RP, Malaysia to hold joint naval exercise - anti-terrorism

Reported here:

THE Philippine and Malaysian navies have started a joint exercise against foreign and local terror groups exploiting the seas shared by both nations.
Commodore Rufino Lopez Jr., commander of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao, said the conduct of the Malaysian-RP Exercise (Marex) is also aimed at enhancing the capability of both naval forces in confronting new threats.

The Philippines and Malaysia are often referred to as backdoor neighbors.

People from Mindanao, particularly those in the western area, regularly travel to Malaysia via Sandakan or Sabah.

The vast seas bordering the two countries have also provided avenues for pirates, smugglers and criminals to carry out their acts because these are not well-guarded.

“We recognize our limited capability and one way of strengthening our porous border is the timely exchange of intelligence information,” Lopez told reporters here during Wednesday’s opening of Marex.

The Counterterrorism Blog: Al-Zawahiri Calls for Attacks on Gulf Oil Facilities

Noting that in the post-Katrina period it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that oil is the lifeblood of the American economy, The CounterTerrorism Blog reports that Al-Zawahiri Calls for Attacks on Gulf Oil Facilities. The Gulf referred to is the Arabian/Persian Gulf. We've had these warnings before (see here, here and here, here), and the Saudis have an establishment to fend off attacks (although some cast doubt on its effectiveness):

Abdallah Jum'ah, CEO of the normally secretive Saudi Aramco, recently went public with details of the state-owned oil company's security arrangements in an effort toreassure doubters. He said company facilities are protected by 5,000 security guards.
"There is nowhere in the world that oil facilities are protected as well as in Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco," he said.

Nail Al-Jubeir, spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington, says the kingdom has spent decades beefing up security. "Our oil can come out of the (Persian) Gulf, or... from the Red Sea. We've built in redundancies to make sure there's enough oil for the world and for our income for the future."

IEDs and the Navy?

According to Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough here:

According to military officials in Baghdad, the terrorists are using at least three types of triggers for IEDs, including infrared-signaled garage-door openers, infrared automobile car-lock openers and hard-wired bombs. All are set off when vehicles move through a target area.
To counter the threat, the military has been using broadband radio-signal jammers. But the jammers create other problems; namely, they also disrupt communications used by military forces.
Navy Capt. Chris Field, commander of the Pacific Fleet's electronic attack wing, said in a speech Oct. 24 that EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare jets are being used in Iraq to disrupt IED signals, along with other terrorist communications.

As the column points out, some better ways to deal with IED threat need to be found. The success the terrorists are having with them in Iraq is spreading (of course, it aids the terrorists in Iraq that there seems to be a virtually infinite supply of mortar and artillery rounds from which to construct the bombs).

Pearl Harbor remembered

Veterans remember here:

When Newsom, now 86, saw the damage that bombs and torpedoes had done to “Battleship Row,” he thought of former classmates from the U.S. Naval Academy he knew were on some of those ships.

One of the classmates was Vincent Muirhead.

Muirhead, 86, who also lives in Lawrence, was on the battleship USS Maryland when the attack began. He and a roommate were in their stateroom preparing to go to breakfast when the “general quarters” alarm sounded, alerting ship crews to go to their battle stations.

“We looked out our porthole and there was a Japanese plane flying by. You couldn’t miss it,” Muirhead said during an interview Tuesday.

U.S. Navy to donate old ships to Indonesia

Reported here:

The U.S. Navy plans to donate transport ships and inflatable boats to Indonesia to help it patrol the Malacca Straits, a strategic waterway seen at risk of terrorist attack, Indonesia's defense minister said. "The United States is in the process of renewing its equipment and military weapons, especially its navy," Juwono Sudarsono was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara. "So, some of their LSTs that are 40 years old, but are still operational, will be donated to Indonesia."

Landing Ship Tanks, or LSTs, are naval ships especially designed to transport and deploy troops, vehicles, and supplies onto shore. They were first used in World War II.

Latest ICC Commercial Crime Services Weekly Piracy Report (to 15 Dec 05)

For the latest ICC-CCS Weekly piracy report, go here. Few reports, one of some interest off coast of Vietnam:

02.12.2005 at 0200 LT in position 10:19N - 108:50E, off Vietnam, South China Sea. Persons in a fishing boat attempted to board a LPG tanker underway using a hook attached to a rope. Master altered course to prevent boarding. After a few attempts fishing boat gave up and fled.

Red blob on map is my estimate of location of attempted boarding. Lots of little LPG tankers roam the coasts of SE Asia. Photo is an LPG carrier.

