This is the third of four terrific articles on Piracy. My thanks to Erick for granting permission for me to host it on my web site. -Kevin Clark - Feb 16th, 1998.

SAMN:
Spacelanes Activity Monitoring Network

INTRODUCTION

It has been said, with a certain measure of idealism, that justice is blind. More accurately, it is technology, more than justice, that is without sight. For not only will technology allow mankind to reap new benefits in terms of knowledge and opportunity, it will also grant man the ability to prey upon his fellows, and then to escape capture.

So it has been with the technology of spaceflight. Just as the nations of Earth have spread themselves among the stars, planting their colonies on strange and distant worlds, criminals have used the powers of spaceflight to take them light-years beyond the scene of their crimes and to perpetrate new crimes as they prey upon unsuspecting merchants, jeopardizing the life blood of colonization efforts, for their own personal gain.

To fight this new form of criminal, one that uses the spacelanes in which to hide, a new crime-fighting organization has been created by Earth's space-faring nations: the Spacelanes Activity Monitoring Network, or SAMN, known less formally as Sammy-N.

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSEMBLY

Situated at the top of SAMN is the Administrative Assembly (AA).

Function: Created by the original charter, the AA's function is to define the direction the network takes and what means it uses. The Administrative Assembly has created Section Four to assist in the fight against piracy, developed the Independent Monitoring System, and identified environmental damage to alien ecosystems as "crimes of interstellar transit."

The Administrative Assembly is divided into two sections, the Secretariat and the Council of Commissioners.

Secretariat: The Secretariat consists of the individual nations which are full members of the network. Each nation sends a two-member delegation to the Secretariat, in addition to their supporting staff. The Secretariat meets twice a year, in May and November, for three weeks. During that time, it debates and votes on proposals brought before the group. Passage of a proposal requires a two-thirds majority of the member nations.

Council of Commissioners: The council is a smaller body which meets year round and is more concerned with the day-to-day operation of the network. It is also responsible for deciding which proposals go before the Secretariat for a vote. The council is made up of eight seats, which are rotated between the member nations on a yearly basis - the two most senior nations vacate their seats each year, and two new nations are added. The nations currently sitting on the council are, in order of seniority, France, Mexico, UAR, Azania, the United States, Brazil, Canada and Manchuria. Based on the current rotation, France and Mexico will next vacate their seats, with all the other nations moving up, and Australia and Japan being added to the council.

Council Chairman: The chairman of the Council of Commissioners is elected by the Secretariat from among the delegates and comes from a nation not currently seated on the council. The current chairman is Vilman Gross, from the Republic of Germany. The chairman sees to it that the normal rules of order are maintained and directs the debate before the council. In the event of a tie, it is up to the chairman to cast the deciding vote. Additionally, based on legal findings brought forth by the Section One legal department, the chairman may block a proposal from being discussed by the council, and hence by the Secretariat as well. This is used when a proposal is considered to be too political in nature and best left up to international diplomacy. Also, in the absence of a clear majority, the chairman may decide to "pass" a proposal for the Secretariat's consideration.

CENTRAL BUREAU

The Central Bureau was stationed in Melbourne until 2247, when it was moved to Provence Nouveau on the planet Tirane. This move made the network the first and only international organization with its headquarters off of the planet Earth. (The Orbital Quarantine Command at Gateway became the second such body, although SAMN remains the only extra-Solar organization.)

Function: The Central Bureau is the functional headquarters of the network, coordinating the maintenance of monitoring buoys, activities of the national bureaus, special agents and advisors, etc. It is divided into four sections, each responsible for a different aspect of SAMN's work.

Section One (Traffic/Law): Section One is the traffic section. It's work focuses on criminal activity which is not inherently related to space travel, but in which space travel has become involved, usually by the criminal's attempt to escape justice. Section One also is responsible for covering reports of safety violations, rights of passage, and the like.

The network's charter specifically prevents it from dealing with incidents of a purely "political" nature, such as refugees escaping political persecution. Thus, Section One has also come to serve as the network's legal department, deciding what are legitimate areas of concern for the network and what are better left to the realm of international politics. In the course of the network's history, Section One has displayed a sharply conservative bent in this regard.

Due to work in recent years by organizations such as the North American Research League, Section One has taken on the job of covering incidents of criminal behavior in regard to environmental damage of alien ecosystems.

