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Admiral: Navy must ‘de-romanticize’ piracy

ABOARD THE CRUISER ANZIO OFF THE HORN OF AFRICA — So far this year, ship hijackers have taken down 28 ships in 137 attempts. They still have control of five vessels and more than 100 mariners from around the world.

One American hostage caught the world’s attention in April. Imagine 100.

“Part of our message is to de-romanticize piracy,” said Rear Adm. Scott Sanders, commander of counter-piracy Task Force 151. “Pirates are bad people. They are holding over 100 people against their will.”

Sanders is embarked on Anzio as it heads into areas known for pirate activity, especially this time of year, when sea conditions and currents are favorable. Although in recent years the U.S. Navy and other forces have been tangling with ship hijackers in the Somali Basin and the Gulf of Aden, Task Force 151 was stood up in January for specific and coordinated counter-piracy operations.

Currently operating in Task Force 151 with Anzio are destroyer James E. Williams and the Turkish ship Gaziantep. The South Korean destroyer Munmu the Great will soon be replaced by Dae Jo Yeong. P-3 surveillance flights from the German, Spanish, Japanese and U.S. navies fly regularly out of nearby land bases. NATO and European Union naval task forces also patrol the area, as have independent deployers from Russia, China and Iran.

Sanders and his staff embarked on Anzio from Bahrain on Sunday, restarting a months-long mission after a brief port visit. He had taken over leadership of the task force from a Turkish admiral three days earlier.

“We look to build upon the things that have been established,” Sanders said. “We are in a very good position in that it’s a very clearly defined mission — counter-piracy — and we know what we’re doing out here.”

For 151, that means constant communication, not only with the other naval forces but with the merchant fleets, as well as having the legal mechanisms in place to adjudicate captured pirate suspects. The U.S., U.K and E.U. have several agreements with nearby nations to detain and prosecute captured suspects.

“The number of opportunities for a ‘legal finish’ — the term we use for a successful prosecution — those avenues are expanding all the time. So I’d fully expect to see more successful legal prosecutions,” said Capt. Keith Blount, of the British Royal Navy and chief of staff for 151. “If we frame a good case, that case will go to Kenya, it will go to the Seychelles, and these criminals will be put behind bars. Absolutely.”

One advantage the hijackers have enjoyed is the vastness of the area. It takes only minutes for skilled pirates to get aboard an undefended ship, and when they’ve got a captive crew, ship and cargo, they hold all the cards. Even helicopters can’t react fast enough to intervene. Naval forces have had to stand by and watch while ransoms are negotiated between the pirates and ship owners.

But shipping companies have taken advice to harden their ships, maneuver the vessels against attackers and use fire hoses to push them back.

“It’s a brief window, but you can make that a longer window. If you resist or just take precautionary measures for the pirates to get aboard, which is a simple thing like razor wire around the low points of the ship, that slows them down,” Sanders said. “It’s getting harder for the pirates.”

And while 2008 and the first half of 2009 saw high levels of hijackings, including several high-profile situations, Blount said the pirates are indeed working harder for the money.

“In 2007, there were 19 attacks, and 12 were successful. That’s a pretty good strike rate. There are a number of people who became pretty rich in that particular year,” he said. “The year after that there were 130 attacks, of which 44 were successful. This year alone we’ve seen 137 attacks, but only 28 of those have been successful.”

According to 5th Fleet, 199 small arms have been captured, along with 85 rocket-propelled grenades, 41 RPG launchers, assorted climbing gear and communications devices have been captured since last August.

Of the 514 pirates “encountered,” in that time, 10 were killed and 235 were turned over for prosecution in Kenya, France, U.S. and Seychelles.

DISCUSS: U.S. policy on piracy