Home >> Terrorism >> Terror Threats  Email  Print High Seas Piracy & Terrorism – The Next "Unexpected" Disaster (Part I) Sammy Elrom - 3/3/2008 The exotic adventures romantically depicted in The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are far from reality as one can imagine. There is little to none public knowledge or invested interest in the scary facts that high-seas piracy is gradually becoming the next “surprise” in the international agenda of combating Jihadi terrorism. Effective terrorism funding blocking, increasing pressure on underground financial channels like the Hawala and undercutting financial maneuvering of shadowy terrorism financiers, have forced terrorists to look for immediate highly profitable alternatives. Similar to the way terrorists “discovered” the Internet as a venue to overcome adversities resulting from the world wide war against them, so does the cooperation with crime rings and local mafia bosses.
Terror organizations are now in the midst of a global effort to develop close cooperation with high-seas pirate organizations which a majority are Muslims anyway and operate along Muslim countries coast line and straits mostly. Aggressive, cruel and merciless pirates began infesting international waters in the last three decades and have become more fearless and more terror-driven in the last six-seven years. Driven by a combined terrorism-profit renewed ideology focused on inflicting as much as possible damage to the “filthy infidels” this old-new front is rapidly becoming the next problem we are being forced to deal with globally. If until prior to 9/11 high-seas piracy was entirely the merchant maritime, the shipping companies and the cruising industry problem, it has become since an terrorism thwarting international priority because of the security threats it creates.
Past and Present
To understand the significance of the changes this destructive machine of fear and terror has gone through, one needs only to look at the quadrupled attacks and casualties percentage, in spite of higher awareness, improved protection and the support rendered by local authorities as part of the war on terror. For data comparison purposes 1998 is used by many as a baseline year. The summary of that year’s pirate attacks reads:
* 15 merchants vessels hijacked
* 138 merchant vessels boarded and attacked
* 13 merchant vessels fired upon
* Over 35 merchant crew members murdered
* 75 merchant crew members severely injured
* Over 400 merchant crew members taken hostage
The statistics contain though reported and documented attacks only. The real estimate maintains that at least 60% of similar and less damaging and unsuccessful incidents and attacks were never reported due to insurance marketing concerns, and fears of crew and passengers demoralization. In comparison, in year 2000 the overall attacks increased by 65%. The statistics do not include at least 3,000 more incidents involving yachts and smaller boats, and scores of unreported piracy events.
Piracy attacks concentrate in the following regions: Indonesia, Somalia, India, Philippines, Bangla Desh, Malaysia, the Arabian Peninsula, the West African Coast, the Coasts Venezuela, Columbia and Brazilian coasts, and the "Mosquito Bay" area between Nicaragua & Jamaica.
In 2003 there were 445 incidents compared to 370 events in 2002, and the numbers keeps climbing by an average of 25% yearly, in spite of concentrate efforts by local authorities and a growing cooperation between countries and intelligence agencies. More so, the attacks are increasingly more deadly reaching 23 crew and passengers killed and 71 crew & passengers missing in 2003 compared to the year before. Those figures do not include scores of incidents and piracy events that did not occur in international waters, many unreported events due to shipping companies’ policies, and attacks by or known to be connected to terrorism.
In 2005, in spite of concerted efforts as part of the global war on terror, the number of aggressive attacks increased by 45% while being more ferocious and deadly. The casualties and injuries were also more severe and gruesome.
The Terror-Crime Nexus
Security authorities witness a similar strategy used by terror organizations in the last four years: a designed effort to connect to existing organizations that bring to the table a structured basis of activity, smuggling and sell power and a will to cooperate. Obviously, dealing with mostly Muslim crime rings makes it easier to “convert” them to total Jihad war, while bending the rules to accommodate their activities so that it does not clash with Muslim beliefs, such as robbing and killing Muslims.
The nexus between piracy and terrorism is obvious and proven, if only by fact that the most dangerous waters are along the coasts of Muslim countries where we’ve witnessed a huge surge in Islamic extremism manifested in the establishment of numerous extreme Jihadi terror groups which challenge local regimes.
Terrorism financing-wise, high-sea piracy is a very profitable business. This is the reason why Al-Qeida and alike are constantly creating cooperation pacts with organized crime and maritime piracy gangs and organizations, especially in Eastern Asia and along the West African coasts. Terrorists bring experience in planning and military style execution while pirates bring to the table a host of organized crime syndicates, corrupt officials, cooperating port workers, and businessmen who can laundry the money and dispose of the booty. Evidence of sophistication following the increasing involvement of terrorist groups can be seen in the advanced tactical planning and the planning, preparations and execution of attacks, such as the simultaneous deployment of several boats that surround the ship, the use of high velocity machine guns and anti-tank missiles, and the merciless behavior towards the crew and passengers.
The most vulnerable resources and international assets which are an essential part of the international trade, are crude oil, LPG/NPG, raw materials, weapons, and skilled manpower. For example, the US energy industries rest heavily (more than 58%), on super tankers based oil imports. Vulnerability studies on past pirate attacks have clearly shown that the entire trans-maritime merchant industry and hundred of related industries, which either rely on, or supply to the maritime system, are highly susceptible to three basic types of attack:
* Suicide attacks – where a boat(s) loaded with high explosives is driven into the ship
* An rocket assault – followed by boarding the ship and taking over its cargo
* Takeover of a supertanker carrying LPG/NPG, which is then steered into an energy port and exploded
Interim Summary
High-seas piracy is little known, far from public eyes and awareness. Security authorities though are very concerned as this is a new challenge they must confront because of its close relation to critical infrastructure and port security. As we have seen in other domains related to terrorism, this venue is in a progressive development stage because it offers a new dimension to terrorist organization in their efforts to deal with international anti-terror pressure.
Part two will deal with the problematic issue of maritime and port security and the energy supply threats.
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