Recently in Pirates Category

I know that the Marines aren't really needed on the LPD for this mission, but I would love to know that at least a company of them was available to attack pirate and Iranian ships. Having them available to make assault landings and scare the snot out of the pirates would be great! The pirates are winning because they are not scared. Someone needs to scare them.

Would the Kenyan President scare them? I doubt it.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htamph/articles/20090120.aspx

The U.S. amphibious ship USS San Antonio has arrived off the coast of Somalia, to serve as the flagship of the anti-piracy Task Force 151. The San Antonio is an LPD 17 type vessel. It displaces 24,900 tons and is 684 feet long. It has a crew of 360, and normally 720 marines and all their equipment are carried. For the anti piracy mission, there are only a few hundred specialist personnel embarked, including a platoon of American marines and a platoon of army military police. There is 25,000 square feet for vehicle storage and a 24 bed hospital, with two operating rooms and the ability to set up another hundred beds in an emergency.

US anti-piracy task force to intercept Iran's Hamas arms ship

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

January 21, 2009, 9:23 AM (GMT+02:00)
USS San Antonio patrols Gulf of Aden

USS San Antonio patrols Gulf of Aden

The USS San Antonio amphibian warship, heading the Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 patrolling the Gulf of Aden for pirates, has been assigned with hunting down the Iranian cargo vessel carrying 60 tons of rockets and other arms for smuggling into Gaza.

This is revealed by DEBKAfile's exclusive military sources. CTF 151 is a new American force, announced in Washington Saturday Jan. 17, for fighting the Somali pirates plaguing the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Red Sea, under the command of Rear Adm. Terry McKnight. These are the very waterways plied by Iranian arms smugglers for Hamas, often in conjunction with Somali pirates and Sinai Bedouin militias.

Massed on the San Antonio 's decks now cruising in the Gulf of Aden is a helicopter detachment, a "surgical team" for dealing with small speedboats trying to hem the ship in and boarding teams with their own small boats and helicopters. US marine and coast guard units make up the interception force.

Israel's foreign minister Tzipi Livni flew to Brussels Wednesday, Jan. 21, to discuss adding the European Union to the understanding she signed with the US last Friday for ending the flow of smuggled Iranian weapons to Gaza. Washington and Jerusalem hope to bring European governments aboard this understanding, capitalizing on the momentum generated by Israel's unilateral ceasefire and the support shown by six European leaders when they visited Egypt's Sharm el Sheik and Jerusalem Sunday Jan. 18.

Egypt and Israel are negotiating Cairo's end of the operation for stifling the influx of smuggled arms to Gaza. Livni is after undertakings by as many European governments as possible to allow their anti-piracy patrols with the CTF 151 to double for missions to intercept Iranian arms smuggling vessels. Our sources in Brussels report that she cannot count on getting all them all to join because some EU members willing to combat piracy may hold back from attack Iranian shipping.

Capture the pirates the easy way and then turn them over to the Yemenis who will probably execute them. Not a bad days work. It would be nice to have caught them in the act and executed them in full view of their friends in Somaliland, but the West is too civilized to treat barbarians like barbarians.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,462466,00.html

A Danish warship patrolling the Gulf of Aden to guard against piracy actually ended up rescuing seven suspected Somali pirates who were adrift with a broken motor on their boat, the International Herald Tribune quoted the Danish Navy Friday.

The Danish sailors sank the pirates' speedboat after bringing them aboard their own ship. The combat support vessel called the HDMS Absalon picked up the hungry, thirsty Somalis about 90 miles off the coast of Yemen after their distress signal was spotted, the Tribune reported.

The sailors confiscated rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles found on board but were unable to arrest the men because they were not caught in the act of piracy.

"We had a situation where these guys were shipwrecked persons," Lieutenant Commander Jesper Lynge, a Danish Navy spokesman, told the Tribune. "But we haven't caught them in an act of piracy, and what their main purpose was -- your guess is as good as mine."

I think that it is time for a mercenary company to form in international waters that can operate for whom ever needs the help. The limits on Blackwater by working out of the US is good most of the time, but to fight against pirates in international waters takes special capabilities that the International Community refuses to use anymore.

If not Blackwater, then who?

Foreign navies have begun patrolling the Gulf of Aden to rein in the pirate gangs off the coast of northern Somalia, but they have had only limited success. As a result, ship owners have seen insurance premiums for coverage of passage through the Straits of Aden climb from an average of $900 to $9,000.

In Pictures: The World's Most Dangerous Waters

It's bad news for shippers, but an opportunity for Blackwater Worldwide, the North Carolina-based private military contractor. Last week, the company announced plans to dispatch the MV MacArthur, a 183-foot vessel with a crew of 14 and a helicopter pad, to the Gulf of Aden to provide escort services for ships in need of security.

"Billions of dollars of goods move through the Gulf of Aden each year," said Bill Matthews, executive vice president of Blackwater Worldwide, in a press release. "We have been contacted by ship owners who say they need our help in making sure those goods get to their destination safely. The McArthur can help us accomplish that."