Welcome to the World Situation Report For March 10th, 2022
This is a new column for the Freedomist. I am delighted to be able to join the Freedomist team, and to once again work with William Collier, my long-time friend and editor. For those who may have followed my work at the Military Gazette, this column is a version of MilitaryGazette’s “World SITREP” column. The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that I do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as an introductory launch-pad for further study, in addition to being free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.
This column will cover the preceding week of news.
That said, let’s move on to the news…
Japan Moves Ahead with Plans to Deploy Automated Cargo Vessels
Japan has decided to proceed with automating sea-going cargo vessels, as falling numbers of skilled crews and the dream of increased profits tempt executives to give automation a chance.
The falling numbers of people willing to take the very real risks of a life working the sea is real. Despite the comparatively low crew requirements of modern ships, compared to older vessels, increasing traffic from more and more hulls in the water have balanced out the numbers. However, for some decades, fewer and fewer people sign up with merchant shipping academies, making qualified crew hires a priority. In such an environment, the allure of a completely automated cargo vessel, requiring no crew to pay or insure, is very real.
The problems, of course, are legion: many ports have strict rules concerning pilots coming aboard to conn ships, not least because channel conditions change, sometimes frequently; ships also require underway maintenance – engines are reliable, but issues frequently occur. The number of things that can go wrong on any seagoing ship are too numerous to go into in any detail here, but having crew aboard to address the problem as it occurs is a problem Japan will need to address, before most ports – and shipping companies – are going to accept completely robotic cargo ships…
…And that’s before we address pirates, and hacking.
TFI Global – Japan moving ahead with automating cargo vessels:
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Merchant Ships Attacked In Ukrainian Waters, France Seizes Russian Freighter
As the war in Ukraine intensifies, cargo vessels are suddenly finding themselves in the midst of a deadly crossfire. As of 2/26/2022, the Moldovan-flagged chemical tanker “Millennial Spirit”, carrying 600 tonnes of diesel fuel (with a Russian crew), was apparently shelled by a Russian warship, seriously injuring two of the crew; the Turkish owned “Yasa Jupiter” was struck by a bomb (with no reported casualties, thankfully), and is limping towards Romanian waters; and the Panamanian-flagged bulk freighter “Namura Queen”, loaded with wheat, was struck by a rocket on her stern; she is currently underway, making for a safe port near Istanbul, Turkey.
A large number of non-combatant vessels remain tied to docks in harbors and estuaries as fighting continues to rage around them. These vessels will be hard-pressed to leave on their own, as Ukrainian harbor pilots are obviously occupied elsewhere.
Meanwhile, France has seized the Russian-owned vessel “Baltic Leader” in the English Channel, on suspicion of being on the list of sanctioned Russian companies black-listed by the European Union (EU), NATO and the United States.
Contrary to popular belief, wars are not “good” for business – preparing for war is good for business, not actually fighting it. With the world logistics system still reeling from Covid-related delays and the Ever Given accident that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a full week, delaying schedules and causing knock-on effects throughout the fragile global logistics network, it is hard to detail specifically what effects Putin’s War will have on the global shipping industry, but it is unlikely to be good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KFPAOgCfGM
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Turning to US national news…..
Bomb Threat Disrupts Ferry Operation
A bomb threat against the Bainbridge Island – Bremerton disrupted ferry service on March 6th. Police explosive-sniffing K-9’s cleared the ferry “Tacoma” to return to service by 1pmPST…
[Source]
Also on the 6th, two persons attempted to rush the main gate at Joint Base Andrews (JBA) – home of the Presidential transport squadrons – at approximately 9pm, but were stopped by alert guards and automated barricades. One of the individuals (a 17-year old male) was captured, and the other is being sought. Although reports remain foggy, at least one of the persons (the individual captured by security) was armed. No shots were fired, despite initial reports of an “active shooter”.
As of this writing, the other individual remains at large. No information has been released on either individual involved in the incident, although the 316th Security Forces Group and local authorities have stated that the at-large individual is not on the base.
Vice President Harris and various other members of the cabinet had been aboard JBS earlier in the evening, boarding a flight to Selma, Alabama, but were not present at the time of the incident.
[Source 1]
[Source 2]
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While, in international news….
Europe & Australia
Proving that some people just want to act out, thus making martyrs where they don’t need to, a makeshift “bomb” was thrown onto the ground of the Russian diplomatic mission to The Hague, in the Netherlands, while an envelop containing an unspecified “white powder” was mailed to the Russian embassy in Canberra, the Australian capitol, this week….
