What I Read Last Week: Trolls, Pirates, Wine Wars, $100 a Paris, Kidnapping and Arab Baptists

The Agency
Wow. Just wow.  This article reads like a twilight zone political thriller.  Incredible reporting that delves into the quasi-state Russian sponsored global troll/pseudo-news network.  This will blow your mind a little bit.

My 977 days held hostage by Somali pirates
Mandatory reading.  An unfathomable account of a kidnapped journalist tale of survival amidst Somali pirates--and an interesting thought piece on paying ransoms.

The Wrath of Grapes A band of upstart winemakers is trying to redefine what California wine should taste like — and enraging America’s most famous oenophile in the process.
Who knew that the wine world got down like this...

A $1000 Day in Paris for $100
Love me some Paris insider information.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: My Father’s Kidnapping
One of the best writers today tells the heart-breaking tale of her father's kidnapping in Nigeria.   It's one of those pieces that sticks with you and can you give the reader more insight into a country than 20 pieces of political analysis.  Adiche fails to mention, HOWEVER, that she and her father are dual-citizens (US and Nigeria) and she leaves out just who helped get her father back--a glaring omission.

One church’s sunset means a new day for another
An Egyptian Arab Baptist revival in the Bible belt--a fascinating piece.  I'd be curious to get more background on the Arab Baptists--are they all Muslim converts or are some Coptic Christian Baptist crossovers?

WIRLW Archive:

What I Read Last Week: Pizza in Somalia, Stretching in Your Office, The Trust of the Uniform and Choked Out in Joburg
What I Read Last Week: $30 Aluminum Foil, Blind EOD Swimmer, Powerpoints, Jet Lag, Mother Tongues and Retro Afghanistan
What I Read this Week: Thanks for the service, Introvert survival guide and Pivoting a L'Afrique
What I Read Last Week: Leaving the Navy,

Counter-PIracy HAS been effective in the Horn of Africa

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Counter-Piracy HAS been effective in the Horn of Africa

This post contains my speaking notes and bibliography for a recent debate in which I had to argue that counter-piracy HAS been effective in the Horn of Africa.  We won.  



Below is a spreadsheet I built using data from the Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS).

S. Afrcia & Mozambique Join Forces to Fight Piracy...but are still on the MMOWGLI Wait-List

S. Afrcia & Mozambique Join Forces to Fight Piracy...but are still on the MMOWGLI Wait-List

This is good news and a good article.  My favorite thing though is the way in which the BBC UK website is set up:  further information/opinions/ideas on piracy in the region are available at the bottom of the article--very convenient!

If you are curious about the waitlist comment or about MMWOGLI in general you can read my previous posts (links below).

Links:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13628132

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/06/mmowgli-anti-somali-piracy-online-game.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/05/navy-calls-on-gamers-to-unite-to-defeat.html
http://portal.mmowgli.nps.edu/game-blog
http://www.nps.edu/Video/Portal/Video.aspx?enc=bzbNwhJuw27QU9mHw6rTdVgNSsiDnjiE

Counter Piracy Contact Group Minutes

If you click the title of this blog post, you can go to see the full article.  Here are some 'highlights' from the report.

"It is critical that ship owners and operators implement Best Management Practices to discourage attacks and prevent boardings. It is an appropriate step for participating states to consider taking action on the issue of seafarers in captivity."

Counter Piracy Contact Group Confronts Maritime Crime in the Horn of Africa

Fact Sheet

Office of the Spokesman

Washington, DC

March 25, 2011

_______________________________

The United States joined more than 60 nations and international organizations at the United Nations in New York on March 21, 2011, for a meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia.

In a communiqué following the meeting, the Contact Group called for a renewed international commitment to combating piracy, both at sea and on land in Somalia, through robust and integrated military, law enforcement, and development activities. Among their recommendations, the Contact Group called for:

*     Reinforcing international naval patrols in response to more aggressive and widespread pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean and providing sufficient military capability to sustain counter piracy operations.