British Maritime Union lobbies for "war zone" classifcation of Somali waters, Kenya may get hammered as result

Reported here:

The Kenyan port of Mombasa is scrambling to counter an international campaign to have the Somali Coast declared a "war zone" by shipping organisations, a move which could cost the facility billions of shillings every year.

The influential British shipping union NUMAST, the International Transport Workers Federation and the International Maritime Bureau have launched the campaign in which ships coming to the port and to other southern destinations will be travelling under armed escort. This is expected to send insurance, freight and shipping charges up sharply.


The British union is pursuing the issue both at the United Nations and with the international shipping industry following the rise in the number of piracy incidents off the Somali coast over the past six months. The last incident was the attempted hijack of the cruiseship Seabourn Spirit last month.

If the area off the East Africa coast is declared a war zone, ships and freight companies will be forced to take on insurance and contigency plans similar to those required of vessels travelling in combat zones or in waters that are mined. About 25 ships that dock weekly at Mombasa pass through Somali coastal waters.

Of course, union members may get more money for sailing through a "war risk" zone. A pretty low risk war zone, at that, at least for larger vessels. Map shows rough locations of recent pirate attacks. The most recent is not shown, but apparently is in the same southeast coast vicinity as most of these. The blue arrowpoints to the area of the attack on the cruise ship that recently has sparked a good deal of interest in the Somali coast.

Somali pirates may have bagged another ship

Reported here:

An unidentified merchant vessel has been reported hijacked by gunmen in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia in what is feared to be the latest in a surge of attacks on commericial shipping there, a maritime official said today.

If confirmed, the hijacking would bring to at least five the number of ships in the same area currently in the hands of pirates and would be the 33rd attack on ships in and around Somali waters since mid-March.

Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme (SAP) said his organisation had been informed that a ship of unknown ownership and registry was seized early today.

"We were called by traders who frequent the Mogadishu-Mombasa route and informed that a new merchant ship has been hijacked off northeastern Somalia," Mr Mwangura said from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa.

He said the reports indicated the vessel was taken near the Somali town of Haradere, the base of pirates blamed for the spate of attacks that have prompted dire warnings to avoid the coast and calls for foreign intervention.

Iraqis pick up the oil watch

Caption & credit: An Iraqi marine helps guard the Al Abasra Oil Terminal in the Persian Gulf. HYUNSOO LEO KIM / THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Reported here. Amidst less important information:

The Iraqi navy consists of four patrol boats, given to Iraq by the United Arab Emirates, and a few small, fast boarding boats.

The new sailors operate the patrol boats, and the marines watch from the platforms. Iraqi marines have taken full control of guarding KAAOT. (Eagle1 note: KAAOT= Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal)

“They’ve made a significant amount of progress,” said British Capt. Paddy McAlpine, who overseas the operation from the San Jacinto. “At some point in the future, we’ll be able to stand back.”

Iraqis guarding Iraqi oil- wonderful. Post from November showing a US sailor on watch here.

Mombassa getting congested due to piracy

Interesting goings on in Kenya and on the East African coast, reported here:

The rise in piracy along the East African coast could cause heavy congestion at the port of Mombasa, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) management has warned.

Managing Director Brown Ondego warned that the East African coastline was increasingly becoming unsafe and ship owners had started to steer clear of familiar routes to avoid the pirates.

"The situation is of concern to us because ships are being attacked within 200 kilometres from the coastline," Ondego said at the opening of an international maritime conference in Nairobi. He said increased risk had led some ship insurers to hike their premiums.

Vice-President Moody Awori and Transport Permanent Secretary Gerishon Ikiara promised the conference that the situation would soon be under control as the international community had agreed to help fight the pirates.

"Piracy along the Indian Ocean coast is of major concern to us and a direct threat to commercial activities along the entire East African coastline," said Awori who was chief guest at the conference.

"The Kenya Government in conjunction with the Government of Somalia and other governments in the region are teaming up to find a lasting solution to the problem."

Ikiara said the Government had sought and got the commitment of the international community solving the problem.

Piracy -it's not just for breakfast anymore...

John Kerry -Gets the "Will it never end?" Dodo Award

Reported here by James Taranto of Best of the Web:

The old proverb is right: A haughty, French-looking Massachusetts leopard who by the way served in Vietnam doesn't change its spots. John Kerry* appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer yesterday, and his comments on U.S. troops in Iraq were vintage 1971 (link in PDF, quotes on pages 3-4):

Schieffer: Let me shift to another point of view, and it comes from another Democrat, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. He takes a very different view. He says basically we should stay because, he says, real progress is being made. He said this is a war between 27 million Iraqis' freedom and 10,000 terrorists. He says we're in a watershed transformation. What about that?

