Hunt of the Sea Wolves

Voice of America

Spanish forces have captured six alleged pirates in the Indian Ocean, after the suspects attacked a Spanish navy ship.

The Spanish defense ministry says pirates aboard a skiff (small boat) opened fire on the combat support ship Patiño early Thursday.

A statement says the navy ship exchanged fire with the pirates, who eventually tried to flee on their boat. A military helicopter caught up with the pirates, who then surrendered.

The ministry says six suspected pirates were taken into custody, five of whom were injured. The detainees said a colleague who was killed during the incident had been thrown overboard.

The Spanish vessel is part of the European Union’s mission to protect ships from pirates off the coast of Somalia and in the Indian Ocean.

Somali pirates have made hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom from hijacking ships in recent years.

Anti-piracy officials with the EU recently said pirates now receive an average of $4.7 million in ransom for each hijacking. However, the number of successful hijackings appears to be dropping, a trend authorities attribute to increased naval patrols and better security aboard the vessels.

Many thanks for the review by P.D. Wall on my novel “Hunt of the Sea Wolves”:

For a military journalist that was overtrained in “just give the required facts,” [Chief John Chadwell has been seen by hundreds of thousands of sailors in many installments of NAVY VIDEO NEWS,] it is nice to see that his first ‘fiction’ book would be both plausible, and filled with believable characters.

The military mindset and camaraderie are more rounded that the ‘hoorah,’ of the movie ilk. Likewise, The antagonists’ are assigned very specific reasons for the decisions they made. Again, much richer than the shallow Hollywood stereotypes.

HUNT OF THE SEA WOLVES by John Chadwell-after an initial chapter hiccup of difficult character names confused location and unclear motive…then takes a backstroke, and provides rich histories [fictional?] that establish the characters and conflict lain before the reader.

The mystery surrounding ’special forces,’ and Black Ops, affords a uncontested glimpse into the protagonists underworld. While exotic location and traditions offers a similar opportunity for the writer to flesh out the antagonistic characters, without encroaching on a ’specific,’ target that would afford rebuttal.

Author Chadwell’s familiarity of ‘official’ and vulgar names of many pieces of military equipment, sometimes leaves the reader confused as to what EXACTLY is being described; but, not to the point that it slows down action, nor confuses the reader to a point they must back up and re-read to clarify.

However, between the known facts and story line, the line between truth and fiction tends to get very blurry! What’s Truth? What’s Rumor? What’s fiction? …and that IN THIS CONTEXT, is a good thing.

“It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

Voice of America

While piracy attacks off the coast of unstable Somalia have garnered lots of attention in recent years, maritime security experts say it is on Africa’s western coast, in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, where piracy attacks are currently on the rise.

Militants hidden behind bandanas from Nigeria’s Niger Delta oil region fire machine guns into the water from a speeding boat during a recent show of force staged for media.

Their usual attacks range from stealing oil to kidnapping offshore oil workers for ransom.

Maritime security experts say these militants, who have been active for years have now inspired other pirates to arm themselves and stage lucrative attacks, up and down the coast of West Africa, off of Cameroon and more recently Equatorial Guinea, Togo and new oil producer Ghana.

Off the coast of another targeted country Benin, more than 20 pirate attacks were reported this year, after none in 2010.

Experts say it is very difficult to come up with overall statistics, but that it is clear attacks are extending further along the coast and becoming more and more frequent.

Daniel Whiteneck, from the U.S.-based Center for Naval Analyses, says it is no surprise as pirate enterprises are easy to start and sustain in the Gulf of Guinea.

“It is pretty cheap to step out there and say I can engage in quote unquote robbery at sea, smash and grab operations. It does not take a lot of capital investment to become a pirate, and a successful one,” he said.

