The New Pirates: Modern Global Piracy From Somalia to the South China Sea by Andrew Palmer

Author:Andrew Palmer [Palmer, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, International, African, Criminology, Social Science, Political Science, World, Political Freedom, Business & Economics, Security (National & International), Terrorism, General
ISBN: 9780857734938
Google: Y6SmDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 41090496
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE USE OF INTELLIGENCE BY SOMALI PIRATES

The idea that Somali pirates use intelligence to the degree suggested above is not mere speculation. In addition to the statements by Interpol, referred to above, there are other reports that indicate that this is the reality for contemporary pirate operations. Somali piracy is no longer, if it ever was, based on the activities of a few fishermen attacking foreign vessels just off their coast. Somali pirate groups are long-range hunters, looking for specific types of prey. One of the more interesting indications of how things may work was a report from Cadena Ser in Spain, quoted by the Guardian newspaper in London. The Spanish journalist who filed the story told AFP that it was based on a military report from a European country. While there is no way to confirm for certain that the story is correct, it is worth consideration.

According to the report from Cadena Ser, at least one of the four or five major Somali pirate groups has London-based ‘consultants’, who provide intelligence to help them choose their targets. It was also claimed that the hijacking of at least three vessels – the Turkish freighter Karagöl, the Greek cargo ship Titan and Spanish tuna trawler Felipe Ruano – took place after tipoffs from this London-based network of informers and that in each case the pirates had full knowledge of the cargo, ports of call, nationality and course of the vessel. Andrew Mwangura, who heads the East African’s Seafarer’s Assistance Programme, in Mombasa, Kenya, was quoted as saying, ‘…  for many [other] ships, the negotiations involve people in London’.53 The Guardian article also describes how the Karagöl, a Turkish chemical tanker, was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, and taken to Somalia, where it was held for two months while ransom negotiations were concluded. It claims that the ship had been singled out as a target by London-based informers who gave the attackers, who had spent several days practising the assault, details of its layout, route and cargo.

Haldun Dincel, general manager of Turkey’s Yardimci shipping company, who was the company’s negotiator with the pirates, said: ‘They made regular calls from the ship to London’,54 and other centres, using satellite phones, once the ship was moored off the Somali coast. Dincel added that ‘Every day the chief of the pirates got in touch with people from London, Dubai and some from the Yemen.’55 The report also pointed out that the national flag of the vessel is taken into account when choosing a target. Some of the negotiators that Dincel dealt with had lived in the United States, and one had a US college degree; in other words some of the people involved in piracy are educated men.

When Graeme Gibbon-Brooks of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Ltd was interviewed he confirmed that ‘We have heard [about] this a lot. It strikes me as plausible. They are getting more sophisticated because they are funded by criminal gangs from outside of Somalia.’56 He warned, however, that while pirates might

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