For Washington, the United Nations, NATO and the European Union piracy is a major enemy for the safety and freedom of trade, as dangerous as "terrorism Islamic "to the point that, to prevent the seizure of merchant ships and oil tankers in the waters of the Horn of Africa have been deployed more than 50 naval units equipped with the most sophisticated war.
The assault on the boats is not a phenomenon exclusive to the Somali coast, far from it. There are seas and river regions where piracy phenomenon is ancient and highly structured (the Indonesian archipelago, the Niger Delta, the mouth of the Amazon River, etc..), But the dominant interests of the big shipping companies and the Lloyds insurance have shifted the media attention almost exclusively maritime area between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Nevertheless, the so-called "Somali pirates" (an expression totally inappropriate given that the nationality of the kidnappers is much more complex) is poorly known and there is no analysis of the socio-economic causes. In addition, the unreliability of data on drug seizures actually created: the database in possession of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the only two bodies that carry out monitoring "constants" on assaults, differ greatly among them, making it even more difficult to understand the true extent of the phenomenon. So we have to stick to data "official" Security Council of the United Nations, and against piracy in the Horn of Africa voted three resolutions of condemnation in 2008 alone, even allowing member states to use force against those allegedly responsible in full Somali territory.
a growing business
According to the UN in the first nine months of 2008 there were 199 incidents of maritime piracy, of which only 60 in the Gulf of Aden. In the latter region, where up to 30,000 cargo ships pass annually, the assaults started only recently: in 2004 there were just two seizures, 35 the following year. For redemptions, the shipping time paying kidnappers to an average of € 20 million per vessel. Therefore, a business that would yield 1.2 to 1.5 billion euro a year.
According to UN calculations, the number of pirates "Somalia" has risen from fifty "insiders" in 2006 to 1,500 at the end of last year. They were "well organized and well trained" wearing military uniforms, were "armed with portable anti-tank rocket launchers, grenade launchers and all kinds of automatic weapons", would avail themselves of "satellite phones and GPS positioning system can determine the position geographical, small radar, binoculars powerful, etc... " According to Matt Brydan, coordinator group appointed by the Security Council to monitor violations of the arms embargo in Somalia, pirates, would be organized the same way as a private holding company: "There are donors, with a military strategy and planning, and sponsors, which procure fast boats, fuel, weapons and ammunition, communication systems and wages (...) They can rely on spies stationed in major ports in neighboring "(Corriere della Sera, 25/01/2009). The pirates "Somali" would have also supported by a number of expatriates and their training instructors participate from Bangladesh, Yemen and Indonesia. A description
del tutto differente da quanto è stato mostrato a fine febbraio dalla US Navy in occasione della cattura di 7 presunti sequestratori del mercantile “Polaris”, battente bandiere delle Isole Marshall, l’11 febbraio 2009. I “pirati” erano a bordo di una piccola imbarcazione a motore, apparivano denutriti e mal vestiti e le uniche armi trovate a bordo sarebbero state un paio di vecchi kalashnikov e qualche coltello da pesca. Stando al racconto dei marinai del mercantile che aveva richiesto il soccorso dell’US Navy, essi avevano tentato l’abbordaggio con una scaletta di legno.
PIRATERIA E TERRORISMO
Ma torniamo al rapporto presentato al Consiglio di security. According to its drafters, there are currently two main groups devoted to Somalia piracy. The first exercise in the northeastern region of Puntland, with the primary basis to Eyl, "district inhabited by Issa Mohamud, subclan of the great tribe of migiurtini", and the ports of Bosaso, Ras Alula, Ras Hafun, Bayala, Qandala, Bargal and Garad . The second group would work more on the south by Harardhere to Kismayo. Bruno Schiemsky, another researcher on behalf of the United Nations has studied the piracy, the latter organization "is forming an alliance with Islamic fundamentalist groups al-Shabab", an organization that now controls much of the Somali territory, and that appears on the blacklist of the Western powers because it is considered "close" to al Qaeda. The equation
alleged "insurgent forces pirates = = Al Qaeda" was not shared within the U.S. military. First there would be no evidence of links between the gangs assault ships and al-Shabab. In addition, General William "Kip" Ward, Africom's commander, at the end of November he told the press that "any" relationship with Al Qaeda pirates is "a concern shared by all, but which there is no evidence" . Advanced Research workshop, organized by Born in Lisbon in May 2008 to analyze il possibile rapporto tra la pirateria e il “terrorismo marittimo”, i partecipanti si sono dichiarati scettici sull’esistenza di legami tra i moderni pirati, il crimine internazionale organizzato e i gruppi terroristici.
