Pirates and terrorists may well link up to pose the next big maritime threat
 THE defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria now risks the emergence of a maritime threat which may yet haunt the intra-Asia and Asia Europe trade lanes - that is the risk of born-again politically motivated piracy.
While little hard evidence of a link exists between Muslim terrorists and free-enterprising pirates, it has been long suspected as a threat, taken more seriously today as ISIS has lost its source of tax revenue in Syria and Iraq.
Of course, big time piracy has been on the wane for a number of years off the Horn of Africa. A combination of naval patrols and shipboard armed guards have decreased the risk and reduced the threat.
But it must be remembered that the border between pirates and terrorists is not brightly drawn because crime, as in the case of Ireland, has funded terrorist operations in the past.
So while piracy has abated in the waters off the Horn of Africa, the union between Muslim extremists, who at one time were at the gates of Bagdad, and piracy seems to be the most promising line of development for both parties.
It is on the coast of lawless east Africa and the equally anarchic south coast of the Mediterranean that offer safe haven a new breed of pirate-terrorist to raise money through kidnapping as many have done before.
Nearly as promising for the same reasons are the Bight of Benin of West Africa and the Philippines' Sulu Sea, where Muslims abound providing the sea in which guerrillas can swim as Mao Zedong put it in his terrorist days. As indeed George Washington might have put it, in his day.
At first, western peacenik governments gnashed their gums and wrung their hands fretfully in the face of blatant piracy on the high seas, ever fearful of doing or saying anything that might make them look narrow minded. Meanwhile, pirates and piracy thrived, ringing up millions in ransom payments.
At first western naval patrols did very little but sail around impotently, not wanting to shoot unless shot at, leaving the pirates to their work largely unmolested.
During this early scarecrow period, governments refused to allow armed civilian shipboard guards. Not willing or able to take on the job themselves, government wouldn't allow others to do it. Instead, they advised the use of sound guns, or stringing razor wire along the gunwales of the most vulnerable, the low and slow bulkers and tankers. Some also installed panic rooms, which went by the falsely aggressive name "citadels" as if they were bristling with gunnery, which was definitely not the case.
All of these proved ineffective or useless in the case of the bigger faster box ships with their high freeboard that were largely invulnerable to the petty pirate skiffs. With containers stacked on the weather deck, it was next to impossible to hit the bridge with a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) from a bobbing skiff.
Hong Kong's Anglo Eastern Ship Management, after resisting the deployment of armed guards, finally relented after it reportedly paying out US$7 million to spring a crew from the clutches of pirate kidnappers. "Ships with armed guards are not pirated," said then CEO Peter Cremers after his period of resistance.
The problem with street-legal naval patrols, even now when they are prepared to do the right thing, is that they are seldom on site when one needs them, given the vastness of the Indian Ocean.
The problem with shipboard armed guards is that they have little legal status and can be boarded and arrested within the 200-mile national exclusive economic zones (EEZ), for little else than being is possession of small arms.
Illustrative of this is the tale of the "Chennai 6", six former British soldiers, arrested by the Indian Navy after their MV Seaman Guard Ohio ship, owned by the US-based company AdvanFort, was boarded four years ago in Indian waters.
In the end they were cleared of all of illegal weapons possession charges by an Indian appeals court. They were jailed in 2013 along with 14 Estonians, 12 Indians and three Ukrainians, all of whom worked for AdvanFort, a maritime security company. Their vessel was boarded by the Indian Navy for entering its waters without permission.
Indian authorities then found weapons and ammunition on board and the men were charged with possession of illegal firearms.
Following an initial conviction, charges were quashed when the men argued they had the right permits and clearance for them as they were an anti-piracy unit.
But then they were later re-convicted when a lower court reinstated the charges, as the Indian justice system in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and nationally moved their case between courts and judges.
Despite these risks posed by those who should be allies in the fight against piracy, shipboard armed guards, to-ing and fro-ing between the arsenal supply ships where they can safely store weapons without the risk of being arrested, are still the preferred option. They are on the spot to meet and greet pirates as they come. The mere sight of an armed guard is enough to have a pirate look for an easier kill elsewhere.
Admittedly, naval patrols, now ready, willing and able to board suspicious fishing boats and engage in arms searches, have had a good affect at last in reducing the tendency to put to sea hoping take hostages for ransom.
But the world is not a safe place. While there has been a general demise of war reporting there has been no corresponding lack of military in the last 40 years.
Increasingly western journalism has been taken over by women, who have no interest in war, and are allied with advertising salesmen, who support them in this because talk of war dampen de-activates their natural instinct to shop and respond to retail advertising on which the media depends for revenue. Thus what is covered, is often from hospital wards rather than the frontline which decides outcomes.
In a long-gone male dominated world, the front pages would be filled with the progress of conflicts in Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Syria and Thailand. Such wars go on and troops are engaged and battles go to and fro, but few pay attention. And if they do, they are less engaged in bringing about a resolution than hoping it goes away, though occasionally thrilling at a new threat, but forgetting it regardless if it materialised or faded, guided only by the emotional intensity it generated.
What is being missed today by sheer inattention is the scattering of Muslim terrorists accompanied by their growing influence in the areas of the world where pirates from Bight of Benin to the Sulu Sea are operational, and where a relationship between the two will obviously be mutually beneficial.
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