# Civilian ships and piracy

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Civilian ships and piracy," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/civilian-ships-and-piracy/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Why merchant crews cannot defend themselves: by international treaty no civilian ship may carry a weapon. John Kiriakou handled international piracy as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer and brought Captain Richard Phillips to testify.*

- **The rule:** By international treaty, no civilian ship may carry a weapon
- **The defence available:** An armoured, triple-locked engine room
- **Kiriakou's role:** International piracy portfolio, Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff
- **Witness he called:** Captain Phillips

Discussing ships struck in the Strait of Hormuz, Kiriakou set out why their crews are helpless. A tanker carries a skeleton crew — *"There's only like five or six dudes on these tankers"* where one might expect two hundred — and cannot protect the vessel, only itself.[1] The procedure is to retreat into a citadel: *"they barricade themselves inside the engine room, which is like armored and triple locked and there's an emergency stash of food and water in there and they can control the engine from inside the engine room. They can override the bridge. But that's all they can do is disable the ship and just wait for help to come"* — which in a war zone is unlikely to arrive.[1][2]

## The treaty

The reason there is nothing else to do is legal, and Kiriakou learned it in a job rather than at sea. *"One of the things that I learned, Ted, when I was on the [Senate Foreign Relations Committee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/senate-foreign-relations-committee) staff — because one of my issues was international piracy, and I brought Captain Phillips down to testify. We sat for hours together."*[2][3] What he took from it: *"by international treaty no civilian ship is allowed to carry a weapon. So they're on their own."*[3]

## The law of the sea

Asked whether the law of the sea bleeds over into air transport, he said it does but that the question is *"far more controversial because the US is famously not a signatory to the law of the sea."*[4] Put to him that the United States declines to sign a great many such conventions, he agreed without qualification — *"No, we're wrong, wrong, wrong about so many of these issues"* — and, reminded that the United States did sign the convention against torture, answered with two words: *"There it is."*[4][5]

## See also

- [Senate Foreign Relations Committee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/senate-foreign-relations-committee)
- [Strait of Hormuz](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/strait-of-hormuz)

## Sources

1. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 04:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=293s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
2. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 05:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=325s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
3. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 05:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=355s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
4. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 06:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=385s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/
5. A Super Dumb Mass Murder (2026-03-12), at 06:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXefViRMCk&t=416s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-12-deprogram-ted-rall-a-super-dumb-mass-murder/

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