Kerry: Let me--I--first of all, there is so much more that unites Democrats than divides us. And Democrats have much more in common with each other than they do with George Bush's policy right now. Now Joe Lieberman, I believe, also voted for the resolution which said the president needs to make more clear what he's doing and set out benchmarks, and that the policy hasn't been working. We all believe him when you say, 'Stay the course.' That's the president's policy, which hasn't been changing, which is a policy of failure. I don't agree with that. But I think what we need to do is recognize what we all agree on, which is you've got to begin to set benchmarks for accomplishment. You've got to begin to transfer authority to the Iraqis.

And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not--

Schieffer: Yeah.

Kerry: --Iraqis should be doing that.

Terrorizing kids and children and breaking sort of the customs! Didn't "Jenjis Khan" used to do stuff like that in Vietnam? Note, too, that Kerry isn't against this per se; he just thinks Iraqis should be doing it. It's highly reminiscent of Vietnam, only back then Kerry's words carried some weight because he sold himself as a veteran against the war, whereas now he's just the junior senator from Massachusetts.

Will he never go away and stop this nonsense? Will he please just fade way? No way. So to belittle his idiotic comments and slanderous allegations so remindful of his previous slanders of US troops, I award Senator Kerry the first "Will it never end?" Dodo Award. I have another name for him, however. It ends in "hole." His irresponsible mouth leads directly to reports like this from Two Babes and Brain (Hat tip: LCDR Smash). I do not like the man or anything he represents and vow to do ALL in my power to thwart his effort to become president of the United States.

Where the French are working with us - CTF 150

Reported as CTF 150 Welcomes Expeditionary Strike Group 8:

French Vice Adm. Jacques Mazars, commander, Task Force (CTF) 150, paid a visit to the Sailors and Marines of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 8 Nov. 29 during the strike groupís transit through CTF 150ís area of operations.

ESG 8 is on a six-month deployment in support of maritime security operations (MSO).

CTF 150, which was established near the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, is comprised of navies from Germany, France, Pakistan and the United States, under the direction of U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, Combined Maritime Forces Component Commander (CFMCC).

CFMCC oversees MSO in and around the Persian Gulf, North Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden, parts of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

Mazars was aboard to discuss current operations, as well as the missions and tasking of ESG 8 with Capt. Martin Allard, commander of the USS Nassau (LHA 4) Strike Group, and Marine Col. Frank McKenzie, Commander, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) (MEU (SOC)).

He viewed AV-8B Harrier II attack jet landings from the shipís flag bridge and toured the Tactical Flag Command Center and Landing Force Operations Center.

Mazars expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome from ESG 8 Sailors and Marines, and said he looks forward to working with the members of the strike group as they conduct MSO in the region.

You may remember that the arrival of the French fleet off Yorktown that helped convince the British to surrender during the American Revolution. Battle of the Capes, anyone?

Photo caption:

Arabian Sea (Nov. 29, 2005) - Commander, Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group, Capt. Martin Allard, center, discusses operations with Commander, Task Force 150, French Vice Adm. Jacques Mazars, during his visit aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau (LHA 4). Nassau and Expeditionary Strike Group Eight are currently on deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Steven Scott Smith

Treaty Amended to Outlaw WMD at Sea

The Arms Control Association reports Treaty Amended to Outlaw WMD at Sea .

States will be able to subscribe to new international instruments early next year making it a crime to use nonmilitary ships to intentionally transport or launch attacks with biological, chemical, or nuclear arms. Employing these types of weapons in attacks against or from a fixed platform at sea, such as an oil rig, will also be illegal.

These new prohibitions are part of two protocols concluded Oct. 14 to amend the 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, also known as the SUA Convention. The protocols will be opened for signature Feb. 14, 2006, after official texts are completed in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

The protocol pertaining to ships will enter into force 90 days after 12 countries sign it without reservations. The fixed-platform protocol only requires the signature of three countries without reservations to trigger its 90-day countdown to entry into force. As with all treaties, only those countries signing the protocols will be legally bound by them.

An Oct. 21 Department of State fact sheet hailed the protocols as providing “the first international treaty framework for combating and prosecuting individuals who use a ship as a weapon or means of committing a terrorist attack, or transport by ship terrorists or cargo intended for use in connection with weapons of mass destruction programs.”

