President Barack Obama vowed Monday to battle piracy in African waters — but the federal government appeared flummoxed on the most effective way to confront the seaborne menace.
“We are resolved to halt the rise of [piracy] in that region,” Obama said. “And to achieve that goal we’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, we have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise, and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes.”
On Sunday, U.S. Navy snipers killed three Somali pirates and freed Capt. Richard Phillips, an American held hostage for five days on a lifeboat after the pirates attempted to hijack his ship, the Maersk Alabama.
Obama praised the rescue and said he spoke to Phillips’ wife, Andrea, who “couldn’t imagine a better Easter than seeing his safe return.”
For all the outrage and attention generated by the rise of pirate attacks off the coast of Africa, the administration was unclear on what exactly should be done to clear the pirate scourge.
At the State Department, spokesman Robert Wood said the United States is working with other countries around Somalia to address the lawlessness and socio-economic collapse he said is the root of the piracy outbreak.
“These folks are bandits,” Wood said. “You know, they’re lawless. We need to be able to work on some very effective frameworks for dealing with these characters.”
Wood added, “If it were easy, we would have been able to do so by now.”
The war-strafed nation has lacked a legitimate government for 18 years. There is a transitional government in place, which Wood said U.S. officials are in contact with “from time to time.”
In a bizarre sideshow to the pirate saga, Rep. Donald M. Payne, a New Jersey Democrat, flew to Somalia to talk about piracy and stability to leaders there and had his plane fired upon as it took off from Mogadishu.
The congressman, who chairs the House subcommittee on Africa, was not injured in the mortar attack.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he doesn’t see a purely military solution to piracy in the region, also citing extreme poverty and a lack of better options for the mostly young seafaring bandits.
At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs said part of the problem is figuring out how to deal with “ungoverned spaces.”
But he sidestepped a question about the use of more military force to deal with pirates.
“We do have to evaluate and be prepared to take stronger action interdicting acts of piracy,” Gibbs said. “This is true for many ungoverned spaces, is that you breed very bad people that want to do very bad things.”
