Cross-posted at The Rockoff Rag
Lost in the shuffle of foreign policy news today as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a revealing Associated Press article concerning Somalian piracy with John Kerry. When the new Congress convenes in January, Kerry will become Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a key spot that was long held by now Vice-President elect Joe Biden. The article manages to hint at the imminent business of the new Foreign Relations Committee while simultaneously showing the embarrassment that the Associated Press has become to journalism (addressed at the end of this diary). Simply put, the Somalian issue deserves more attention than it has gotten in the press.
In the interview with the AP, Kerry said he plans to hold hearings on pirate activity off the Somalian coast in east Africa. He is quoted as arguing for a hot-pursuit policy against pirates, but warns against "haphazard, sloppy" engagements:
"You gotta know what you're getting into and where you're going and under what circumstances. I mean, if you send five police officers raging in the center of Mogadishu, you are asking for trouble. You gotta be smart."
Kerry’s concerns stem from a recent increase in pirating activity off the coast that has endangered shipping in the region. The AP reports that pirating activity has affected at least 90 vessels and taken approximately 40 boats, for a total ransom value of approximately $30 million.
The New York Times reported on Dec. 15 about international efforts to deter pirate activity. UN officials in this article reported a much higher ransom figure for the current year of approximately $120 million.
To make matters even more complicated, the situation might get worse before it gets better. The Ethiopian military seems likely to pull out in the next several weeks, leaving behind only a weak Somalian government.
This is a situation without an easy economic or military solution. Even if Kerry were to go through with his plans, it seems likely that the pirate threat will continue. The Somalian economy is in shambles. As the New York Times article reported:
Entire clans and coastal villages now survive off piracy, with women baking bread for pirates, men and boys guarding hostages, and others serving as scouts, gunmen, mechanics, accountants and skiff builders. Traders make a nice cut off the water, fuel and cigarettes needed to sustain such oceangoing voyages.
Pirates are known as the best customers of all.
"They pay $20 for a $5 bottle of perfume," said Leyla Ahmed, a shopkeeper in Xarardheere, a notorious pirate den on the Somali coast.
Matters in Somalia changed dramatically today in another way as well, with the resignation of Somalia’s president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. This creates a power vaccuum in Somalia, and it remains unclear who will step in. Western diplomats had hoped for this resignation, with The New York Times writing that Yusuf had been "blamed [by Western diplomats] for trying to block a peace deal with Somalia’s increasingly power insurgents." Yet the same article notes the problems faced by Somalia. With massive poverty, a pullout of Ethiopian forces, the attractiveness of piracy to many Somalians and a country wrecked by divisions, this change may not signal a better day.
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And a further note on the AP story. The article, this diary believes, demonstrates succinctly why the AP has become so poor at reporting politics. For no apparently good reason, the story brings up the charges levied against John Kerry by right-wing groups in 2004 and even discusses in detail the book "Unfit for Command." The flimsy transition between Kerry’s interview on Somalia and this swift boat interlude is accomplished by the AP telling readers that "Kerry knows hot pursuit cases can be ripe for controversy." But this is clearly without regard for the difference between military controversies (the merits of a hot pursuit policy against pirates) and political controversies from partisan groups (the lying about John Kerry’s war record). So much for journalistic neutrality.
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(On a side note, I’ve just begun my very own blog, The Rockoff Rag! Make sure to check it out as I’ll be doing more political analysis over the next few years! Thanks for reading.)