Oops! We are stealing from Ukrainian arms traders...
I've been catching up on this whole crazy Somali Pirate saga. When I first heard the stories, it summoned imagery of 5 determined ex-fishermen in crappy little speedboats with AK-47s, a grappling hook, (and the most important factor, nothing to lose), pulling up and hijacking ships 1000 times the size of theirs...
This Wikipedia List shows a list of ships that have been attacked.
Here is a pretty crazy one: On September 25th, Somali Pirates hijack the MV Faina, then shortly afterwards discover that it is loaded with: "33 battle tanks and large supply of grenade launchers and ammunition", headed, possibly illegally, to Kenya or Sudan.
Maybe I've watched too many Hollywood movies, but it seems to me that stealing from Ukrainian arms dealers is something that James Bond or Batman does, not a bunch of guys on a dinghy dressed in rags and bandannas... and certainly, not by accident. The self-awareness (or lack thereof) displayed by these pirates is pretty astounding... Their "spokesman" Sugule Ali:
He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits," he said. "We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard."
So, after discovering this possibly illegal payload, the decided to demand a ransom of $35 million. Maybe they realize that they're potentially dealing with the Russian Mafia, maybe it's being surrounded by the US Navy, or maybe they are just starting with a high bid, but they quickly lower their ransom demands. Last report I've seen is it's down to $3.5 million.
If you ask me, the Ukranians should have just sent Les Grossman in to negotiate:
Anyway, it's a crazy world these days, and while I browsing around on this topic, google adsense seems to have outsmarted itself, serving up an ad that reads "Great Somalia Vacation Rates! Plan your Getaway Today and Save." Somehow, I don't think they're getting many click-throughs...
...and here is an actually well written account of the situation.