Weak local security and a coastline with many easy hideouts contribute to the problem.
Security experts say, while a few years ago, pirate attacks in West Africa usually consisted of five or six pirates on one speedboat these now usually involve up to 20 pirates on five or six boats

Stan Ayscue, from the Securewest International company, which provides maritime security solutions, says the degree of violence has also gone up in recent years. “We are looking at militants spraying the wheelhouse (where the boat’s steering wheel is situated) with machine gun fire before even getting on board. You are looking at once they are on board, beating crews with riffle butts, people getting whipped with electrical cables and shot quite openly,” he said.

Ayscue says pirates in several countries have infiltrated customs offices, so that they know when a ship they want to attack is coming through.

Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea often target ships for cash, valuables and cargo.

But experts say oil interests remain the most lucrative targets for West African pirates. With more and more oil being found further offshore and deeper into the ocean, oil installations are becoming more vulnerable to attack, according to the US Africa Command chief of air and maritime security, Phillip Heyl. “Just taking one crew member off of ship while it is in production could have very negative consequences,” he said.

Heyl says AFRICOM has started helping Ghana’s government with maritime security plans to respond to such attacks, which can also make worldwide prices of oil suddenly go up.

Maritime security experts recommend better intelligence sharing, building up national and regional naval forces, and creating better legal frameworks to deal with pirates when they are caught.

They also say that like with most criminal activity, some of the root causes are poverty, corruption and bad governance.

The West African grouping ECOWAS has promised to put the piracy threat on the agenda of its next heads of state summit in 2012.

John Chadwell

Finished out 2011 by co-writing along with Ron Shusett the script ARmed for producers Melissa Tracy (Razor Pictures) and Alex Barkaloff (Lionsgate). We hope to see it on roster for production in 2012. I’m now working on the novel, “The Soldiers’ General,” about General John J. Pershing. Plan to have it out mid 2012.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Military.com

A U.S. destroyer broke up an attack by Somali pirates on Monday in the lawless waters of the Gulf of Aden, but the American Sailors let the would-be hijackers go, the Navy announced.

The incident highlights the difficulty for the U.S. and international navies that patrol the pirate-infested waters off the Horn of Africa, where warships can help disrupt attacks when they happen or sometimes rescue ships after the fact — but only treat the symptoms of the piracy problem, not its root causes.

According to the Navy, the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Nordic Apollo radioed for help at about 8:40 a.m. local time on Monday — its crew reported being fired upon by pirates in a small skiff. At 11:00 a.m., another vessel reported “suspicious activity by a skiff,” and the destroyer USS Pinckney responded to investigate.

The San Diego-based Pinckney radioed a warning to all the ships in the area and launched its helicopter, an MH-60R Seahawk, to try to track the pirates. Meanwhile, the destroyer hurried to where the skiff had been spotted.

According to the Navy’s announcement, the Pinckney’s Seahawk crew sighted the skiff and confirmed it was carrying the telltale equipment of modern pirates:

“The helicopter crew successfully tracked and located the skiff, observing nine suspected pirates and pirate paraphernalia on board, including several ladders, weapons and fuel containers. The suspected pirates were seen attempting to cover their weapons with blankets and throwing the ladders overboard as Pinckney closed their position. Intercepted by the helicopter and Pinckney, the skiff stopped and the suspected pirates threw their weapons, identified as five AK-47 rifles, one rocket propelled grenade launcher and three RPG rounds, overboard.”

When the Pinckney had neared the skiff, it dispatched a boarding team in one of the ship’s small boats. Sailors discovered nine would-be pirates, “one grappling hook, 36 barrels of fuel, and 75 and 45 horsepower outboard engines,” the Navy said. The American sailors sank one of the skiff’s outboards — to keep it from getting up enough speed to try coming alongside another merchant ship — but left its crew enough fuel and water to return to shore.

International authorities seldom try to arrest pirates in these types of situations. It’s inconvenient to hold pirate suspects aboard a warship and it’s difficult to determine the proper venues and procedures to try them. Because Somalia is without a strong central government, pirates can find refuge ashore not only after failed hijacking attempts like Monday’s, but also after successfully boarding and capturing merchant vessels.

