Hunt begins for Somali pirates

Armed task force sets sail on security mission
Published: 11/09/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Two Thai navy ships with 351 sailors and 20 special warfare troops on board have set sail for the Gulf of Aden to take part in the hunt for pirates off the coast of Somalia.

The mission marks the first time Thailand has sent forces overseas to protect its own interest.

The HTMS Pattani and HTMS Similan left yesterday with two helicopters lashed to the decks from Chuk Samet port at Chon Buri's Sattahip naval base to join a 28-country effort to police the shipping lanes off the Somali coast, which has become a piracy hotbed.

"The key mission of this 98-day operation is to protect Thai cargo ships and fishing vessels in those waters," said Adm Supakorn Buranadilok, Commander of the Royal Thai Navy Fleet.

The navy expects up to 60 Thai ships to pass through the Gulf of Aden during the course of the operation.

The navy's SEALs unit will be part of the fleet involved in the mission.

The budget for the mission has been set at 270 million baht.

The ships are expected to take 17 days to reach the Gulf of Aden on a journey covering 4,573 nautical miles.

The ships are expected to return about Dec 12.


Two navy ships with 371 sailors and special warfare marines on board set sail from Thailand to take part in international operations to protect ships from pirates in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia. JETJARAS NA RANONG
Political chaos and civil war in Somalia have allowed piracy to flourish off the country's 3,100km coastline.

Somali pirates were involved in more than half of the 406 reported pirate attacks worldwide last year.

They mounted 217 attacks in 2009, hijacking 47 ships and taking 867 crew members hostage with ransoms believed to total US$50 million (1.6 billion baht).

A number of Thai ships have been hijacked by Somali pirates over the past five years.

According to the Thai Shipowners' Association, there were 32 attacks on Thai ships last year.

In the latest incident which occurred in April, three fishing boats, the MV Pran Talay 11, 12 and 14, were hijacked, and are still being held by pirates. Efforts are under way to negotiate their release.

Defence Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon said pirate attacks, particularly in Somalia, must be addressed urgently as they are a major issue of international concern.

The Thai government is proud to contribute to the mission, he said.

Navy personnel will receive a daily allowance of 2,100 baht each for the mission.

Rear Adm Chaiyos Sunthornnak, commander of the 2nd Fleet tasked with the anti-piracy mission, said the HTMS Similan is a logistics support vessel built in China in 1996, while the HTMS Pattani is an offshore patrol vessel built in China in 2005.

Rear Adm Suppachai Jaiyen, commander of the navy's special maritime warfare unit, said specially trained soldiers from the navy's underwater demolition team (UDT), better known as the SEALs (Sea-Air-Land), will be part of the navy's anti-piracy mission.

Pornpoj Ngamviriyatham, manager of the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association, applauded the government's decision to send the vessels to protect Thai boats.

The pirates' operating base has now extended to up to 1,931km from coast, and is not under the control of any one state and thus difficult to police. Somalia has been ravaged by 18 years of civil war and is without a functioning central government or a working justice system since the removal of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Illegal fishing and exploitation of marine resources off the coast of Somalia has also been blamed for giving rise to piracy.

Meanwhile, foreign vessels are accused of dumping toxic waste in waters off Somalia, jeopardising the livelihood of Somali people and prompting them to take action against foreign vessels.

Rear Adm Chaiyos said the Somali people had previously tried to protect their marine resources from foreign exploitation by demanding fees from fishing trawlers and cargo ships that might dump toxic waste.

They later turned to piracy and hijacked the ships for ransom.

Somalia is divided into five semi-autonomous regions of Somaliland, Puntland, Northland, Galmudug and Maakhir. Somaliland has declared itself a separate independent state but has not been internationally recognised.

Fighting is still rife in Maakhir between forces of the caretaker government and rebel groups.

More than 1,000 pirates are reportedly based in Puntland, divided into more than 10 different groups.

They are equipped with AK-47s, and rocket-propelled grenades.

Iran Says American's Planned Release Is Result of Intervention by President Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- An Iranian news agency says Saturday's planned released of one of three Americans jailed for more than a year is a result of intervention by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Sarah Shourd and two friends were arrested along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009, and Iran has accused them of illegal border crossing and spying. Their families say they were hiking in Iraq's scenic north and that if they crossed the border, they did so unwittingly.

Iran said Thursday it will free Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, as an act of clemency to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

There was no word on the fate of the other two Americans, Josh Fattal, 28 and Shane Bauer, 28, to whom she got engaged to while they were in prison.

The gesture could be a calculated move by Iran to soften international criticism of its judiciary. Iran has faced a growing storm of protest over a stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery that has been temporarily suspended.
Iran's Mehr news agency on Friday quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying the president intervened in part because of the "special viewpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the dignity of women."

The 31-year-old Shourd has been held in solitary confinement, and her mother says she's been denied treatment for serious health problems.

Once the American is released, normal protocol would be to turn the person over to Swiss diplomats to be taken to the embassy.

There are direct commercial flights to Geneva a few times a week. While flights to Dubai, such as the one taken by the Americans' mothers, are much more frequent, they are probably all booked because of the holidays.

If the released American requires medical care, Geneva would also be the more attractive option.

The imprisonment of the Americans has deepened tensions between the U.S. and Iran, a relationship already strained over Washington's suspicions that Tehran is trying to manufacture nuclear weapons -- something Iran denies.

White House Aides Owed More Than $800G in Back Taxes

President Obama might want to audit his own staff as he sets out to close the deficit. Turns out he could shake them down for close to a cool million in back taxes.

According to a Washington Post analysis of IRS data, a total of 41 White House staff members owed back taxes worth more than $831,000 at the end of 2009.

The data did not show how much of that has since been repaid, if any, but it was just a piece of the $1 billion owed by federal workers across the country.

Some top-level Obama nominees ran into tax problems when the president was assembling his staff in early 2009. Former Sen. Tom Daschle's nomination to head Health and Human Services was derailed over a litany of tax problems. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner cleared confirmation in spite of the fact he once had to pay $34,000, plus interest, in back taxes to the IRS.

The latest IRS data does not name the individuals who owed money last year, but there are plenty more beyond the White House.

Inside the Treasury Department, which houses the IRS, 1,204 employees owed more than $7.6 million.

Three workers at the Office of Government Ethics owed $75,304. At the Department of Homeland Security, 4,856 workers owed in excess of $37 million.