Battling Pirates With "Nothing To Lose"

CBS Evening News: Vastness Of Sea And Instability In Somalia Make Policing Pirates Very Difficult

(CBS)  One U.S. cargo ship protects itself with rifles and handguns.

The weapons are for the crew aboard the Black Eagle. It just sailed the same route as the hijacked Maersk Alabama, passing through pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan.

"You must remember that there are pirates out there and terrorists so we're all trained in small arms protection," said Ernest Carlos, the ship's chief steward.

Carlos took photos of the crew training to hit targets in the water with rifles.

Whether merchant ships should be armed is a controversial issue - one addressed today by Captain Joseph Murphy, as he taught a class on maritime security. Murphy's son Shane was the first mate aboard the Maersk Alabama when it was hijacked.

"Weapons are 'damned if you do and damned if you don't'," Joseph Murphy said.

To get a sense of how tough it is to intercept the pirates, the U.S. Navy says they're operating in an area that's 1.2 million square miles.

Most pirate boats are no bigger than a small truck - just 15 feet long.

Imagine trying to find a small truck in an area this large: from Houston to Chicago to New York, down to Jacksonville and back to Houston.

What's more, the Navy says it would take more than 250 warships to try police an area of the sea that big.

"I think you need to start with the root cause of the problem, which is the fact that there is complete instability in Somalia, there is no government, there is no infrastructure, there is nothing," said Salim Amin, an expert on Africa.

"So you're dealing with people who have nothing to lose?" Logan asked.

"Absolutely, they have absolutely nothing to lose," Amin said. "They haven't had anything to lose for a long time."

There was no U.S. plan to attack pirate bases. Now CBS News has learned the Pentagon is looking at every option - even striking pirate dens on shore.

[Rickam73]

What is funny about this story is that there are a lot of mistakes that were not confirmed. First yes those were shots of the M/V Black Eagle but it was when the ship was named the M/V William H. Pitsenbarger. The reasons we had those weapons was we were under Military Sealift Command (MSC) charter. We were hauling military equipment at the time. When the ship lost the military contract the ship was renamed the M/V Black Eagle. We were bringing food aid to Africa but we didn't go along the same route as the Alabama. We came around South Africa and docked in Kenya. Carlos the merchant seamen that provided the information was the Chief Cook not the Chief Steward.

[Aldymac]

Clinton gained the US the title of paper tiger, I really don't see obama doing any better.

[kevfaller]

It is about time that the pirates are being taken down!
The bad thing is that nothing is ever said in the news about what is going on in Nigeria. It is the fourth largest oil exporters in the world. For the last few years there has been hundreds of oilfield workers taken hostage by militant groups. I was one of them.
It is a secret in the states, but it is in the news in other countries. I guess that the big oil companies don't want people to know how bad it is where their big money is!

[rrozsa]

I read that the pirates who hijacked the Maersk Alabama had fired on the ship for several days before they finally succeeded in overtaking the ship. We need a policy that any boat that fires on a ship gets blown out of the water -- the FIRST time they fire.

I agree that merchant ships should be armed for their protection. Pirates, like other criminals, look for unarmed prey. If they know they stand a good chance of being blown up, we might put a stop to a lot of this nonsense.

[honestabe8]

It's time to start mounting some deck cannons on these merchant ships.
Posted by snarkysnark

I agree

[honestabe8]

Aren't those Janis Joplin lyrics? "Freedom's just another word for...nothin' left to lose..."
Posted by gce651

Actually, they were Kris Kristofferson's lyrics. They were made famous by Joplin's voice

[bumpedoff1]

Put watercannon's on the ships and use hot bacon fat

[geminispyder-2009]

Where's the PT-109 when you need it. A couple torpedoes about the size of their dingy set to run on the surface with proximity fuses would solve that problem.
Posted by speedmassa at 12:02 AM : Apr 15, 2009

That would be awesome.

Except PT-109 (and the squadron it was in) was famous for, not only for JFK, but, getting its arse handed to them and not hitting damn thing.

[geminispyder-2009]

The US Navy can place a Navy controlled and Navy operated missile/drone set and other defensive systems on friendly commercial ships plying the waters off the coasts of Somalia instead of burdening crews with weapons. Such robots could be activated automatically or by ship's crew/captain in the event of pirate attack and used to eliminate the threat.
Posted by TogetherinParis at 12:09 AM : Apr 15, 2009

In a democrat-controlled government? Fat chance on democrats to allocate more funding on anything military-related. I wouldn't be suprised if they somehow justified that the only thing the US Navy needs to eliminate pirates is a few more snipers on station and promply shed another $100 billion from the defense budget.

[pepperwood2]

George H. W. Bush had already concluded the American mission in Somalia when Bill Clinton gave some of the best troops in the United States Army a new mission -- without proper support. The result was there for all Americans to see and shudder at: a charred body dragged through the streets to the gleeful howls of the mob. It's a scene scarred forever on the American mind, and one that should have been branded on their commander-in-chief's conscience. In all, 18 American soldiers were killed that day and 73 injured.

Perhaps worst of all, the Clinton administration reacted to the disaster by pulling out, turning tail and giving up, thus sending the wrong signal to every would-be Osama bin Laden in the terrorist netherworld: The United States will run at the first sight of blood. Another Clinton Slick Trick. So Very Sad how he betrayed Our Soldiers.