A sposare la tesi di un’organizzazione fortemente centralizzata nella gestione degli assalti alla navigazione, sono invece alcuni organi di stampa. Secondo il quotidiano londinese in lingua araba “Al-Sharq al-Awsat” , “l’attività della pirateria somala ha subìto una rivoluzione logistica fondamentale; si è costituita una “cupola” organizzativa, atta a coordinare le attività di pirateria per aumentare la forza e l’intensità of attacks on ships sailing in the Red Sea. " For the newspaper there is a Steering Committee composed of eight elements, each of which belong to a group, each of these groups is composed of about 300 militants. " An organizational chart that would be similar to the "structure of criminal organizations Sicilian mafia."
A report of the unit counter-terrorism command of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet based in Bahrain would argue also that the Somali pirates will "rely on a logistics network, financial and intelligence present in the Persian Gulf, Africa and Eastern Europe." A chief of operations for laundering money from kidnappings there would be a kind of "central office" located in Abu Dhabi and "agencies" in Mombasa (Kenya), Piraeus (Greece), Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and Naples (Italy). In this port city, "the staff covered" follow the activities of shipping agencies, and then inform the pirates on the value of the load of cargo bound for the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. If this scenario is true, then why was only the privileged military action in Somalia against the weakest segment of the chain and are not initiated criminal investigations into accurate "bridgeheads" funds?
NATO TASK FORCE AND MORE
In giving priority to what is now a war to all intents and purposes the U.S. administration has given the anti-piracy operations combinated Task Force 151 (CTF-151), a naval force "multinational" legally dependent on the U.S. 5th Fleet. At the task force together 14 nations from Africa, Asia and North America (among them Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey), plus the naval fleet of the European Union EU NAVFOR, now in the waters of the Horn of Africa in December 2008. In March, six military units also come flying the NATO flag.
A similar mission was undertaken from 24 October to 12 December 2008 and was enshrined in the nth salto di qualità negli interventi di pronto intervento e in scala planetaria dell’Alleanza atlantica. Alla task force Nato impegnata nel pattugliamento delle acque somale aveva partecipato allora il cacciatorpediniere italiano Durand de la Penne . E italiano era pure il comandante della flotta, l’ammiraglio Giovanni Gumiero.
“Stiamo inoltre cooperando con le marine di Pakistan e Australia”, ha dichiarato l’ammiraglio Terry McKnight, che comanda la CTF-151. “L’Arabia saudita partecipa con noi all’organizzazione di questo impegno antipirateria. Stiamo equipaggiando e addestrando gli Emirati arabi uniti perché inviino navi a operare con o dentro la CTF-151. Ci sono poi paesi che si are activated individually, such as China and Russia. The United States is talking with China through e-mail code and the Russian units via a direct radio link. " The extraordinary firepower deployed against Somali pirates no later than 1000-1500 would soon add a few warships from Japan and Switzerland.
Even Iran has sent two units in the Gulf of Aden, creating more of a disappointment among the U.S. command, not least because one of the objectives of the parallel task force "multinational" is to prevent the possible transfer of Iranian arms to the movement of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Pentagon has repeatedly accused the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran supply of weapons to the Palestinian Islamic group. The risks of a possible US-Iran confrontation opened in Somali waters are real.
