Somali pirates hold US Navy at bay

Kenyan police officers escort suspected Somali pirates in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa, Apr. 8, 2009. Somali pirates hijacked a U.S.-flagged, Danish-owned container ship on Wednesday with 20 American crew on board in a major escalation in attacks off the lawless Horn of Africa nation, officials said. (Joseph Okanga/Reuters)

An update of the unfolding drama of the pirates holding a U.S. ship captain hostage off the coast of Somalia.

NAIROBI — The full might of the U.S. Navy — warships bristling with torpedoes, missiles, helicopters and surveillance drones — is aligned against a lifeboat adrift in the Indian Ocean, on which four pirates armed with rifles hold an American ship's captain captive.

The FBI and the Pentagon are helping the officers of the U.S.S. Bainbridge to negotiate with the pirates to secure release of the captain. The captain's ship, the Maersk Alabama, is steaming off toward the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

The world has learned a great deal about Capt. Richard Phillips, from Vermont, who gave himself up to protect his 20 crewmen and his ship. No matter how this drama ends, we know who is the hero.

But who are the Somali pirates holding the U.S. Navy at bay?

If it is like the other six pirate hijackings this month, they are most likely young, unemployed men hired by local clan leaders and lured by the prospect of cash — hundreds of thousands of dollars of it. They can use the cash to build a mansion, buy a four-wheel-drive vehicle and marry a wife in lavish style.

Piracy has become the country's most lucrative industry, according to the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia. Last year 42 ships were hijacked off the Somali coastline and the ransoms paid for the ships and their cargo are estimated at more than $50 million.

Among the ships ransomed last year was a Ukrainian freighter carrying 33 military tanks and a Saudi-owned tanker carrying crude oil estimated to be worth $100 million. The pirates are currently holding for ransom 16 ships with 200 crew.  

The pirate gangs have pulled in substantial amounts of money with surprisingly little violence. Because the cargo ships are generally unarmed and crews are under instructions not to fight against the pirates, the casualties on both sides have been relatively low.

Not all the pirate attacks are successful. In 2008 the pirates tried to hijack more than 110 ships, of which 42 were actually taken over. Because Somalia is without a functioning government, pirates that have been captured are often handed over to Kenyan authorities. They then stand trial in that country. 

Today the pirate groups are well organized and disciplined. But it wasn't always so.

The pirates emerged out of coastal fishing communities, which watched for years as illegal foreign trawlers plundered Somalia’s fish-stocked waters and foreign ships dumped toxic waste where no one would stop them. The early pirate attacks were aimed at exacting an ad hoc tax from the illegal trawlers. Later, the pirates discovered the more lucrative business of kidnapping.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/090409/somali-pirates-hold-us-navy-at-bay