U.S. Secretary of State announces plans to combat pirates.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, announced in Washington that tough measures should be taken in response to the increasing number of merchant ship seizures by Somali pirates. According to Clinton, the U.S. will start by finding and cutting off the pirates’ financing channels. Additionally, the U.S. will insist on regular meetings with other anti-pirate alliance members, in order to better coordinate their actions. Svobodnaya Pressa (SP) asked Yevgeny Satanovsky (YS), president of the Institute of Israeli and Middle East Studies, to discuss whether this plan will succeed.
SP: Is Clinton’s plan realistic?
YS: Hillary Clinton’s plans to combat piracy are just as realistic as her husband’s Middle East peace plans. In theory, they sound wonderful. But they have practically nothing to do with real life.
Unfortunately, the Democrats’ plans often get thwarted because they are disconnected from how real life actually works and what measures are necessary to seriously affect it. The plans might go over well at beautiful dinner parties in Washington or New York, and in political salons. But in the coastal waters of Somalia, discussing sanctions and property seizures is pointless.
SP: Why is it pointless?
YS: The Somali pirates’ assets are in their own hands. They don’t hold their money in banks, buy securities, or own villas abroad. These are real, classic pirates, and they can be dealt with the same way as how the British fleet handled piracy in the Caribbean Sea: “Port Royal” should be besieged, and all those pirates who weren’t shot during the capture should be hanged.
SP: Maybe one of the pirates should be won over to our side?
YS: For variety’s sake, of course you can pick a prominent pirate and make him the president of Somalia, similarly to Henry Morgan, who became the head of Jamaica as its Lieutenant Governor. Incidentally, it’s not only during the 16th and 17th centuries when such events happened to Drake and Morgan. The 20th and 21st centuries also had similar precedents (including in Russia), which were quite successful.
SP: Does that mean Clinton’s plan won’t work?
YS: All of Mrs. Clinton’s proposals for combating piracy are meaningless, although they adhere to the democratic policy guidelines, which emphasize respecting human rights. For example, under such guidelines, even if a pirate gets caught, his rights must be read to him, he must be fed delicious food for a long time until his trial, he cannot be executed, and he also cannot be handed over to a government that can take the only effective course of action and shoot or hang him. The only aspect of Clinton’s proposals that inspires at least some optimism is the cooperation with the nearby countries.
SP: Would neighboring countries’ involvement fix the situation?
YS: Of course, if countries like Eritrea, Yemen and Saudi Arabia begin to act against piracy. Especially if countries located south of Somalia (Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique) get involved as well, because the pirate fleet is operating in a very important water area, and virtually taking control of not only the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, but also part of the Indian Ocean. Then there is hope of destroying the ships and eradicating piracy.
Her other suggestions are just as relevant to combating piracy as changing the water temperature, salinity, and the magnetic declination’s gradient in the daily regime for the entire Indian Ocean. It would be very interesting, but hardly effective.
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The pirates aren’t wasting any time.
On April 14th, Somali pirates attempted to take over another U.S. ship, the Liberty Sun, which carried a cargo of humanitarian aid. The ship, which sailed under the American flag, was headed to the Kenyan port Mombasa. The pirates weren’t able to board the Liberty Sun because NATO warships (which were deployed to the Horn of Africa) came to its rescue. But due to shots from rifles and grenade launchers, the ship suffered considerable damage.
On April 8th, Somali pirates tried to hijack an American container ship, the Maersk Alabama. The crew was able to defend itself against the pirates, but the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips, was taken hostage. On April 12th, U.S. special-ops released Phillips and killed the pirates. In response to their comrades’ deaths, the pirates announced their intent to retaliate, especially against the Americans.
At the same time, following the attack on the Maersk Alabama, the U.S. announced its intent to intensify the fight against pirates. In particular, the Pentagon is reportedly considering the possibility of missile attacks on Somali pirates’ land bases. In addition, the U.S. is ready to assist the Somali authorities in training its military and coast guard.
The Liberty Sun was the third vessel attacked by pirates during the past 24 hours. Earlier on Tuesday, pirates seized the Sea Horse, a Lebanese-owned vessel, and the Greek-owned Irene EM. The Irene EM had a 22-man Filipino crew. The number of Sea Horse’s crew is not yet known.
In total, since the beginning of 2008, over 120 attacks have been recorded, 35 ships have been hijacked by pirates, and over 600 sailors have been held hostage for ransom.
the united states is into torture not shooting pirates.
the longer these pirates exist the more the industrial military complex in america can have its war with the pirates. on going continuous wars makes this industrial military complex much more in profits.
to keep this industrial military complex intact america must always be having a war with something or someone. ie war on drugs, war on terror, war on crime, war on communism, cold wars, war on pirates, etc.
few will understand my words very few.
few understand in america and in the world who controls americans politicans. very few.
to be elected in american politics it takes massive amounts of money and resources and only mega corporations and the industrial military complex have that kind of money. ie like GE
the politicans go through a it looks like we are representing the people acting drama but make no mistake they know what it takes to be reelected. $$$$$$$$$
and if wars on everything is not enough the industrial military complex in america does some nation builing for resources like in iraq for 40 years of oil reserves. ie oil contracts for mega oil companies.
we are building 67 military bases there to keep an eye on that oil we now own in iraq for our mega oil corps.
america keeps the iraqi puppet gov locked up in the green zone to protect them from their own people.
and americans believe the surge is working. americans are not the smartest worldly folks around as their world is america.
americans actually think the two party system represents them. this two party system is bought and paid for by corp lobbyists.
then they get high paying jobs after they leave wash for their loyality to these corporations during the time they were in office.