[Source 1]
[Source 2]
In Sweden, meanwhile, it seems that the so-called “Islamic State” – still extant – will take anyone, as a 49-year old woman was convicted of not preventing her then 12-year old son from being recruited to fight for the terror group in 2013. The child, along with his father and an older brother, were all subsequently killed fighting for the IS. The mother denied any wrongdoing, saying that she had been “lured” to Syria in 2013 by her husband…no word on what she thought was happening in Syria at that time.
[Source]
In Turkey, riot police celebrated International Women’s Day by firing tear gas at demonstrators attempting to join a women’s march. The demonstrators are engaged in protests against the Erdogan government’s withdrawal from a European treaty on combating violence against women last year.
[Source]
Meanwhile, Turkey has also arrested or is seeking to arrest over one hundred individuals that the government claims were involved in the attempted coups-de-tat against the Erdogan government in July of 2016.
[Source]
Turning to Africa…
Major fighting continues in the West African nations of Mali, Niger and Nigeria, as local security forces battle on against the Boko Haram, the “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” and the “Islamic State/West Africa Province (ISWAP)” terror groups.
Malian Army (FAMa) forces beat back an attack by ISWAP on an outpost in Mondoro, in the central part of the country, on March 4th, reportedly killing at least 70 terrorists, while suffering at least 27 troops dead, 33 injured, and 7 missing. The attack was described as “complex”, and involved the use of “vehicle bombs”.
To understand the scale of this fighting, the numbers being reported by FAMa are essentially two full platoons of infantry, or about two-fifths of an infantry company (generally, about 180 personnel). And this is not the first action of its kind, in this country of barely 20million people; actions on this scale have happened more than a few times. This kind of loss rate in action is rather rare, these days; to give an idea of scale, the United States lost a total of 258 personnel in the Gulf War of 1990-1991, and in the entirety of what is known as the “War on Terror“, from 2001 to today (March, 2022), the US has lost a total of 7,074 dead.
[Source]
In neighboring Niger’s southwestern Torodi region, five soldiers were killed and three more were wounded on March 6th, when their vehicle rolled over an “improvised explosive device” (IED) laid by the “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara”. Niger has approximately 12,000 troops deployed full-time in its interior, trying to fend off terror groups that have been operating in earnest in the region since early 2017.
Niger was also the scene of the October, 2017 ambush of a US Army Special Forces team and their Niger partner-forces at the village of Tongo-Tongo which killed four of the ten-man US team, and four Niger troops.
[Source]
In Nigeria’s far-northeastern region, Boko Haram terrorists attacked a Nigerian Army Forward Operating Base (FOB) near the town of Damasak, and were repelled with the loss of seventeen dead and three captured, along with several vehicles and weapons.
Boko Haram made its name when it appeared several years ago, by kidnapping hundreds of elementary- and middle-school children to use as either child-soldier “recruits” (for the boys) or as “wives” (for the girls) for their “troops”.
[Source]
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s “Department of State Services” (DSS) security service has reported that the “Islamic State/West Africa Province (ISWAP)” has been training suicide-bombers in the northeast of the country, as well.
[Source]
In the Middle East…
The “Middle East” remains unstable in the extreme. A small sample of the past week:
*The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide-bomb attack in Pakistan, that killed five security force troops when the attacker detonated their vest as a convoy rolled past in the Pakistani state of Baluchistan. This comes on the heels of the suicide attack on March 4th, in Peshawar that killed 63 and wounded nearly 200.
[Source]
*In Syria, Russian air force planes launched a series of attacks on March 4 and 5, targeting Islamic State forces in the central Resafa region of Syria’s Raqqa Governate, scene of the Islamic State’s Pyrrhic defeat and loss of their “capital” in October of 2017. While cheered at the time as signalling the “end of ISIS”, intense fighting has continued in Syria ever since, with Russian air forces launching over 900 sorties in February, alone.
[Source]
*Elsewhere in Syria, 13 Syrian Army troops were killed and 18 wounded, when the bus they were traveling in was ambushed near the ancient city of Palmyra on March 6th.
[Source]
India, for a change, was largely quiet this week. Aside from security forces being on “high alert” following the Peshawar attack, police in Assam arrested five people linked to Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), while arresting a Maoist leader in the city of Gaya, in the northern state of Bihar, the country was largely quiet, this week. Given the normal news cycle in India, this is a welcome change.
[Source 1]
[Source 2]
Finally, the South Korean Navy fired warning shots to ward off a North Korean patrol boat that strayed too close to Baekryeong Island, near the Northern Limit Line on the 8th. The North Korean craft was chasing an unarmed North Korean vessel, whose crew is being questioned by South Korean authorities.
[Source]
About Author
Michael Cessna
Michael Cessna is a former Active Duty United States Marine, a long-time personal protection specialist, security and defense analyst, military subjects instructor, general information researcher and amateur historian. He has been contributing security and defense writing since 2015.
