Hunt of the Sea Wolves

Despite the fact that Zamboanga City was command central for the Mindanao Island Invasion Strike Force, whose mission it was to eradicate the guerrilla organization, Abu Sayyaf continued to strike out against the Philippine government through bombings, extortion, hijackings, kidnapping and ransoming Westerners, and assassinations, in its quest to establish a separate Islamic state

Rudy took a drag on the non-filtered cigarette, careful to cup the glowing embers in the palm of his hand so those on the bridge would not see that he was smoking while on watch. Moments later, he took a long, leisurely last drag, and then ground the butt against the heel of his shoe before tossing it over the side. He looked out at the flawless sea. Its beauty and awesomeness never ceased to humble him, even after all the years he had spent aboard the ship.

Introduction to George Weigel’s new book “Faith, Reason and the War Against Jihadism”:

The war in which we now find ourselves began before 9/11.  We did not recognize its opening shots for what they were when fatwas authorizing the murder of all Americans were issued from caves in the Hindu Kush, or when American embassies were bombed in East Africa, or when, in the port of Aden, the USS Cole had a huge hole blown in its side by al Qaeda operatives who had rigged themselves into human torpedoes.  The war is now being fought on multiple fronts, with more likely to come.  Many are interconnected:  There is an Afghan front, an Iraqi front, an Iranian front, a Lebanese/Syrian front, a Gaza front, a Somali front, a North Africa/Maghreb front, a Sudanese front, a Southeast Asian front, an intelligence front, a financial-flows front, an economic front, an energy front, and a homeland security front.  These are all fields of fire –some kinetic, others of a different sort– in the same global war, and they must be understood as such. 

Al Qaeda attacks on the United States and American diplomatic and military assets were, for example, planned in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia.  Places unknown to the vast majority of Americans are know among the most evil places on earth, as one U.S. Special Forces officer puts it; what happens in locales previously unknown save in the most recondite geography bees  –North Waziristan– has direct effects on our armed forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.  What is being plotted in such places could have devastating effects on the homeland.

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International Analyst Network:

From a paper by Mark Silverberg: “A mass-attack with Sarin, anthrax or some other biological agent could bring about civilian casualties and catastrophic damage to our country on a scale far beyond anything we experienced on September 11th, 2001. Experts cite the uncovering of several canisters of unidentified chemicals, possible residues of a “tetanus virus-carrying chemical,” a bio-terror manual in a police raid on a Jemaa Islamiyah hideout in the southern Philippines and the recent discovery of a seven-pound block of highly-toxic cyanide salt in an al Qaeda safe-house in Baghdad believed to have been produced by Abu Musab Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s former “poisons specialist.” These discoveries suggest that al Qaeda is developing a new generation of lethal biological weapons of mass destruction.”

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Rusting and forgotten, she was just days away from being ripped apart for scrap when she received a reprieve from a faceless, nameless British bureaucrat who came looking for a vessel of an indeterminate heritage that would go unnoticed as she plied the waterways of the world while undertaking a particularly mysterious and unpleasant task.

            Outfitted with sophisticated communications and navigational equipment, along with a fresh coat of paint, and her new name, the Eastern Explorer steamed stealthily on a sea that, apart from her presence, appeared utterly empty. Her bow cut through the black, phosphorescent water. In the distance, lights from Zamboanga City on Mindanao flickered on the horizon.

As a British ensign snapped in the wind high above the main deck from the radio mast just above the bridge, Rudy Carbullido stood as the lone sentry at the ship’s bow. A Guamanian of Chamorro ancestry—Indonesian with a healthy mix of Spanish, Filipino, and other Micronesian strains—Rudy had signed on as a crewman two months earlier when the ship made a stopover at his home island.

Those aboard the ship were well aware of the Sulu Archipelago’s piratical reputation. They were concerned enough to post an armed seaman both fore and aft, but apparently not concerned enough to train the men how to use the automatic weapons they carried.

