US embassy cable - 05NAIROBI4903

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NAIROBI 004903 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF 
STATE PASS AID 
LONDON, PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/28/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PTER, PREL, MOPS, ASEC, KPAO, SO, KE 
SUBJECT: SOMALIA PIRACY -- JOWHAR-TFG MEMBERS LET CONTRACT 
FOR COASTAL SECURITY SERVICES 
 
 
SUMMARY 
-------- 
 
1. (C) Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) Prime 
Minster Ali Mohamed Gedi has confirmed that members of the 
TFG allied with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed signed on 
November 25 a contract with a U.S.-origin company to provide 
coastal security and training services.  The primary goal 
seems to be the enforcement of Somali sovereignty over its 
fisheries, but the PM also cited combating piracy as a task 
for the service provider.  The price tag, cited in the press 
as $50-55 million, is far beyond the reach of the Jowhar 
TFG's own resources; PM Gedi stated the funds will come from 
"foreign donors" but declined to elaborate.  END SUMMARY 
 
PRESS REPORTS CONFIRMED 
------------------------ 
 
2. (C) TFG Prime Minster Gedi confirmed to Somalia Watcher 
November 25 press reports regarding his TFG faction's 
signing of a contract for coastal security services.  TFG- 
Jowhar Minister of Fisheries Hassan Abshir Farah (from 
President Yusuf's Darood/Majerteen clan, former "Puntland 
Minister of Water, and TNG Prime Minister) signed on 
November 25 the marine security contract with Top Cat Marine 
Security, Inc., a boat design and security firm apparently 
based in New York, NY.  Somali and international press 
reported a price tag of $50-55 million for the first phase 
of a two-year contract.  Top Cat is to provide training for 
a new corps of Somali Coast Guards and special forces to 
monitor the 2,300-mile coast.  The contractor is to create 
five coastal security bases, and provide communications 
equipment, high-speed patrol boats, ground transport 
vehicles and at least two helicopters. 
 
WHO ARE THOSE GUYS? 
-------------------- 
 
3. (C) Top Cat Marine Security's rudimentary website gives 
little indication as to the company's capacity to fulfill a 
contract for coastal security.  The only company executive 
name cited is that of Peter Casini, who is listed as the 
leader of the Top Cat Marine Security team and its powerboat 
designer.  The website information seems directed primarily 
at a boat purchaser market.  The site states, "Top Cat 
offers essential turnkey services, including operational 
training, inspection, and mechanical and maintenance 
service.  Backed by a core of highly skilled special 
operations personnel with first hand experience in law 
enforcement, military, and security experience, Top Cat 
brings a level of expertise and training to its production 
and development that is unsurpassed by any of its 
competitors."  The site states that the company provides 
training in high-speed, emergency response, and patrol boat 
operations skills; basic maintenance and mechanical 
operations skills; navigation and handling; and evasive 
tactics and interdiction.  Top Cat's Peter Casini is quoted 
in the Somali and international press as saying he will 
provide speedboats that are "the worst nightmare for 
pirates," and as indicating that his firm will target "a 
mother ship off the Somali coast that is launching smaller 
craft to attack commercial vessels." 
 
4. (C) A "Google" Search of "topcat marine" brings up links 
to web-logs ("blogs") that call into question the company's 
financial stability, physical address, and legal status.  An 
article in Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper reports that Top 
Cat Marine Security may have failed to meet its payroll in 
2004, citing in turn an article in the Charleston, SC 
newspaper The Post and Courier dating from the period when 
Top Cat had been operating in that state.  The Post and 
Courier article also reportedly tied Peter Casini to "a 
string of failed business ventures and corporate 
bankruptcies."  The Daily Nation newspaper quotes Casini, 
regarding reports of financial difficulties, as saying that 
the reports may refer to a different company, calling his 
firm "Top Cat Design."  The article goes on to quote Top Cat 
Marine Security's VP for public relations, Ms. Maryann 
Johnson, as stating in response to an email inquiry that 
"Top Cat remains financially secure and stable, with 
contracts around the world with some of the largest defense 
contractors."  She also reportedly referred in the email to 
Mr. Casini as an employee and not the owner of the company. 
 
IS IT LEGAL? 
------------- 
 
5. (C) Somali Watcher did not attend the November 25 
contract signing, given that it would have been construed as 
both (a) USG endorsement of the Jowhar faction of the TFG, 
and (b) USG endorsement of the contract itself. 
Somalia Watcher met with PM Gedi on 25 November after the 
contract signing.  Gedi confirmed the essentials of the 
press reports on the contract; declined to specify the 
funding sources that would pay the hefty sums involved; and 
admitted that the legal basis of the contract was somewhat 
shaky.  He confirmed that such an arrangement committing 
government resources would normally require reference to a 
TFG budget duly approved by the parliament, but that in the 
absence of either a budget or a sitting parliament, the deal 
might have some legal problems.  He stressed nonetheless 
that the Jowhar-based members of the TFG are trying to do 
something about both illegal fishing operations and the 
rampant piracy in Somalia's economic exclusion area. 
 
6. (C) Somalia Watcher requested that the PM authorize a 
briefing from the Top Cat officials who had signed the 
contact with the TFG-Jowhar.  Gedi instructed Mohamed Ali 
Nur "Americo", Finance and Administrative Manager, Liaison 
Office of the Prime Minister in Nairobi, to make this 
happen.  Somalia Watcher followed up with Nur on November 
28, to be told that the Top Cat representatives had left 
Nairobi the previous night. 
 
COMMENT: 
--------- 
 
7. (C) The image of a private security firm of U.S. origins 
engaging in interdiction operations in the Indian Ocean in 
the near future is somewhat troubling.  That said, we cannot 
imagine how the signing of this contract can have any 
immediate impact on Somalia's coastal security, unless the 
high-speed patrol craft Top Cat Marine has promised are 
already in Somali waters and fully crewed.  The considerable 
"noise in the system" regarding Top Cat's commercial and 
financial bona fides; the minimal information available on 
the firm; the lack of clarity as to the source of funding 
for a very expensive contractual obligation; and the 
extraordinary risk involved in entering into a commercial 
venture with the deeply divided TFG, all point to an 
extremely questionable enterprise with potential impact on 
USG interests in the Horn of Africa.  Lower Shabelle 
"governor" and Hawiye warlord Sheikh Yusuf Siad "Indha Adde" 
-- often labeled an Islamist extremist -- is quoted in the 
Somali press as saying "I warn the USA against interfering 
in Somali Waters."  Post suggests Department seek additional 
information from both Top Cat Marine and other USG agencies. 
END COMENT. 
 
BELLAMY