Reporter's Notebook

Piracy perspectives

Not surprisingly, panelists and speakers at Sea Air Space keep getting asked about piracy, which has captured the public — and media — interest since Capt. Richard Phillips was rescued by the Navy from pirate captors last month. But even though all the uniformed and civilian officials work for the same federal government, there’s anything but a consistent view about piracy.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was blunt when he was asked about piracy as he met with reporters after his lunchtime speech: “It’s not my priority right now,” he said, pointing out that fewer than 1 percent of merchant ships have been affected.

Mullen said he has more important things on his plate managing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and dealing with other challenges in the U.S. Central Command area of operations. He identified what he believes is the core issue, though:

“It’s a bigger problem than pirates — it’s about Somalia,” Mullen said. It’s about Somalia’s ungoverned spaces being havens for lawlessness and buccaneering, and the potential they could become havens for other unsavory characters. Still, Mullen does not advocate sending troops ashore in Somalia, he said.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead reiterated several times that the pirate-invested waters off Somalia are four times the size of Texas — too large for a dozen or so warships to keep watch over.

And James Caponiti, the acting administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration, said in response to an audience question that today’s shippers won’t form World War II-style convoys to take them through Somali waters. He said MarAd is pushing for the countries whose flags fly above hijacked ships to take responsibility for trying the pirates, although the proliferation of “flags of convenience” makes that unlikely. Shippers often fly the flags of third-party countries, such as  Bermuda or Trinidad and Tobago, to enjoy the levels of oversight and taxation imposed by those governments — usually much lighter than in the countries where the ships are owned.

But Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen cited a reason why that might change:

“Lots of tonnage has gone to flags of convenience,” he said, “but anybody out there is feeling pretty good to fly an American flag.”