I have previously noted the ease with which terrorists could hijack a ship while it transits the Malacca Straits. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are the littoral states bordering the Straits and it is the most important maritime link between East and West. With Jemaah Islamiyah operating in the area (summary of operations here) it’s not out of the realm of possibility that an attack could occur. It has also been reported that al-Qa’eda view shipping an attractive target and have plans to blow up ships.
The week of 1-7 March there were 3 acts of piracy off the coast of Indonesia alone. This past Saturday was another hijacking, this time a tanker fully loaded with methane gas. Which, not so incidently, is highly explosive in it’s concentrated form.
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A gang of 35 pirates armed with machine guns and rocket launchers seized a fully-laden gas tanker in the Malacca Strait at the weekend, a piracy watchdog reported Monday, rekindling fears of a terrorist attack in the vital waterway.The ship has been released but the captain and chief engineer were kidnapped and the pirates are demanding a ransom, Noel Choong, regional manager of the Piracy Reporting Centre of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), toldAFP.
Choong has sounded an alarm by noting a change in tactics:
“If this is a terrorist attack it will have severe consequences on the security of the ports in the region. It looks like they (pirates) are becoming very daring and they are moving away from the normal coastal attacks towards the open sea and towards Malaysian waters,” Choong said.
As the Post article points out some headway is being made to monitor the Straits with Malaysia announcing Friday it would boost security in the Straits with a 24-hour radar system to guard against attacks by terrorists and pirates. That in addition to added screening of foreign cargo destined for US posts will mitigate the threat somewhat.
But the fact remains, both the Eastern and Western approaches to the Malacca Straits are wide open territory ripe with opportunity for jihadist cut throats intent to kill and maim innocents.
UPDATE: Here is another report of a Japanese tug captured by pirates in Malaysian waters Monday. Sooner or later it will be terrorists and shortly thereafter a very large bang will be heard inport Singapore, Tokyo, or Los Angeles.
Technorati tagged under: Terrorism
Cross posted within the Cranial Cavity
3 Comments
The Malaysian Defense Minister, Najib, however keeps objecting to foreign naval presence there, maintaining that and the ASEAN(a proven dud self serving all talk association) countries can handle all contingencies there. It’s an old record stuck in a groove. ASEAN can’t even stop bickering among themselves(Msia vs S’pore, Indon vs M’sia) and can’t even handle the Burma rogue state situation. M’sia can’t even build naval vessels without resulting in a corruption scandal and with the crafts failing sea worthiness trial.
I read some time ago about shipping companies hiring mercenaries to guard ships during passage through the most threatened waters. One company had mainly ex-Dutch Marines, the other ex-Gurkhas. It was expensive, but I got the impression that the pirates were prevented from attacking by the guards. Any info about this?
As for local officials wanting “outsiders” to stay out while the locals fail to apprehend the pirates, one must suspect a bit of collusion there. That was the case in the past when Cornwall, for example, was a busy pirate base attacking shipping in the Channel, a few centuries ago.
Anti-piracy duty used to be one of the main tasks of the US Navy. Maybe the USN ought to resume the task. Something like those Tucumcari hydrofoil gunboats ought to be wonderful for chasing down pirates.
Michael, I can ensure you the US Navy’s main task has not been anti-piracy patrols for over a century. Take it from a 20 year Vet, and the hydrofoils? Long since gone to the scrapyard. They were Ok in the anti-drug roll in the Carrib. but beyond that worthless. Well not totally, they made great recruiting pictures.