Choose Your Own (Pirate) Adventure (Updated)
by DAVID AXE
It took a year of lobbying, but the NATO force dedicated to deterring and interdicting pirates off the Somali coast has finally approved my request to embark on one of its warships. The offer for a four-day embark this month came just days ago, after I’d already accepted an embed with U.S. forces in Afghanistan for October. All my resources are currently devoted to Afghanistan, so if I’m also going to join NATO for an African pirate adventure, I need your help.
The invitation is to spend a period in late September aboard the USS Donald Cook, pictured, a Burke-class destroyer assigned to Standing NATO Maritime Group 2, a counter-piracy force that also includes British, Greek, Italian and Turkish frigates. The cost of economy-class airfare is around $2,000. I’m asking readers for donations. If I cannot raise the funds in the next 10 days or so, I’ll have to politely decline the invitation. In that case, I will return any donations.
If I do manage to embark, what can readers expect from my reporting? For starters, I’m interested to see how a diverse naval force coordinates vessels, crews and aircraft from different nations. I’m also eager to see how well a guided-missile destroyer, designed for big wars, adapts to the kinds of dirty, tedious maritime security missions that are becoming more common in our globalized world. I want to find out, as best I can, whether naval patrols have contributed to the recent, modest reduction in successful hijackings. Finally, I hope to record some kick-ass high-seas action: helicopters zooming overhead, boats churning through swells, ships slicing through the waves in pursuit of dangerous, heavily-armed criminals.
Covering pirates from the at-sea perspective would complement my efforts last year to report on piracy, from the point of view of its victims on land. My plans include blog series, dispatches for newspapers and magazines and video spots. But the reporting requires your support. Please consider giving via the Paypal button at left.
Update: Leaving in a week. Could still use funding!
(Photo: Navy)
World Politics Review: Somali “Travelersâ€: The Holiest Gang, Part Two
How young Somali immigrants to the U.S. searched for belonging, and found jihad. Second of a three-part series. Part III will appear next Friday.
by DAVID AXE
When 26-year-old Shirwa Ahmed, a Somali-born immigrant living in Minnesota, blew himself up in Puntland, Somalia, on Oct. 29 last year, he became the very first American suicide bomber, and a harbinger of a looming crisis. Ahmed sneaked into Somalia in late 2007, followed by potentially scores of other young Minnesotan Somali-Americans.
Since the first wave of “travelers,” as they are known, left America, Minnesota has become a quiet battleground. The miniature, homegrown war on terror has pitted government authorities and their allies in the Somali community against fiery youths, hardline mosques and angry, alienated Somali immigrants.
Both sides claim to represent the voice of Minnesota’s roughly 70,000 Somalis. All agree, however, that the issue has its roots in broken families, neglected kids, alleyway bullying, and many Americans’ all-too-casual racism and xenophobia. In our post-9/11 world, Somali immigrants’ race and faith “pushed those buttons of fear,” says Dr. Peter Rachleff, a professor specializing in immigration, labor and African-American history at Macalester College, in St. Paul. And the backlash that fear created has contributed to a sense of alienation among many Somalis that sometimes results in desperate actions.
In America, Somali immigrants represent a minority within a minority within a minority. They’re black. They’re native Africans. And they’re Muslims. “Somalis face language and cultural barriers,” explains Abdirizak Bihi, a Somali community organizer and uncle of one of the travelers. Bihi’s 17-year-old nephew Burhan Hassan sneaked into Somalia in November, and reportedly died of a gunshot wound seven months later.
Many young Somali-Americans live in broken homes — their fathers either dead or working abroad. “We have the highest [number of] single-mom households in this community,” Bihi says. “It’s very bad, especially for the boys. They need a mentor.”
Read the rest at World Politics Review.
(Photo: Elliot Dodge deBruyn)
Related:
World Politics Review: Somali “Travelers”: The Holiest Gang, Part One
Columbia Journalism Review: Somalia’s Dark Days
World Politics Review: Somali Extremists Willing to Kill, to Cover up Eritrea Connection
Death Threat E-mail from Somali Extremist
Somali Journo, Assassination Survivor, Flees Country
World Politics Review: Attacks on Somali Media Underscore Lawlessness
Somali Gov’t to Neighbors: Invade Us, Please
Help Rescue a Somali Reporter, Targeted for Assassination
Offiziere.ch: Mogadishu Battle Draws in Foreign Powers
Ethiopians Re-Invade Somalia?
Ethiopian Prez: Somali Insurgents “Desperateâ€
Alleged American Jihadist in Somalia = CIA Drone?
Offiziere.ch: Fresh Fighting Deepens Somali Islamist Schism
Kyle’s Links 9/11/09
by KYLE MIZOKAMI
* Afghanistan’s weekend warriors
* Israel returns fire after rockets fired from Lebanon
* Japanese farmers, airbase make unhappy neighbors
* Indian military considers impact of global warming
* Charles Taylor: “I was not aware of ‘Operation No Living Thing’”
Columbia Journalism Review: Somalia’s Dark Days
An interview with Somali journalist Ahmed Omar Hashi
by DAVID AXE
Ahmed Omar Hashi was no stranger to death threats. As a senior producer for Mogadishu’s popular Shabelle Radio, Hashi routinely reported on Somalia’s bloody, eighteen-year civil war, and all the bitter politics that accompany it. By 2007, he was regularly receiving threats, by phone and text message. But the Islamic insurgents from the hard-line Al-Shabab group, who were suspected in most of the threats, never made good on them. Other Somali journalists were less lucky. Around twenty have been assassinated since 2007.
In May, Al-Shabab launched a major assault on the new, moderate, Western-backed government in Mogadishu. Shabelle Radio closely covered the fighting, which is ongoing. On June 7, gunmen attacked Hashi and his boss, Moqtar Hirabe, while the two were walking in a Mogadishu market. Hirabe, a respected veteran of Somali media, was killed. Hashi was shot in the hand and stomach, but survived.
In the aftermath of the attack, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the news Web site World Politics Review raised money to sneak Hashi to neighboring Uganda, where he is now recovering from his wounds and applying for asylum in the United States. David Axe spoke to Hashi there by e-mail and phone.
CJR: Describe the attack in which you were injured and Moqtar Hirabe was killed.
Hashi: Moqtar and I were walking in Bakara Market, to do some assignments. Two masked men armed with pistols came behind us and started shooting both of us in the back. Moqtar had fallen down at the first shooting—because the bullet hit directly on his heart—but luckily I was hit, by the first shooting, on the left side of the hand, and it passed into the left side of my stomach and came out the right.
CJR: Why were you attacked?
Hashi: I was attacked due to my work. They [Al-Shabab] have many times asked me to make some changes, and add pro-Al-Shabab programs, which I turned a deaf ear to. It’s against journalism laws to side with one group.
To read the full story, subscribe to Columbia Journalism Review.
(Photo: via Ahmed Omar Hashi)
Related:
World Politics Review: Somali Extremists Willing to Kill, to Cover up Eritrea Connection
Death Threat E-mail from Somali Extremist
Somali Journo, Assassination Survivor, Flees Country
World Politics Review: Attacks on Somali Media Underscore Lawlessness
Somali Gov’t to Neighbors: Invade Us, Please
Help Rescue a Somali Reporter, Targeted for Assassination
Offiziere.ch: Mogadishu Battle Draws in Foreign Powers
Ethiopians Re-Invade Somalia?
Ethiopian Prez: Somali Insurgents “Desperateâ€
Alleged American Jihadist in Somalia = CIA Drone?
Offiziere.ch: Fresh Fighting Deepens Somali Islamist Schism
Fighting Resumes in Mogadishu
Offiziere.ch: Imagining the “Air Force After Nextâ€
by DAVID AXE
The U.S. Air Force’s fighter fleet modernizes on a roughly 20-year cycle. It takes at least that long for most new planes and munitions to complete development and enter service in meaningful numbers. Consider the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, which entered squadron service in 2005, 24 years after its initial requirement was written. New weapons are both driven by, and in turn drive, new tactics and procedures.
Broadly speaking, every couple decades represent a “generation†for the Air Force. Since the weapons completing development today will serve for decades to come, we know what the next generation will look like. But what about the one after that — the one we can start building today, essentially from scratch? What about this “Air Force After Next�
I propose that the Air Force After Next could be represent the first generation in a century to take advantage of new ways of buying and using air power, particularly when it comes to fighters. By embracing the private sector’s “just-in-time†philosophy, the emerging “fast, inexpensive, simple and tiny†acquisitions model and the “orbit†construct that is rapidly gaining Pentagon currency, the Air Force After Next could be the most powerful and adaptive tactical air force, ever.
Read the full proposal at Offiziere.ch.
(Photo: Bryan William Jones)
Related:
“Eve” Mother-Ship Could Form Basis of Future Warplane
Flying with Iraq’s King Air Spy Planes
Surveillance Orbits for From-Scratch Air Forces
Meet the “New†U.S. Air Force
Air Force Copies Marines’ “Bolt-On†Gunship Plan
Offiziere.ch: the Emerging U.S. Counter-Insurgency Air Force
Congressional Budget Office’s Plans to Save the Air Force
Air Force Turns a Corner
The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself
Analysts: Buy Fighters, or Die
Behold, Somali Navy Battleships Battleskiffs!
by DAVID AXE
The other day Rob Farley at Information Dissemination wondered if the new Somali navy even had any vessels. I said it didn’t matter, as the force’s work was mostly on land, clearing out pirate enclaves. Now the Associated Press shows us that the Somali navy indeed has boats. Fishing boats, to be exact — the same “skiffs” that pirates use to chase down unsuspecting cargo ships.
Not much you can do with these boats to stop pirates. They might be useful for short-range patrols among coastal fishermen, but in that zone it’s hard to tell anglers from pirates, considering that they’re all armed and carrying mostly the same gear. Plus, if everyone’s riding in the same skiffs, the navy would be hard-pressed to outrun and board any suspected pirate craft.
What the Somali navy should do, is partner with a new Somali maritime agency to license legitimate fishermen on land, then routinely check up on licensees to ensure they’re actually plying their trade. Anyone coming ashore without a license, goes direct to jail. Better yet, follow those illegit seafarers back to their pirate enclaves, and arrest everyone there.
(Photo: AP)
Warships International Fleet Review: USN Should Heed Israel’s Bitter Lesson
by DAVID AXE
On July 14, 2006, Hezbollah fighters fired two anti-ship missiles at the Israeli Navy’s INS Hanit, a Sa’ar V-class corvette, while Hanit was patrolling 10 miles off the Lebanese coast in support of air and ground operations targeting the Shi’ite armed group. The first of the missiles — reportedly an Iranian-made C-802 — missed Hanit and struck an Egyptian freighter 37 miles out to sea. The second missile, this one possibly a smaller, electro-optically guided C-701, exploded over Hanit’s flight deck, killing four sailors and setting the 1,200-ton vessel on fire. (Damage pictured.)
The attack on the Hanit was a wake-up call for the Israeli navy. In the aftermath of the Lebanon conflict, the Israeli navy revamped its training, tactics and equipment to better prepare the roughly 6,000-strong navy for operations against sophisticated “irregular” enemies in crowded, littoral waters. The Israelis upgraded their corvettes’ air defenses and tweaked existing doctrine to keep vessels farther from shore, but still close enough to matter. The result, as demonstrated during operations off Gaza earlier this year, is the world’s most effective littoral navy — one that should serve as an object lesson for the U.S. Navy, as the world’s largest sea service builds up its own littoral forces. …
After her missile strike, Hanit was quickly repaired and returned to service. Today she bears no physical evidence of her near-sinking. But the institutional scars, for the wider Israeli navy, are still evident. Today Hanit and her two sisters boast upgraded Barak air-defense missiles, with up to 64 missiles per vessel, in addition to a single Phalanx 20-millimeter point-defense gun. Moreover, the corvette force employs revised tactics that emphasize operating at night, thus complicating missileers’ targeting — this according to a senior Israeli navy source. (Israel generally does not allow its military officers to identify themselves to the press.) Where day operations are necessary, Israel’s large warships now maintain greater distance from shore.
