An Early Military Victory for Obama/Pirates nervous as Obama vows to crack down

An Early Military Victory for Obama
By Michael D. Shear
Copyright by The Washington Post
Monday, April 13, 2009; Page A09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/12/AR2009041203002.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter


It was one of the earliest tests of the new American president -- a small military operation off the coast of a Third World nation. But as President Bill Clinton found out in October 1993, even minor failures can have long-lasting consequences.

Clinton's efforts to land a small contingent of troops in Haiti were rebuffed, for the world to see, by a few hundred gun-toting Haitians. As the USS Harlan County retreated, so did the president's reputation.

For President Obama, last week's confrontation with Somali pirates posed similar political risks to a young commander in chief who had yet to prove himself to his generals or his public.

But the result -- a dramatic and successful rescue operation by U.S. Special Operations forces -- left Obama with an early victory that could help build confidence in his ability to direct military actions abroad.

Throughout the past four days, White House officials played down Obama's role in the hostage drama. Until yesterday, he made no public statements about the pirates.

In fact, aides said yesterday, Obama had been briefed 17 times since he returned from his trip abroad, including several times from the White House Situation Room. And without giving too many details, senior White House officials made it clear that Obama had provided the authority for the rescue.

"The president's focus was on saving and protecting the life of the captain," one adviser said. Friday evening, after a National Security Council telephone update, Obama granted U.S. forces what aides called "the authority to use appropriate force to save the life of the captain." On Saturday at 9:20 a.m., Obama went further, giving authority to an "additional set of U.S. forces to engage in potential emergency actions."

A top military official, Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of the Fifth Fleet, explained that Obama issued a standing order that the military was to act if the captain's life was in immediate danger.

"Our authorities came directly from the president," he said. "And the number one authority for incidents if we were going to respond was if the captain's life was in immediate danger. And that is the situation in which our sailors acted."

After the rescue ended, White House officials immediately offered expanded information about Obama's role, though the president simply released a statement praising the troops and expressing pride in the captain's bravery.

The operation pales in scope and complexity to the wars underway in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Obama's adversaries are unlikely to be mollified by his performance in a four-day hostage drama.

Nonetheless, it may help to quell criticism leveled at Obama that he came to office as a Democratic antiwar candidate who could prove unwilling or unable to harness military might when necessary.

And as Obama's Democratic predecessors can attest, a victory -- no matter how small -- is better than a failure.

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Clinton's decision to send the USS Harlan County to Haiti loaded with troops was seen as a half-measure taken by a president spooked by the earlier downing of a Black Hawk helicopter in Somalia.

After the Harlan's failure to get ashore, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote in a column that year that the incident "makes the administration look feckless and the country look weak."

Thirteen years earlier, Democratic President Jimmy Carter authorized a military rescue of the 52 hostages being held by Iranians in Tehran. The 1980 attempt, called Operation Eagle Claw, ended when two helicopters crashed in the desert, killing eight servicemen.

The incident was a permanent blemish on Carter's reputation.

Had yesterday's rescue at sea gone badly, the political damage for Obama might have been severe. But aides said the outcome should be seen as a success.

"This is the latest indication that the national security team is working well together," a senior White House official said last night. "These folks have spent a lot of time together, including with the president, in the first couple months, and they have a good working relationship. "




Pirates nervous as Obama vows to crack down
By Robert Wright, Transport Correspondent and Demetri Sevastopulo
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: April 13 2009 19:14 | Last updated: April 13 2009 22:10
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/897b6006-2850-11de-8dbf-00144feabdc0.html


Somalia’s pirates have been acting more nervously and co-operating more closely among themselves after Sunday’s killing of three of them by US navy snipers, and a French attack on a seized vessel, say people combating the problem.

The changes suggest that pirates fear further US military intervention. Some observers say this could increase the danger for seafarers in future incidents.

Barack Obama, US president, said on Monday that the US was “resolved to halt the rise of piracy” off Somalia. “To achieve that goal, we’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks. We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise,” he said.

