REPORTER: Thom Cookes
This is what a modern-day pirate attack looks like. Armed with long knives and automatic weapons, pirates use small boats to sneak up behind a cargo ship, where there's usually a blind spot in the ship's radar. But this attack is actually an exercise by the Malaysian security services, who are keen to show off how seriously they take the threat.
Last year alone, there were 445 pirate attacks recorded, 359 seamen taken hostage, 21 murdered and a further 71 missing, presumed dead. The display is impressive, but few ships could expect this sort of response.
Most pirate attacks occur at night, and far from help. In fact, many aren't reported at all.
CAPTAIN POTTENGAL MUKUNDAN, INTERNATIONAL MARITIME BUREAU: It is a crime that occurs to foreign seamen, onboard a foreign ship who are just happens to be passing through your waters, and as for the seamen themselves, they get attacked by these pirates, they carry on on their voyage and they are heading for a different part of the world, and it does not appear on the statistics in these countries.
This is the 'Alondra Rainbow' which was virtually a brand new ship, a one-year-old vessel belonging to Japanese owners.
Captain Pottengal Mukundan and his staff at the London based International Maritime Bureau track pirate attacks around the world, passing intelligence between ship owners and coast guards. This set of rare photos in his office shows a pirate attack actually under way.
Indian Coast Guard sailors are firing on the 'Alondra Rainbow' after it was hijacked by an Indonesian gang. The original crew were set adrift in a life raft, and the pirates have tried to change the ship's identity by painting a new name on the stern.
CAPTAIN POTTENGAL MUKUNDAN: Well we have seen rocket-propelled grenades, we have seen AK-47s automatic weapons being fired on the vessel to force it to stop, and these have been fired on tankers, so it is a big fear for the people on board the ship.
But it's more than just pirates that now have coast guards around the world concerned. The attack by al-Qa'ida on the USS 'Cole' showed that even heavily armed warships were vulnerable to small, fast boats.
CAPTAIN POTTENGAL MUKUNDAN: After September 11, it would be foolish to ignore any possibility, so it is possible that you could have a major maritime terrorist incident.
In fact, just 12 months after the September 11 attacks, terrorists struck the 'Limberg' a supertanker anchored off the coast of Yemen. The giant ship was laden with 330,000 barrels of oil, when it was rocked by a massive blast.
CAPTAIN PETER RAES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, TECTO: The vessel was attacked by a small fishing boat - like there are hundreds around that terminal. It's a boat of about 6-9 metres long in polyester, and we know by calculations made by the French authorities that the explosive must have been around 35kg only - so they kind of torpedoed themselves into the vessel's hull, vessel's side, and caused the damage.
These graphic photos were taken from the bridge of the 'Limburg', shortly after the impact. The ship burned for three days, and was written off as a complete wreck. Concerned about the economic and political impact of the attack, the Yemeni authorities initially tried to deny terrorists were involved, and claimed an accident must have occurred on board. These photos, however, clearly show an impact into, not out of, the ship's hull. Captain Peter Raes is the managing director of Tecto, who operated the 'Limburg'.
CAPTAIN PETER RAES: The obvious victim of the attack was Yemen itself. After the incident, the insurance premiums went up 300%, which kind of made it impossible for vessels to call at Yemen after the incident, and even the big container lines, such as for example, Mersk, they avoided Yemen for quite some time. So that also explains why they tried to deny, or at least tried to claim that it was not a terrorist attack.
Last month in Yemen, 15 men were convicted of a number of terrorist offences, including the attack on the 'Limburg'. From their cells, they shouted support for Osama bin Laden. These Malaysian marine police are on patrol in the Straits of Malacca, one of the busiest shipping channels in the world. Almost half the world's oil supplies pass through here. This is where the 'Limburg' was heading its cargo of crude oil destined for Port Klang in Malaysia. There are regular sweeps here by police and coast guards, but with over 400 miles of coastline, the Malacca Straits have long been a haven for pirates. Brian Jenkins is a terrorism analyst with the Rand Corporation - a US Government think tank.
