In testimony to the House Armed Services Committee on March 5, Mull said
Somali-based piracy has plummeted in 2009. The State Department official
said successful pirate attacks from Somalia dropped to 17 percent, from a
high of 64 percent in October 2008.
The sharp drop in piracy was also the result of prosecution of captured
Somali pirates by neighboring Kenya. On March 5, under a January 2009
agreement between Nairobi and Washington, seven suspected Somali pirates
were transferred to Kenya for prosecution.
Officials said the United States would not pursue pirates into Somalia.
They said the international task force of 23 vessels has already hampered
the movement of pirates throughout the region.
"While we sought authority in negotiations for the UN Security Council
resolution to any country willing to take it, we do not plan at this time to
conduct counter-piracy operations on land," Mull said. "None of our other
coalition partners as of yet have expressed an intention to do that."
But another official, Daniel Pike, acting director of the Defense
Department's office of African affairs, did not rule out anti-piracy
operations in Somalia. Pike said the Pentagon has been studying the
feasibility of such an option.
"In fact, the Defense Department is looking at that, but there is no
such intention at this point to advance that," Pike said.
The anti-piracy operation has been conducted by Combined Task Force 151,
under the auspices of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain.
CTF-151, established in January 2009, and other members of the task force
have captured 250 suspected pirates, about half of them were released.
Officials said the task force has seized or destroyed 28 pirate vessels
and captured rocket-propelled grenade launchers. They said two clans in
Somalia Ñ identified as Darod and Hawiye Ñ were operating along the
3,000-kilometer Somali coast.
"The question is, where will we be a year from now? Will we continue to
be effective?" Fifth Fleet commander Vice Adm. William Gortney said. "Will
the EU, will NATO, will the other nations continue to be here?"