US Officials: Ships Must Adopt Own Pirate Defenses

The Defense department's undersecretary for policy, Michele Flournoy, told a Congressional committe that US flagged ships should organize their own security against Somali pirates. Michele Flournoy was never part of the military or probably never held a gun in her life, so why is she responsible for directing the Defense departments policies?

What the hell is the Navy for? The Navy was originally created to battle the Barbary pirates (islamic pirates just like the modern Somali pirates). So let the Navy protect US commercial ships and kill pirates. The ships should travel in a convoy and have the Navy protect the convoy. I believe that's what the Chinese are doing now and the convoy system proved to be quite successful in WWII. Voice of America

U.S. officials said they are pressing commercial shipping companies to adopt their own measures to defend their ships from pirate attacks.

In testimony before a Congressional committee Senate Armed Services Tuesday, the Defense Department's undersecretary for policy, Michele Flournoy, said security measures aboard ships are the single most effective response to pirates, who have grown increasingly active in the waters off Somalia.

She said 78 percent of unsuccessful pirate attacks were stopped after the ships' crews took action.

That's because the Navies are just capturing and releasing pirates. If the Navy was allowed to attack and kill the pirates on base and in the water