Morning Brief: Somali pirates get serious

Top Story

All of this media attention may be going to Somali pirates' heads.

Pirates seized a wheat-laden merchant ship bound for Bandar Abbas, Iran, off the coast of Yemen yesterday. A Thai fishing boat and a Greek tanker were also hijacked in separate incidents. All told, eight ships have been taken in the past two weeks.

Other pirates are demanding ransom for the Saudi oil tanker (above) they seized on Monday. The tanker, which contains an estimated $100 million worth of crude oil, is now parked off the Somali coast near the pirate haven of Harardhere.

"Piracy is disturbing everything in Somalia, disturbing normal life, disturbing trade and commerce, disturbing the movement of humanitarian aid," the Somali prime minister, who has little power to stop the attacks, admitted Tuesday.

"It's got a lot of people's attention and is starting to have impact on the commercial side," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of the pirate attacks.

"The key problem," lawyers David Rivkin and Lee Casey argue in today's Wall Street Journal, "is that America's NATO allies have effectively abandoned the historical legal rules permitting irregular fighters to be tried in special military courts."

Meanwhile, the Indian navy is fighting back. An Indian warship returned fire on pirates in the Gulf of Aden, blowing up one of three small vessels.

U.S. Presidential Transition

Eric Holder, a former prosecutor, is emerging as a top candidate for attorney general.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in negotiations with the Obama transition team, the Financial Times reports.

Karen DeYoung reviews the latest scuttlebutt on senior national security council jobs.

Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, laid out the Obama administration's priorities in a speech to American CEOs.

Economy

The U.S. Congress had harsh words Tuesday for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

U.S. automakers appear to losing their bailout bid, for now.

National oil companies are said to expect prices to fall to $40 a barrel.

Americas

Mexico's federal authorities have replaced 500 police officers in Tijuana. And a top liaison between national police and Interpol has been arrested for allegedly leaking sensitive information to drug cartels.

A hard-core group of Yemeni prisoners may prove the toughest challenge in closing the Guantánamo Bay prison.

Asia

As its economy slows, China is retreating on some of its environmental progress.

Police in the southwestern city of Longan, China, battled thousands of rioters. Expect more such incidents, the United Nations warns.

Indian IT executives see tough times ahead.

Middle East and Africa

Iraq's prime minister accused critics of the security pact with the United States of wanting U.S. troops to stay.

Fighting may be coming to a halt in Congo, but battle lines remain blurry. Community groups say atrocities are widespread.

Iran's new interior minister, an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was narrowly approved.

Europe

Sharia law is making inroads in Britain, to the dismay of some.

A Spanish judge abandoned his inquiry into the crimes of Francisco Franco.

Italy is moving to crack down on lazy bureaucrats.

Today's Agenda

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is holding a forum on free trade.

U.S. President George W. Bush dedicates the new flag gallery at the National Museum of American History in Washington.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opens a satellite office in Beijing.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Next

Last

Next up: Mohamed ElBaradei, the musical

Via Andreas Persbo, some art for arms control geeks. At last:

More:

The artist is Lisa Ruyter. Timothy Hartley Smith has photos of the exhibit.

Next

Last

Al Qaedas welcome message to Obama

The "October surprise" never came, but today al Qaeda released a November reminder. In a new video, Ayman al-Zawahiri condemns the president-elect's support for Israel and the war in Afghanistan. Zawahiri also crudely insults Obama as a traitor to his race and his Muslim background:

Al-Zawahiri can be heard saying, "In you and in Colin Powell, [Condoleezza] Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X (may Allah have mercy on him) concerning 'house Negroes' are confirmed." [...]

"You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America.

"And so you promised to back Israel, and you threatened to strike the tribal regions in Pakistan, and to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, in order for the crimes of the American crusade in it to continue."

Zawahiri also had some policy advice for Obama on Afghanistan:

"If you still want to be stubborn about America's failure in Afghanistan, then remember the fate of Bush and Pervez Musharraf, and the fate of the Soviets and British before them," the message said. "And be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them."