BRIAN JENKINS: This is a relatively narrow passageway and therefore that provides certain operational advantages to the attackers - they can hide along the coast - it's not a matter of some vessel attempting to find a supertanker in an open sea - there's no navigational skills required. You basically can stand on the shore and look at it.
These are large vessels moving slowly through a narrow passageway, in a sense, it's like watching a large building slowly go by, it's a vulnerable target.
Peter Chalk also works at the Rand Corporation. He's been trying to assess who may be capable of launching an attack in the Straits.
PETER CHALK: There are insurgent groups, or groups that are engaged in terrorist activity, that also have a track record of operating at sea - Abu Sayyaf group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka in South-East Asia would be three examples, but the best example is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
CONFERENCE OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT: It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the fifth triannual IMB meeting on piracy and maritime security.
But it's not just analysts who are concerned about the possibility of a maritime terror attack. This recent conference in Kuala Lumpur in July, pulled in 250 top military and naval officials from around the region, to thrash out the nature of the threat. The Indonesians believe that Jemaah Islamiah has considered an attack in the Malacca Straits. They are also quick to blame GAM, the Free Aceh Movement, for a spate of hijackings off northern Sumatra. But there's not much evidence to support their claims, and the International Maritime Bureau is sceptical.
CAPTAIN POTTENGAL MUKUNDAN: There are some of these attacks that are not typical of the GAM rebel-type attacks. In one particular attack it was quite far away from their traditional area of operations. The Indonesians have said that they have captured I think three of the pirates involved in this, and they have confirmed that they were GAM rebels. I don't know if anyone else has interviewed them, so it is a confusing picture.
Dateline spoke to Kadir Hasballah, a GAM representative in Kuala Lumpur. He claims that the attacks off northern Sumatra were more likely to be by rogue members of the Indonesian military.
KADIR HASBALLAH: (Translation): Most of the people involved are from Indonesia, be they marines of the navy. So this propaganda that they often give out involving GAM comes from the fact that GAM has no avenue or pathway to give an account of itself. So Indonesia is always responsible for all this propaganda.
Analysing the nature of the marine terror threat has become a growth industry, and London, as the home of marine insurance, is where many new players are popping up. They include some familiar and notorious names. Working from this office in Piccadilly is Aegis Defence Services. The principal and founder of Aegis is Tim Spicer. He's best known as the mercenary thrown out of Papua New Guinea at the height of the Sandline affair.
These days, for US$1,500, his company will now sell you a report on why you should be concerned about a marine terrorism attack. Tim Spicer would not be interviewed, but his off-sider Dominick Donald was at pains to stress that Ageis was a serious operation.
DOMINICK DONALD: In this environment we are talking about maritime security, we are talking about both making people think about the concepts involved, making them aware of the threat and then putting in place often the fairly basic procedures that are needed to make sure that the threat happens to somebody else.
REPORTER: You haven't had any baggage from your previous incarnations?
DOMINICK DONALD: We haven't found any, no.
Down by the Thames, there are more experienced players in this rapidly expanding industry. Maritime Underwater Security Consultants have their office in the bowels of this former warship. Unlike Aegis they've been in the business for 30 years. Graeme Shaw is a master mariner, former navy clearance diver, and a director of the company.
GRAEME SHAW, MASTER MARINER: And at the moment we have training course under way, and these are master mariners who are dealing with problems to do with safety and security of the ships and for the ports which they visit. This is an updating course to deal with the requirements now of the ISPS code.
REPORTER: This is the course that you are conducting.
GRAEME SHAW: Which is one of the courses we are doing - it is the international code as required now by the International Maritime Organisation. I think it's no bad thing that the marine industry is having to put its house in order. We have actually placed guards on board vessels, transiting certain areas, and that's all they do, and then they leave and that's the finish of that particular operation, and then they take another vessel going back in the other direction and so on.
REPORTER: What sort of guards would they be, what sort of people?