Even though the American and European navies have patrolled the Horn of Africa for years to help cut down on pirate attacks, their commanders have all but ruled out trying to crack down on pirate havens ashore. One worry is that attacking and killing pirates might cause hijackers to escalate their violence against merchant hostages.

Russian and Chinese naval commanders, on the other hand, have talked much more forcefully about shelling or even invading Somali pirate safe havens. In May, Chinese Gen. Chen Bingde, head of the People’s Liberation Army, said in a visit to the Pentagon that he wanted to step up the international effort against Somali piracy.

“I think that for our counter-piracy campaigns to be effective, we should probably move beyond the ocean and crush their bases on the land,” Chen said, through a translator. “It is important that we target not only the operators, those on the small ships or crafts conducting the hijacking activities, but also the figureheads.”

The Telegraph

A US teenager abducted by Islamist militants in the Philippines for five months escaped by telling his captors he was going for a bath in a stream before wandering barefoot through the jungle for two days to freedom.

Kevin Lunsmann, 14, tricked his four armed captors, suspected of being linked to al-Qaeda, that he planned to bathe in a stream on Friday before taking his chance make a bolt from their clutches.

The boy followed the river down a mountain and walked for two days without shoes before he was discovered by villagers on the island of Basilan, though at first he feared they might be sympathetic to his Abu Sayyaf captors.

After a brief chase the villagers convinced the boy, who was exhausted, hungry and in shock, that they meant him no harm and his ordeal was finally over late on Saturday.

“He was in fear, so there was a bit of a chase before the villagers convinced him that they were friends,” said police Senior Supt Edwin de Campo, adding that he had bruises on his arms and feet but was otherwise fine.

Harry Thomas, the US ambassador to the Philippines, said the boy had talked with his family by phone and would be reunited with them shortly.

Defence Professionals

The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (Constabulary) is participating in a new German-Dutch investigation team set up to combat piracy in Somali waters. The team will focus primarily on identifying the organisers, financiers and negotiators involved in hijacking merchant shipping.

The Dutch National Public Prosecutor’s Office made the announcement of the team’s establishment on November 17.

The Dutch ministry of defence said the investigation team will try to discover where the millions of dollars of ransom money goes to in an effort to track down the broader piracy network.

The Joint Investigation Team is an initiative of the Dutch National Public Prosecutor’s Office and the German Public Prosecutor’s Office in Osnabrück, Germany. In addition, the National Criminal Investigation Service, the State Investigation Bureau of Lower Saxony, the Federal Investigation Bureau in Berlin, Eurojust and Europol are also taking part.

Last week, representatives from the Dutch National Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Osnabrück and Eurojust signed the cooperation agreement. The joint investigation team has been set up provisionally for one year.

Despite international efforts, piracy continues to be a major problem in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. In recent days pirates have unsuccessfully attack a couple of ships in the Indian Ocean. On Monday morning the container ship MSC Jeanne was attacked by six pirates in two skiffs, whilst 200 nautical miles east of Mombassa, Kenya.

After the ship was fired on, the master raised the alarm, took evasive manoeuvres and fired flares towards the skiffs, causing them to abort the attack.

On Sunday the bulk carrier Pioneer Pacific was attacked by eight pirates in two speedboats whilst underway in the Gulf of Aden, off Yemen. The crew fired flares at the speedboats and an onboard security team fired at the pirates, causing them to break off the attack.

On November 18, armed men boarded an oil supply vessel contracted by U.S. energy company Chevron off the Nigerian coast in the second attack by gunmen on Chevron contracted vessels this month.

“The MV Endeavour was off the coast, serving Chevron’s Agbami field, when gunmen boarded it in the very early hours,” one security source told Reuters. Two other sources close to the incident confirmed the details.

Experts say recent attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea threaten the region’s position as an emerging trade hub that is an increasingly important source of oil, metals and agricultural products such as cocoa for world markets.

