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June 12, 2005
REVIEWS: Are the seas safe?
Reviewed by Shamim-ur-Rahman
The twin tower tragedy on 9/11 not only changed the course of contemporary history, depriving millions of people of their independence in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has also conditioned the mindset of a large number of “intellectuals” and writers as they churned out written material with a “unilateralist” bias. Aditya Bakshi, a navigation officer with the Hong Kong-based Wallem Ship Management Company, has written this book dealing with a very real threat to human security in the years to come.Bakshi believes that “terror is likely to transit to the high seas” because a number of terrorist maritime attacks have already occurred. He argues that in view of this likelihood the global trade, along with some 46,000 merchant ships and 4,000 ports, is at risk. The risk is overwhelming for maritime security since crime, piracy and flags of convenience make the penetration of this environment ridiculously easy for the terrorists. Fifteen million containers are moved around the world each year and very few of them are subjected to any worthwhile scrutiny of contents.
He is worried because the fifth horseman of the “Apocalypse” had come to the coast of the United States in a container. Besides, ocean liners add to the vulnerability of seafarers. Oil tankers can be hijacked and turned into battering rams or huge human guided torpedoes that could smash into the jetties of the major ports of the world to wreak havoc on them.
The book seeks to draw attention to a huge global vulnerability — a threat system that could have an even more horrendous impact on the US and the global economy than 9/11. But the author’s approach is subjective because he has only analyzed the problem in the context of the Al Qaeda threat as perceived by the USA. He has also tried to mix up the acts of piracy with the acts of terrorism. Since he too is obsessed with the Al Qaeda threat, Bakshi has ignored the role of the former Vietnam veterans who acted as mercenaries and engaged in gun-running and narco-trading across the region as one of the prime source of fund raising.
Until the civilian aircrafts turned into flying missiles on 9/11, many would have dismissed the more than a decade old fifth Horseman of the “Apocalypse” as science fiction. But not any more. Writers and analysts are studying Nostradamus’s prophesies, including the one in which he had said that “in the kingdom of the great one ... the port demolished, the ship at the bottom”. They have discussed many hypotheses and conjectures, including the threat at sea. Bakshi has spent considerable space in building up a hypothesis in which the Muslims are perceived as a cause of trouble. The author also seems to be influenced by the Israeli think tanks. He uses the same language when he says that “in its closing phase, the Palestinian terrorist movement had effected the switch from hijacking airliners to hijacking ocean-going ships with the hijacking of Achille Lauro — an Italian cruise liner in 1985”.
Bakshi has referred to the rising piracy in South-East Asia (off the thousands of islands of Indonesia and Philippines), South Asia (India’s Andaman chain of islands and off Sri Lanka and Bangladesh ) and the coastal regions of West Africa. Most of these areas, he says, have a Muslim majority. He claims that Al Qaeda has been trying for the past decade to cultivate fanatic cells amongst the Muslim populations of Indonesia and the Philippines. He is also worried about Al Qaeda’s “phantom fleet” of some 20 ships operating under “flags of convenience”. But he fails to explain why acts of piracy and terrorism took place in South-East Asia, especially in the Straits of Malacca, where the Indians have been engaged along with the Americans and the Australians in patrolling the sea lane against pirates and terrorists. He has also not analyzed why the Indians could not spot such acts together with the growing narco trade that travels through the Bay of Bengal despite India’s eastern naval command’s headquarters at the Andamans.
How could the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) engage in moving narcotics from Myanmar to Turkey besides gun running, under the nose of the Indians? The author himself admits that the LTTE has a fleet of 10-12 well maintained freighters flying the Panamian, Honduran or Liberian flag. Why should all such acts be viewed through the prism of Al Qaeda? It is common knowledge that the narco business had been thriving in the region much before Al Qaeda was created. The author has also completely ignored the possible role of the association of the Indian Ocean rim states which has become more pronounced following the tsunami tragedy.
Bakshi argues in support of the need for equating piracy with terrorism and making the safety of life at sea (SOLAS) convention more relevant to the evolving threat pattern. But his argument to find a linkage between piracy and terrorism could complicate the situation.
The author has spent about 100 pages on terrorist equipment profiles and technology resource multipliers for combating the threat. In these pages he has discussed various weapons and other computer-based technologies. He has also advocated the need for improving port security and making scrutiny of containers more fool proof.
Terror on the High Seas
By Aditya Bakshi
Manas Publications, 4858, Prahlad Street, 24 Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110 002, India
Tel: 91-011-23260783, 23265523
Fax: 91-011-23272766. Email:
manaspublications@vsnl.com Website: www.manaspublications.com
ISBN 81-7049-160-6
260pp. Indian Rs495
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