GRAEME SHAW: They would be almost certainly ex-Royal Marines or the equivalent from other countries, because they must have a maritime background and they must have firearms background, they must have security background. And a combination of those things only really come out in mostly Royal Marines, occasionally a few ex-SAS people.
REPORTER: Has that included places like Malacca Straits and Bintan Island?
GRAEME SHAW: Oh yes, most certainly it has, and parts of the coast of Indonesia. Yes, most certainly.
Off the coast of Iraq, the US is fully engaged in tackling the threat of maritime terror. The US Navy and its coalition partners are intercepting and boarding any suspicious-looking boats in the area. The US has also considered exactly this sort of operation in the Malacca Straits.
In March, Admiral Thomas Fargo, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, told the House Armed Services Committee exactly what he had in mind.
ADMIRAL THOMAS FARGO: We're looking at things like high speed vessels, putting potentially Marines on high-speed vessels, where we can conduct effective interdiction in these sea lanes of communications, where terrorists are known to move about and transmit throughout the region.
The prospect of the US Navy running operations in the Malacca Straits has horrified both Malaysia and Indonesia. Military officials at the Kuala Lumpur conference were reluctant to speak openly, but terrorism analyst Brian Jenkins was less constrained.
BRIAN JENKINS: We invaded Iraq with the declared notion that we are going to bring democracy to Iraq, and we are going to change the political complexion of the Middle East. Now change that to South-East Asia, and you have South-East Asian leaders saying "Wait a minute, here come American vessels in the Straits of Malacca, here come the Marines, what's the rest of this agenda?"
GENERAL SUTARTO: We understand that the Malacca Straits are very important, for ships that are sailing through the straits, and we also understand that they are coming from many countries in the world.
After years of discussion and delay, the prospect of US Marines in the straits has galvanised the Indonesian, Malay and Singaporean navies into action. They've now clubbed together to run their own joint patrols of the Straits. But whether this new spirit of cooperation is enough to deter any would-be terrorists remains an open question.
This is what a modern-day pirate attack looks like. Armed with long knives and automatic weapons, pirates use small boats to sneak up behind a cargo ship, where there's usually a blind spot in the ship's radar. But this attack is actually an exercise by the Malaysian security services, who are keen to show off how seriously they take the threat.
Last year alone, there were 445 pirate attacks recorded, 359 seamen taken hostage, 21 murdered and a further 71 missing, presumed dead. The display is impressive, but few ships could expect this sort of response.
Most pirate attacks occur at night, and far from help. In fact, many aren't reported at all.
CAPTAIN POTTENGAL MUKUNDAN, INTERNATIONAL MARITIME BUREAU: It is a crime that occurs to foreign seamen, onboard a foreign ship who are just happens to be passing through your waters, and as for the seamen themselves, they get attacked by these pirates, they carry on on their voyage and they are heading for a different part of the world, and it does not appear on the statistics in these countries.
This is the 'Alondra Rainbow' which was virtually a brand new ship, a one-year-old vessel belonging to Japanese owners.
Captain Pottengal Mukundan and his staff at the London based International Maritime Bureau track pirate attacks around the world, passing intelligence between ship owners and coast guards. This set of rare photos in his office shows a pirate attack actually under way.
Indian Coast Guard sailors are firing on the 'Alondra Rainbow' after it was hijacked by an Indonesian gang. The original crew were set adrift in a life raft, and the pirates have tried to change the ship's identity by painting a new name on the stern.
CAPTAIN POTTENGAL MUKUNDAN: Well we have seen rocket-propelled grenades, we have seen AK-47s automatic weapons being fired on the vessel to force it to stop, and these have been fired on tankers, so it is a big fear for the people on board the ship.
But it's more than just pirates that now have coast guards around the world concerned. The attack by al-Qa'ida on the USS 'Cole' showed that even heavily armed warships were vulnerable to small, fast boats.
