Nigeria oil field unrest continues

Reported here:

Nigerian militants have claimed responsibility for exploding a car bomb at an army barracks in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt.
Two people died in the attack a day after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta renewed its threat to target oil installations.

On Wednesday, Mend rejected plans announced by President Olusegun Obasanjo to develop the Niger Delta.

The militants are demanding more local control of the region's oil wealth.

In recent months there has been an upsurge of attacks on foreign oil interests which have cut the country's oil production by 20%.

This has cost Nigeria millions of dollars of lost revenue and helped to drive up world oil prices.
***
The BBC's Alex Last in Lagos says the use of a car bomb by militants is new.

Most previous militant attacks have been carried out among the creeks of the Niger Delta, not inside a major city like Port Harcourt.

It is also the first time Mend has claimed responsibility for an operation in the eastern Niger Delta. So far, their attacks have been confined to the west, our correspondent says.

Recently the militants announced it would stop taking hostages and use different tactics in its campaign to gain greater local control of the area's oil wealth.

It's all about the OIL!

China-Myanmar pipeline nixed- sea route carries more

Reported here:

The plan to build a crude oil pipeline between Myanmar and China has been shelved because of viability concerns, Shanghai Securities News cited well-informed sources as saying April 19. The pipeline was vetoed for its poor economics, insiders say.

Myanmar produces no oil and building a transit pipeline is not viable in economic terms. On the other hand, if constructed, the pipeline's capacity would account for merely 10% of the oil shipments currently passing through the Malacca Strait, which would not go far in solving the country's energy supply security concerns.

The news contradicted earlier reports that the Chinese government had greenlighted the construction of the pipeline.

Secretary of the Navy on terror threat near Ghana

Short but to the point, from here:

Navy Secretary Donald Winter said lawlessness in West African waters, where massive amounts of oil are pumped, had created an environment ripe for terror-related activities, though there was no known immediate threat.

Countries along the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf of Guinea provide the United States with more than 15 percent of its petroleum imports, much of it pumped offshore, and the U.S. military is training ground troops around the region in anti-terror tactics.

But impoverished governments cannot effectively patrol the high seas. The Navy is helping outfit Ghana's ships to counter illegal activities- easily co-opted by terrorists, Winter told The Associated Press in an interview late Wednesday.

"The concept here is that, if you have a good maritime security environment -whether it relates to piracy, whether smuggling or illegal fishing - it makes it more difficult for anybody to come in to create a problem or engage in acts of terrorism," he said.

"It is to this end that we believe we could achieve results through effective partnerships with many countries like Ghana, during which we can offer them the necessary training and tools where possible to improve the overall security environment," he said.

This is line with the shift in focus of Commander, US Naval Forces Europe.

Somalia as the "Forgotten front" in the War on Terror

Ineresting thoughts here by J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.

In early March, two American warships, the cruiser USS Cape St. George and the destroyer USS Gonzalez, were conducting maritime security operations off Somalia when a suspected "pirate" boat opened fire on them. Fortunately, there were no casualties other than one "pirate," who was killed when the navy vessels returned fire; twelve of his mates were detained by the Navy, which confiscated a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

This incident was just the latest in a string of attacks in what the International Maritime Bureau calls "the most dangerous waters" in the world. Last November, gunmen there in speedboats fired a grenade into the luxury cruise ship, the Seabourn Spirit, owned by a Miami-based travel company. Altogether, there are some thirty-seven recorded attacks on commercial shipping along the Somali coast in the last twelve months. Yet somehow, neither the Bush administration nor any of our inside-the-Beltway terrorism experts have connected the dots linking this "piracy" and America's "global war on terrorism."

It has been a long-standing clichÈ that Africa is the stepchild of U.S. foreign policy, notwithstanding the modest attention recently received by the extradition of former Liberian president Charles Taylor (himself a figure with rather shady dealings with violent extremists, as a number of mainstream journalists, including The Washington Post's Douglas Farah, have extensively reported) to a United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal.