Britain and the United States last month reversed their opposition to having armed guards on merchant ships amid growing acceptance that weapons could be the best deterrent to Somali gangs who have been seizing ships and holding their crews and cargo to ransom for the last five years.

On Monday Reuters said that security firms led by G4S are now providing armed guards to ships sailing pirate-infested Somali waters, with one start-up kitting out a gunboat to lead World War II style convoys, as shipowners step up their response to constant attacks.

G4S, which provides services ranging from airport and sports event security to prison management and cash transportation, has been in the vessel security market since 2003, but only recently switched to using armed guards.

G4S, currently serving two large Far Eastern shipowners, said it may also offer armed protection to shipping off the west coast of Africa and the Strait of Malacca, off Malaysia, both scenes of increasing pirate activity.

Other private security contractors offering protection against pirates include Typhon, a start-up chaired by Simon Murray, the ex-military chairman of commodities trading giant Glencore.

Typhon, backed by two major Asian shipping companies, plans to protect convoys of up to ten ships with an armed vessel complete with helicopter, chief executive and founder Anthony Sharpe told Reuters.

A report earlier this year estimated that maritime piracy costs the global economy between US$7 billion and US$12 billion through higher shipping costs and ransom payments.

Somali pirates were holding as many as 16 vessels hostage as of November 7, including the Blida, a 20,586-tonne Algerian-flagged carrier with 27 crew members.

TVN

Security firms led by G4S are providing armed guards to ships sailing pirate-infested Somali waters, with one start-up kitting out a gunboat to lead World War II style convoys, as shipowners step up their response to constant attacks.

G4S, which provides services ranging from airport and sports event security to prison management and cash transportation, has been in the vessel security market since 2003, but only recently switched to using armed guards.

“We’ve been doing it at an increasing level basically as a response to customer demand because of the threat posed off the coast of Somalia and the Indian Ocean generally,” a G4S spokesman told Reuters, adding that the FTSE 100 firm sees combating pirates as a big commercial opportunity.

G4S, currently serving two large Far Eastern shipowners, said it may also offer armed protection to shipping off the west coast of Africa and the Strait of Malacca, off Malaysia, both scenes of increasing pirate activity.

The switch in favour of armed vessel security comes after Britain and the United States last month reversed their opposition to it amid growing acceptance that weapons could be the best deterrent to Somali gangs who have been seizing ships and holding their crews and cargo to ransom for the last five years.

Traditionally, shipping companies and their insurers have fretted that having armed personnel onboard boats could escalate violence in the event of a pirate attack.

Other private security contractors offering protection against pirates include Typhon, a start-up chaired by Simon Murray, the ex-military chairman of commodities trading giant Glencore.

Typhon, backed by two major Asian shipping companies, plans to protect convoys of up to ten ships with an armed vessel complete with helicopter, chief executive and founder Anthony Sharpe told Reuters.

“There are some guys that say they don’t like arms because it escalates the situation, but sadly it’s a necessary evil. It does deter piracy,” Sharpe said.

A report earlier this year estimated that maritime piracy costs the global economy between $7 billion and $12 billion through higher shipping costs and ransom payments.

The International Maritime Organisation said it does not condone or condemn the use of armed guards, but has issued guidelines for shipowners who do decide to seek armed protection.

G4S said it was providing armed protection, as well as tactical and strategic advice on board large vessels such as oil tankers and container ships. It said it had averted a number of attempted pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean in recent months.

Somali pirates were holding as many as 16 vessels hostage as of November 7, including the Blida, a 20,586-tonne Algerian-flagged carrier with 27 crew members.

Earlier this year, a seafaring Somali gang seized the oil tanker Irene almost 1,000 miles from the coast of Somalia in their most long-range attack to date.

G4S, which is worth around 3.3 billion pounds, made headlines earlier this month after scrapping a planned 5.2 billion pounds acquisition of Danish cleaning firm ISS following investor opposition to the company moving away from its security heritage.

