Bush administration plan to hunt Somali pirates met with skepticism

[BunkerHill24]

By Shashank Bengali / McClatchy Newspapers
Tuesday, December 16, 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya - A Bush administration proposal to allow foreign forces to go ashore into Somalia to hunt the country’s notorious pirates is getting a cool reception from U.S. military leaders, regional analysts and some Somali officials.

The proposal - which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to put forward Tuesday at the United Nations Security Council - is the boldest yet aimed at stopping the pirates, who’ve hijacked 55 ships this year, secured tens of millions of dollars in ransoms and kneecapped maritime trade between Europe and Asia.

Somalia’s long East African coastline is a lawless stretch of empty beaches and mountain hollows, and experts think that foreign forces lack the military intelligence to carry out well-targeted land attacks. They warn that civilian casualties would stoke anti-Western sentiment in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation, where powerful Islamist militias are threatening to topple an internationally backed - but desperately weak - interim government.

It’s unlikely that American forces would be involved, given the lingering memories of 1993, when a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter was shot down over the Somali capital, Mogadishu, resulting in the deaths of 18 servicemen. The current struggles of a small African Union peacekeeping mission also raise doubts that any country would be willing to send ground forces into Somalia.

"Our intelligence is pretty shaky inside Somalia on a whole bunch of things said Roger Middleton, a Somalia researcher at Chatham House, a British-based research center. "There’s a real danger of arresting fishermen."


more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/814043.html

[balantz]

1. Is this where Blackwater comes in? n/t

[rcsl1998]

2. Like Poppy Bush Did To Bill Clinton Just Before The Inauguration

Remember 'Black Hawk Down' ???

[santamargarita]

3. That dumb ass will probably attack the "Love Boat"

:rofl:

[awoke_in_2003]

4. One way to do it...

is to arm all ships in that area with a few Marines and some shoulder launched missiles. Start blowing up their damn boats. No boats, no pirates.

[BunkerHill24]

5. Easier said than done. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

6. Yeah,

especially with all the different nationalities involved. Of course, they don't have to be US Marines.