Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Pirates of Somalia

Well, it looks like Malacca has a new contender for Home of the Pirates.

In the past few days, a rash of Piracy out of Somalia (rumors of Al-Qaeda support are not substantiated, as none of bin Laden's twelve Cargo Ships have been sighted in Somalia recently) has resulted in multi-hundred dollar loads of oil being seized and the crews ransomed.

God be praised for one thing in this. They are not slaughtering the crews. In Malacca, if a Pirate Crew tries to break in, they usually kill the crewmen and beat and abuse the officers of the ship. It would seem that the Somali Pirates have more Money Smarts then that.

Personally, I think that the US Mediteranean Fleet should be doing Something, as their Indian Ocean brothers are somewhat busy in the Straights of Hormuz right now. And if we capture them? Death Row. Texas style.

And this has been the worst year so far, with 39 vessels seized so far.

Oh, and by the way? Expect this kind of crap to happen in the Persian Gulf if we pull out of Iraq too soon. We are already lookign at a potential Somalia on the ground, and that will inevitablly lead to Piracy in the Gulf.

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