Posted on 04/14/2009 8:15:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Al-Qaida is nothing if t opportunistic. Its leadership watches the news carefully. It tracks how stories play. It adapts its tactics. Now, counterterrorism experts are worried that al-Qaida and its affiliates will be inspired by Somali pirates.
"Potentially, piracy is a platform for their activities," says Robert D. Kaplan, a fellow at the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security. "There are already al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia. If they can make contact with pirate federations, then al-Qaida can use piracy as a form of terrorism."
In recent months, al-Qaida has strengthened its ties with a Somali terrorist group called al-Shabab. And experts worry that group, through clan ties or family connections, could give al-Qaida an opening to the pirates.
"We should assume that al-Qaida will try to morph in whatever direction possibilities emerge," says Kaplan. "And, remember, al-Qaida lives off weakly governed states in an Islamic cultural setting, and that perfectly describes Somalia."
Right now, most experts say the Somali pirates trolling the waters of the Indian Ocean are criminals, motivated by money. And so far, according to Bill Braniff of West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, al-Qaida has tried to distance itself from those kinds of operations. They like to see themselves as fighters with a higher calling.
"Being too closely associated in a very public way with illicit activity is not very helpful to them," says Braniff. "Al-Qaida has used illegal and criminal activity in the past to fund its operation. But it doesn't want to capture headlines with this kind of behavior; al-Qaida just wants it as a means to an end. In the end, it is as political violence and propaganda; it isn't to make money."
The al-Qaida leadership was noticeably quiet during the latest standoff between the pirates and the U.S. Navy. There were no supportive video messages, no cry about the U.S. infidels attacking fellow Muslims. Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, says that is because al-Qaida is trying to lay low.
"In general these days, al-Qaida is remaining very quiet," he says. "And I see it as part of an overall pattern of their working with local affiliates and not being front and center as they once were."
The concern is if that changes. "If these ideologues can make contact and work with pirates ... down the road in a few years you could have pirate attacks that are not just criminally motivated but ideologically motivated as well," says Kaplan.
There's another possibility: that al-Qaida finds a way to get a share of the millions of dollars of ransom money that the Somali pirates have been taking.
Hoffman says that even without a formal relationship with the pirates, al-Qaida reaps benefits from all the lawless activity along the Somali coast. The pirates have become a distraction.
"The more that is on the new Obama administration's plate in terms of international security challenges, the better for al-Qaida," says Hoffman, "because it means attention can't be riveted to Pakistan and Afghanistan as the president has promised."
Even before the American ship and its captain were seized, the Obama administration had started to focus on terrorism in Somalia. The failed state has become a breeding ground for terrorists. Terrorism experts say it is no accident that if you put a pirate and an al-Shabab fighter side by side, they are remarkably similar. Both are young, unemployed and highly impressionable. The pirates answer to warlords; the jihadists follow ideologues. The difference between them is so slight, experts worry they will start working together.
“may turn to piracy”???....who says that they haven’t already?
Those poor “experts.” They’ll be having nightmares about this for months.
Al qaeda should consider turning to taking in laundry; they could practice up washing the towels on their heads.
Piracy won’t work out for them any better than it is going to for those Somali loons...
Now they just hijack ships.....
Excuse me?? I thought the Somali pirates were raising the ransom money for Al Qaida anyway, no??
What an idiot. AQ is far more sophisticated than this.
AQ is only interested in Somalia as a base of lawless operation.
The last thing they would do is beg America to blow them off the map after they all assembled in one place.
The nature of AQ is loose knit cells of operation at all levels of society.
“Al-Qaida decides to become fish food”
And dont forget. They picked the WTC for a reason.
Disruption of our markets.
These guys arent rubes. Their leaders are well educated billionaires
What’s the problem. I’m sure Obama will deal with it. Probably he’ll appoint a new interagency piracy Czar.
Because Afghanistan is now to HOT
...lol....
Our media: so incredibly stupid they’re embarrassing...
Most of our generally worthless NATO allies have naval vessels, and some of them possibly have sailors who could be trained to steer them and shoot their guns. While it is true that the pirates operate in a large area which would be difficult for the United States to keep clear, if no unescorted ships could operate in that area, it would not matter a whole lot to this country. We could probably arrange to protect the vessels we needed to. The EEEEEEEuropeons, however, would be paying a helluva lot of ransom money and getting pretty slow and irregular deliveries of their goods if this MOHAMMEDAN piracy is allowed to continue. Perhaps the EEEEEEEEEuropeons could ask their navies just this one time to get off their worthless dufflebags and try to do something for the common good. Their reluctance to confront Russian tanks and planes is one thing, but surely they could take on teenage muzzies in motor boats if they really steeled themselves for the task.
Good Lord. You just can't write this stuff any better.
Why are they worried about the “Somalian Volunteer Coast Guard” when there so many “Right Wing Gun Toting Church Going Radicals” rightcher in the United States????
Great but I doubt it - they are out in the open and they will never win. Can you imagine - an Al Queda ship floating in the Indian Ocean - cries out for a cruise missile attack.
We will have gone from McHale’s Navy to Abdul’s Navy.
Well, not specifically, no...
While it's reasonalble to suppose that *some* of the money found it's way to AQ or other groups, these pirates do seem to be in it pretty much for their own benefit. It's piracy for the oldest of reasons: Greed. Not that this makes it any better or worse. :-)
Steal a few semi rigs full of Obamas Tobacco here in the US and make millions more
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