CAPTAIN POTTENGAL MUKUNDAN: After September 11, it would be foolish to ignore any possibility, so it is possible that you could have a major maritime terrorist incident.
In fact, just 12 months after the September 11 attacks, terrorists struck the 'Limberg' a supertanker anchored off the coast of Yemen. The giant ship was laden with 330,000 barrels of oil, when it was rocked by a massive blast.
CAPTAIN PETER RAES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, TECTO: The vessel was attacked by a small fishing boat - like there are hundreds around that terminal. It's a boat of about 6-9 metres long in polyester, and we know by calculations made by the French authorities that the explosive must have been around 35kg only - so they kind of torpedoed themselves into the vessel's hull, vessel's side, and caused the damage.
These graphic photos were taken from the bridge of the 'Limburg', shortly after the impact. The ship burned for three days, and was written off as a complete wreck. Concerned about the economic and political impact of the attack, the Yemeni authorities initially tried to deny terrorists were involved, and claimed an accident must have occurred on board. These photos, however, clearly show an impact into, not out of, the ship's hull. Captain Peter Raes is the managing director of Tecto, who operated the 'Limburg'.
CAPTAIN PETER RAES: The obvious victim of the attack was Yemen itself. After the incident, the insurance premiums went up 300%, which kind of made it impossible for vessels to call at Yemen after the incident, and even the big container lines, such as for example, Mersk, they avoided Yemen for quite some time. So that also explains why they tried to deny, or at least tried to claim that it was not a terrorist attack.
Last month in Yemen, 15 men were convicted of a number of terrorist offences, including the attack on the 'Limburg'. From their cells, they shouted support for Osama bin Laden. These Malaysian marine police are on patrol in the Straits of Malacca, one of the busiest shipping channels in the world. Almost half the world's oil supplies pass through here. This is where the 'Limburg' was heading its cargo of crude oil destined for Port Klang in Malaysia. There are regular sweeps here by police and coast guards, but with over 400 miles of coastline, the Malacca Straits have long been a haven for pirates. Brian Jenkins is a terrorism analyst with the Rand Corporation - a US Government think tank.
BRIAN JENKINS: This is a relatively narrow passageway and therefore that provides certain operational advantages to the attackers - they can hide along the coast - it's not a matter of some vessel attempting to find a supertanker in an open sea - there's no navigational skills required. You basically can stand on the shore and look at it.
These are large vessels moving slowly through a narrow passageway, in a sense, it's like watching a large building slowly go by, it's a vulnerable target.
Peter Chalk also works at the Rand Corporation. He's been trying to assess who may be capable of launching an attack in the Straits.
PETER CHALK: There are insurgent groups, or groups that are engaged in terrorist activity, that also have a track record of operating at sea - Abu Sayyaf group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka in South-East Asia would be three examples, but the best example is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
CONFERENCE OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT: It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the fifth triannual IMB meeting on piracy and maritime security.
But it's not just analysts who are concerned about the possibility of a maritime terror attack. This recent conference in Kuala Lumpur in July, pulled in 250 top military and naval officials from around the region, to thrash out the nature of the threat. The Indonesians believe that Jemaah Islamiah has considered an attack in the Malacca Straits. They are also quick to blame GAM, the Free Aceh Movement, for a spate of hijackings off northern Sumatra. But there's not much evidence to support their claims, and the International Maritime Bureau is sceptical.
CAPTAIN POTTENGAL MUKUNDAN: There are some of these attacks that are not typical of the GAM rebel-type attacks. In one particular attack it was quite far away from their traditional area of operations. The Indonesians have said that they have captured I think three of the pirates involved in this, and they have confirmed that they were GAM rebels. I don't know if anyone else has interviewed them, so it is a confusing picture.
Dateline spoke to Kadir Hasballah, a GAM representative in Kuala Lumpur. He claims that the attacks off northern Sumatra were more likely to be by rogue members of the Indonesian military.
