World Efforts Cut Legs off of Pirates [View All]

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World Efforts Cut Legs off of Pirates
March 06, 2009
Military.com|by Colin Clark

The bottom line on piracy off Somalia: it's down in the face of increased patrols and greater coordination between the United States, China, Russia, European Union and NATO.

The problem spiked in August with 12 ships seized in just a few days. Since then "significant strides" have been made but piracy will remain episodic as long as Somalia remains poor, overfished and virtually ungoverned.

That was the message yesterday from Vice Adm. William Gortney, chief of Central Command's naval forces, and other State Department officials before the House Armed Services Committee March 5.

But Cold War-era antagonisms die hard despite the threat. Case in point -- the Chinese and American navies communicate using Yahoo email accounts. Gortney told lawmakers yesterday that the U.S. has suggested that China post a liaison officer with the E.U./NATO force patrolling the area and to initiate bridge to bridge radio communications. But no takers so far.

Currently, 250 pirates have been seized. Of those, 130 were disarmed and released, 110 disarmed and turned over for prosecution, and seven were turned over to Kenya for prosecution.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/March-2009/world-efforts-cut-legs-off-of-pirates.html?col=1186032310810