I still find it interesting that Zawahiri or Osama bin Laden didn't make any statement before the election, like they did in 2004. It may be that they didn't have a strong preference in the choice between the old hawk and the apostate Muslim. Or perhaps they were refreshing RealClearPolitics as often as the rest of us and saw that the race wasn't really close enough for them to make a difference.

Next

Last

Obamas indecision on Star Wars

When it comes to whether President-elect Obama should follow through on plans to base a missile defense shield in Europe, everyone's got an opinion. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says dropping the shield program would pave the way toward improving U.S.-Russia ties. French President Nicholas Sarkozy says the shield isn't worth all the trouble and should be scrapped. The LA Times editorial board says Obama should make up his own mind, before basically telling him to ditch the shield.

In favor of the shield are U.S. defense hawks like John Bolton, some top military officers, NATO, and current (and possibly future) Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

What Obama thinks about all of this isn't entirely clear. After a conversation between the president-elect and Polish president Lech Kaczynski last week, Kaczynski seemed to get the impression that Obama and expressed support for the shield, which will be partially based on Poland. Obama's people say he never promised any such thing:

"President Kaczynski raised missile defense, but President-elect Obama made no commitment on it. His position is as it was throughout the campaign: that he supports deploying a missile defense system when the technology is proved to be workable," McDonough said.

Bolton characterizes this statement as "weak and ambiguous." He's right, but it's probably the best the Obama team can do at the moment.

In an ideal world, I suspect Obama would scrap Star Wars. It's an expensive and unnecessary program that stands in the way of Obama's goal of engaging Russia on more pressing matters. But as Time's Mark Thompson points out, extravagantly expensive military programs take on a momentum of their own and are often harder to shut down than they are to start.

Then there's the matter of agreements that the Obama's predecessor signed with Poland and the Czech Republic. Mevedev's recent bluster has also put Obama in a position where he would look awfully weak by acquiescing to Russia's wishes.

The fact that the Obama team hasn't come down strongly on either side of this debate yet seems to be driving partisans crazy, but there's little reason for him to dive in headfirst before there's even national security team in place. This issue is a lot more complex than either side usually admits and Obama is right to take his time.

Next

Last

Hagel speaks (unlike the rest)

At a time when no other rumored cabinet picks are talking, that's just what Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel did this morning at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The Nebraska senator gave a speech entitled "Toward a Bipartisan Foreign Policy."

So first, why is Hagel talking? Marc Ambinder thinks this means Hagel is out of contention for a spot in the Obama cabinet. Michael Abramowitz still thinks Hagel is a "live possibility" for the cabinet -- and others consider secretary of defense the best option for the decorated Vietnam veteran.

The senator makes the GOP wish list for the cabinet, and that might mean more than we think given Obama's promises of bipartisanship -- especially since Hagel traveled to Iraq with Obama this summer and has broken with his party on the war.

From his comments today, I think he could still be in the running for a post. His remarks -- decidedly big-picture, painted a vision of foreign policy and domestic political cooperation for the next administration. A few key points:

• Today, the senator said, is "one of those historic confluences" where the world will have to "reorder, restructure, and redefine" the world order.
• Senator Hagel linked despair and desperation to much of the world's insecurity, suggesting that "quality of life and standards of living" were the foundations of stability in a world where nearly five sixths of the population live in developing countries.
• Hagel demonstrated a clear esteem for international institutions such as the United Nations, stating that he believes those bodies will be even more important in the next 25 years than in the past. The world, as he put it, is more interconnected, complicated, and "combustible."
• When asked about development, Senator Hagel praised Defense Secretary Robert Gates for his speeches throughout the country on the need to take militarization out of foreign policy. "Bob Gates understands this better than anybody at the White House," he said.

Sounds like a good pitch for succeeding Gates at the Pentagon to me.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Next

Last