In addition to prohibiting shipments of unconventional weapons, the first protocol outlaws the transport of “any equipment, materials or software or related technology that significantly contributes to the design, manufacture or delivery of a [biological, chemical, or nuclear weapon], with the intention that it will be used for such purpose.” Many items used in producing unconventional weapons are dual-use, meaning they have both civilian and military applications, so proving intent could be challenging...
...Under international law, a vessel cannot be stopped and boarded in international waters without the consent of the government whose flag the ship is flying, except if the ship is suspected of piracy, slavery, or illegal broadcasting. The new protocol does not change this rule, but it does outline a voluntary expedited interdiction procedure. Through the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a government may grant prior authority for its flagged ships to be stopped and searched if a boarding request by another state goes unanswered for four hours. The IMO is a 166-member specialized UN agency responsible for international shipping matters.

I love treaties.

Plan to add 32 ships to the Navy?

An apparent proposal by the Chief of Naval Operation here:

The plan calls for building 55 small, fast vessels called littoral combat ships, which are being designed to allow the Navy to operate in shallow coastal areas where mines and terrorist bombings are a growing threat. Costing less than $300 million, the littoral combat ship is relatively inexpensive.

Navy officials say they have scaled back their goals for a new destroyer, the DD X , whose primary purpose would be to support major combat operations ashore. The Navy once wanted 23 to 30 DD X vessels, but Mullen has decided on only seven, a Navy official said. The reduction is due in part to the ship’s spiraling cost, estimated at $2 billion to $3 billion per ship.

The plan also calls for building 19 CGX vessels, a new cruiser based on the DDX design and intended for missile defense, but the first ship is not due to be completed until 2017, the Navy official said.

The proposal would reduce the fleet’s more than 50 attack submarines to 48, the official said. Some Navy officials have called for keeping at least 55 of them...
...The choices have led some analysts to suggest that the Navy is de-emphasizing the threat from China, at least in the early stages of the shipbuilding plan. Beijing’s investment in submarines, cruise missiles and other weapon systems is expected to pose a major threat to U.S. warships for at least a decade. That gives the Navy time, some analysts argue, to build capabilities that require less firepower and more mobility, a priority for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The plan also calls for building 31 amphibious assault ships, which can be used to ferry Marines ashore or support humanitarian operations.

“This is not a fleet that is being oriented to the Chinese threat,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a policy research center in Arlington. “It’s being oriented around irregular warfare, stability operations and dealing with rogue states.”

But the Navy would keep 11 aircraft carriers, just one fewer than the dozen it has maintained since the end of the Cold War

Hmmm.

UPDATE: added "add" to the headline so that it might make sense

Ship photos and the Malacca Strait

Reported here:

Malaysia is considering asking its wider Asian neighbours, such as India, to provide photographs of ships before they enter the Malacca Strait to tighten security in the busy sea lane, the chief of armed forces said on Monday.

Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia have already launched coordinated naval patrols and airborne surveillance in the strait, which carries a quarter of global trade.

There are fears the narrow waterway, already plagued by pirates, could become a target for a terror attack.

A speaker at a maritime conference this week in Malaysia's northern resort island of Langkawi made the suggestion for the photographs of vessels, defence chief Admiral Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Nor told reporters.

"What was suggested was to have a network of inter-connected agencies, to have a surface picture compilation of the ships before they come into the Straits of Malacca," he said.

"Ships would have entered the Straits from the Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea," Mohamed Anwar added.

The Weblog Awards: Best of the Top 2501 - 3500 Blogs

Thanks to Alec Rawls over at Error Theory for nominating it, EagleSpeak is a finalist for The Weblog Awards: Best of the Top 2501 - 3500 Blogs. This is an great honor. Voting runs from December 5 to December15. Please vote early and as often as the rules allow (one vote per day per computer). If I can figure out how to get all the links to work, you should be able to vote here or by clicking on the Weblog Awards logo.

Update: Modified to keep on top for duration of voting.

UPDATE2: Modified again to put back in pile. After voting started, Blogger went down for several hours. If you feel like voting for me, great, please go ahead. But enough of the begging on my part.

How to earn a Silver Star

Caption from:
United States Central Command Home Page

"GENERAL John P. Abizaid, Commander, USCENTCOM, Awards the Silver Star to SSG Patrick Brannan,1st Scout leader of Scouts, HHC, 2-503 IN. On the Morning of 03 May 2005, he led a joint American-Afghan mounted patrol to the village of Khanry in the southern area of the Khakiafghan district in the Zabul povince of Afghanistan. They courageously pursued what was an estimated 60-100 man AQAM (Al Qaida and Associated Militants) element. He heroically lead his soldiers through one of the most intense firefights in the past 3 years of combat operations in Afghanistan. These actions lead to a significant one-sided US victory with at least 49 enemy combatants killed or captured and AQAM operations in Deh Chopan substantially disrupted."

