Troubling Developments Off Somalia

One of the topics that I didn't hear much about while at USNI/AFCEA West 2011 last week was piracy. The topic just never came up, except when I brought it up. The specific event that got me thinking about piracy last week were the comments by Vice Admiral Fox, which are worth reading. The shift of treating pirates like terrorists is a big shift, and must be intentional and motivated by some information I am not aware of. It would appear things are changing.

The AP interview today with Maj. Gen. Buster Howes has revealed some troubling information regarding piracy. This is exactly the kind of thing that completely turns the piracy calculus for both the shipping industry and the naval powers operating in the region upside down.

Somali pirates are systematically torturing hostages and using them as human shields, the top commander of the European Union Naval Force said Tuesday.

Pirates have recently tied hostages upside down and dragged them in the sea, locked them in freezers, beaten them and used plastic ties around their genitals, Maj. Gen. Buster Howes told The Associated Press.

"There have been regular manifestations of systematic torture," he said. If warships approached a pirated ship too closely, the pirates would drag hostages on deck and beat them in front of naval officers until the warship went away, Howes said.

"A few years go, they were very constrained and much more respectful" to hostages, he said, but now "they've shown a willingness to use violence much more quickly and much more violence."

That's just the beginning of the article, read the entire thing. The industry can do back flips to keep things as they are in piracy when the crews aren't being harmed, but the argument for inaction by both nation states and industry suddenly becomes problematic when systematic torture is taking place.

One video of merchant sailors being tortured on a mainstream news telecast and this problem gets political in a hurry.

I have great confidence that a single MEU tour operating under the theories of war pioneered by Thomas Cochrane in the early 1800s in the Mediterranean off the coast of France can solve the Somali piracy problem. I am also pretty sure that tour would also take care of any lingering questions regarding the value of the US Marine Corps for at least a few decades.

But until I read that AP article, I never really believed such measures would be political viable. Things might be changing...