George M James
Military Author
Counter Maritime Terrorism | The Threat Against Cruise Ships
Code Name Caribbean is about counter maritime-terrorism, a highly specialized form of counter-terrorism and the most difficult one of all. When a commercial vessel is taken over, hijacked by terrorists, you have a much more serious problem than with an aircraft standing on the apron.
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Aircrafts are actually quite easy to take back and is seen as “bread and butter” work for Special Forces. I explained the techniques on storming an aircraft in Code Name Wrangler, a book that is used by many SWAT Units as training material.
Luckily, at the moment, maritime terrorist attacks are less than 1% of all terror attacks but the terrorists are changing course and coveting to take commercial vessels. All the evidence is there and is discussed in this book.
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Some have already warned us of this possible threat, for example, the late Colonel Gadhafi (Libya) did so in 2012. The Taj Mahal terrorists were trained by Pakistani Special Forces (or former members, who knows, Pakistan is no friend of the West) to conduct maritime terrorism.
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I also wrote a previous book on counter maritime-terrorism, Code Name Willow Bay, where we demonstrate how to approach a ship by stealth. The method used is something unique to South African Special Forces and subsequently copied by many.
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How do Special Forces get to a modern ship without the terrorists knowing about it? It is much harder than you may think since neither helicopters nor rubber ducks will work (radar & sonar). Therefore, in Code Name Willow Bay the hardest target of them all was chosen, a modern warship on the open seas, not tied to a quay.
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Here we explore what to do with a hijacked passenger ship. How will such a ship be rescued? There are 6,000 passengers on some of these ships, thousands of cabins and nooks to hide in. It will take a massive effort. It is the worst nightmare scenario possible. There are Special Forces Commanders that stated to me that it cannot be done. Yet, it all comes down to the same problem, how do you get onto the hijacked ship unnoticed and then bring in hundreds of Special Forces lads without a massacre taking place? We answer these questions in Code Name Caribbean.
Description:
Spymaster extraordinaire, Angelique Dawson and her team are on a British flagged passenger ship cruising in South African waters, the MV Belfast. Much to her ground commander and later husband, former Police Special Forces Company Commander, Geoffrey Foxtrot’s disgust, his enemy, MI6 spymaster Sir John McElroy is also on board.
Angelique wants to demonstrate the Willow Bay stealth insertion technique that she has perfected. The object is to test the counter maritime-terrorism abilities of South African Army Special Forces, working with secret agents already aboard as well as showing that it is possible for the ship to be hijacked in the first place. Thus, it will be “attacked” first and then rescued by Special Forces, using the Willow Bay Method to get aboard.
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French Intelligence officers are part of the observers. Angelique has her own ideas on what to do to prove her point. She decides to kidnap Sir John despite him being surrounded by his bodyguards and she does so by rappelling down the side of the passenger ship in the middle of the night, upside down, together with a snatch team, leaving Foxtrot worried about her safety.
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The sides of a passenger ship are hundreds of feet high and the ship is steaming at 18 knots in rough seas, but she is adamant. Angelique also demonstrates a new technique for removing a prisoner from a ship without anyone being wiser, an exercise so dangerous and insane that Foxtrot at first flatly refuses her permission to try. She is not amused.
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If you wish to read about Covert and Special Forces Operations in sub-Saharan Africa, the GMJ Books are the place to start. You will learn about covert operations, Special Forces techniques and military history not known outside the select few.
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Code Name Caribbean is the twenty-second book of the GMJ Series.