02-11-2012, 06:06 PM
Pirates of the 21st Century
Pirates of the 21st.doc (Size: 66 KB / Downloads: 27)
Pirates.ppt (Size: 1.29 MB / Downloads: 27)
To whom do they work for?
The pirates mainly work for themselves.
Much of the piracy seems to be based out of the Puntland, a semiautonomous region on the northern shore of Somalia that broke away from Somalia soon after 1991.
Thousands of pirates now operate off Somalia's coast, although there are no accurate numbers on precisely how many there are.
There is also evidence that expatriate Somalis living in Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and throughout the Persian Gulf may be feeding information to the pirates about ships that have docked in those regions and may be heading toward the Gulf of Aden and other pirate-infested areas.
United Nations monitoring reports on arms smuggling in the Horn of Africa have pointed to evidence that pirate gangs have established relations with corrupt officials of the Puntland government. They bribe port officials to allow the pirates to use Eyl and other ports as their bases of operation, and to bring some of their captured ships in for safekeeping while the pirates negotiate ransoms with the ships' owners.
Who benefits from this piracy?
The money seems to be distributed by warlords to their families and friends, and then further outward toward their fellow clan-members.
There have been charges recently that local Islamist groups may be linked to the pirate gangs, and may have begun to use piracy as a source of funds to buy weapons.
Pirates pay some money from the money which they get from the piracy as a bribe to the officials of the harbor of the Somalia country to carryon their piracy activities.
Is there an Al Qaeda connection?
While the CIA's chief, Gen. Michael Hayden, suggested recently that Al Qaeda was beginning to expand its reach in the Horn of Africa, and possibly reaching out to radical local Islamist parties such as Al Shabab in Somalia, there appears to be little evidence of a connection between international Islamist groups such as Al Qaeda and piracy.
"There may be some loose elements among the Islamist groups that have tie-ups with the pirates, because the movement is fractured into six or seven different groups, and each may have its own problems getting funding".
Working of the pirates:-
Pirates works in a team to capture a target vessel in the sea. They have a clear situation of the ships by their expatriate Somalis living in Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and throughout the Persian Gulf that ships have docked in those regions and may be heading toward the Gulf of Aden.
The pirates live on their “mother ships”, storing their arms, fuel and other supplies on board, they catch target vessels using high-speed boats, heavily-armed boarding with rope ladders.
Around three speed boats may be used in an attack, each carrying 6 to 10 men armed with AK-47, AK-56 assault rifles and sometimes rocket – propelled grenades. They are packed by satellite phones and other GPS devices also.
On the other hand hundreds of gunmen provide backup on the shore, where they incessantly chew the narcotic leaf qat and dream of sharing in the huge ransoms that can run into millions of pounds.
Using a mother ship – often an old Russian trawler – to prowl deeper waters for their target, they can offload smaller boats to move in close and overtake the ship, and climb up with hooks and ladders, and submachine guns.
With a fully laden tanker ship, they have a fairly low free board, so it is easy to get up on board from smaller boats with the help of the rope ladders. Tankers are an obvious target of opportunity because sometimes they get enough food and ransoms money, which is sufficient for all of the pirates and enough to give to the harbors officials.
Arms and the other supplies:-
In a war-ravaged country where life is cheap and hope is rare, each successful hijacker brings more young men into the village to seek their fortune at sea.
The entire village now depends on the criminal economy. Hastily built hotels provide basic lodging or the pirates, new restaurants serve meals and send food to the ships. While traders provide fuel for the skiffs flitting between the captured vessels. Somalis in the diaspora- especially in Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the UK- finance the pirates gangs and keep a large chunk of the ransom money.
The equipments they have:-
In the 21st Century world is progressing with the high speed and the pirates the 21st Century are also developed their self. The pirates are having new equipment like AK-47, AK-56 assaults rifles, rocket propelled launchers and hand grenades. They are packed with the satellite phones and the GPS devices also.