The fight against piracy as serious opens scenarios in international law and human rights violations. The ammunition ship USS Lewis and Clark , part of the CTF-151, has been transformed into a veritable floating Guantanamo to detain suspected of piracy. In narrow cells obtained in the holds of the Lewis and Clark are currently held twenty Somalis at risk of deportation to Kenya. A memorandum, signed in January by the State Department with the Kenyan authorities, provides that persons captured are processed in the African country, but being examined by the U.S. administration there would also be able to hand over prisoners to the states to which those attacked merchant. Legal aberrations that mark the baptism of a new season of "extraordinary renditions , more sophisticated and much less visible than those opened by the Bush administration after the September 11, 2001. And in combination with floating prisons, United States, NATO and international partners are also experimenting with new technologies applied to warfare systems (unmanned aircraft, sophisticated surveillance ship, mysterious "non-lethal weapons", etc..), Thus transforming the crusade for the "freedom of the seas" in a great world's fair of the military industrial complex.
GET CONTRACTOR
Despite the unparalleled military structure deployed in Somalia, the U.S. war strategists have called on shipping companies and commercial cruisers calling in Trieste to work directly against piracy by adopting the "minimum of intelligence and preventive measures, such as the use of" non-lethal technologies such as surveillance systems and alarm systems as antiabbordaggio water cannons and electric wires, devices that generate noise sounds painful in the long haul. " The Pentagon believes that the companies could resolve many of their problems with the Pirates, if you take guards "slightly" to armed defense goods and oil.
The suggestions were followed by major private security companies. Just days after the settlement in Stuttgart (Germany), the headquarters of Africom (October 1, 2008), the infamous "Blackwater Worldwide", the protagonist of the massacre of 17 civilians in Baghdad in September 2007, has provided men and equipment to assist shipping companies in transit through the Gulf of Aden. In particular, the Bilackwater bought an old research vessel, the McArthur, who then restored armed with naval guns and missile launchers and helicopters. In order to combat the pirates Blackwater has also offered pilots, sophisticated technological equipment, maintenance services, warplanes and unmanned spy planes. According to the website of the corporation, was also planned to buy some hunting Brazilian Super Tucano. " The Hollowpoint
Protective Services, Mississippi, emerging company in the firmament of the U.S. contractor, pointing to a wide range of services, from "analysis of the risks and potential of pirates," the 'implementation of plans to prevent the attacks " , the 'training staff of the shipping lines "and even" the conduct of negotiations with the pirates to secure the release of the ship and seized hostages. "
the worldwide campaign against piracy seek to participate, of course, two other giants of private security made in the USA, Halliburton Co. (which is a shareholder of the former Vice President Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney) and DynCorp International, active for some years in the hot geo-strategic scenario in the Horn of Africa.
Among the private security companies who have sensed the business there is also the Security Consulting Group (SCG) in Rome, which opened a branch in Djibouti. "Our tecnica di difesa si basa sull’uso di armi non letali affidate a personale specializzato”, ha dichiarato l’amministratore delegato Carlo Biffani. La Scg promette miracoli con i “dissuasori acustici” da poco brevettati. “Agiscono fino a una distanza di 200 metri e colpiscono l’udito fino a far male”, aggiunge Biffani.
A un’entità di sicurezza privata italiana si è affidata la Nato per preparare l’unico evento di “studio” sino ad oggi realizzato sul fenomeno della pirateria marittima (l’Advanced research workshop di Lisbona). Si tratta di EuroCrime, un istituto con sede a Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (Firenze), impegnato principalmente a collaborare con some Tuscan cities in the preparation of plans for urban safety and training for police and private police.
After September 11 the award of the missions of the war contractor has become a key element of U.S. and NATO operations in Africa and the Middle East. In Iraq and Afghanistan has already got to know the devastating consequences unknown to those on the African continent. The journalist Massimo Alberizzi, the Corriere della Sera, wrote January 28, 2009 that they gathered in Mombasa (Kenya) confidential information about the presence of Western instructors in the service of Somali pirates. "These are employees of the company security that had been mandated by the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to protect the coast, "writes Alberizzi. "There were never paid, and so have recycled themselves by organizing courses applied piracy. For this service have been paid one million dollars. "
Having contributed to the local crime, the international community to send naval fleet to defeat it.
Article published in War & Peace, No 153, April-May 2009
