ABOARD HS THEMISTOKLIS: The bewildered crew hoist their arms in the air as Greek commandos storm the ship and begin body searches. A US Skyhawk helicopter with a gunman ready to fire on any false move hovers overhead. On the bridge, the captain is being probed under suspicion that his ship is a front for terrorists. Once his papers are checked and the suspicions dispelled, the commandos make their exit and the Skyhawk speeds off into the Mediterranean skies.
Welcome to Nato’s idea of a neighbourhood watch scheme — a highly visible naval patrol launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks in a bid to keep one of the world’s key waterways free of terrorist activity.
In this case, the operation was a simulation and the crew were Nato sailors in civilian clothes. But the alliance insists the dozens of real boardings of suspect vessels carried out in the past four years are achieving their purpose.
“It means the bad boys have had to go away,” said Greek naval officer Michael Magkos of the deterrent effect which NATO argues for the fleet of US, British, Greek, Turkish, Spanish, Italian and Dutch frigates or destroyers.
Such an assertion is hard to confirm. Even the Italian vice admiral in charge of the operation concedes that in parts of the Mediterranean, “a terrorist boat is like a needle in a haystack”, while experts differ on the current threat level.
In 2001, the US campaign to oust Al Qaeda and their Taliban hosts from Afghanistan prompted concerns they would scatter and seek new homes as far away as the Horn of Africa.
The bombing a year earlier of the USS Cole off Yemen had shown that Al Qaeda posed a threat at sea, and so NATO — which the United States had bypassed for its Afghan offensive — launched its “Operation Active Endeavour” patrols.
Since then, Nato ships in the Mediterranean have hailed some 65,000 suspect vessels and boarded around 90 of them. Nearly 500 merchant ships have been provided escorts through the Straits of Gibraltar, one of the “choke points” seen at risk of attack.
Bereft of its Cold War role as the West’s shield against the Soviet nuclear threat, Nato points to the operation as proof it has successfully switched targets and is now doing its bit for the fight against terrorism.
However London-based risk management company Aegis Defence Services said the Mediterranean is well down its list of the world’s high-threat shipping channels. Escorts through the Strait of Gibraltar were suspended last year after a lack of demand from commercial shipping.
Yet for some, it is proof of success that not a single boarding has been reported to have unearthed terrorist activity, nor has shipping suffered a major attack during that time.
“There is growing evidence that these patrols have had a substantial deterrent effect on the movement of terrorists and their materials,” said Rodney Craig, maritime analyst at the London-based International Institute For Strategic Studies.
“It is always hard to prove a negative, but it seems they are being put off by the high risk of being intercepted,” added Craig, citing reports by naval commanders of a fall-off of the small boat traffic in the Med which attracts most suspicion.
PARTNERS SOUGHT: Yet Nato officials attending the demonstration off Crete’s Souda Bay in May were frank about the operation’s limitations.
US General James Jones, the alliance’s top soldier in Europe, acknowledged the mission was under-resourced and could do with more ships, patrol aircraft and improved intelligence.
Although Nato has no authority to board ships against their will, Jones denied that the requirement to seek the captain’s permission meant the operation was toothless. “If you refuse a compliant boarding you are guaranteed that you will be followed to the port you are going to, and that a sovereign nation will wonder why you are acting suspiciously,” insisted Jones.
Some analysts see the real value of Active Endeavour — alongside wider efforts such as the US Proliferation Security Initiative launched in 2003 to combat terrorism on the high seas — as a first step towards a truly global maritime police force.—Reuters