various Barbary princes (the Sultan of Morocco, Bey/Dey of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli). These princes would demand tribute payments (money and sometimes ships) from other countries, or else they would declare war. Interestingly, the accepted form for declaring war would be to chop down the nation's flagpole at its consulate. Then his ships (naval and privateers) would seize all the merchant ships they could, imprisoning the crews until a new tributary treaty was made.

Normally, a country would pay up as a cost of doing business in the Mediterranean. Sending a squadron of warships along with the negotiators would be a useful way to decrease the payment demanded.

The Barbary Wars, as sometimes known here, took place when Tripoli started one of these wars, and the USA didn't want to pay. We did end up paying some money, but not for tribute, just to get back the crew of the USS Philadelphia. In the meantime, the Navy bombarded the city a few times, captured some of the privateers and instigated a revolt that captured the city of Derna.

So, that meant that there was a legally recognized power behind the "pirates"-- really privateers-- and that there was someone to negotiate with, who could stop the raiders. I don't see that in Somalia. As I understand it, there are pirate bosses with their own militias, but there are so many that a country (or group of countries) can't shut off the pirates by talking to any one of them. They are more like crime bosses than princes. You would need to take control of all of their ports, and then find real jobs for all of the ex-fishermen who turned pirate when their fishing grounds were wiped out.

[Abbott Shaull]

Yeah lot of it went unreported, for as far as it could be left unreported. Same with at times the various other cargoes that go missing from time to time. For exactly the reason as mention about insurance goes up so by default the customer final price does too.