SEA TRANSPORT: Japan Helps Guard Straits of Malacca

April 3, 2005: Japan, increasingly concerned over piracy, and potential terrorism, in the Straits of Malacca, is offering to send coast guard ships to help patrol this vital waterway between Malaysia and Indonesia. Japan�s economy would be badly hurt if the straights were closed, as this would force tankers and other merchant vessels to take longer routes to and from Japan. With the current shipping shortage, this would drive shipping rates way up. Japan has already been training Indonesian naval and coast guard personnel at Japanese bases.

March 1, 2005: All of a sudden, pirates are a hot topic in counter-terrorism circles. But why? Pirate attacks were down last year. And they are expected to decline even further this year because last Decembers tidal wave literally washed away many known, or suspected, pirates, and their speedboats, in Indonesia. Well, it seems that some Southeast Asian terrorist cells have been overheard discussing hijacking a large tanker or container ship and doing something nasty with it. The scary part of that is that there are plenty of pirate groups that could get a bunch of terrorists aboard a large ship. These pirates usually just loot the ship, and crew, of any valuables, and then speed off with their goodies. There isn�t usually much violence, although last year about 400 merchant sailors were killed, injured, kidnapped or missing as a result of pirate attacks.

Just like the 911 airplane hijackers, it is possible, with enough money and some well educated (in how to navigate one of these large ships), to grab a vessel near a major port, or the Straits of Malacca or the Singapore Straits. One of these thousand foot ships could be run into port facilities, or sunk at a choke point and block sea traffic. Such an attack would have a greater global economic impact than the September 11, 2001 attacks. That�s because ships would have to travel several days longer to get to their destination (usually the Persian Gulf, or Japan/South Korea/China/Taiwan). Not only would shipping costs go up, but there would be a lot of shortages, because there is a shipping shortage at the moment. That has been caused mostly by China, which is in the midst of an economic boom that is attracting oil, and raw materials, imports from all over the world.

Nations around the Malacca and Singapore Straits have already united, with the United States (and other major naval powers), to form more maritime patrols. If terrorist pirates did seize a large ship, there would probably be a chain-of-events worthy of a fairly exciting movie. Most of the really big ships have security devices on board that at least alert the owners back home when the ship, or crew, is in trouble. There would be time for local warships and commandoes/swat teams, to be brought to bear. But stopping or sinking one of these ships is difficult. U.S. Navy SEALs and Marines have practiced getting on to a ship held by terrorists, and fighting to regain control. It isn�t easy. And the terrorists could bring aboard explosives to rig the ship for rapid sinking at the right moment.

Pirates, in general, are not interested in becoming Islamic martyrs, but if Islamic terrorists recruited some experienced pirates to their cause, you could have a hijacking. Apparently that possibility has become more immediate of late.

February 17, 2005: Since September 11, 2001, thousands of merchant ships have been boarded by U.S. Navy sailors. It�s all about looking for terrorists, but many of the suspicious ships targeted for boarding are just ordinary smugglers, or completely innocent. These guys often don�t like the law in general, but are not about to pick a fight with an American warship. So they show their displeasure in other ways. Many have taken to stringing barbed wire along the deck railings. American boarding parties have taken to carrying wire cutters with them because of this. Other suspicious skippers have strung cables from the deck to masts and cranes. This makes it difficult for a boarding party to come in by rappelling down from a helicopter. Now that�s spite.

Other merchant seamen have invented some more practical problems for boarding parties. A common one is welding shut hatch covers and doors to areas they don�t want the law looking at. This forces a well prepared boarding party to have welders on call to get into these areas. A messier way to create a lack of access was found in ships where barrels of grease, oil or other slippery liquids were placed around the ship, near passages leading to forbidden areas. As the boarding party came aboard, the barrels and buckets were knocked over, leaving the boarding party to deal with the slippery situation as best they could.

The U.S. Navy has responded by working with the various coast guards and port officials in the areas they are patrolling, to exchange information on the suspicious, and uncooperative, characters they run into. Smugglers tend to move among a small number of ports, or coastal villages, where they pick up and drop off material. So the American ship captains let it be known that bad behavior will be repaid. American naval officers are not obliged to report, to the local authorities, everything their boarding parties find. But give the boarding party a hard time, and you can expect trouble from the local law in the next port you enter.

February 9, 2005: Incidents of piracy, which has been a growing problem over the past decade, fell sharply (by about a third) in 2004. There were 445 attacks on merchant ships in 2003, but only 325 last year. The dramatic drop came from more energetic policing in the Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, the Caribbean, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Meanwhile, attacks were up in the Malacca Straits, Nigeria, Balikpapan, Malaysia, the Singapore Straits, South China Sea and Haiti. The Malacca Straits, between Indonesia and Malaysia, are the busiest seaway on the planet, and provides more potential pirate targets than anywhere else. Nigeria is beset by several oil stealing (and smuggling) gangs that are at home on the water, and have lots of guns. Balikpapan is the largest oil exporting port in Indonesia, and has attracted a lot of bad guys with fast boats and big guns. Malaysia has been cursed with piracy for centuries, and for many coastal families, it�s a tradition. The Singapore Straits, between Singapore and Malaysia is a favorite target of Malaysian pirates, partly because of all the traffic coming out the nearby Malacca Straits. The South China Sea also has a long pirate tradition, and corrupt Chinese naval police have added to the problems lately. Haiti has a lot of coastal traffic, and several seagoing gangs that have learned how to steal at sea.

Nearly all acts of piracy are basically seagoing muggings. Late at night, speedboats full of heavily armed (with pistols and assault rifles) men come alongside a large merchant ship, use grappling hooks to scramble aboard, and then overwhelm and rob the small crews (rarely more than 40 sailors). The pirates then basically steal anything portable. These ships don�t carry much cash, funds are transferred electronically as needed. But there are plenty of portable electronic items aboard, and knowledgeable pirates know what to look for and take. Less skilled pirates just take what they can find and get away. In rare cases, the ship is stolen, and the crew killed. There are many unreported (or less reported) pirate attacks on fishing boats, small coastal freighters and pleasure craft (especially yachts). These are more likely to result in murder and stolen ships. It�s easier to unload a small fishing boat, than a thousand foot long container ship.

The acts of piracy on the large merchant ships are carefully reported because these vessels are covered by expensive insurance policies. That's a primary reason for the decrease in pirate attacks, for the insurance companies will raise rates for ships operating in piracy prone areas, making local ports less competitive, and likely to lose business. In response, vulnerable ships are being equipped with more security equipment (cameras, sensors and the like.) If the crew can spot the pirates coming, they can use water hoses to hold them off until the local coast guard or harbor police can show up. If the pirates lose the element of surprise, they usually speed off. The pirates see this a low risk business, and avoid the police and coast guard. However, it is believed that most pirate attacks are carried out by a few groups. Also, nearly all pirates are operating close to home, and it is believed that the December, 2004, tidal waves in the Indian Ocean wiped out several pirate gangs in the region.

October 27, 2004: The U.S. Coast Guard is very concerned about port security in the United States. Some vulnerabilities are widely known. For example, in Puerto Rico, the main port of the island, San Juan, could easily be blocked if someone set off a large bomb in a ship while the vessel was in the main shipping channel. This would close the port, which is the main entry point for food that millions of island residents depend on. Two other well known vulnerabilities are the Houston ship channel and one of the tight turns in the Mississippi river below New Orleans. Block these two choke points with a large, sunk, ship and you stop nearly half our exports and oil imports.