The USS McFaul, a U.S. Navy Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, located the pirated M/V Iceberg I off the coast of Somalia with up to 50 pirates and more than 20 crew members on board.

The Panamanian-flagged vessel had last been seen off Garacaad, a Somali town and known pirate haven. The Iceberg’s exact location was unknown until the McFaul made a positive identification of the pirated ship on May 19.

The ship initially communicated to the McFaul that it had not been pirated and instead was off course for its next port-of-call due to mechanical difficulties. Visual identification was at first confusing, because the name on the vessel’s hull read, “Sea Express.” Further investigation showed that the name of the ship had been crudely painted over.

After the McFaul requested to board the ship to check on the health and safety of the crew, the Iceberg radioed that they had been taken hostage, noting that the pirates on board were heavily armed.

The McFaul continued to shadow the ship for more than 36 hours, before the Iceberg reversed its course toward the Somali coast.

“We cannot be sure what the pirates plan was if they had not been interrupted. The vessel may have been on its way to either assist other pirates in distress, or look for another merchant vessel to attack,” said Republic of Korea Rear Adm. Beom Rim Lee, commanding officer of Combined Task Force 151, the Combined Maritime Forces’ counter-piracy task force that operates in the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin.

“First and foremost, our responsibility is to ensure the safety of the crew. Given the report of heavily armed pirates on board, it was more prudent to monitor the ship’s movement, rather than attempt a rescue,” said Commander
Ronald W. Toland, Jr., the McFaul’s commanding officer. “My crew executed their instructions perfectly and I’m proud of each and every one of them.”

Successful pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin decreased by 40 percent in 2009, increased in part to the presence of coalition warships and also by the use of best management practices by the shipping industry. These practices include the use of razor wire, 24-hour watches, fire hoses and high-speed maneuvers by vessels transiting throughout the area.

CTF 151 is a multinational task force established by CMF in January 2009 to conduct counter-piracy operations. CMF patrols more than 2.5 million square miles of international waters to conduct both integrated and coordinated operations to increase regional security and prosperity.

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Calling it a “criminal attack”, the United Nations Security Council on Friday afternoon condemned “in the strongest terms” the December 3 terrorist attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, which killed and injured innocent civilians at a graduation ceremony for Somali medical students. The attack also resulted in the deaths of the Ministers of Health, Higher Education and Education of the Somali Transitional Federal Government.

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Terrorism charges were unsealed in federal court in Minnesota last week against another eight suspects. According to the documents obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police’s Terrorism Committee, the criminal charges include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda and a designated foreign terrorist organization; attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab; and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab. 

So far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota in indictments or criminal complaints that have been unsealed and brought in connection with an ongoing investigation into the recruitment of persons from U.S. communities to train with – or fight on behalf of – extremist groups in Somalia. Four of these defendants have previously pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

“The recruitment of young people from Minneapolis and other U.S. communities to fight for extremists in Somalia has been the focus of intense investigation for many months,” Assistant Attorney General David Kris said.

“While the charges unsealed today underscore our progress to date, this investigation is ongoing. Those who sign up to fight or recruit for al-Shabaab’s terror network should be aware that they may will end up as defendants in the United States or casualties of the Somali conflict,” he said.

According to court documents, between September 2007 and October 2009, approximately 20 young men, all but one of Somali descent, left the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area and traveled to Somalia, where they trained with al-Shabaab, a designated terrorist organization.

Many of them ultimately fought with al-Shabaab against Ethiopian forces, African Union troops, and the internationally-supported Transitional Federal Government (“TFG”).

Court documents also state that the first group of six men traveled to Somalia in December 2007. Prior to their departure, the six men, as well as others in the Minneapolis area, raised money for the trips and held meetings in which they made phone calls to alleged co-conspirators in Somalia.

Upon arriving in Somalia, the men from Minneapolis allegedly stayed at safe-houses in Somalia and attended an al-Shabaab training camp. The al-Shabaab training camp included dozens of other young ethnic Somalis from Somalia, elsewhere in Africa, Europe, and the United States.

Purportedly, the trainees were trained by, among others, Somali, Arab, and Western instructors as to small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and military-style tactics. Allegedly, the trainees also were indoctrinated with anti-Ethiopian, anti-American, anti-Isreali, and anti-Western beliefs. Two men from Minneapolis who completed the training camp later participated in an ambush of Ethiopian troops.

According to court documents, on October 29, 2008, Shirwa Ahmed, one of the men who left Minnesota in December 2007 and attended the al-Shabaab training camp, took part in one of five simultaneous suicide attacks on targets in northern Somalia. The attacks appeared to have been coordinated. Shirwa Mohamud Ahmed, also known as “Shirwa,” drove an explosive-laden Toyota truck into an office of the Puntland Intelligence Service in Bossasso, Puntland.

Other targets included a second Puntland Intelligence Service Office in Bossasso, the Presidential Palace, the United Nations Development Program office, and the Ethiopian Trade Mission in Hargeisa. Including the suicide bombers, approximately twenty people were killed in the attacks.

United States Attorney B. Todd Jones said of these cases, “The sad reality is that the vibrant Somali community here in Minneapolis has lost many of its sons to fighting in Somalia. These young men have been recruited to fight in a foreign war by individuals and groups using violence against government troops and civilians. Those tempted to fight on behalf of or provide support to any designated terrorist group should know they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
 
Joining U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones was Ralph S. Boelter, Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who added, “It is through the sustained and dedicated efforts of the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force and the support of the Somali-American community that today we are able to disclose some of the siginificant progress we have achieved in this critical investigation. At the same time, I emphasize the sole focus of our efforts in this matter has been the criminal conduct of a small number of mainly Somali-American individuals and not the broader Somali-American community itself, which as consistently expressed deep concern about this pattern of recruitment activity in support of al-Shabaab.”

The investigation into the recruitment of young men to join al-Shabaab and those supporting that recruiting effort has been conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance and cooperation of the Dutch KLPD; the Dutch Ministry of Justice; Judith Friedman at the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs; the U.S. Department of State; the embassies at Abu Dhabi, UAE; Sanaa, Yemen; and The Hague in the Netherlands; and the Department of Defense.

An interview with the new commander of USSOUTHCOM and the Navy’s continuing efforts to stop piracy of the coast of Somalia.

An update on the U.S. ship that has been hijacked near Somalia, President Obama’s claim that the U.S. is not at war with Islam and more headlined the Thursday morning talk shows.