In the context of the current struggle against transnational terrorism, however, this lack of attention is not only shortsighted, but it undermines potential successes elsewhere. The Bush administration's 2002 National Security Strategy recognized as much when it acknowledged that conditions in sub-Saharan Africa threaten "both a core value of the United Statesópreserving human dignityóand our strategic priorityócombating terror," while the new 2006 National Security Strategy affirmed that "Africa holds growing geo-strategic importance and is a high priority" for America. What is needed, however, is not rhetoric but action: already terrorist networks, forced out elsewhere, have found refuge among Africa's weak or failed states.

Last year, Major-General Douglas Lute of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) publicly predicted that terrorist leaders being hard hit in Iraq, for example, were likely to relocate to the "vast ungoverned spaces" of East Africa, singling out Somalia in particular.

Unfortunately, old habits die hard.†Despite the region's increasing importanceóit currently supplies the U.S. with 16 percent of its petroleum needs and is expected to provide one quarter within the decadeóSub-Saharan Africa is rarely thought of in terms of the fight against terrorism: in the latest State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations, published in October 2005, not one of the forty-two extremist groups included was from the region.

The State Department's report ignored the existence of no fewer than three groups,-which I verified during fieldwork in the region last summer have been operating out of the same Somalia from whose shores the "pirates" are sailing from:

-a spun-off al-Qa'eda cell responsible for the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, the 2002 bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and the simultaneous attempt to shoot down the Arkia flight 582 Israeli charter flight;

-a shadowy independent jihadi group that has recently emerged in Mogadishu and that some have linked to last summer's London bombings and other terrorist operations; and

-al-Itihaad al-Islaami ("Islamic Union"), a Taliban-like group with ties to al-Qa'eda and ambitions to impose Islamist rule in Somalia, whose leader, Hassan Dahir Aweys, loudly proclaims that his men might earn divine pardon for their sins if they "cleanse themselves with the blood of foreigners."

Some "sea pirate news" from Sierra Leone

Found here:

Sea pirates engaging in nefarious activities within Sierra Leone’s territorial waters have now extended their cruelties to sea safety guides by destroying Sea Buoys placed as direction for ships and trawlers, thereby exposing these vessels to sea dangers. The Pirates are reported to be using canoes with out-board machines to access these buoys at night and remove their solar panels. Buoys warn ships against shallow depths and sand bars. They convert sun light in to a regular light signal to warn ships off danger areas. The naval wing of Sierra Leone’s armed forces is thinly stretched to forestall these pirate actions.

I wonder if these pirates are engaged in the historical, but not so honorable profession of "wrecking"?

In the eighteenth century, the wreckers of Crigyll looted wrecked ships which they lured onto the Crigyll rocks using beacons and lights, simulating the harbour lights of Holyhead, near the mouth of the river Crigyll . During the day, they were respected members of the community. They included landowners, farmers, tailors, a weaver, a fuller, housewives and even children. At one time, a number of Calvinistic methodists were looting a wreck and were surprised by one of their elders!

For a book on the subject, see here.

Harsh criticism of Egyptian ferry owner and government in 1000 person death sinking

Reported here:

An investigation into the sinking of a Red Sea ferry blamed a "wicked collaboration" between the ship's owners and corrupt safety inspectors for the disaster that killed some 1,000 people, an Egyptian news agency reported Wednesday.

The parliamentary committee investigating the Feb. 3 sinking also accused the Egyptian government of failing to launch a prompt rescue operation, the semiofficial Middle East News Agency reported.

The report into the Feb. 3 sinking of the Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 found it was overloaded and using forged documents to hide a shortage of safety equipment. The report said authorities and the owners negligently allowed the ship to sail between Egypt and Saudi Arabia despite serious shortcomings.

More here:

Government incompetence and "wicked collusion" between the ferry owner and a government agency resulted in the drowning of more than 1,000 people in the Red Sea in February when an Egyptian passenger ferry sank, according to the findings of a preliminary parliamentary investigation that were released Wednesday.
Touching the highest and most sensitive levels of the government, including President Hosni Mubarak and the military command, though without directly naming either, a parliamentary committee issued a report that crushed the government's earlier efforts to blame the sinking of the ferry, the Salam Boccaccio 98, solely on the captain.

