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Somali Pirates Guided by U.K. Intelligence Team?
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Guardian (One of the U.K.'s leading newspapers)
Posted: May 17th, 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/11/somali-pirates-l...
The Somali pirates attacking shipping in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean are directed to their targets by a "consultant" team in London, according to a European military intelligence document obtained by a Spanish radio station. The document, obtained by Cadena SER radio, says the team and the pirates remain in contact by satellite telephone. It says that pirate groups have "well-placed informers" in London who are in regular contact with control centres in Somalia where decisions on which vessels to attack are made. These London-based "consultants" help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships' cargoes and courses. In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company. "The information that merchant ships sailing through the area volunteer to various international organisations is ending up in the pirates' hands," Cadena SER reported the report as saying. This enables the more organised pirate groups to study their targets in advance, even spending several days training teams for specific hijacks. Senior pirates then join the vessel once it has been sailed close to Somalia. Captains of attacked ships have found that pirates know everything from the layout of the vessel to its ports of call. The national flag of a ship is also taken into account when choosing a target, with British vessels being increasingly avoided, according to the report.
Note: The remarkable capability described here -- knowledge of all the details of cargo, ship layout, nationality, and especially position and course -- is one that only national intelligence agencies are likely to have. The positional information would require real-time satellite or drone aircraft surveillance data. Could MI6, the British C.I.A., be running the Somali pirate operations, which have so suddenly spiked up just as the Pentagon's new AFRICOM gets underway?
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