The pirate hijacking of a UAE -registered tanker off the coast of Somalia underscores the continued anarchy and instability plaguing the country, the threat of modern-day piracy in Somali waters, and the potential of terrorist-pirate nexuses.
Reports indicate that 12 heavily armed pirates hijacked the UAE tanker, kidnapping the 19 Filipino crewmembers, are holding the ship off the Somali coast and have demanded a large ransom from the owners. Somalia has not had an army, navy, police, or coast guard since 1991. As past WAR Reports have discussed, Somalia?s anarchy has resulted in the ascendance of battling warlords, clans, and gangs; an upsurge in piracy in Somali waters; and fears that Islamist terrorist elements may seek to exploit this environment . This attack is the latest in a series in littoral Somalia that has targeted commercial shipping and aid deliveries . As Emily Wax of the Washington Post has reported, according to the International Maritime Bureau, 35 pirate attacks in the area were catalogued in 2005, compared to just two in 2004. In addition to this attack, pirate activities off the Somali coast have featured some remarkably ambitious attacks and engagements, including a repulsed attack on the Bahamian-registered Seabourn Spirit cruise ship and a recent one-sided exchange of fire between a pirate ship and two US warships in which one pirate was killed, five wounded, and 12 taken into custody .
The Washington Post report suggests that pirate activities are largely a political-criminal enterprise, as Somali warlords typically hire fisherman to conduct the piracy and pocket the ransoms paid. Though there is no intelligence that suggests that piracy around Somalia is connected to terrorist groups, the potential threat of pirate-terrorist nexuses and marine terrorism remains and is underscored in this and other recent attacks. As earlier WAR Reports covering piracy and the threat of marine terrorism have noted over a number of months , the hiring, and/or other relationships, of pirates by terrorist groups could result in pirates serving as the ?muscle? to protect terrorist elements and interests and/or hijack or shakedown ships for revenue for terrorist coffers. Further, terrorist elements may employ or co-opt pirates, or simply mimic their tactics, to attack ships in the service of terrorist goals. In this vein, Western cruise ships like the Seabourn Spirit represent particularly attractive targets, as they are symbolic of perceived Western opulence and because their dense populations raise the potential for high casualties. Further, hijacked ships could be used as a water-borne missile to ram ships or marine infrastructure in attacks resembling the USS Cole or Limburgh .
The piracy rampant in Somali waters highlights one particularly direct and immediate dimension of the impact and threats posed to international security and commerce by failed and weak states, whose anarchic environments provide a sanctuary for criminal, militant, and terrorist elements. The potential exists that terrorist or criminal elements may seek to exploit Somalia?s, or others’, anarchy and, thus, draws to the fore the importance of addressing failed states as part of national counterterrorism strategies.
