Piracy Facts and the Novel "Hunt of the Sea Wolves"
Not to give the whole storyline of my novel away, but at its core is the fact that Abu Sayyaf guerrillas have reportedly linked up with Al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations, such as the Liberation Tigers Tamil Eelam and the Aceh rebels.
With manpower and financial backing from these organizations Abu Sayyaf is beginning to go to sea as did their ancestors–Moro pirates a few centuries earlier–in order to plunder passing vessels and kill their crews.
In Hunt of the Sea Wolves the Abu Sayyaf capture a mysterious ship passing through the Philippine Islands under cover of night. After killing the crew, they begin their search through the ship to see what they can find of value. They discover an unexpected bonanza in one of the cargo holds—depleted radioactive fuel rods.
Unlikely you say. Not so. In 2002, two British ships carried radioactive fuel to the Sallafield nuclear plant after an 18,000 mile voyage from Japan. Environmental activists aboard a flotilla of vessels led by Greenpeace protested off the coast of Cumbria. But there were no protests in the Philippines or anywhere for that matter, probably because it’s not exactly public knowledge that these ships are carrying radioactive fuel through there on a regular basis.
Now suppose a terrorist organization has taken to pirating on the high seas and they should discover that the ship they’ve just plundered was carrying just such a cargo. What might they do with it? Well, in Hunt of the Sea Wolves they share it with their friends and begin to carry out a mission they have been planning to do for a number of years—hijack a ship carrying liquefied natural gas, better known as an LNG ship.
Why would they want to take this specific kind of ship? They are massive ships with the ability the carry over 30-million gallons of liquefied natural gas, which has the potential explosive power of more than 50 World War II-era atomic bombs. There are those who argue that natural gas in its liquid form will not explode. It is, however, highly explosive as a vapor.
I’ll explain in future postings how a terrorist attack on an LNG ship might trigger a catastrophic explosion that could vaporize a major port city.
In my novel and screenplay, this is the crux of the story. Abu Sayyaf does manage to hijack not one, but two LNG ships in order to sail them to two major port cities well within reach where they will use them as weapons of mass destruction that not only destroy entire cities, but contaminate them as well.
Unlikely as this may seem, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that terrorist organizations in Southeast Asia are increasingly involved in piracy and that the hijacking of ships and capture or murdering of their crews doubled in one year. One such incident, which led to my including it in the book, involved an attack on a freighter passing through the Philippines. The pirates beat the crew of 20 to death and used forged papers to change the ship’s identity.
So, how does this affect the rest of us? More than half the world’s commerce passes through the Straits of Malacca, including two-thirds of the world’s LNG trade, according to CSIS. If terrorists were able to take control of a ship transporting LNG for a suicide mission, in or out of the Strait of Malacca, it would devastate the entire region, economically and environmentally. Also, if this were to happen in the Strait of Malacca it would drastically affect the flow of oil and countless other materials and would pose a threat to the national security of countries that are highly energy dependent—Japan, South Korea in particular.
It is the job of the protagonists of my story to stop the Abu Sayyaf from carrying out just such a suicide mission. They are only partially successful. One city is saved, while another is destroyed. My aim is to give you enough information about terrorist’s plans to use these ships as weapons of mass destruction and perhaps pique your interest enough to want to read the book or screenplay.
In any case, I believe more people should be made aware of the fact that Homeland Security and other anti-terrorist organizations are well aware of the terrorist’s intensions—and you should be too. They will not give up until they succeed.
Today’s revelation that they were planning on blowing up as many as 10 aircraft flying from the UK to America should be evidence enough that these are extremely clever and extremely evil people who will stop at nothing to harm us in any way then can.
With manpower and financial backing from these organizations Abu Sayyaf is beginning to go to sea as did their ancestors–Moro pirates a few centuries earlier–in order to plunder passing vessels and kill their crews.
In Hunt of the Sea Wolves the Abu Sayyaf capture a mysterious ship passing through the Philippine Islands under cover of night. After killing the crew, they begin their search through the ship to see what they can find of value. They discover an unexpected bonanza in one of the cargo holds—depleted radioactive fuel rods.
Unlikely you say. Not so. In 2002, two British ships carried radioactive fuel to the Sallafield nuclear plant after an 18,000 mile voyage from Japan. Environmental activists aboard a flotilla of vessels led by Greenpeace protested off the coast of Cumbria. But there were no protests in the Philippines or anywhere for that matter, probably because it’s not exactly public knowledge that these ships are carrying radioactive fuel through there on a regular basis.
Now suppose a terrorist organization has taken to pirating on the high seas and they should discover that the ship they’ve just plundered was carrying just such a cargo. What might they do with it? Well, in Hunt of the Sea Wolves they share it with their friends and begin to carry out a mission they have been planning to do for a number of years—hijack a ship carrying liquefied natural gas, better known as an LNG ship.
Why would they want to take this specific kind of ship? They are massive ships with the ability the carry over 30-million gallons of liquefied natural gas, which has the potential explosive power of more than 50 World War II-era atomic bombs. There are those who argue that natural gas in its liquid form will not explode. It is, however, highly explosive as a vapor.
I’ll explain in future postings how a terrorist attack on an LNG ship might trigger a catastrophic explosion that could vaporize a major port city.
In my novel and screenplay, this is the crux of the story. Abu Sayyaf does manage to hijack not one, but two LNG ships in order to sail them to two major port cities well within reach where they will use them as weapons of mass destruction that not only destroy entire cities, but contaminate them as well.
Unlikely as this may seem, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that terrorist organizations in Southeast Asia are increasingly involved in piracy and that the hijacking of ships and capture or murdering of their crews doubled in one year. One such incident, which led to my including it in the book, involved an attack on a freighter passing through the Philippines. The pirates beat the crew of 20 to death and used forged papers to change the ship’s identity.
So, how does this affect the rest of us? More than half the world’s commerce passes through the Straits of Malacca, including two-thirds of the world’s LNG trade, according to CSIS. If terrorists were able to take control of a ship transporting LNG for a suicide mission, in or out of the Strait of Malacca, it would devastate the entire region, economically and environmentally. Also, if this were to happen in the Strait of Malacca it would drastically affect the flow of oil and countless other materials and would pose a threat to the national security of countries that are highly energy dependent—Japan, South Korea in particular.
It is the job of the protagonists of my story to stop the Abu Sayyaf from carrying out just such a suicide mission. They are only partially successful. One city is saved, while another is destroyed. My aim is to give you enough information about terrorist’s plans to use these ships as weapons of mass destruction and perhaps pique your interest enough to want to read the book or screenplay.
In any case, I believe more people should be made aware of the fact that Homeland Security and other anti-terrorist organizations are well aware of the terrorist’s intensions—and you should be too. They will not give up until they succeed.
Today’s revelation that they were planning on blowing up as many as 10 aircraft flying from the UK to America should be evidence enough that these are extremely clever and extremely evil people who will stop at nothing to harm us in any way then can.
posted by John Chadwell | 9:01 AM
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