Maritime Terrorism?

A threat or not…

 I have specialized for almost 20 years within the Marine environment as a Field Intelligence Officer for solely Maritime Intelligence, I am a certified marine Investigator and sat for the UK within Europol between 2006-2010 in relation to Maritime crime.

The topic of Maritime Terrorism has always held a special interest for me.

So what is it and why is it a concern to me but not to others,

Defining Maritime Terrorism:

The Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) Working Group has offered an extensive definition for maritime terrorism:

“…the undertaking of terrorist acts and activities within the maritime environment, using or against vessels or fixed platforms at sea or in port, or against any one of their passengers or personnel, against coastal facilities or settlements, including tourist resorts, port areas and port towns or cities.”

This definition is all very well but does not really cover the entire spectrum of the issue, I mean do we automatically think piracy when we think of terrorism.

Do we link migrants entering our waters as potential terrorists?

Those that do enter, who are they? Are they infact migrants seeking a places of safely from war torn countries or could 1 in 100 be the terrorist or even the Spy.

The truth is we don’t know and we don’t do enough to build on that intelligence picture.

I can state as a fact that the Police force I worked for had very little interest in these areas, senior managers with no understanding of Maritime denied there was a link between marine crime and terrorism.

An example is the M/V Boka Star, this was an Ex-Yugoslav navy ship now owned privately, the vessel was stopped because it contained a stolen Ferretti 46, when searched the vessel was found to be carrying not only the stolen pleasure vessel but Mig fighter engines, missiles and all sorts of weaponry all bound for Iraq at the time.

The Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh produced his ‘Dare to Share’ policy and promised his officers that he would protect them if they shared information for a Lawful policing purpose – he did not protect those officer who did as he requested.

My area of policing covered the largest water area in the UK for a single police force to police, 400 miles of coast with almost 100 marinas; a perfect haven and transit point for anyone wanting to carry out wrong doing.

If we go back to times of Piracy, the South East coast of the UK was the chosen route, why? Because of its unique position.

The UK is suitably placed with easy access to Europe at short distance.

Now today we are seeing migrants crossing daily and disappearing into the UK never to be seen again, these people are doing this in daylight as well because the coastline in not protected in any way.

The coast guard have absolute minimal boats and the Marine police are almost extinct.

As for the River Thames, what an amazing place to carry out a waterborne attack!

An almost open door to the capital, not a police boat in sight until you pass the QE2 Bridge at least.

Terrorism is not just about killing people it’s about infrastructure as well, why boat into London and walk onto the terraces of Parliament at High tide if you don’t have too! Perhaps just stop your barge in the river and sink it around the QE2 Bridge!

Let’s think in a different way, the UK relies on the waterways, 95% of all UK commodities enter the UK by water.

Sink a big boat anywhere in the Thames and that Infrastructure stops dead!

We have 26,000 shipping movement on the Thames each year, if I ever had the cause to detain a ship on the Thames at anchorage it would often cost the shipping company £150,000 per 24hrs of holding on anchorage.

Multiply that for the time needed to clear the waterway of the obstruction and we are talking Millions.

Terrorism on the water, how often?

Well JTAC will tell us that about 1 to 1.5% of terrorism is conducted on the water compared with other forms of terrorism.

1% is too much when you look as some of the photos of the major attacks since year 2000, but more importantly that % does not include Piracy which is again growing on a daily basis and getting closer and closer to Europe.

It does not include the RHIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat) used to convey in the Tunisia attacker, nor the hijacked RHIB used in the Mumbai attacks.

Think about how easy it is to moor/store a small boat in a marina.

Project KRAKEN is good but there is no one left to enforce it or gather the important intelligence to build the bigger picture.

I have built intelligence for 20years, I have seen marine crime grow.

In 2015 thefts of outboard engines alone across Europe hit €96million, most of these thefts committed by groups of organised crime groups from Eastern Europe, tasked to enter the UK and steal.

€96million!! That’s not including craft and trailers, where is that money going – Proceeds of crime to fund terrorism.

The photos in my report are just a few of attacks over recent years, M/V Limburg, Achille Lauro, Mumbai, Super ferry 14, USS Cole to name but a few.

But as for the guns and pleasure boat these were imported into Kent 2015.

The yacht with immigrants in daylight, this is Suffolk April 2017…

Keep an open watch!!

Points of Reference:

The International Association of Marine Investigators (IAMI) (WWW.IAMIMARINE.ORG) is a good start for assistance involving Maritime issues, an organisation of Marine Professionals across the world who work on a non Profit basis.

NMIC (National maritime Information Centre) take an interest in UK Maritime matters.Maritime