On April 15, 2009 then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed for the arrest and prosecution of maritime pirates, and unveiled a plan to "track and freeze and try to disrupt" their assets. The statement is reminiscent of former President George W Bush in the days immediately after September 11 when he remarked: "We are going to kill or capture the terrorists and take their money."
Shortly afterwards I wrote an article published in Compliment about Clinton’s statement. The full article is available on this website under “articles,” but I will repeat one line: “. . . I predict that just like the War on Terror Finance, efforts to successfully track and freeze pirate assets and financing will be minimal.”
In the article, I explain the reasons why.
I ended the essay by writing, “I would like to know what financial "solutions" Secretary Clinton is talking about. I imagine Complinet's readership would as well, given that many of the government’s mandated financial transparency reporting requirements, coupled with lack of effective analysis and enforcement, thus far have not proved their worth in combating terror finance. Terrorism? Piracy? Here we go again.”
Which brings us to the recent release of an excellent study on the financial trails of piracy authored by World Bank, UNODC, and INTERPOL; Pirate Trails: Following the Illicit Financial Flows of Piracy off the Horn of Africa. Link below:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTFINANCIALSECTOR/0,,contentMDK:23491862~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:282885,00.html
The study estimates that more than $400 million was claimed in ransoms for pirate acts between April 2005 and December 2012 and that 179 ships were hijacked off the coast of Somalia and the Horn of Africa alone during that time frame. These numbers do not take into account piracy off the coast of West Africa or Southeast Asia.
The study analyzes how much money is collected in ransom payments; how and to whom this money - the proceeds of piracy - are distributed; and some of the way the proceeds are invested.
As the authors state, “unchallenged piracy is not only a menace to political stability and a threat to international security, but it also undermines global growth prospects going forward. Up until now, little attention has been paid to tracking and disrupting the financial flows from piracy.”
I return to Clinton’s statement. Without getting into the politics of it all, the last four years have proven that her 2009 statement was just one more in a series of falsehoods, demonstrated lack of understanding, lack of accountability, and empty posturing revolving around our “stalled” wars on international money laundering and the financing of terror in both the Obama and Bush administrations.
I’m going to keep on trying to “stir the pot.” Your views?
John
Shortly afterwards I wrote an article published in Compliment about Clinton’s statement. The full article is available on this website under “articles,” but I will repeat one line: “. . . I predict that just like the War on Terror Finance, efforts to successfully track and freeze pirate assets and financing will be minimal.”
In the article, I explain the reasons why.
I ended the essay by writing, “I would like to know what financial "solutions" Secretary Clinton is talking about. I imagine Complinet's readership would as well, given that many of the government’s mandated financial transparency reporting requirements, coupled with lack of effective analysis and enforcement, thus far have not proved their worth in combating terror finance. Terrorism? Piracy? Here we go again.”
Which brings us to the recent release of an excellent study on the financial trails of piracy authored by World Bank, UNODC, and INTERPOL; Pirate Trails: Following the Illicit Financial Flows of Piracy off the Horn of Africa. Link below:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTFINANCIALSECTOR/0,,contentMDK:23491862~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:282885,00.html
The study estimates that more than $400 million was claimed in ransoms for pirate acts between April 2005 and December 2012 and that 179 ships were hijacked off the coast of Somalia and the Horn of Africa alone during that time frame. These numbers do not take into account piracy off the coast of West Africa or Southeast Asia.
The study analyzes how much money is collected in ransom payments; how and to whom this money - the proceeds of piracy - are distributed; and some of the way the proceeds are invested.
As the authors state, “unchallenged piracy is not only a menace to political stability and a threat to international security, but it also undermines global growth prospects going forward. Up until now, little attention has been paid to tracking and disrupting the financial flows from piracy.”
I return to Clinton’s statement. Without getting into the politics of it all, the last four years have proven that her 2009 statement was just one more in a series of falsehoods, demonstrated lack of understanding, lack of accountability, and empty posturing revolving around our “stalled” wars on international money laundering and the financing of terror in both the Obama and Bush administrations.
I’m going to keep on trying to “stir the pot.” Your views?
John
RSS Feed