Hunt of the Sea Wolves

This Day Online:

Before Shell Bonga Oil Field was attacked recently, the United States strategists held the view that militancy is no longer threat to oil exploration and production in the Niger Delta. This is premised on the recent development of off-shore oil field, where the strategists believed that the militants would not be able to attack because of distance and terrain among other factors.

Unlike the Persian Gulf, most oil reserves in the Gulf of Guinea are found on the high sea, a terrain the experts once perceived unthinkable for the militants to carry out major attacks. This has encouraged geo-strategic shift in the matrix of oil exploration from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Guinea because the western investors believed it was safe to invest in the latter.

But the recent attack quickly dispelled this assumption after the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) covered a distance of 120 km, perhaps with a plan to wreck Bonga Oil Field, the largest single investment in the entire maritime domain of South-West Africa. The attack now left the strategists dumbfounded, confronting with fresh and daunting tasks.

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Reuters:

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka’s army commander said on Monday that Tamil Tiger rebels were being defeated and were losing their capacity to fight. Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka said the military had killed over 9,000 Tamil Tiger rebels over the past two years and had gained much territory.

“You can see they are weakening. They don’t have the same capacity and the willpower to fight now,” Fonseka said addressing foreign journalists in Colombo.

Fonseka estimated the rebel strength at 5,000 cadres.

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Inquirer:

MANILA, Philippines – Marine and police operatives have temporarily suspended rescue operations for the four employees of the Basilan Electric Cooperative (Baselco) who were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf bandits pending negotiations for their release, a ranking military official said Monday.

“Negotiations are being conducted by the (Basilan) vice governor (Al-Rasheed Sakalalul) and Baselco,” said Major General Ben Dolorfino, Marine commandant.

The kidnappers have demanded P1 million for the victims’ freedom, according to Baselco manager Alfredo Oyao.

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The six men knelt in tall grass and watched as a vehicle maneuvered toward them along the badly eroded road, its headlights bouncing up and down. As the vehicle drew closer, they saw it was a black Ford Explorer. It pulled off the road into the grass.

The driver and a passenger got out, careful to check up and down the road. Both carried automatic weapons slung on their backs. The driver took out a flashlight and flipped it on and off three times.

After the all-clear signal, the six men stood up and headed through the grass toward the SUV. One of the men shook hands with the driver. The other five men approached the SUV and were just about to climb in when their clandestine world of darkness was brought to light—literally. 

            Three spotlights blinked on from nearby trees and the eight men around the SUV were suddenly exposed. A fourth light caught Karami-Hakkak in his expensive new toy out in the open. A siren blasted twice from the Coast Guard Patrol Boat, Key Largo, followed by a voice warning over a bullhorn, “This is the U.S. Coast Guard. Stop your motor and raise your hands.”

            The men standing by the SUV had no intension of raising their hands. They reached for their weapons. Two carried M9 9mm pistols; the others had M4s and MP5 assault rifles. They froze in place as another voice blared at them from behind one of the spotlights, “Drop your weapons right now,” it commanded, then added ominously, “This is your only warning!”

            The man in the boat with Karami-Hakkak apparently had made up his mind to be a martyr without feeling any compunction to consult with Karami-Hakkak about his decision to sacrifice himself along with the terrorist turned real estate mogul. The man bent down and flipped open a long satchel he had brought aboard the boat earlier, pulled out a rocket-propelled grenade and fired it at the Key Largo. The grenade missed the Coast Guard cutter by only a few feet. The Coast Guard crew opened up with the cutters forward 50-caliber machine guns on the Phantom speedboat.

The Cutting Edge:

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is more than just a potential weapon of mass destruction in the right locale. It also offers terrorists an awesome economic target wherever in the world it can be found–even on the high seas.

During a March 21, 2007 hearing, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, of the second district of Mississippi, observed that although it is important to consider the dangers of LNG, it is equally important to try to assess the economic impacts that an LNG incident might incur. “…Terrorists would just as well like to keep a port out of business for a week or two and that would be an absolutely significant incident… So, I think part of our challenge is how we look at all the consequences associated with the handling of LNG. Clearly, we want to know the hazards initially, but we also want to look at economic conditions that relate to it.”

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NCPA:

Piracy — the sort involving eye patches and parrots, not folks who sell bootleg DVDs — has been on the rise in recent years, says Reason.  Even in the digital age, the stuff we buy travels mostly by boat, and oil is still pumped at vulnerable offshore oil platforms.

