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Testing the Waters
Author: BobR
Date: 12/05/2008 13:18:42
Listening to the news recently, you'd think the whole world had jumped into the WayBack machine and ended up on the high seas 300 years ago. Over the past 11 months, there have been 120 pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia. As of this moment, there are 14 ships currently being held hostage (Source).
Why the resurgence in piracy? The main cause is the lack of a real government in Somalia. Perhaps the U.S. is partially to blame:
It certainly seems that shipping companies need to protect their vessels. The various Navies can patrol the waters, but can't escort every ship. It seems like a private security firm with access to military-grade weapons and training would be in a great position to sell their services to the shipping companies. Blackwater certainly thinks so:
This actually seems like a case where Blackwater IS on the right track. It's the sort of situation where private security can make up for a shortcoming in the military's ability to do it all.
One has to wonder, though - given Blackwater's track record of unprovoked killing - whether this will just turn into pirate hunting season. A new legal tact may put some of Blackwater's personnel in jail for 30 years for their shooting massacre in Iraq:
It's rather interesting that a business with a violent record for wanton murder is pimping itself out to protect property from violent attacks. It makes one think about the old mafia protection rackets. It's also interesting that - once again - U.S. government action is benefiting Blackwater.
This water seems very murky indeed...
Why the resurgence in piracy? The main cause is the lack of a real government in Somalia. Perhaps the U.S. is partially to blame:
In 2006, militant supporters of the Islamic Courts Union, an alliance of Sharia tribunals, won control of Somalia and imposed religious law.
“Under the Courts, there was literally no piracy,” says Hans Tino Hansen, chief executive of Risk Intelligence, a maritime security consultant in Denmark.
Then the U.S. helped drive out the Muslim rulers to prevent the East African country from becoming a terrorist haven, leaving behind a lawless chaos in which piracy has flourished.
“It’s a bad mistake to look at Somali events through the prism of international politics,” says Richard Cornwell, an Institute for Security Studies researcher in Pretoria. “The U.S. turned an internal Somali conflict into part of the global war on terror.”
Now, Cornwell says, the West is making the same mistake with piracy by focusing more on battling it at sea than on pushing feuding Somali factions toward a settlement. And with Islamist militiamen again poised to seize the capital, Mogadishu, there’s little chance they will be able to control the outlaws this time.
It certainly seems that shipping companies need to protect their vessels. The various Navies can patrol the waters, but can't escort every ship. It seems like a private security firm with access to military-grade weapons and training would be in a great position to sell their services to the shipping companies. Blackwater certainly thinks so:
Private security firm Blackwater Worldwide began holding meetings in London on Tuesday with potential clients for a new business venture -- protection from pirates.
The Moyock, N.C., firm, which has grown rapidly through State Department security work in Iraq, has been courting shippers and insurance firms about protecting ships in pirate-infested waters. It's meeting with more than a dozen firms this week and hopes to drum up its first contract.
This actually seems like a case where Blackwater IS on the right track. It's the sort of situation where private security can make up for a shortcoming in the military's ability to do it all.
One has to wonder, though - given Blackwater's track record of unprovoked killing - whether this will just turn into pirate hunting season. A new legal tact may put some of Blackwater's personnel in jail for 30 years for their shooting massacre in Iraq:
Blackwater Worldwide guards who fired on Iraqi civilians in a 2007 massacre that left 17 dead, including young children, may actually meet the business-end of justice.
According to a recent report, the Department of Justice may use an anti-drug law intended to fight the 80's crack epidemic to put the gunmen away for up to three decades, minimum.
While no drugs were involved in the killings, the government's attorneys may attempt to apply a clause in the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act that requires a 30-year sentence for any violent crime committed with a machine gun.
It's rather interesting that a business with a violent record for wanton murder is pimping itself out to protect property from violent attacks. It makes one think about the old mafia protection rackets. It's also interesting that - once again - U.S. government action is benefiting Blackwater.
This water seems very murky indeed...