KADIR HASBALLAH: (Translation): Most of the people involved are from Indonesia, be they marines of the navy. So this propaganda that they often give out involving GAM comes from the fact that GAM has no avenue or pathway to give an account of itself. So Indonesia is always responsible for all this propaganda.
Analysing the nature of the marine terror threat has become a growth industry, and London, as the home of marine insurance, is where many new players are popping up. They include some familiar and notorious names. Working from this office in Piccadilly is Aegis Defence Services. The principal and founder of Aegis is Tim Spicer. He's best known as the mercenary thrown out of Papua New Guinea at the height of the Sandline affair.
These days, for US$1,500, his company will now sell you a report on why you should be concerned about a marine terrorism attack. Tim Spicer would not be interviewed, but his off-sider Dominick Donald was at pains to stress that Ageis was a serious operation.
DOMINICK DONALD: In this environment we are talking about maritime security, we are talking about both making people think about the concepts involved, making them aware of the threat and then putting in place often the fairly basic procedures that are needed to make sure that the threat happens to somebody else.
REPORTER: You haven't had any baggage from your previous incarnations?
DOMINICK DONALD: We haven't found any, no.
Down by the Thames, there are more experienced players in this rapidly expanding industry. Maritime Underwater Security Consultants have their office in the bowels of this former warship. Unlike Aegis they've been in the business for 30 years. Graeme Shaw is a master mariner, former navy clearance diver, and a director of the company.
GRAEME SHAW, MASTER MARINER: And at the moment we have training course under way, and these are master mariners who are dealing with problems to do with safety and security of the ships and for the ports which they visit. This is an updating course to deal with the requirements now of the ISPS code.
REPORTER: This is the course that you are conducting.
GRAEME SHAW: Which is one of the courses we are doing - it is the international code as required now by the International Maritime Organisation. I think it's no bad thing that the marine industry is having to put its house in order. We have actually placed guards on board vessels, transiting certain areas, and that's all they do, and then they leave and that's the finish of that particular operation, and then they take another vessel going back in the other direction and so on.
REPORTER: What sort of guards would they be, what sort of people?
GRAEME SHAW: They would be almost certainly ex-Royal Marines or the equivalent from other countries, because they must have a maritime background and they must have firearms background, they must have security background. And a combination of those things only really come out in mostly Royal Marines, occasionally a few ex-SAS people.
REPORTER: Has that included places like Malacca Straits and Bintan Island?
GRAEME SHAW: Oh yes, most certainly it has, and parts of the coast of Indonesia. Yes, most certainly.
Off the coast of Iraq, the US is fully engaged in tackling the threat of maritime terror. The US Navy and its coalition partners are intercepting and boarding any suspicious-looking boats in the area. The US has also considered exactly this sort of operation in the Malacca Straits.
In March, Admiral Thomas Fargo, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, told the House Armed Services Committee exactly what he had in mind.
ADMIRAL THOMAS FARGO: We're looking at things like high speed vessels, putting potentially Marines on high-speed vessels, where we can conduct effective interdiction in these sea lanes of communications, where terrorists are known to move about and transmit throughout the region.
The prospect of the US Navy running operations in the Malacca Straits has horrified both Malaysia and Indonesia. Military officials at the Kuala Lumpur conference were reluctant to speak openly, but terrorism analyst Brian Jenkins was less constrained.
BRIAN JENKINS: We invaded Iraq with the declared notion that we are going to bring democracy to Iraq, and we are going to change the political complexion of the Middle East. Now change that to South-East Asia, and you have South-East Asian leaders saying "Wait a minute, here come American vessels in the Straits of Malacca, here come the Marines, what's the rest of this agenda?"
GENERAL SUTARTO: We understand that the Malacca Straits are very important, for ships that are sailing through the straits, and we also understand that they are coming from many countries in the world.
After years of discussion and delay, the prospect of US Marines in the straits has galvanised the Indonesian, Malay and Singaporean navies into action. They've now clubbed together to run their own joint patrols of the Straits. But whether this new spirit of cooperation is enough to deter any would-be terrorists remains an open question.