And here:

Blocked drains on the car deck of a ferry which sank in the Red Sea in February contributed to a disaster in which more than 1,000 people lost their lives, an Egyptian parliamentary report said.
The report, obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, said that as water sprayed by crew members tackling a fire built up on the deck, passengers dived down into the water and pulled out paper and plastic bags to try to unblock the drains.
The Salam 98 sank in the Red Sea early on Feb. 3 while on a journey from Daba in Saudi Arabia to Safaga in Egypt.
It was one of the worst marine disasters in Egyptian history and has led to widespread criticism of the crew, the shipping company and the government regulatory authorities.
The report said: "This (the accumulation of water on the car deck) was one of the direct reasons for the ship listing and then sinking. It shows that they (the drains) had not been inspected by the Maritime Safety Board."
In a conversation on the bridge, preserved by a data recorder, the captain of the ferry told his first officer, named as Massoud, that the drains were blocked and should be cleared.

Whether the Egyptian government was complicit or not, the ferry owner's assets have been frozen as reported here.

As noted above, early reports cited the captain of the ferry for blame and lack of safety actions in the face of he disaster:

The Egyptian government laid more blame on Wednesday on the captain of the ferry which sank in the Red Sea in February with the loss of more than 1,000 lives.
A cabinet statement said analysis of the recording of the conversation on the bridge of the Salam 98 showed the captain did not take any of the important safety measures.
It said the captain did not send a distress signal, did not report his problems to either the port of departure or the port of arrival, did not try to return to port when fire broke out and did not order the crew or passengers to use rescue systems.

The Egyptian government was a tad indecisive in deciding what help to seek, as reported here:

Rescue efforts appeared confused. Egyptian officials initially turned down a British offer to divert a warship to the scene and a U.S. offer to send a P3-Orion maritime naval patrol aircraft to the area. Then Egypt reversed itself and asked for both -— then finally decided to call off the British ship, deciding it was too far away to help, said Lt. Cdr. Charlie Brown of the U.S. 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain. In the end, the U.S. craft - which has the capability to search underwater from the air -— was sent, but the British ship was not, he said.

Four Egyptian rescue ships reached the scene Friday afternoon, about 10 hours after the ferry likely went down some 57 miles off the Egyptian port of Hurghada.

Good coverage here at the Christian Science Monitor:

Al Salam Maritime Transport Company, the ferry's owner, and Egyptian authorities have maintained that the ship passed inspection and met all international safety standards. But analysts are questioning how such a disaster could occur if this was the case.

"I've been working in the sea for 50 years and [Egypt's shipping standards and regulations] are not something to be proud of," says Gamal Abul Azm, an Egyptian maritime expert. "The owners of the vessel said that it had been inspected and that they followed all regulations. They can prove it on paper, but in reality there are a lot of gaps."

Apparently, Gamal Abul Azm knew what he was speaking about...

When a 1000 people die, you might expect some harsh words to follow.

New, improved Counterterrorism Blog now open

Find the new combined Counterterroirsm Blog, now combined with Bill Roggio's The Fourth Rail, here.

Zombie March 2006 invites pirates

The undead are looking for some brains and pirates. For "slow zombies," nothing beats Shaun of the Dead. Of course, since they are looking for brains, Fred Phelps is not welcome. More of a ghoul, I guess.

UPDATE: A federal zombie fighting agency? Who knew?

Tribal wars

As long as we are reading RAND commentary, this commentary is interesting:

Western strategists and policymakers should stop talking about a clash of civilizations and focus on the real problem: extreme tribalism. Recent events - riots in many nations protesting cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, Sunni-Shiite warring in Iraq, the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan - confirm that the West is not in a clash with Islam. Instead, Islam, which is a civilizing force, has fallen under the sway of Islamists who are a tribalizing force.

