Chicago Sun Times - Kirk: U.S. Should Say No to Pirate Ransoms

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By Abdon M. Pallasch

The United States should push for a ban on ransoms to Somali pirates and let merchant ships arm themselves in the Indian Ocean, Sen. Mark Kirk said Friday.

The U.S. might even want to consider putting soldiers on U.S. merchant ships in the area, he said.

Kirk returned this week from a week-long tour of the African coast where the centuries-old scourge of piracy has made an explosive comback over the past five years.

"This is a problem as old as the sea, and it hadn't been an issue," Kirk said. "Then in 2005, some Somalis went out to warn international fishermen that they were hurting their fishing, and they realized they were the only ones on board with AK-47s and they could demand ransoms."

Kirk flew over pirate-controlled ports on the Somali coast where 23 ships with 483 hostages are anchored. The average ransom being paid has gone from $1.3 million to $5.4 million over the past two years, he said.

The more lucrative cruise ship industry that used to sustain neighboring states such as Kenya has abandoned those waters as the U.S. and other governments have warned citizens to stay out of the pirate-imperiled waters.

Kirk argues it is time for the United States government to make the same decision President Thomas Jefferson did after taking office in 1800: It's in the long-term interests of the United States to confront the pirates rather than allowing the ransom culture to grow.

He'll be meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next week to make that argument in person.

Though no American ships or hostages are involved right now, Americans should care because 70 percent of world's oil is shipped through these waters and piracy is increasing the cost of that oil as well as pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into pirate groups he said are allied with al-Qaida.

Kirk asked one of the captured pirate leaders in a Somali prison why he was there.

"Because I captured one too many ships," Kirk said.

While the European governments still keep to a policy of paying ransoms for hostages and not attacking the priates while they hold hostages, other countries such as China, India and Russia more aggressively attack pirated ships, sinking them, then picking up the people left floating in the water to sort pirates from hostages, he said.

Chinese naval captains outlined their strategies for Kirk aboard their ships in the Indian ocean defending ships that fly the Chinese flag.

The more aggressive approach - refusing to pay ransoms - may pose a threat to the 483 hostages in custody right now, Kirk said, but it's the best long-term strategy to cripple the industry.

"Because we didn't make the tough call in 2008, we went from five hostages in 2008 to 500 today," Kirk said.

South Africa and other countries in the area that serve as refueling and restocking ports prohibit the merchant ships from arming themselves because they don't want to facilitate the arms trade. But Kirk said that leaves the merchant ships defenseless. The U.S. should encourage a policy that allows some token number of guns on a ship - perhaps five - that would allow the ships' crews to defend themselves against pirates.

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