The three pirates were shot on Sunday as the US navy rescued Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, from a drifting lifeboat. He had been held hostage since Wednesday after he handed himself to pirates in return for the release of his US-flagged container ship, which they had briefly hijacked.

On Saturday, French special forces stormed the Tanit, a French yacht seized by pirates, killing one hostage and two pirates.

Pirates have seized four ships in the past week off Somalia’s east coast. The area, which has seen more than half of this year’s successful ship hijackings off Somalia, is far larger than the Gulf of Aden, off the north coast, which saw most of last year’s attacks.

Stephen Askins, a partner at Ince & Co, London-based solicitors specialising in piracy, said there had been an undoubted increase in nervousness among Somalis negotiating over captured ships. “Key personnel are much more difficult to get hold of,” he said.

There were also signs of pirates moving ships away from their traditional anchorages off the town of Eyl, the main base for raiders from the northerly Darod clan, said one western military analyst. “We saw a lot of ships anchored off Eyl, but not as many now,” the analyst said. The move could signify growing local resentment at the presence of pirates, as well as fear of an onshore attack by US or other international forces on areas seen as pirate bases.

“Local populaces that used to support the pirates may be pushing back a little bit,” the analyst said.

Abdi Garad, a pirate chief based in Eyl, told Agence France-Presse they would now target US interests. “Next time we get American citizens I wish they will expect no mercy from us,” he said.

Groups that normally work in competition appear to be co-operating in the face of the increased threat. Vessels hijacked by both the more southerly Hawiye clan and the Darod converged on the site of the Maersk Alabama stand-off to try to lend support, Mr Askins and the analyst reported. “That demonstration was quite unusual,” Mr Askins said.

However, Mr Askins said pirates coming from desperately poor Somalia still had more to gain by continuing attacks than they might lose from military intervention. “The risk-reward ratio still remains in the pirates’ favour,” he said.

The pirates’ chances of being caught are also lower in the Indian Ocean than in the Gulf of Aden.

Vice-Admiral Bill Gortney, head of US naval forces in the Middle East and Horn of Africa, said that in the gulf it was possible to keep warships close enough to merchant shipping routes to respond quickly to attacks.

“On the east coast of Somalia, such a vast area, we simply do not have enough resources,” he said.

He gave warning that the weekend’s events “could escalate violence in this part of the world”.

However, the military analyst said the pirates’ specific threats against US interests were probably hollow, adding: “They absolutely don’t want a war with the United States.”

Adm Gortney said the “ultimate solution” for tackling piracy was “on land”. He said US efforts to clamp down on piracy, including sending 130 pirates to the judicial system, had not reduced the number of attacks.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, said on Monday there was “no purely military solution” to the problem, adding that the three pirates who were killed on Sunday were teenagers.

”As long as you’ve got this incredible number of poor people and the risks are relatively small, there’s really no way in my view to control it unless you get something on land that begins to change the equation for these kids,” Mr Gates said.

One defence official told the FT last week that the Pentagon would have to debate whether it needed to take military action inside Somalia, partly because of the difficulty in tackling the pirates at sea.

But a senior defence official said on Monday there were no plans to send commandos ashore to disrupt the pirate networks. He said there were “some pretty serious practical challenges” in dealing with the pirates, including “figuring out which of the thousands of dhows are actually pirate ships [or] vice fishing boats.”

Another military official said the US was “working hard within the interagency and with international partners to stem its steady rise”.

Insurgents fire on US congressman
Police said Somali insurgents fired mortars towards Donald Payne, a US congressman, as he left Somalia after a rare visit there by a US politician, Reuters reports from Mogadishu.

US officials have avoided the battle-scarred Somali capital. Omar Hashi Aden, Somali internal security minister, said Mr Payne’s aircraft was airborne when the mortars fell. An African Union official denied any such attack on the airport, which is under AU control.