The US is considering new military and diplomatic strategies in the aftermath of a high-seas hostage drama, including adding Navy gunships along the Somali coastline and launching a campaign to disable pirate “mother ships.”
The rescue of a US hostage and the killing of three Somali pirates by Navy SEAL snipers also increases pressure on US and international leaders to use authority the UN granted last December to hunt pirates on land, where they plan and nurture attacks.
One day after his direct order allowing military force ended in success, US President Barack Obama committed the US to “halt the rise of piracy” without saying exactly how his administration and allies would do so. While stopping short of a pledge to eradicate piracy, the new US president added the lawlessness off the coast of Africa to a lengthy must-fix list that already includes two wars and a struggling economy.
PHOTO: EPA
“We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise, and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes,” Obama said.
US officials privately outlined several options on Monday, even as the Pentagon cautioned that the solution to the piracy scourge won’t come at the point of a gun.
The high-stakes discussions come on the heels of a piracy drama that ended on Sunday with the freeing of a US cargo ship captain. Somali pirates said they would retaliate for the killing of three of the pirates holding captain Richard Phillips, and one pirate said that Americans were now enemy No. 1.
Military officials said the precision of Sunday’s rescue may be a testament to the skill of US forces, but it should not become a rationale for a major expansion of the Pentagon’s role in what is fundamentally a criminal problem.
One official, reflecting the administration’s view, said bluntly that piracy is a crime, not an act of war or even terrorism. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made, including about whether to expand or change the military’s current role in fighting piracy.
Meanwhile, pirates hijacked a vessel off the coast of Somalia yesterday in their latest attack on commercial shipping, a maritime group said.
Somali pirates took 22 crewmen from the Philippines hostage when they hijacked a Greek cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden yesterday, Greece’s merchant marine ministry said.
The MV Irene, a Greek-operated vessel flagged in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, belonged to Chian Spirit Maritime Enterprises Ltd, based in the Greek port of Piraeus, it said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS