IKLE/RADEMAKER: Coddling pirates aids terrorists

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COMMENTARY:

"Hurray for the Pirate King! And it is, it is a glorious thing to be a Pirate King." Indeed, this passage in "The Pirates of Penzance" opera by Gilbert and Sullivan fits the jolly good life of today's pirates in Somalia. With their ransom money, the pirates in ungoverned Somalia buy expensive automobiles, build luxurious villas and purchase weapons for attacking more ships.

Yet, the cheerfulness will end. Unless the ransom payments stop, the continuing influx of millions of dollars will lead to a catastrophic empowerment of global terrorism. Somalia is already well-nigh impossible to control by counterterrorist forces. With a continuing influx of millions in ransom money, it will become a fortress for launching global terrorism. It is high time that governments seeking to fight terrorism begin to grasp this menacing dynamic.

Money is essential to fuel international terrorism. Without Osama bin Laden's wealth it is unlikely the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks would have succeeded. Those attacks required complex training to achieve the near simultaneous hijacking of four airplanes.

To block financial transfers to terrorist organizations, the U.S. Treasury Department and its foreign counterparts have established systematic programs in accordance with United Nations Security Council mandates. But if the shipping companies keep paying ransom to Somali pirates, this program will be bypassed. The pirates conspire with the ship owners to keep the size of the ransom payments secret and avoid bank transfers by having the payments made in cash.

Our strategies to fight piracy are inept and ill-informed. A significant naval force in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden has been trying to end the piracy, but it has been largely useless because of the reluctance of participating nations to use effective force. This cowardice is masked by frivolously imagined legal constraints. For example, the British Foreign Office warned the Royal Navy not to detain pirates, lest it violate their human rights and provoke claims for asylum in Britain. What an appalling lack of political will - fearing claims for asylum by criminals caught in flagrante delicto!

The British were not the only coddlers of pirates. A German frigate, in order to help other ships about to be attacked by pirates, used its helicopter to shoo away the speedboats of the pirates. Yet all the pirates escaped safely, because the German rules of engagement did not provide for fighting pirates.

Recently, Germany and France tried to implement more effective measures, but they still have not found a solution for punishing captured pirates. Thus, last week a French warship captured pirates before they could attack a Panamanian freight ship. But the French turned these captives over to the Somalian "authorities," which means the pirates were set loose and are now free to plan their next attack.

In December, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promoted an even more absurd initiative. She urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution authorizing nations to pursue pirates into the territory of Somalia, provided Somalia's government gives its approval. But as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned, Somalia's government might soon collapse. And indeed, it did collapse and no nation has been willing to send forces into Somalia.

Somalia has become the best base in the world for global terrorism. In Somalia terrorists will be better protected than in Afghanistan. After Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. forces rapidly conquered Afghanistan and closed bin Laden's terrorist training sites. By contrast, in Somalia U.S. forces in 1993 tried to support relief operations but had to withdraw after painful setbacks. Mark Bowden's book "Black Hawk Down," made that humiliating episode hard to forget.