*     Expanding the capacity of the international community to prosecute suspected pirates captured at sea, as well as their leaders and financiers, through national prosecutions and innovative additional mechanisms, including the development and sharing of information to counter enabling networks providing arms, equipment, and funding to pirate gangs.

*     Intensifying implementation of a full range of industry-developed self-protection measures by ship owners and operators to prevent pirate attacks and safeguard merchant mariners.

*     Strengthening the capacity of Somalia and other countries in the region to combat piracy on their own, in particular through contributions to the UN Trust Fund Supporting Initiatives of States Countering Piracy off the Coast of Somalia.

"On behalf of the United Nations, the Department of Political Affairs addressed the CGPCS plenary and emphasized the importance of fighting piracy simultaneously on three fronts: deterrence; security and the rule of law; and development."

"The CGPCS noted that the lack of sufficient facilities for incarceration of convicted pirates was one of the most acute issues to be addressed in order to ensure an increased number of prosecutions, including in the region."

"Moving forward, an intersessional working group will address further implementation of BMPs by nations with the potential use of the International Ship and Port Facility (ISPS) Code, the International Safety Management (ISM) Code, or other mechanisms. In recognition of further use of armed and unarmed security teams as part vessel defense, a second intersessional group of interested states and NGOs will address the consequences of the use of those teams with a view to examining the feasibility of elaborating guidelines. Conceptual papers will be developed to form the basis of discussion by each of the intersessional groups."

Why did Somali pirates kill four American yachters?

       The Christian Science asks this question and I think it's a good one to examine in that it leads to further important questions? 


What are our gaps in intel and information regarding the structure and organization of the Somali pirate network (gangs)? 

How much communication goes on between the gangs/warlords benefitting from the piracy? 


Was the murder of the 4 yachters a purposeful departure from their modus operandi (i.e. their established business model)?  It is my opinion that it wasn't.  The business model is simply too lucrative.  And the idea of a 'revenge' campaign presupposes that those financing (the warlord, businessmen and gang leaders) care about the welfare of the pirates.  They don't.  They care about the money.  In all likelihood, these murders were an isolated incident by nervous hothead pirates, not a concerted effort by warring gangs to band together (suddenly) to poke America in the eyes.   


I have posted links to a few articles below and included key quotes from those articles on which I have commented. 

SOMALIA: Inside a pirate network IRIN News

"I agreed to engage in piracy because we wanted to get back at the illegal foreign vessels that were fishing in our waters, denying us a livelihood. We targeted foreign cargo vessels for that reason."   This may seem like rhetoric to many in the western community, but a vast majority of the pirates sincerely believe (or believed) this.  And in startk contrast to most Americans, the vast majority of those within the continent of Africa are apathetic (if not sympathetic) toward these Somali pirates. 


"I, as do most pirates, consider myself as having been performing the duties of a coastguard. We usually work in groups of seven to 10 people. Often, our missions are financed by individuals and businessmen who collect half of the ransoms paid."  These pirates are victims in this sense.  They have no other prospects and are taken advantage of by the gang leaders and in some cases, businessmen. 
"Omar*, another of the jailed pirates, added: "Piracy has become booming business in Puntland territories; we receive the fuel and logistics from local business people. For example, when a kidnapped vessel pays ransom, 50 percent of it is taken by the people who invested their money; the pirates only get 50 percent."  These speaks to a need to go after the source!


"The ransom they pay is somehow a punishment for their illegal activity in the Somali water, especially in the era without government," one of the pirates said.  This illegal activity is not fictional.  It's a big deal.  Africa loses $1 BILLION every year due to illegal fishing!  I have written about it here on numerous occassions:
Why Fish if the New Cocaine
CNO Dishes on Fish
One Video Show Why Illegal Fishing is Killing Africa
Deputy AU Chairperson on Maritime Threats to Africa






Somali pirates tell their side TRN News

"they tell the same story, which is they were all fishermen in the beginning, in the '90s, when foreign fishing ships that took advantage of the lack of a government in Somalia to come and illegally fish off of their waters. And so their little Somali skiffs, fishing skiffs, would bump into huge fishing nets that these foreign trawlers would be using to fish. And there was reports of overfishing—and some of this is quite well documented—overfishing, and even some allegations of illegal dumping of waste. So the pirates basically believe that they are ad hoc coast guard in some ways."  This quotes highlights illegal dumping, a hugely underreported issue and one whose importance to those living in Africa cannot be overstated.  Illegal dumping is a HUGE deal!


