Yemen navy charges $60,000 for safe passage in pirate waters

The Australian ^ | January 06, 2010 | Michelle Wiese Bockmann,

[george76]

YEMEN'S navy is charging commercial vessels up to $US55,000 ($60,800) each to guarantee transit through the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden under a deal that has reaped about $US30 million over 18 months.

The hiring of Yemeni military came as al-Qa'ida flourishes in the Arabian Peninsula nation, and was agreed without the apparent knowledge of Yemeni government officials or international anti-piracy military forces.

at least one merchant ship a day, including some of the largest ship owners, are discreetly paying Yemen for military protection,

Somali pirates have attacked more than 200 commercial ships and hijacked nearly 50 over the past 12 months...

About $US40m has been paid in ransoms.

A spokesman for the US military's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said he had no knowledge of the deal.

[colorado tanker]

Actually, Yemen is friendly to the US. I would think their government would disapprove of the pirates because they’re bad for business at the port of Aden.

[luvie]

Terrorists AND pirates? What a country!

[mo]

Cuttin in on the US....we’re supposed to be the ones quaranteein’ safe passage around the world.

[Safetgiver]

Actually, Yemen is friendly to the US...Actually, I doubt any Muslim nation is friendly to the US. Ask the kids on the Cole.

[colorado tanker]

I didn't say the Yemeni people are friendly to us; the government is.

Besides needing the maritime traffic passing by their port of Aden, they have a serious Shiite insurgency Iran is almost certainly behind. So, the government is aligned with the Saudis and us.

As we know from the Cole and the fruit of the loom bomber, AQ has had a presence there for some time.

[AdmSmith]

The most powerful pirate group is the Somali Marines, who, reports say, is the most sophisticated of the pirate groups and one that has a military structure. It has a fleet admiral, admiral, vice admiral and a head of financial operations.

Area of operation is central Somalia from north of Mogadishu towards Puntland. Their specialties are kidnap and ransom, and are known to use mother vessels. It is said to have a capability to operate further off-shore than the other groups and participate in piracy activities involving vessel seizures, kidnappings and ransom demands.
Their main activities are around the areas of the central Somali coast of Haradheere. The Somali Marines, or the Defenders of Somali Territorial Waters as they like to be called, are loyal to regional warlord Abdi Mohamed Afweyne. They were responsible for a recent hostage saga where they held 25 hostages for four months until a sizeable ransom was paid.

Read more about it here

http://www.bergenrisksolutions.com/index.php?dokument=377

IMB Live Piracy Map 2010

http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=visualization&controller=visualization.googlemap&Itemid=219

IMB Piracy Map 2009
http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=visualization&controller=visualization.googlemap&Itemid=261

PIRATES OF AFRICA'S SOMALI COAST: ON TERRORISM'S BRINK?
http://ajol.info/index.php/smsajms/article/view/48737/35089

[AdmSmith]

The description of some of the suspected pirate mother ships are as follows - long white, Russian made stern trawlers with names "BURUM OCEAN or ARENA or ATHENA".

Burum Ocean


Arena or Athena

http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=59:piracy-alert&layout=blog&Itemid=60

Why not take them out?

[gandalftb]

The problem is that the pirates are mainly fisherman...with weapons. Piracy is mostly a crime of opportunity. Most of the time they actually fish.

They keep their weapons below deck, no one watching, no UAV's overhead, here comes a tanker.....