According to the International Relations and Security network, pirate attacks cost about $16 billion annually in ship and cargo losses and increased insurance premiums.

Enormous container ships are especially vulnerable at “choke points” such as the Malacca Straits, which connect the Pacific and Indian Ocean, where pirates in smaller, quicker boats can pull alongside and board.

In response to this threat, businesses and governments are turning to private security companies, says Reason.  The privateers ride shotgun with cargo vessels and train sailors in the use of small arms. 

Tom Ridenour, director of maritime operations at the private security firm Blackwater, thinks protection against pirates is a growth market.  New offerings from the firm will include a ship capable of deploying small rigid-inflatable boats, helicopters and a 30-man security team. 

Jamal Karami-Hakkak had made millions in the booming Florida real estate market over the last five years. As he had been instructed during his training in Afghanistan, he obediently deposited a major portion of his riches in four Grand Cayman accounts used to finance the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a Marxist Iranian resistance movement. The portion he held back for himself was more than sufficient to assure that he, his wife and two daughters, as well as his mistress lived in a lavish style he had quickly grown accustomed and felt he deserved.

On this night, he was behind the wheel of his brand new, two-hundred thousand dollar, thirty-four foot, black and red Phantom racing boat. He slowly throttled down the Twin 500 EFI Bravo diesels as the boat approached a deserted stretch of beach on an outcropping of forested land that resembled a whale’s tail, on which a rutted, dirt road, Old State Road 4A, ended.

For more than one hundred years, smugglers and poachers had sailed in and out of these waters along the Florida coastline and spent many leisurely nights around campfires on its white beaches boasting of their exploits as they savored spoils of their plundering. But these men who Karami-Hakkak was landing on the beach this night were neither poachers nor smugglers. They were al-Qa’ida terrorists.

Because the water was too shallow to allow the boat to land, two of the men hopped out into the water and pulled the boat from either side until the bow eased up on the beach. The others jumped out of the boat and headed toward the dirt road. Karami-Hakkak and another man who he had just met that night stayed in the boat. He pulled back on the throttle and eased the boat out to sea into the darkness.

Inquirer:

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — Police in Basilan have confirmed the release of one of five linemen of the Basilan Electric Coop. (Baselco) who were abducted by members of the Abu Sayyaf in Tuburan town on Thursday.

Ronnie Tansiung was freed Thursday night by the kidnappers allegedly led by Puruji Indama, Nurhassan Jamiri, Muhmin Mutahail and a certain Manang.

Alfred Oyao, Baselco manager, said the Abu Sayyaf is demanding a substantial ransom for the release of the remaining hostages, two sets of brothers — Birin and Paul Herwig, and Alberto and Emilberto Singson.

“But we are not going to heed the demand,” Oyao said, adding that Malacañang also told them not to pay ransom.

He said there is no way for the victims’ families to produce the ransom.

“We are worried about their situation, these people are poor, they are just working for a living,” he said.

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BBC News:

The UN World Food Program has warned it may have to cut food aid to Somalia if it does not receive new naval protection against pirates.

French, Danish and Dutch frigates have protected deliveries for more than seven months during a surge in piracy, the WFP said.

But a Dutch frigate was scheduled to finish escort duties on Wednesday. As many as two million people could be affected if the shipments cease, the WFP said.

The agency said shipping companies were reluctant to sail unescorted to Somalia, and it had no offers to take over escort duties from the Dutch navy.

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By John Chadwell:

Not all pirate hijackings seem to make the news. In fact, few do if they do not involve tankers being taken off the Somalia coast. It has been a while since a ship was hijacked and was taken to a foreign port where its cargo was off-loaded, but that’s exactly what happened last May.

On May 21, while enroute from Sulawesi to Surabaya, Indonesia., 10 pirates armed with guns and knives boarded and hijacked a product tanker laden with crude palm oil. The pirates took 14 crewmembers as hostage and sailed the vessel to unknown location.  

Owners contacted the Piracy Reporting Center for assistance to locate the vessel. The Piracy Reporting Center informed all authorities in the region to look out for the vessel and liaised with them regularly.  The Royal Malaysia Marine Police finallyt located and detained the vessel on June 19 at the port of Sandakan, where the pirates had already sold the cargo. Six crewmembers are reported as missing.