Smh.com.au

A French couple have told how a well-armed pirate flotilla burst out of thick yellow fog in the Gulf of Aden and closed in on their lonely yacht, as the alleged gunmens’ trial continued in France.

French commandos seized six alleged Somali pirates from Indian Ocean waters in 2008 after tracking down the gang holding the middle-aged couple, Bernadette and Jean-Yves Delanne, aboard their yacht the Carre d’As.

The six, young men aged between 21 and 36, nowlanguish in a French prison, and face a life behind bars far from their war-torn homeland if convicted. Friday saw their alleged victims testify for the first time.

“There was a sort of ochre-coloured fog in the Gulf of Aden, the sea was calm,” 63-year-old Bernadette said, recounting how the couple arrived in the notoriously dangerous waters on September 2, 2008.

Bernadette and Jean-Yves, also 63, were experienced sailors from the French Pacific island territory of Tahiti, bringing the Carre d’As towards the gulf, a choke-point on the route to the Suez Canal, home from Australia.

They told of how a first, small skiff with a 40 horsepower outboard and only three pirates on board surged out of the gloom and stormed towards them.

Jean-Yves manoeuvred to try to lose their pursuers, but the launch rammed them. “I was very scared. I screamed. I thought my husband would be gunned down,” declared Bernadette, a dynamic, bespectacled little blonde.

One of the boarding party fell in the ocean, but a slight man, “barely 40 kilos” jumped aboard the Carre d’As and fired at least one shot.

Almost immediately a second launch arrived, along with the pirate’s so-called “mother ship”, which the couple said resembled a whaler, each carrying pirates armed with “rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers”.

Ten gunmen boarded the yacht. One understood navigation and took the helm, plonking a compass down and declaring a 120 degree bearing, in other words: “Reverse course. We were no longer going to Yemen, but Somalia.”

The pirates seemed delighted with their luxury prize, the couple said, telling of how they used the shower and the toilet, used the sat-phone to call their families and took pictures of each other with the couple’s camera.

They demanded that the captives cook for them, but did not harm them.

“My husband said: ‘We are 60 years old, married for 40 years. You should respect my wife and respect me.’ They never shoved us,” said Bernadette. Jean-Yves said their captors were kind, apart from “one or two”.

The yacht dropped anchor off a Somali village and a local leader - who has not been captured - came aboard with his translator Yacub, who is now one of the six confused and homesick men on trial a hemisphere away.

The gang initially demanded a four-million-dollar ransom, but the very next day offered a “two-million-dollar discount”, before falling to arguing among themselves for several days, splitting along clan lines.

Some of the pirates eventually decided to move on, setting sail again and taking the couple with them, hugging the coast en route for Eyl, a notorious pirate den on the Somali coast.

There, French special forces stuck, storming aboard the yacht, shooting one pirate dead, arresting six and freeing the couple. During the raid, Bernadette hid in a cupboard, and Jean-Yves in the toilet.

“We did the right thing,” she said. “At least one of the pirates wouldn’t have given us up easily.”

The chief trial judge read out a passage from Bernadette’s log: “Saved by the men in black! Phew, phew, phew. Thank you the French army. Thank you Mr President.” At these lines, their author burst out laughing.

The trial continues.

Channels

Gunmen reportedly attacked an oil supply vessel contracted by U.S. energy company Chevron off the Nigerian coast early on Friday.

According to a Reuters report this would be the second attack on a Chevron vessel, taking place off the Bayelsan coast.

“The MV Endeavour was off the coast, serving Chevron’s Agbami field, when gunmen boarded it in the very early hours,” one security source told Reuters. Two other sources close to the incident confirmed the details.

Reuters reported that one of the sources said three men may have been kidnapped and Chevron added that a investigation into the situation was being conducted, declining to make any more comments.

Pirate attacks are becoming increasingly frequent on coasts off the Gulf of Guinea, and analysts says it threatens the region’s position as an emerging trade hub, Reuters reports.