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Can Pirates be Stopped?

Naval expert Rick Gurnon tells homeland security conference attendees that the fight against Somali pirates has no clear answer, and won't be solved anytime soon

By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor

May 11, 2009 —

An American president has only been in office a few months, when an American vessel is attacked by pirates. The pirates demand a high ransom for the safe release of the vessel and all on board. It is a common scene, as pirates have been a problem in this part of the world for some time. Yet, prior to this new president, all previous American presidents and other leaders of the world have chosen to ignore the problem. Conventional wisdom has thus far been to pay the ransoms, rather than send war ships to the troubled waters to drive the pirates out by force. The new president knows how he handles this new attack on an American vessel could make or break his presidency.

While this may sound like the circumstances surrounding the capture of Captain Richard Phillips and the crew of the Alabama Maersk off of the coast of Somalia just weeks ago, this story has nothing to do with that attack, or President Barack Obama. Instead, the story is of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the U.S., and the events that lead to the wars off of the Barbary Coast.

Rear Adm. Rick Gurnon of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne opened his keynote speech at the 9th annual IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security in Waltham, Mass., Monday with the tale of Jefferson and his historic actions. The Barbary Wars, according to Gurnon, are important in the history of the formation of the U.S. Navy as we know it today, he noted. At that time, Jefferson managed to convince the U.S. Congress to raise taxes in order to fund war ships to be sent in for battle against the piracy problem. One of the vessels, the USS Constitution, is still in active duty today. But the outcome in the modern day battle against pirates is still unclear. (See piracy expert Roger Hawkes weigh in on the topic here)

The IEEE conference, which brings together companies, researchers, government officials and others involved in homeland security, aims to highlight new technologies and address market gaps in the homeland security arena. Gurnon expressed his hope that some of the topics and technologies discussed at the event would be useful in the fight against pirates today, which is most problematic in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia.

"A report to the UN security council concluded that these pirate groups now rival established Somali authorities in terms of their military capabilities and resource basis," said Gurnon. "This is certainly no smash and grab operation."