The motive for the escalation on the part of the pirates is not hard to find. Despite the increase in the number of pirate attacks, and regardless of their increasing range of operations, the tide is not running in the favor of the maritime criminals. The increased naval patrols have resulted both in an increase in the number of thwarted attacks and the number of pirates captured. (But, unfortunately, not in the "killed" category."
The pirates have responded to this state of affairs by threatening to kill or torture their captives unless their demands are met. And, the demands? No shock here, they want prisoner pirates released instantly if not sooner.
The crew holding a British couple kidnapped on board their yacht just over two weeks ago have raised their requirement for release from a several million dollar ransom to threats to "punish" or even "torture" the pair unless seven captive pirates held onboard a German warship are released. How seriously to take the threats and demand made by phone from "Omer" a pirate media relations wallah is hard to tell.
On the one hand the Germans do have seven bad guys in custody, taken quite red handed. On the other the pirates are reportedly "frustrated" because they have not had any positive message from the British Foreign Office or the family of the kidnapped couple regarding their simple request for seven million bucks.
Apparently this particular crew could and can not differentiate between a well insured commercial vessel and a small yacht owned by people of modest means. Caught by their own stupidity and greed, the only recourse seen was a dramatic escalation in threats. Balancing this is the possible belief by the less than worldly wise knuckle draggers as to the possible influence the British government can exercise on the Germans.
The threat against at least three members of a Spanish tuna boat seized some days ago must be taken more seriously. The pirates have stated they will kill the three men who have been taken ashore if the Spanish government does not release two pirates captured by their navy.
As is to be expected the families of the three threatened men have tearfully begged the Spanish government to let the pirates go. The government has said, "No."
How long Madrid will hang tough is hard to predict. The pirates are aware of the dramatic effects exercised on a Spanish election by the Madrid train bombings. The capitulation of the new government to the demand that Spain withdraw its forces from Iraq are well known throughout the Islamic world.
The Deputy Defense Minister of Spain has already pointed to a face saving way of getting the pirates out of Spain. He dilated at some length about the potential of sending the pirates to another jurisdiction. Presumably the alternative jurisdictions include either Somalia or the semi autonomous region of Puntland.
While the pirates might be spirited by such a measure from Spanish custody to that of a, shall we say, less rigorous place, it would not assure the freedom of the captive Spaniards. Nor would it preclude further demands, more conditions, ramped up requirements.
The unfortunate reality that insurance companies as well as ship owners have been willing to pay ransom over the past several years of ever increasing pirate depredations has propelled both the acceleration of piracy and the escalation of demands. If no ship owners paid, no ships would be seized. The equation is both simple and, to ship owners, cargo consignees, and others in the business, quite unacceptable.
Unless and until two factors are changed in the equation of pirates versus civilization, the sea east from Somalia will be both ever more unsafe and the rapacity of the pirates ever more expansive.
The first factor which must change is that of ransom. There must be an absolute prohibition on the payment of ransom by any ship owner, any maritime insurance company, any consignee.
The second factor is less palatable to the refined sensitivities of the West. The costs of doing business for the pirates must be increased--greatly. In the real world this means the rules of engagement must be altered to allow the use of lethal force against suspected pirate boats and the "mother ships." It also means armed guards on commercial vessels crossing the pirate zone as well as immunity from liability if mistakes are made.
By decreasing rewards and increasing costs, the young men, even those of an Islamist jihadist frame of mind, would be encouraged to seek alternative employment. Without these measures there is little doubt but that the pirates will become more numerous, more aggressive, more given to threats, and, worst of all, ever more Islamist jihadist in nature.
Up until this past year the pirates have been seen by shipowners, shipping line executives, the insurance industry as nothing but an additional cost of doing business. Up until recently the pirates have been seen by ship crews as just one more hazard in their underpaid trade. Up until very recently the pirates have been seen by most governments as a nuisance requiring the diversion of expensive assets to a secondary zone justifiable only in terms of domestic politics or in the interests of more realistic training.
Now, with intentionally terrorist threats being credibly uttered, with the documentable presence of Islamist jihadist sentiment, influence, and effects, the halfway measures employed to date are no longer appropriate. Now there is no alternative to more robust approaches.
Well, there is an alternative. Do nothing and hope for some miracle which will end the pirates before they actually carry out some of their threats. And, that seems to be the American and Western way of doing things.
Not a pleasant thought if the pirates have your personal hind end in a sling, is it?
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