LONDON - Somali pirates’ first seizure of U.S. citizens signals an entirely justified confidence in their ability to keep outwitting the allied naval forces deployed against them. Whatever the outcome of their brief capture of the U.S. freighter Maersk Alabama, an event that puts Somalia higher up Washington’s security agenda, factors including poverty and the sea’s vastness mean the gangs’ bold ambition is understandable.“Can you make the high seas secure? No, you can’t,” said Jim Wilson of Lloyds Register-Fairplay, a provider of information to the maritime industry. “Warships cannot be everywhere.”
U.S. Horn of Africa scholar David Shinn, in a paper written days before the incident, said: ”All the world’s naval forces do not have enough available ships to protect the 20,000 vessels that pass through the Gulf of Aden annually and the wider 2.5 million square miles of ocean where Somali pirate attacks occurred in recent years.”