Somalian Pirates: The First Victims of an Iranian Nuclear Program
September 30th 2008 23:34
September is a big month for pirates. September 19th is annual Talk Like A Pirate Day, and if you have never heard of that then you have clearly been living under a rock. September also heralded the confirmation of a fourth instalment in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, featuring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, another thing you would have heard if you weren’t living under a rock. But did you know that piracy is alive and well? I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t. It is not the romanticised, swash-buckler type of piracy that people seem to find so “sexy”. This is real piracy: raw and unbridled criminality on the high seas. Throw in a rogue nation, chemical weapons and both a Russian and an American warship trying to hunt down Somali pirates and hell, you have got yourself a Coen Brothers movie.
There has been a breakout, in recent months, of Somalian pirates who, using vessels that are fast and small, have been boarding ships on the open seas and doing as their name suggests: stealing, killing and destroying. The pirates aren’t just guys who get in boats and go out to try their luck either. These pirates are highly organised. There is usually a ‘mother-ship’: a large ship that anchors out at see that serves as the home base for the pirates. From there the pirates can launch their smaller boats out to sea and ambush bigger boats, and make it back to a rendezvous point at the mother-ship where they can refuel the small boats that would not usually be able to carry enough fuel to make it from land out that far to the shipping lanes at sea.
For the most part people ignore Somalian pirates. If you get caught by one, well that is really too bad but it is like the maritime equivalent to a street mugging. But now the pirates are a big issue. That is what happens when you pick on the wrong victim to mug. The Somali pirates thought they had struck gold when they routinely boarded a Ukrainian cargo ship and found it stacked full of goodies: tanks and heavy weapons. If there is one thing a Somalian pirate can make money on or use it is weaponry. But this wasn’t Ukrainian weapons being shipped around the globe. The ship was Ukrainian, the weapons were being sent to Kenya by their ally: the United States of America. Which is why as soon as the hijack happened, the American warships in the area decided to go after the pirates and have them surrounded. Even the Russians dispatched a warship to the area to help out. The pirates didn’t know what was coming to them. In the end, three pirates were dead in a shootout and the weapons in question were still in the hands of Somalian rebels. Surrounded by US warships, however, it is unlikely the Somalian pirates will ever get a chance to sell anything.
The Somalian pirates have been up to other things too. Somewhat more dangerous things, both for them and for us. One of the ships hijacked by pirates in recent weeks was straight out of Iran. And within days of taking control of the ship, several of the pirates had fallen ill and died, suffering burns and hair loss. Oh, did I forget to mention? The shipping company based in Iran has been cited by the US Department of the Treasury for nuclear proliferation concerns. See the problem? The pirates were more than ready to make a deal and sell the ship back to the Iranians until they started dropping dead. Now the situation has turned into something else entirely. Experts claim that the reported symptoms are not what you would expect from exposure to chemicals and are more likely to be related to exposure to high levels of nuclear waste. Experts on Somalia say that the pirates could use the threat of having WMD’s as leverage to get more of the foreign aid and assistance that has kept them alive over the past two decades. If it is nuclear waste, the situation could be dire. But it is a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid situation. You know the famous part of the movie where Sundance tells Butch that they can’t jump off a cliff into the water to escape being caught because he can’t swim. Butch wonders why he is concerned about drowning, since “the fall will kill you!” That is the situation here. Everyone is worried about the Somali’s having WMDs but instead, it’s the fall that will kill you: the fact that the Iranians were transporting high levels of nuclear waste in the first place. We knew that they were pursuing a nuclear agenda. But transporting that level of nuclear waste is worrisome.
You never know. In the end we could be thanking the Somalian pirates for stumbling across what the Iranians are up to and giving us the heads up.
There has been a breakout, in recent months, of Somalian pirates who, using vessels that are fast and small, have been boarding ships on the open seas and doing as their name suggests: stealing, killing and destroying. The pirates aren’t just guys who get in boats and go out to try their luck either. These pirates are highly organised. There is usually a ‘mother-ship’: a large ship that anchors out at see that serves as the home base for the pirates. From there the pirates can launch their smaller boats out to sea and ambush bigger boats, and make it back to a rendezvous point at the mother-ship where they can refuel the small boats that would not usually be able to carry enough fuel to make it from land out that far to the shipping lanes at sea.
For the most part people ignore Somalian pirates. If you get caught by one, well that is really too bad but it is like the maritime equivalent to a street mugging. But now the pirates are a big issue. That is what happens when you pick on the wrong victim to mug. The Somali pirates thought they had struck gold when they routinely boarded a Ukrainian cargo ship and found it stacked full of goodies: tanks and heavy weapons. If there is one thing a Somalian pirate can make money on or use it is weaponry. But this wasn’t Ukrainian weapons being shipped around the globe. The ship was Ukrainian, the weapons were being sent to Kenya by their ally: the United States of America. Which is why as soon as the hijack happened, the American warships in the area decided to go after the pirates and have them surrounded. Even the Russians dispatched a warship to the area to help out. The pirates didn’t know what was coming to them. In the end, three pirates were dead in a shootout and the weapons in question were still in the hands of Somalian rebels. Surrounded by US warships, however, it is unlikely the Somalian pirates will ever get a chance to sell anything.
The Somalian pirates have been up to other things too. Somewhat more dangerous things, both for them and for us. One of the ships hijacked by pirates in recent weeks was straight out of Iran. And within days of taking control of the ship, several of the pirates had fallen ill and died, suffering burns and hair loss. Oh, did I forget to mention? The shipping company based in Iran has been cited by the US Department of the Treasury for nuclear proliferation concerns. See the problem? The pirates were more than ready to make a deal and sell the ship back to the Iranians until they started dropping dead. Now the situation has turned into something else entirely. Experts claim that the reported symptoms are not what you would expect from exposure to chemicals and are more likely to be related to exposure to high levels of nuclear waste. Experts on Somalia say that the pirates could use the threat of having WMD’s as leverage to get more of the foreign aid and assistance that has kept them alive over the past two decades. If it is nuclear waste, the situation could be dire. But it is a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid situation. You know the famous part of the movie where Sundance tells Butch that they can’t jump off a cliff into the water to escape being caught because he can’t swim. Butch wonders why he is concerned about drowning, since “the fall will kill you!” That is the situation here. Everyone is worried about the Somali’s having WMDs but instead, it’s the fall that will kill you: the fact that the Iranians were transporting high levels of nuclear waste in the first place. We knew that they were pursuing a nuclear agenda. But transporting that level of nuclear waste is worrisome.
You never know. In the end we could be thanking the Somalian pirates for stumbling across what the Iranians are up to and giving us the heads up.
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