The U.S. Navy has already applied the distance lesson. Last year, General James Conway, the U.S. Marine Corps Commandant, said that Navy amphibious ships would now remain at least 25 miles from shore during major combat operations, a large increase over the previous recommended distance. But 25 miles is too far for vessels tasked with patrolling the littorals — especially for vessels delivering naval fire support for shore operations. For coastal patrols and shore bombardment, surface combatants must travel inside the 25-mile “danger zone.” How might they survive? By fighting mostly at night, like the Israelis plan to do — and by packing heavy air defenses.
The new Littoral Combat Ship is the linchpin of the Navy’s littoral strategy. Two early production LCSs — Lockheed Martin’s mono-hull Freedom and General Dynamics’ trimaran Independence — have been delivered and are undergoing trials. Another 53 are planned. While both vessels have proved fast and maneuverable, they lack the heavy armament that Israel installs on its littoral warships. The standard defensive fit for LCS will be a single Rolling Airframe Missile launcher, with just 11 ready rounds.
Now, you can even get military emblems for your auto.
That’s not enough.
For the whole story, subscribe to Warships International Fleet Review.
Related:
Stimson Center’s Budget Insight Blog: Navy’s Chance for Reform, Slipping Away
Wired.co.uk: Inside the New Israeli Defense Forces
Warships International Fleet Review: Rising Star Proposes USN Should Provide Comfort
So Far, So Good for Navy’s V2.0 Inshore Warship
Warships International Fleet Review: Facing a Shrinking Future
Meet the Navy’s Near-Shore “Influence Squadronâ€
How Fast Is Fast Enough for the Navy’s New Warship?
Video: How the Littoral Combat Ship Will Fight Pirates
Littoral Combat Ship = Mini Gator
World Politics Review: Afghanistan Financial War Escalates
by DAVID AXE
The Taliban is running out of money. That was the conclusion some observers reached when the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported last week that Afghanistan’s poppy crop is down nearly a quarter compared to last year. But other experts caution against declaring financial victory. If anything, the behind-the-scenes campaigns to dry up Taliban funding are only now catching up to the extremist group’s sophisticated financial operations.
Poppies, the basic ingredient in opium, represent Afghanistan’s biggest export — albeit an illegal one. They “fund the activities of criminals, insurgents and terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere,” according to the UNODC report. Last year’s crop in Afghanistan was valued at more than $3 billion, the report asserted, before adding that this year’s spring crop was 22 percent smaller, thanks in part to military-supported eradication efforts.
“At a time of pessimism about the situation in Afghanistan, these results are a welcome piece of good news and demonstrate that progress is possible,” the report quoted UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa as saying. “Bankrupting the Taliban” through counternarotics operations “provides new opportunities for success in Afghanistan,” Oliver North wrote in The Washington Times on Sunday.
But Michael Jacobson, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told World Politics Review that the Taliban’s finances are more complex and robust than many people assume. “Part of the organization’s strength is its strong financial state,” he said.
Read the rest at World Politics Review.
(Photo: Jason Reich)
Kyle’s Links 9/9/09
by KYLE MIZOKAMI
* German Afghan contingent: “not a cowboy among us”
* 600 lb. IED discovered in Northern Ireland
* U.K.-designed speedboat goes 97 miles per hour
(Hat tip: Peter Vine)
Drone Test = Idiots’ UFO Sighting
by DAVID AXE
The Sun tabloid pointed to a video of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 tailing a strange-looking object. “UFO watchers reckon it could be proof of a government cover-up,” the paper declared.
Jeebus, people, it’s the Boeing X-45 killer drone. See?