Unfortunately, the tribalism theme has difficulty gaining traction. After the end of the cold war, many American strategists preferred the optimistic "end of history" idea that democracy would triumph around the world, advanced by Francis Fukuyama in 1989. A contrary notion - reversion to tribalism - made better sense to other strategists, such as France's Jacques Attali in 1992. Indeed, the emergence of ethnic warring in the Balkans and elsewhere confirmed that when societies crumble, people revert to tribal and clan behaviors that repudiate liberal ideals.

Perhaps partly because the idea of "tribalism" sounds too anthropological for modern strategists, it has not taken hold. American thinking has shifted to revolve around a more high-minded but less accurate concept: "the clash of civilizations" articulated by Samuel Huntington in 1993.

But what troubles the world is far more a travail of tribalisms than a clash of civilizations. The major clashes are not between civilizations per se, but between antagonistic segments that are fighting across fringe border zones (like Christian Serbs vs. Muslim Kosovars), or feuding within the same civilization, such as Sunnis vs. Shiites in Iraq.

Worth your time to read it all. Think about Somalia and Kosovo while reading it, Remember how long a tribe will hold a grudge? Serbs remember a defeat that happened in 1389 when they attack Kosovar Albanian muslims.

RAND Commentary: "Securing America's Ports"

Found here.

Today a great deal of the clothes you wear, the food you eat and the products you use at home and work likely entered America's supply chain packed in large containers on ships that docked at U.S. ports. Unfortunately, terrorists can ship chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons (if they have them) into the United States in the same way. What to do?

Commentary suggests some answers.

Philippines, Taiwan talking anti-terror, maritime joint effort

Reported here, neighbors Taiwan and the Republic of the Philippines are chatting:

PHILIPPINE and Taiwanese police officials have kicked off exploratory negotiations for possible anti-terrorism and maritime security cooperation, an official said.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Arturo Lomibao and several officials flew to Taiwan Monday for a three-day meeting with their Taiwanese counterparts, said Senior Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao Jr., PNP spokesman.
***
"These are exploratory talks for close cooperation between the two countries on anti-terrorism, anti-illegal drugs, and human trafficking," Pagdilao said.

Pagdilao said Philippine and Taiwanese officials would also discuss the problem of fishermen crossing their borders.

Taiwan lies several hundred kilometers off the northernmost tip of the Philippines.

All the more interesting because:

The Philippines has adopted a "One China" policy and recognizes Taiwan as a province of mainland China.

Still, a neighbor is a neighbor. Especially when the "One China" is laying claim to territory also claimed by the Philippines.

Greenpeace may win one in the "fish piracy" battle

Greenpeace and the government of Guinea may have a victory against "fish pirates" as reported here:

SPANISH officials yesterday agreed that they would declare that a 200-tonne cargo of fish stolen from West Africa is illegal, when they receive official confirmation from Guinea - following six days of Greenpeace occupation and several hours of diplomatic negotiations, the environmental organisation said in a statement.
Greenpeace and Environmental Justice Foundation allegedly spent three weeks exposing the scandal of pirate fishing off the coast of West Africa, culminating in the Greenpeace ship M.Y Esperanza, claiming that they documented the illegal transfer of stolen fish taken from Guinea on April 6th from pirate vessels to a 'reefer' vessel - the Binar 4. This ship was then claimed to have been followed to Las Palmas where activists climbed on board before it came into port on April 11th. They have allegedly been on the mast and cranes ever since - nearly 150 hours in total.

Ethiopia- Air hub for East Africa?

Interesting piece on the devlopment of air transport in the Horn of Africa here:

The Horn of Africa and East Africa is proving a bountiful hunting ground for air cargo, with perishables emerging as the new gold standard. It has provided the opportunity for several African carriers to build their cargo businesses into highly-respected operations.

Among them, Ethiopian Airlines is about to firmly establish its air cargo credentials with the opening of a new 150,695 square-foot cargo terminal in Addis Ababa hub.

