The Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien tracked seven pirates Saturday back to their mother ship.

Chris Lawrence
CNN Pentagon Correspondent

A NATO ship receives a distress call Saturday: a Norwegian merchant ship is under attack by pirates. The NATO ship veers off, racing to the rescue. The Canadian NATO ship fires several warning shots, which cause the pirates to break off the attack and sail away. But NATO tracks down the pirates, boards their boat and finds several rounds of ammunition onboard. The NATO crew tosses their guns, ladders and scaling equipment overboard. They question the pirates and then …arrest them? No. Hand them over to a court? No. They let them go. Why? Because there is no formal procedure for NATO forces to follow once they’re actually captured pirates. NATO leaves it up to each individual country, and sometimes those nations don’t even allow crews to detain the pirates they catch. The same day that incident happened, another NATO ship operated by the Dutch intercepted pirates. The Dutch found weapons and freed 13 hostages – then let the pirates go free.

After meeting with the Dutch Foreign Minister, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said releasing the pirates sends the wrong message. “The minister and I agreed we will take this to NATO. If the Dutch Navy had been operating under the EU, they could have turned the pirates over for trial. NATO has not provided the authority to do that.” Clinton also said there needs to be better coordination between all the nations and organizations that patrol the Somali coastline. Right now whether a pirate stays in custody or gets let go on the spot – entirely depends on which ship grabbed him.

Sean Connaughton is a former Coast Guard officer, and President Bush’s top maritime official. He says crews are catching pirates red-handed, then looking back to their home countries half-a-world away for guidance on what to do with them. Connaughton says, “You can’t just take nice neat laws that work perfectly well in the streets of Washington or Ottawa – and apply them off the coast of Somalia.” Connaughton says there have to be universal rules of engagement. And Secretary Clinton is pushing for that change – meaning every ship …no matter if they’re patrolling for the EU, NATO or a task force …would have the authority to arrest pirates and hand them over for trial. Otherwise, Connaughton says, “The pirates are going to quickly realize most Navies won’t take any action against them – and they’re just going to continue to escalate and unfold.”

Another issue: finding the right ships to go after pirates. The USS Bainbridge is armed with radar, heavy guns and nearly 100 missiles. Thing is, it’s often matched against a skiff or dinghy – with a few pirates onboard armed with rifles. Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants lots more smaller, faster cats chasing the mice – not a few 9,000-ton Destroyers lumbering through the Indian Ocean. Gates is pushing to build 55 more Littoral Combat Ships …smaller, speedier ships that can navigate through shallow waters. At $500-600 million each, the LCS is also a lot cheaper than a guided missile cruiser.