Of course, the whole story was probably covered by the news media...wasn't it?

Chairmen of JCS, General Pace, Responds to Critics of Iraq Strategy

Over the years, I have found that the Marines have a way of explaing things. Here's an example:

To those who question if the American people would be safer if the nation withdrew its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, Pace conceded, "That would be nice if it would work."

"But that's not the world we live in," he quickly added, noting that the United States was "leaving them alone" when terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001.

"That was the day we realized in the United States that we were at war," the chairman said. "Our enemies had declared war on us years before, but the attacks in New York, in the skies over Pennsylvania and here in Washington, D.C., brought home very clearly to us that we were at war."

Pace also refuted claims of those who believe the threat will go away if the United States stopped fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and stopped chasing down terrorists.

"I say, you need to get out and read what our enemies have said," he said. Before World War II, Adolf Hitler clearly outlined his intentions in his book, "Mein Kampf," Pace told the group. "He said in writing exactly what his plan was, and we collectively ignored that, to our great detriment."

Similarly, terrorists today have publicly stated their goals, both on film and the Internet, he said.

"(There's) no equivocation on their part," the chairman said. "They're not saying, 'If you stay home, we will not come after you.' They are saying their goal is to rid the Middle East of all foreigners, then to overthrow all governments that are not friendly to them, which means every single one of those governments."

But terrorists have made it clear that they don't intend to stop there, Pace continued. Their ultimate goal is to bring the whole globe under their domination within the next 100 years, he said.

Questions?

al Qaeda in Bangladesh

Summary of events in Bangladesh invovling increase in AQ affilate operations found here:

The JMB was formed in 1998 in Bangladesh’s Jamalpur district, according to one regional security analyst who spoke to ISN Security Watch on condition of anonymity.

The group’s exact origins are vague, but it came to prominence in May 2002 when eight Islamic militants were arrested in Parbatipur, in the northern Dinajpur district. The militants were caught with 25 petrol bombs and documents detailing the outfit’s activities.

Then in February 2003, the JMB allegedly carried out seven bomb attacks in the Chhoto Gurgola area of Dinajpur, in which three people were wounded.

The government banned the JMB in February this year, after the group was linked to a series of bomb attacks on non-governmental organization offices, shrines, and entertainment events in the country. Leaflets bearing the group’s name and calling for the introduction of Islamic law were found at all the bombsites.

The leaflets in Bangladeshi and Arabic, which the group used to claim responsibility for attacks, also revealed the group’s intentions.

“We’re the soldiers of Allah. We’ve taken up arms for the implementation of Allah’s law, the way the Prophet, Sahabis, and heroic Mujahideen have done for centuries. It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh. There is no future with man-made law,” the leaflets stated.

According to local media, the JMB is led by a triumvirate consisting of Maulana Abdur Rahman, a former activist of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party; Siddiqur Islam, who is also known as Bangla Bhai; and Dr. Muhammad Asadullah al-Ghalib, an Arabic language lecturer at the Rajshahi University.

While Maulana Rahman is regarded as the spiritual leader of the organization, Siddiqur Islam (Bangla Bhai) is reportedly its “operational chief”. Dr. Muhammad Asadullah al-Ghalib was arrested in February 2005 and charged with sedition. The other two leaders remain free.

“The JMB is an associated group of al-Qaida. Prior to October 2001, the JMB received significant al-Qaida assistance in training and finance,” Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terrorism expert, claimed in an interview with ISN Security Watch on Friday.

A pitch for greater Indian maritime interest

Opinion piece here:

The Indian Ocean area will have to remain secure and tranquil. The main instrument of this stability will be the Indian Navy. Our interests lie in the North Indian Ocean spanning from the Persian Gulf to the Malacca Strait. The Navy should have the capability to keep this area under surveillance and presence to ensure no interference takes place to our interests. It must be oceanic in character, regional in reach and proactive in approach.

There is a need to induct certain capabilities which are necessary to ensure maritime security of our nation. First, the entire area should be kept under surveillance; all contacts in all dimensions in this area need to be tracked. Secondly, the Navy must have the capability to meet threats ranging from maritime terrorism to high-end intensive warfare in a force structure that would be networked throughout. It must have reach, staying power and adequate sea-lift capacity. It must be balanced in these capabilities in all the three dimensions. Integral air, anti submarine and anti missile defence must be built in with strong underwater defence and offensive capability.

India does sit on the major sea lanes.