According to Ayenew Alemeneh, director of cargo marketing for the carrier, the new facility will have the capability of handling in excess of 100,000 tonnes of freight a year, not much by standards of hubs in the developed world but a cornucopia of cargo in Africa.

"The entire terminal is very much geared to the handling of perishables traffic which transits through Addis Ababa," says Ayenew Alemeneh. "We are not yet sure of the traffic ratios, but we believe over 50 percent of our throughputs will be perishables business."

This, he says, will be traffic fed in from across the Horn of Africa and East Africa.

"Due to our strategic location Addis Ababa has the potential to establish itself as a regional hub for perishables such as cut flowers, fruit, vegetables and meat," says Alemeneh. "This new terminal will be the most modern facility of its type in Africa able to handle cargo in accordance with international standards."

From tiny acorns...

Let's all get confused: U.S. Navy says no deal on fighting Somali piracy?

Reported here:

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has asked for U.S. help, Somali legislators said Tuesday. But Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, denied any deal.

"The Somali government did not talk to the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy has no agreement with the Somali government," Brown said.

U.S. Embassy officials in Nairobi declined comment.

Earlier report saying US Navy had permission to engage the Somali pirates posted here. Fog of anti-piracy war?

UPDATE: More denial of a deal here, this time from the ubiquitous (but anonymous) "State Department official:"

The United States has made no deal with Somalia to run anti-piracy patrols off its coast, an American official said on Tuesday, denying claims by the East African country's prime minister.

"There is no such deal as alleged," said the State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We haven't made any arrangement to patrol those waters."

Somalia's transitional prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, earlier said he had secured a "milestone" agreement for US Navy ships to patrol the waters where an increasing number of merchant ships have come under attack.

The Counterterrorism Blog to merge with The Fourth Rail

Noted here and here, two of the best sources for information on the Global War on Terror (remember that name?) are going to merge and a new, improved site is in the offing.

Get ready to update your blogrolls.

Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942

Info here:

The April 1942 air attack on Japan, launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet and led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, was the most daring operation yet undertaken by the United States in the young Pacific War. Though conceived as a diversion that would also boost American and allied morale, the raid generated strategic benefits that far outweighed its limited goals.

The raid had its roots in a chance observation that it was possible to launch Army twin-engined bombers from an aircraft carrier, making feasible an early air attack on Japan. Appraised of the idea in January 1942, U.S. Fleet commander Admiral Ernest J. King and Air Forces leader General Henry H. Arnold greeted it with enthusiasm. Arnold assigned the technically-astute Doolittle to organize and lead a suitable air group. The modern, but relatively well-tested B-25B "Mitchell" medium bomber was selected as the delivery vehicle and tests showed that it could fly off a carrier with a useful bomb load and enough fuel to hit Japan and continue on to airfields in China.

Gathering volunteer air crews for an unspecified, but admittedly dangerous mission, Doolittle embarked on a vigourous program of special training for his men and modifications to their planes. The new carrier Hornet was sent to the Pacific to undertake the Navy's part of the mission. So secret was the operation that her Commanding Officer, Captain Marc A. Mitscher, had no idea of his ship's upcoming employment until shortly before sixteen B-25s were loaded on her flight deck. On 2 April 1942 Hornet put to sea and headed west across the vast Pacific.

Images from here and here.

Indonesian ferry sinks, all safe but 1

An Indonesian ferry sinks as reported here:

All but one person on an Indonesian ferry that sank in eastern Indonesian waters are safe, a search and rescue official says.

Slamet Riyadi also says there were just 66 people on the ferry, 60 passengers and six crew, and not about 100 as officials had feared earlier.

"Just one passenger has yet to be found," he said.

Some early reports incorrectly suggested that up to 100 people may have been missing.

Fishing net pirates off Malyasia

Brief fire fight (one-sided) reported here:

Pirates armed with shotguns opened fire on a Malaysian fishing boat about nine nautical miles off the Parit Haji Baki coast here at 2am yesterday.
***
Meanwhile, another fishing boat was robbed of l7 fishing nets, valued at RM10,000, in Tanjung Tohor, about l0 nautical miles off the Bagan coast, Batu Pahat, at 3am yesterday.

