Pirates are Bad!

[isaac]

There shouldn't be pirates because they're bad.

I don't understand how they get off the ship, but it seems like a big effort should be made to track them down and publicly kill them to discourage others from following their example. If we let pirates take over major oil tankers its just a matter of time before Al-Qeada figures out that oil tankers are a lot like enormous bombs.

[John]

Dear Isaac,

> There shouldn't be pirates because they're bad.

> I don't understand how they get off the ship, but it seems like a
> big effort should be made to track them down and publicly kill
> them to discourage others from following their example. If we let
> pirates take over major oil tankers its just a matter of time
> before Al-Qeada figures out that oil tankers are a lot like
> enormous bombs.

The pirates are succeeding because of a unique situation in Somalia,
where there is no coherent government.

The ships are completely unarmed, by policy. The pirates, who are
armed to the gills, approach the target ship in speedboats, with
equipment to climb up the sides of the ships. The sailors on the
ships do not fight back.

The ship is then taken to a friendly port, usually Eyl in Puntland in
Somalia. Then the negotiations begin. The pirates want money, and
the ship owners want their ship, their cargo, and their sailors back.
When a price has been agreed, the money is delivered in cash bundles
by speedboats to the port of Eyl. This is a very dangerous time
because these speedboats can become targets of rival pirate groups.

One of the reasons that al-Qaeda can't really pull this off yet is
because they don't have a friendly port to return to. That's one
reason why they'd like to gain control of some country, such as
Pakistan, now that they've lost Iraq.

Sincerely,

John