A Positive Anti-Piracy Action
By Everett Pyatt
Last week, there were two significant events relating on the African piracy front. First was the ransom payout for the Saudi supertanker reported to be $3 million, following initial demands of $25 million. Second was the creation of a multinational task force under the command of the US Fifth fleet. There were also several piracy attempts in the last three weeks and at least one success, according to International Maritime Bureau reports. A few piracy attempts were broken up by coalition forces, specifically helicopters based on ships.
Ransom collection continues to prove that piracy is a good business, but the use of the money remains a puzzle. Who gets it? Public statements from the pirates say that it is divided between the participants only. That’s hard to believe since other reports indicate much of the money moves to others. Even small portions contributed to Islamic extremist activities can fund major terrorists activity. I hope that someone is actively following the flow of this money, because the motivation to do it again must be high.
On the opposite side of the ledger is the creation of the multinational task force focused on anti-piracy actions. It is Combined Task Force 151, which was created to include only forces with national authorization for forceful engagement if necessary. This action is long overdue. It is to be fully operational this week.
Time will tell if sufficient forces will be included to make a difference and hopefully there will be adequate continuous air surveillance to spot the mother ships and pirate skiffs early. This will help anti-pirate ships get out of the emergency reaction mode and into the preventive mode.
While the news is not all good, there is a good signal of possible coordinated action by the ships of many countries now operating in the Gulf of Aden. Let’s hope it proves successful.
Everett Pyatt was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Navy (USA) in the Carter and Reagan administrations.