"you talked about money awash in Kenya, ransom money, and a lot of this is the pirates' money...So you have a very large Somali diaspora in Kenya, and they excel at this sort of Islamic interest-free money transfer."  The mechanics of the money transfer is one of the 'sources' at which we must attack to stop piracy.

U.S. Says Somali Pirates Are Dodging Navies, Operating Near India Coast Bloomberg News

"The U.S. said Somali pirates, who have taken at least $100 million in ransom from hijacked ships over the past two years, are operating as far away as India as they dodge more than 20 naval vessels deployed to hunt them. "  73% of Somali population lives on $2 a day.  2008 per capita income is $600. 

"Battling pirates at sea will not put an end to their attacks, Hopkins said. “Although the most visible face of piracy is on the seas, piracy needs to be combated and will only be defeated on land,” Donna Hopkins (U.S. State Department’s counter- piracy coordinator) said."  Amen, and I would add, not just in Somalia.

"Somalia’s pirate network, by contrast, is “a business operation that does not appear to have any political motivation,” Hopkins said."  I still belive it is a business and the recent murders were a departure from this business model.

Money Laundering for Somali Pirates is Good Business

"The sea pirates use the financial hub of Dubai and Somalia’s southern neighbour Kenya as key transit points to launder the millions of dollars in ransom money by organised and wealthy gangs."  Kenya and Dubai, two great places to start if you want to stop piracy. 

“Reportedly, Kenya’s financial system may be laundering over 100 million dollars each, including an undetermined amount of narcotics proceeds and Somali piracy related funds,” it said."  Again, it's all about the benjamins.
"
“As long as piracy is so lucrative, with ransom payments adding up to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars, and other economic incentives so bleak, the incentives are obvious,” he said."  I would add that its worth investigating the insurance companies role in all of this.  They are obviously complicit and making money off of this. 

Who are Somalia's pirates?

"Today's pirates are mainly fighters for Somalia's many warlord factions, who have fought each other for control of the country since the collapse of the Siad Barre government in 1991."

"Whom do they work for? The pirates mainly work for themselves."  To be more clear, they do have a loose hierarchy but more likely work as part of decentralized (in comparison to our military) networks.

"The money seems to be distributed by warlords to their families and friends, and then further outward toward their fellow clan-members, says Jhazbhay." We need better intel and investigation into these links.

"While the CIA's chief, Gen. Michael Hayden, suggested recently that Al Qaeda was beginning to expand its reach in the Horn of Africa, and possibly reaching out to radical local Islamist parties such as Al Shabab in Somalia, there appears to be little evidence of a connection between international Islamist groups such as Al Qaeda and piracy."  Invoking Al Qaeda is a popular way to get funding.


"Regionally, I think the major problem is that piracy has given some groups the chance to lay their hands on money," says Jhazbhay. "There may be $30 million in ransom money received in recent years. Once they [the various armed groups] get that kind of money, they can buy a ground-to-air missile. Getting [a hold of] arms can affect the struggle for freedom in Somalia, and that affects the whole region."  Yes, it is a vicious cycle.  The more money and experience they gather, the harder they will be to defeat. 


"While individual ships can protect themselves with everything from barbed wire around the ship itself to high-pressure hoses, coalition forces can also do more to track and neutralize suspected pirate mother ships. "I can't see why more work isn't being done with satellites to find the mother ships," says Cornwell."  Good luck with that Cornwell.  These protective measures have proven effective, but a large majority of ships still don't use them.