OK. I’m going to take an I-told-you-so vic­tory lap on this one. The U.S. will lead a 20-nation coali­tion to com­bat piracy off the Horn of Africa.

Many of you will remem­ber I’ve been inter­ested in pirates off of Africa since 2005. I even embed­ded with the Ger­mans in 2007 on the _FGS Bremen_ as they took part in CTF-150, designed to pro­tect the sea lanes lead­ing up to the Red Sea. Other embeds I pur­sued included the _USS Stennis_ off the coast of Pak­istan and the task force in the Per­sian Gulf charged with pro­tect­ing Iraq’s two off-shore oil terminals.

It’s nice to see that some­thing I’ve been try­ing to draw atten­tion to is finally get­ting the press atten­tion it deserves, given the threat piracy poses to trade and the tie-ins between global ter­ror­ism and non-state crim­i­nal organizations.

Sto­ries:

• “Piracy 2.0: Deadly and Dangerous”:http://www.spot-on.com/archives/allbritton/2007/11/pirates_and_smugglers_and_terr.html
• “Silent war against ter­ror waged in dan­ger­ous waters”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/24/MNGCROR6OK1.DTL&hw=bremen&sn=002&sc=877
• Patrolling the world’s dire straits.pdf (PDF)