Something to add to your links, in case you haven't seen it:
Cases of piracy at sea leap, Indonesia worst (some by Al Qaeda)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1011867/posts Piracy on the high seas has reached record levels and Indonesian waters are the most dangerous in the world, an ocean crime watchdog said Friday.
The International Maritime Bureau, or IMB, said the number of reported ship attacks leaped to 344 in the first nine months of this year, 26 percent more than the 271 recorded in the same period in 2002.
In July it reported three attempted boardings in less than a week, with pirates firing automatic weapons at two gas tankers and an oil tanker.
Western intelligence agencies and maritime security experts have gone further. Some have linked al Qaeda, or militant groups associated with it, to piracy in Indonesia's waters.
Some experts say al Qaeda showed its nautical strategy and sophisticated seaborne attack capability by bombing the Limburg oil tanker off Yemen in 2002 and U.S. warship USS Cole in 2000.
Jemaah Islamiyah, a group whose goal is to create an Islamic state enveloping Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the southern Philippines, has also been identified by experts as capable of hijacking a supertanker and exploding it in the strait.