By: Maj. W. Thomas Smith Jr – News World Communications Inc.

They are hardly the bejeweled, Jolly Roger flying buccaneers we’ve come to associate with of the Golden Age of Piracy (1692-1725). But 21st century pirates operating on the high seas are every bit as dangerous as their romanticized forebears. They are far more tech savvy. And experts contend they may be increasingly coordinating efforts with Islamist terrorists, particularly those pirates operating in the Indian Ocean off the East African coast of Somalia and in the heavily trafficked Gulf of Aden.

In the December 2008 issue of Armed Forces Journal, Peter Brookes, a former CIA operations officer who also served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, writes: “While maritime terrorism and piracy aren’t the same, they could overlap, especially when it comes to targets and techniques, providing opportunities for collaboration.”

Dominick Donald, chief analyst for London-based Aegis Defense Services, agrees. “Al-Shabaab [a Somalia-based, al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization so-designated by the U.S. state department] is at least tolerating piracy, and may be doing more,” Donald said Monday during a panel discussion on piracy hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation.

J. Peter Pham – also on the panel, but in an exclusive conversation with Middle East Times – says that, to date, Islamists in Somalia like al-Shabaab may not yet be “directly involved” in acts of piracy. “But we do know they [the Islamists] have received money from the pirates in exchange for looking the other way when it comes to pirate activities, and for allowing the pirates to bring hijacked vessels into ports like Kismayo which the Islamists control.”

Pham, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, adds, pirates have “done favors for the terrorists like bringing in weapons and materiel and foreign jihadists into Somalia.” And evidence cited by more than one analyst indicates the Islamists in Somalia have been paid to provide training in both weapons and tactics to the pirates.

“Both pirates and Islamists are clearly benefiting from one another,” Pham says. “Not only is money changing hands, but the Islamists are piggy-backing on the pirates’ ability to travel at sea.”

Pham refers to this collaboration as “a tactical alliance,” and says “an operational alliance” may be forthcoming. At the very least, the Islamists – with pirate assistance – may be developing a maritime capability.

“Some analysts point to credible intelligence indicating al-Shabaab is developing a maritime capacity similar to the maritime capacity that the Tamil Tigers had off Sri Lanka,” says Pham. “If that happens, it will be a major deterioration of the situation.”

The most recent statistics (released October 2008) by the International Maritime Bureau indicate nearly 200 reported incidents of piracy worldwide – with Somalia, Nigeria, and Indonesia being the top-three hotspots respectively – from January through September 2008. Those same statistics show 63 attacks off Somalia. Attacks since increase the numbers to nearly 100 ships attacked off Somalia this year, including 39 ships hijacked and at least 17 still in the hands of pirates.

The problem for naval forces tasked with combating pirates is three-fold. First: counter piracy efforts often take a back seat to more pressing concerns on the high seas. Navies in 2008 already have their hands full with global counterterrorism operations and – in the case of the U.S. Navy – ongoing sealift ops, as well as the monitoring of the exercises and operations of other navies.

Second: the oceans cover over 70 percent of the earth. Sixty percent of those oceans are the vast free-to-roam international waters, and pirates are extending their reach farther out into those waters.

Third: modern-day pirates – operating in speedboats launched from remote bases or mother ships (seized and converted freighters) – are almost always well-equipped with GPS receivers, computers, satellite phones, rangefinders and powerful telescopes, light and heavy machineguns, and rocket-propelled grenades; basically the same technology available to terrorists.

And the consensus among experts like Pham is that “it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”