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Officials: Pirates, terrorists not linked directly

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-10 16:59

WASHINGTON – Even before Somali pirates took over a US-flagged ship this week, US military and counterterrorism officials had been scrutinizing the brazen hijackings for any connection to terrorist groups operating in East Africa.

Army Gen. William E. (Kip) Ward, Commander, United States Africa Command, speaks during an interview, Monday, March 23, 2009, at the Pentagon in Washington. 'I don't see direct connections,' Ward later said about Somali pirates and Islamic extremists. 'But, again, if you look at the clan structure or the tribes - to think that there may not be linkages probably is a bit naive.' [Agencies]

So far, they see no direct ties between pirates looking for a fast buck and the Islamic extremists looking to attack America or her allies. But informal links are there, mired in Somalia's complex and combative clans.

It was not clear whether officials were specifically checking the Somali pirates who boarded the Maersk Alabama on Tuesday and fled in a lifeboat after taking the cargo ship's captain hostage.

Military and counterterrorism officials say that in the intricate tribal networks, one clansman could be out hijacking cargo ships, while his brother might be a member of the al-Shabab terrorist organization. And they both could be buying their weapons from the same traffickers operating in Somalia's vast ungoverned spaces.

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"If you look at the clan structure or the tribes — to think that there may not be linkages probably is a bit naive," Army Gen. William "Kip" Ward, head of the US Africa Command, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.

Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, warned that some of the money from piracy could make its way into the hands of extremists.

"I certainly would not put that out of the realm of possibility," Leiter said at the Aspen Institute Thursday.

When hijackings first spiked off the coast of Somalia last year, counterterrorism officials pressed for any evidence that the country's extremist factions, or even al-Qaida militants operating in East Africa, might be using piracy to fund their violence.

But the complicated clan structure and Somalia's ungoverned black market have made tracing the cash transactions difficult.

In one indication that the groups sometimes have conflicting agendas, members of the al-Shabab terrorist organization lashed out publicly at a group of pirates late last year after they attacked the Sirius Star, a Saudi oil tanker.

A senior US military official familiar with the region, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence gathering, said the military is still looking hard at potential connections between piracy and the escalating terrorist activities in East Africa.

A key concern for the military, the official said, is the steady flow of black-market weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, from Yemen into Somalia, where militants use them in both onshore and offshore crimes.