CORRECTED COPY (my error in the previous post).
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53988
Piracy Requires More Than Military Solution, Top Officials Say
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 18, 2009 – Military force is only part of the solution to the recent wave of piracy in the waters off Somalia, the Pentagon’s top military and civilian officials said.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said fighting piracy will require an international effort that includes a whole-of-government approach in addition to military force.
“It’s not just a military solution here,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said in a National Public Radio interview today.
Pirates have attacked at least three ships recently in the waters off Somalia and Yemen, and Dutch marines rescued 20 Yemeni fishermen after their boat was hijacked and used as a mother ship for Somalis operating against an oil tanker.
More than 80 attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Aden and waters adjoining Somalia have taken place this year. Though war ships from 16 nations are in the region, Mullen said, it is impossible to have ships everywhere in a 1.1 million-square-mile-area.
“There are an awful lot of ships, and the number of Navy ships we have out there cannot cover the water,” Mullen said. “Nor would increasing that number dramatically cover the water.”
At the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., yesterday, Gates said shipping companies have a responsibility in helping to combat piracy off Somalia, noting that some companies are prepared to pay ransoms to pirates as part of the cost of doing business.
“Clearly, if they didn’t pay the ransoms, we would be in a stronger position,” the secretary said.
Somali pirates currently hold 15 ships and about 280 hostages. Piracy has become a business for Somalis, who live in a failed state.
“The impact of the dollars that these pirates get in their villages and for the individuals involved is staggering, because their home villages are unspeakably poor,” Gates said in Newport. “And the infusion of millions of dollars into them, and the corruption and everything else makes it a very attractive career field for a lot of poor young men who have no prospects.” And desperation on the ground will continue to make piracy attractive, Gates added.
“It’s a complex problem, and I think it involves both a maritime aspect that involves enforcement and a kinetic aspect,” he said. “But I think until we can do something to provide some kind of stability on land and some prospects for these people, it’s going to be a tough problem.”
On NPR today, Mullen said more needs to be done to punish piracy. “In the end, this is a crime, and it needs to be prosecuted in a court,” he said. “The only country the United States has an agreement with is Kenya, where we have transferred pirates that we’ve captured. That part of the system has to be more robust than it is right now.”
Biographies:
Robert M. Gates
Navy Adm. Mike Mullen
Thanks to But Three Lefts Do for the ping to this thread.
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2234263/posts
Twin Cities Somali advocate heading to NY to help accused pirate
StarTribune ^ | 4/21/09 | Paul Walsh
Posted on April 21, 2009 7:14:43 AM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
A Twin Cities Somali community activist said he is on his way to New York this morning on a mission to ensure that an accused pirate is treated justly in a court appearance this afternoon.
Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, said he spoke Monday with the parents of Abdiwali Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain.
Jamal said he intends to be in court today with Wali-i-Musi and carrying a letter from his parents in Somalia explaining that Jamal has permission to arrange for Wali-i-Musi’s defense.
Jamal said it’s likely that Wali-i-Musi will be represented by a federal public defender or an attorney arranged by the family, possibly from a civil rights organization on a pro bono basis.
“We need him to get any benefits of this judicial system,” Jamal said as he headed to the airport for a flight to New York. “Our primary concern is that the family doesn’t lose their mind.”
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...