Each man also carried a single ammo clip, but he was not allowed to put it in the weapon, lest he accidentally shoot one of his shipmates. This wasn’t as absurd as it might sound. All aboard, excepting for the officers, were recruited from the least skilled laborers as they hung out at docks around the world desperately looking for employment aboard any departing vessel.

The crew might have also been better served, or at least more vigilant while acting as lookouts as they transited the dangerous waterways through the Philippines, if the officers had reminded them that Mindanao was the stronghold for the Abu Sayyaf. Therefore, the crew had little thought of the political complexities taking place just over the horizon. If they had, perhaps they would have been better prepared to defend the old ship and themselves.

Media Corp News:

Sri Lanka’s defense secretary said the government should formally pull out of a ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels amid escalating fighting in the island, a state-run daily reported Saturday.

A 2002 Norwegian-brokered truce began to unravel in December 2005 and both sides have blamed each other for the mounting violence which has claimed over 6,000 lives since then, according to government figures.

“The ceasefire agreement exists only on paper. Obviously we can see there is no ceasefire,” Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is President Mahinda Rajapakse’s younger brother, told the Daily News.

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And so it was that on a November night, under a full moon, the converted freighter Eastern Explorer was making its way through these still treacherous waters. Every day, foreign-flagged freighters and tankers of every description and tonnage, as well as thousands of fishing vessels, ranging from commercial purse-seiners to traditional fishing boats handmade from Palomaria trees, transited the sea lanes past the islands of Jolo, Pangutaran, Samales, Siasi, Sibuto, and Tawi-Tawi.

The Eastern Explorer was a ship that had gone through many transformations in her more than sixty years of service. She was commissioned in 1944, as the Molly Pitcher. She replaced another exactly like her, the West Portal. A German U-boat sank the West Portal in the South Atlantic, after she had played a crucial role as one of many cargo transports that were part of the Western Task Force (WTF). WTF had delivered Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., the tanks of the Second Armored Division and Seventieth Tank Battalion, and over thirty-four thousand troops that landed at Safi, as they mounted the attack on Casablanca.

Having survived more than one torpedo run at her, Molly Pitcher went through her first transformation at war’s end as she was sold then converted to an island steamer named the Atlantic Sun and used primarily to ferry pilgrims to the new Jewish state.

In 1951, she was recruited back into government service as a troop ship to transport British soldiers, still war weary from the years of fighting throughout Europe, to Korea. Having served valiantly as a floating home for thousands of men who just wanted to return to England alive and in one piece, she was ingloriously decommissioned after the 1953 armistice. She was then shuttled off to one the of many mothball fleets scattered around the world.

Channel News Asia:

Former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks walked free from an Australian jail on Saturday, offering no apology for alleged terror links but vowing not to let down those who secured his release.

More than six years after he was captured in Afghanistan, the so-called “Aussie Taliban” was escorted from Adelaide’s maximum security Yalata jail past a media throng broadcasting live images of his release.

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People’s Daily Online:

A camp of Tamil Tiger rebels was targeted and completely destroyed by the Air Force in Sri Lanka, defense officials said.

The Air Force launched an air strike against a LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Taimil Eelam) Sea Tiger training camp in the Vellamulli-Vaikkala area of the northeastern Mullitivu district around 06:10 a.m. local time (0040 GMT).

UN News Centre:

The separatist Tamil Tiger rebels and a breakaway group known as the Tamil Makkal Viduthali Pulikal (TMVP)/Karuna faction continue to abduct children to fight as soldiers in the bloody conflict in Sri Lanka, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report made public today.

Covering the period from 1 November 2006 to 14 September 2007, the 20-page report noted that “both parties have failed to cease the abduction, recruitment and use of children.”

By John Chadwell:

Pirates attacked a vessel off Nigeria, at Hondol River in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, which belongs to Mobil Producing Unlimited, stealing supplies, according to African media. 

There were no reported deaths from the attack, but at least three crew members were seriously injured in what is the second such attack. Eyewitnesses said five armed men attacked the supply boat, and when opened fire on the captain and two crewmen when it did not stop.