• English Site
• >World
• >Piracy
• >

  Negotiating with Somali Pirates: 'They Know It's a Successful Business Model'

Negotiating with Somali Pirates 'They Know It's a Successful Business Model'

Part 2: 'We've Never Heard the Word "Revenge" Before'

SPIEGEL: Would you say it's Pirates Inc.?

Cloonan: It's Pirates Inc. Look at it as organized crime. They just happen to be in the business of hijacking boats. There is a command and control structure. It's not clearly the German military or the US military in terms of chain of command, it's less doctrinaire and so on, but there is a command and control structure because there are beneficiaries at the end of the food chain. People have to get money. People have to be rewarded for what they've done.

SPIEGEL: Is it true that many of the pirates were originally fishermen?

Cloonan: They are fishermen one day and over the weekend they become pirates and on Monday they're fishermen again. That is what we understand. If you're facing starvation or facing other economic deprivation and you have no alternatives, you might decide that it's in your best interest to do that. I think that's perfectly logical.

SPIEGEL: What will be the repercussions from the American assault to liberate Captain Richard Phillips?

Cloonan: We've never heard the word "revenge" before and now the pirates are vowing revenge. I'm wondering now if you get taken hostage and there's a US citizen on board -- will they be inclined to treat that prisoner worse because of who they are and what's occurred?

SPIEGEL: Do the pirates ever make odd requests?

Cloonan: In terms of odd requests, usually it's us insisting that food be brought on board. When the rations get low and the hostages are getting only one meal a day, the pirates use that to escalate the tension. They'll also say: "The ship is adrift. We've exhausted the fuel."

SPIEGEL: Does that work?

Cloonan: Obviously the ship owners have a pretty good idea of what's on board, they know where they were when they were stopped, they understand what the fuel capacity was. So typically when the pirates try to force that, it doesn't work out particularly well.

It's good when you're able to communicate with the ship's master in a different language and he'll give you the lay of the land. He'll say: "Yes there are 12 people on. Yes, they have AKs (ed's note: Kalashnikovs). Yes, they have machine guns. Yes, we're moving around. Yes, some of the people are here, some of them are there."

SPIEGEL: How do the Somali pirates see themselves?

Cloonan: I think if you're challenging the likes of the United States and other countries in Western Europe, they see themselves as very successful. They see themselves as downtrodden and exploited -- and so they're heroes.

SPIEGEL: What do they do with the money?

Cloonan: There are reports of the pirates investing the money in real estate. If you look in some of the cities, you'll see these unusually large residences and we know that some of the money there comes from the proceeds from the ransoms.

SPIEGEL: What do you think can be done to stop the pirates?

Cloonan: I think there are two things that need to be done: One, the shipping companies themselves have to decide that they need to take a different route that might take them away from that area.

Secondly, I think you really do need to employ countermeasures, at least in the near term. You really need to have escorts. There is that underway now, but there are always the exceptions and the pirates are going after those exceptions, those who choose to travel on their own, with their lights on at night and who don't follow the requirements of the International Maritime Bureau.

They need to get non-lethal countermeasures on board and they need to contract more escort services, because the international anti-piracy coalition can't do it all. So until such time as the shipping companies decide that they can't rely upon the military, I suspect we'll continue to have these episodes.

Interview conducted by John Goetz

For reasons of data protection and privacy, your IP address will only be stored if you are a registered user of Facebook and you are currently logged in to the service. For more detailed information, please click on the "i" symbol.

Post to other social networks:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•