Zakaria Sohor, 56, said he discovered the theft when he and his assistant hauled up 35 nets lowered into the sea eight hours earlier.

He believed the same pirates had stolen the nets after failing to steal Iskandar’s nets. Both boats are from the Parit Jawa fishing village.

Latest ONI Worldwise Threat to Shipping Report (to 12 April 06)

For the latest ONI WTTSR go here and click on the date. Highlights:

SOMALIA: South Korean fishing vessel (DONG WON No 628)
hijacked 04 Apr while underway in position 04:54N 049:21 E, off the
east coast of Somalia. Coalition warships USS Roosevelt and HNLMS
Zeven Provencien responded to distress calls but were unable to
persuade the hijackers to release the vessel and broke off the pursuit
out of concern for the safety of the victims. Abdi Garaad Daahir,
a militia spokesman contacted by The Associated Press via
two-way radio, said fighters from his clan had captured the vessel
fishing illegally in Somalia’s territorial waters. South Korea
disputed this saying the pirates seized the vessel in international
waters and later took it to Somalia’s waters. ONI Note: according
to the CIA world fact book, Somalia claims a 200 nm territorial
sea; however, under article three of the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), every State has the right to
establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not
exceeding 12 nm. UNCLOS also defines the exclusive economic zone
(EEZ) as an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea,
subject to the specific legal regime established in UNCLOS, under
which the rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State and the
rights and freedoms of other States are governed by the relevant
provisions of the Convention. Article 57 states the EEZ shall not
extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which
the breadth of the territorial sea is measured (AP, ONI, IMB).

Otherwise, a collection of "suspicious" activity by small boats approaching ships in areas known to be pirate-active and the usual robberies by thugs climbing aboard ships to rob the crew or steal what isn't nailed down.

QM2 berths in new Brooklyn cruise terminal & gets a pirate question

Reported here:

The QM2 is the largest passenger liner ever built, according to Cunard, the company that operates it, and the Red Hook cruise-ship terminal is now the largest ship terminal in New York City, capable of berthing the extra-large ships Manhattan's West Side terminal cannot. It's expected to bring in $200 milllion in port charges through 2017.
***
We asked the captain about piracy, of course--what were the procedures if attacked? Is it that common for a passenger ship to be attacked? (Piracy is more prevalent today than it has ever been. Yaargh!).

He told us that Somalia and Malaysia are currently very dangerous, but assured us that his ship is equipped to protect its cargo, passengers and crew; he wouldn't elaborate further.

More on QM2 here.

More on revamped cruise terminals here:

Cruise terminals, onetime stepsisters of industrial ports, are turning into Cinderellas. Their benefactors, the cruise lines, are spending hundreds of millions to rejuvenate old facilities and build new ones as the lines ride a wave of growth.

That's good news for passengers, who are enjoying more ports with more perks, such as shops, cafes, lounges and even private beaches and pools.

All is not rosy in the world of cruise ship operations:

A spate of high-profile problems on the high seas, hurricane fears and weak demand for Caribbean sailings are leading cruise companies to offer discounts in an effort to lure leery consumers aboard.

The problems are combining to make this the most challenging cruise season for the industry since 2003, when Iraq war fears and post-9/11 woes hurt bookings.

The bulk of the issues are occurring in the Caribbean, the most popular cruise destination and where most first-time cruisers tend to sail. The busy port in Cozumel, Mexico, for example, continues to be under repair after being severely damaged by Hurricane Wilma last fall. Travel agents also say that memories of last year's brutal hurricane season are dissuading some would-be cruisers. And some travelers have been spooked by concerns about cruise safety. A number of recent onboard incidents -- including a passenger disappearance and a pirate attack -- have sparked a congressional inquiry and increased the likelihood of new legislation or regulatory oversight to help protect passengers.