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18 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News there are terrorists all too willing to blow themselves up. Pirates have com- mitted ruthless crimes for relatively small gain. One can assume they would commit more heinous acts for a well- funded terrorist "customer."

Consider the devastating environmen- tal impact if terrorists blew up a large oil or gas carrying ship, especially in a choke point. The economic ramifica- tions are just as bad. "It is quite clear that any serious dis- ruption to the flow of maritime traffic through this channel would have a wide- spread and far-reaching detrimental effect, presenting ships with a detour of around 600 miles and, without doubt, higher freight rates and costlier goods and commodities as a result. That is why the preservation of its integrity is such an important issue," reports the

International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for the safety of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.

Jolly Roger With an Uzi: The Rise and

Threat of Modern Piracy (Naval

Institute Press) by attorneys Jack

Gottschalk and Brian Flanagan, present case studies that show that most report- ed pirate assaults occur in the waters off

Indonesia, Brazil, and Somalia, and in the South China Sea, but, the authors say, no location is entirely safe. The authors say that modern-day pirates are motivated by greed and are not neces- sarily part of a larger organized crime group. Pirates, they claim, are well equipped with high-powered automatic weapons and high-speed boats. Attacks are usually well planned, and they often have intelligence gathered from well- placed informants. The costs in terms of both economic loss and seafarers' deaths and injuries are enormous. "As the risk of security as well as its importance grew, Japan and China has long been looking for ways to detour the

Strait of Malacca," according to the

Korean news website, Donga.com. "This means creating an 'Asian Panama

Canal' in Kra, the southern part of

Thailand. The construction of the Kra

Canal, as short as 100 km, can reduce the travel route by 1,200 km and two to five days of travel time."

As appealing as that canal may be, it would be a very expensive and time- consuming project, leaving us vulnera- ble to the Malacca choke point for many years to come. And such a canal would be a new choke point, vulnerable to ter- rorism or piracy, as well.

Partners against piracy

Terrorists have already proven their willingness to attack from the sea. "Al Qaeda and other extremists are the primary enemy in the region, he said," said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Patrick M.

Walsh, commander of combined mar- itime forces in the region. Walsh holds the titles of Commander, U.S. Naval

Forces Central Command; Commander,

U.S. 5th Fleet. "They attacked the motor vessel Limburg in 2002; they tar- geted economic infrastructure with attacks on oil platforms in 2004; and they attacked the USS Cole in 2000."

A collation of naval partners have cre- ated a task force to patrol the waterways of the Middle East from the Gulf of

Oman to the southern border of Kenya and includes the Red Sea. Called Task

Force 150, its operating area extends out to Pakistan's border with India, and includes ships from 15 to 17 nations, and support from other nations. It recently came under the command of

Pakistani Rear Adm. Shahid Iqbal, who relieved Dutch Commodore Hank Ort.

Such partnerships are an objective of

U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral

Eye on the Navy

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