Section Two (Smuggling): Section Two is the section responsible for smuggling operations, particularly in the area of illegal drugs, bio-mods and cyberwear. The department maintains a list of dangerous substances, organisms and devices, which it distributes to all national bureaus.

Section Two works closely with Earth's Orbital Quarantine Command and Tirane's Quarantine Interdiction System. Illegal cartels often develop new and more dangerous products off planet, then try to sneak the formulas or plans back to Earth and Tirane for synthesis and sale. Occasionally such groups even attempt to smuggle the actual material to the Core worlds.

Section Three (Special Files): Section Three is the special files section. This is literally the heart of the work that SAMN does in the fight against interstellar criminals. Centered around one of the most advanced computer systems in existence, Section Three is responsible for the continuous filing, referencing and cross-checking of data from the thousands of reports sent in to the Central Bureau everyday. Every aspect of a crime - its location, type, people involved, mode of operation, etc. - is broken down and entered into the system, where hundreds of checks and simulations are run.

From the data correlated by Section Three, other sections develop criminal activity reports - called "rainbow reports" because they are color-coded by degree of urgency. Coding includes white (known facts of a recent incident), yellow (partial list of one or two known characteristics of a suspect and/or vessel), green (possible identification of suspect or vessel and/or mode of operation), red (best subject for recent incident), blue (strong suspect and/or known criminal background), and black (known criminal wanted for arrest). These reports form the single greatest service SAMN provides to its member nations.

Section Four (Piracy): Section Four is the first new section established since the founding of SAMN. Originally a department of Section One, Section Four deals specifically with piracy and related activities. Due to the growing incidents of space hijacking and the entrenchment of family-style pirate syndicates, the Secretariat voted in 2297 to form a separate section to deal with the problem. Section Four is also specifically responsible for the maintenance of SAMN's independent sensor system, scheduled to become fully operational by 2305.

Special Personnel and Resources: Each section also has a special personnel and resources department. This represents a pool of internationally recognized experts in specific areas of study.

Section Two, for example, has on its list the names of experts in the area of substance abuse, cyberpsychosis and the means smugglers use to sneak illegal goods through space. Section Four lists individuals knowledgeable on the activities of specific pirate networks or the means used to evade detection by piracy-suppression patrols( such as drive smearing or dock-rocks).

The individuals on these lists have agreed to make themselves available, whenever possible, to assist the various national bureaus when their particular expertise is needed. It is up to the national bureau in question to decide what degree of power the special operative will have.

NATIONAL BUREAUS

National bureaus provide the front-line units of SAMN's work. Each is an independent body, considered to be the property of the nation which funds and staffs it. There is no set number of national bureaus, as this will change with the number of nations participating in SAMN's charter and the number of branch offices set according to each nation's need.

Each nation is responsible for the cost of maintaining its national bureau and the attendant branch offices. This is usually accomplished by attaching the bureau to the department or office most closely associated with the work being done. The United States, for example, has its national bureau in Washington, DC, staffed by members of the treasury department. In addition, the US maintains branch offices in Hope (the capital of the Hermes Colony on Mu Herculis), in Liberty (the capital of Ellis), and on the orbital transfer station servicing the King colony. The Republic of Texas also uses members of its treasury department, augmented by agents from the Texas Rangers.

STATUS

Up until now, SAMN has had to rely on information submitted by the member nations from a wide variety of sources, including navigational buoys, sensor readings from commercial and space guard vessels, and criminal investigation reports. But SAMN recently passed a proposal to establish an independent monitoring system, a network of passive sensor buoys to be seeded in various systems to record data for pick up by the local national bureau. The IMS information will then be sent directly to the Central Bureau for processing. Special attention is to be given to systems which lie off the main travel routes and are suspected of harboring syndicate dock-rocks. The IMS proposal passed by the barest of margins, with strong vocal condemnations from Mexico, Argentina and the Inca Republic. In light of American support for the proposal, they felt it was another example of "Yankee" intervention into their affairs.

One of the more controversial actions being proposed before the council is the formation of an international piracy suppression force. This action has caused sharp division among the network's members, and some outside observers fear it could end up dividing the network. Strongly in favor are the United States and Australia, with their history of antipiratical fervor, and Manchuria, reeling under the recent upsurge of activity in its arm of space. Mexico, Argentina and the Inca Republic have all threatened to leave the network if the proposal passes, and France fears a bleeding off of fighting units from the Kafer conflict.- Erick Melton