Word: nato
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...lucky. But the pirates of Somalia proved they have more than dumb luck going for them last Saturday, when they seized the Saudi supertanker MV Sirius Star and its cargo of more than $100 million worth of crude oil. This occurred despite the attention of navies from the U.S., NATO and others that were patrolling the area to protect shipping. (The Ukrainian vessel, MV Faina, remains one of 11 captive vessels currently moored off pirate ports as ransom negotiations continue...
...hijacking of the Sirius Star is also an embarrassment to NATO and the U.S., which had deployed naval vessels to protect shipping in the area in response to the recent uptick in attacks. According to the International Maritime Board, there have been some 80 pirate attacks off Somalia's coast this year. More than half of those were repelled, but the remainder have made for a highly lucrative year for Somali piracy...
...piracy has grown, so have the ambitions of the pirates, who have begun to home in on tankers and bigger cargo vessels in the hopes of fetching larger ransom payments. Usually, a Somali pirate attack involves two or three speedboats, each carrying up to five armed men, but NATO officials say the number of boats involved is going up, suggesting that the pirates are getting more men and equipment...
...part, asserted in the same speech that any militant seeking reconciliation must be willing to respect the Afghan constitution, the very document that Omar rejects as heresy. "It is ridiculous to think that Mullah Omar would be willing to come to the negotiating table now," scoffs a NATO commander. "This is the man who draped himself in the cloak of the Prophet and declared himself commander of the faithful. He has nothing to gain by negotiating, and we have nothing to gain by offering talks when the Taliban think they are winning...
...NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has consistently called on Europeans to shoulder more of the burden, and particularly to lift so-called "caveats" that some countries have in place to limit deployments to relatively safe parts of Afghanistan. Yet he acknowledges that Europeans are very active in institution building, civic reconstruction, economic assistance, advising on tackling corruption, and helping the Afghan and Pakistani governments improve border security - all areas where the E.U. has a lot of experience...