Another Hijacked Ship, Another Mysterious Cargo

The pirates of Somalia have hijacked yet another ship off the high seas, this time a Ukrainian RoRo (See Eagle1 for picture) that reportedly has some interesting cargo. IHT has a story reported by the AP from the Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministry says pirates have seized a Ukrainian-operated ship off Somalia.

The ministry says the Faina was sailing with 21 people on board under the Belize flag, though it is operated by Ukrainian managing company Tomax Team Inc.

This is how the Associated Press reported the cargo.

The ministry had no information on the ship's cargo. But the Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the ship was loaded with about 30 T-72 tanks and spare parts for them.

Like all early reports, be skeptical. The MV Iran Deyanat story has been out there a month, consistently reporting the same thing from the mainstream media in both Europe and Africa (and ignored in the US MSM btw), so at least with that story there is some consistency making it worth keeping an eye on. Who built the T-72s? Where were they going? 30 T-72s off the coast of Africa with an unknown destination raises a lot of questions, and skepticism without more information is warranted.

However, what is noteworthy is yet another ship has been hijacked, this time with Russians part of the crew, and the day after the Russian Navy is deploying to the Somalian coast. Anyone else now see why we believe the Russian deployment to Somalia is more interesting than the deployment to see Hugo Chavez? The French killed one pirate and took 6 prisoners the second time they took military action, the Russians will shoot to kill, and it will be interesting to see if prisoners are optional with the Russians.

If the Russians take prisoners, will the Guardian write a story about prisoners being held for months in a shit hole prison cell on a very old Russian warship? Unlikely. But if we are being intellectually honest, that is the international detainee issue of our time.

On Friday night the presidential candidates may or may not have a debate about foreign policy, and if we are looking for the international legal issue in need of a discussion at the presidential level, or the missing rule set in the maritime domain that requires presidential level attention, the issue of detaining and prosecuting pirates on the high seas is the issue no one is talking about, and the global system needs.

Where is the UN on this international legal issue? Why don't we have an international court for dealing with pirates? Where is the political leadership on this issue in the United States? Where are the legal discussions of this issue in the blogosphere, besides EagleOne? Is the legal blogosphere so small that only one lawyer sees the most obvious missing international legal framework in the 21st century?

After all, when the Danes release 10 pirates they capture at sea to the beach of Somalia because there is no legal system to manage piracy, when the Canadians and British refuse to capture ppirates for the same reason, and when the US Navy gets accused of floating prisons when they do take prisoners at sea, there is a missing rule set in the global system.

I've been suggesting Somalian piracy is costing the global economy half a million dollars a day since doing the math here. I got an email today from a ship owner in Europe, who says the actual figure is more like a million and a half US dollars just in insurance costs, and that doesn't account for rising costs due to labor concerns among unions, and a list of other costs. Meanwhile, absent political action and an international legal framework, this fire continues to burn despite international naval efforts. Al Qaeda is watching us dither.