Royal Navy Captures Somali Pirates

Somali pirates spotted in the Gulf of Aden were chased down by HMS Portland, using its Lynx helicopter and inflatable launches.

The pirates surrendered in the face of superior firepower from Royal Marines. They were found to have barrels of fuel, grappling hooks, ladders, rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.

The pirates were taken aboard HMS Portland whilst one of their boats was sunk - but because they were not caught red-handed attacking a ship they were released in their remaining boat, minus all their weapons.

Commander Tim Henry said: 'HMS Portland has once again demonstrated the coalition and Royal Navy's commitment to keeping the sea lanes open and making this key waterway safe for international trade.'

Er, yeah. Shame you can't just make them walk the plank like in the old days though.

Still, the pictures are worth seeing:

British Pensioners Fight off Somali Pirates

From the Daily Mail:

British pensioners on a cruise ship bravely fought off machine gun-armed Somali pirates by hurling deckchairs and tables at them.

The holidaymakers were enjoying a midnight Mozart concert onboard MSC Melody when pirates armed with Kalashnikovs attempted to board it using grappling hooks and ladders.

But passengers forced them back to their boats by throwing chairs and tables over the stern of the ship as Israeli security guards onboard the cruise liner fired warning shots.

The ship was a week into a 22-day cruise in the Indian Ocean, 180 miles north of the Seychelles, when it came under attack from pirates in speedboats.

Maureen Gawthrop, 66, from Barnsley, said: 'We were enjoying a classical concerto on the pool deck when everyone heard a cracking sound.

'The applause for the musicians died down suddenly and someone came running in from the open deck and shouted "pirates".

'Crew members acted quickly to evacuate passengers into their cabins and told them to lock their doors.

'We went to our cabin and we could hear bullets whizzing and clanging as they hit the ship.

'I saw a white speed boat riding alongside on the wake of the ship about 15 yards away. There were eight men dressed in green camouflage who turned and fired at us.

'We couldn't believe it was happening, it was unreal.'

Husband Roy, 66, added: 'We later learned what we witnessed was the aftermath of the incident. The pirates had tried to get on board the ship with short rope ladders and failed.'

Ian Moakes, 62, from Forest Town, Mansfield, said passengers were terrified as the hijackers began shooting at the ship.

He said: 'We were told to go to our cabins, lock the doors and not to answer the door to anyone and they would let us know what was happening.

'A lot of the crew were elderly and very frightened because they didn't know what was going on.
'I was very frustrated because there was no news coming through and I was stuck in the cabin.'

The ship's captain ordered security guards to fire two warning shots to scare off the attackers, but many of the passengers did not know the full extent of the attack until 36 hours later.

'There were a lot of angry people on board as a lot of misinformation was given out.

'Only when we got off the boat at Aqaba did I realise that it could have been a lot nastier - there were bullet holes in the side of the ship from their Kalashnikov rifles.'

Wife Jessie, 61, said the ordeal had no put her off travelling abroad.

'It was not until after the incident that I realised how serious it was,' she said.

'It ruined our holiday but we will go again - just not to the Indian Ocean, it is far too dangerous.'

Owner of MSC Cruises, Gianluigi Aponte, said the ship's crew took all necessary precautions to avoid the attack, which happened in April.

He said: 'We are very proud that our crew proved to be able to promptly tackle the emergency.
'At the moment of the attack, the ship was 600 nautical miles from Somalian coast, in an area that is not considered dangerous, and 180 nautical miles from Seychelles.

'All security measures adopted worked perfectly. Captain Ciro Pinto followed all security protocols provided, guiding the ship out of danger with a sequence of evasive manoeuvres.'

Pirate attacks on ships passing through the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean have soared this year, with attacks nearly doubling between January and March.

Pirates, Neo-colonialism and the Netherlands

A couple of interesting news snippets concerning the Netherlands.

First of all, the trial of five Somali pirates captured by the Danes in the Gulf of Aden in February will begin today in Rotterdam. They are being tried by the Dutch because they attacked a Dutch-flagged ship which originated in the Netherlands Antilles.

I have written previously on the lack of wisdom inherent in soft, human-rights-legislation-addled Western nations inviting violent Islamists from a primitive and brutal culture into their midst - and it seems what I predicted has come to pass.

The pirates' lawyer, Willem-Jan Ausma, has said his clients are 'delighted' to be in the Netherlands. Ausma said:

Alleged pirate Yusuf (24) 'intends to send for his wife and children as soon as he is released from prison. He knows he cannot easily be sent back to Somalia. He loves it here in the Netherlands,' the NRC quoted Ausma as saying.

From De Telegraaf via Islam in Europe (where credit must go for the translation):

Arrested Somali pirates who are now in the Netherlands on trial for their deeds say they would like to stay in the Netherlands. "It's a good life here."

Suspected pirate Sayid will stand trial on Monday with four of his countrymen in the first Dutch pirate trial. "I want an education during my imprisonment, and I appeal to the government not to send me back to Somalia. The people who live here respect human rights. I want to live here," he told Volkskrant.

Fellow suspect Farah also thinks the Netherlands is good. "My client feels safe here. He eat well, can play football and watch television. He thinks the toilet in his cell is so fantastic," according to his lawyer Willem-Jan Ausma.

According to De Volkskrant Ausma explained to his client that he could realistically get four years in prison and that he has a chance for a residence permit. "He's naturally delighted. He hopes to do computer training and to have his family come over."

So let's be realistic about this. If you get captured violently attacking ships or taking innocent hostages by a Western power, you face a few years in a prison which is a luxury hotel compared to anything in Somalia.

You then get to bring the wives, kids and extended family over to live on the taxpayer. Of course, you, an upstanding ex-pirate, a man who was happy to kill innocents or leave wounded comrades to die, are going to adapt perfectly to your new society and cause no problems at all.

You'll be delighted to earn minimum wage sweeping the streets or flipping burgers rather than live like a prince on welfare or the fruits of crime - as your religion tells you you may among the infidels.

If you are Dutch, I would encourage you to write to your MP about this unadulterated madness. Does the Netherlands not have enough problems wrought by insane immigration policies and a softly-softly approach to crime?

Treating the captives so well and taking them to Europe may also encourage attacks on Dutch ships and interests once word spreads.

The second story which caught my eye was this from Radio Netherlands:

Almost 119,000 voters on Curaçao, a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean, will get a say in the future of their island this Friday. A referendum offers a choice between 'sí' or 'nò' to a deal brokered between the local Curaçao government and the Netherlands. If the population agrees, the Dutch state will take responsibility for 1.7 billion euros of the Dutch Antilles debt - most of which was built up by Curaçao. But in exchange the Dutch want supervision over state spending and the maintenance of law and order.

The Dutch say the deal is a final offer. But the opposition parties in Curaçao are offended by the agreement made between the governments; they accuse the Netherlands of neo-colonialism.

So the Dutch get to pay off a nice €1.7 billion debt which was accrued by someone else, then pay to regulate the island's government and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Meanwhile, as a reciprocal gesture, Curaçao will continue to send violent colonists to the Netherlands proper, where they will feature heavily and splendidly in the crime statistics, whilst telling the Dutch how bad, evil and racist they are.

Europeans just can't win. You offer to pay off a country's debt and then pay to enforce its law and regulate its spending for it (because it clearly can't do so itself) - that's neo-colonialism.

Of course, it isn't neo-colonialism if they ask you - then it is good and right and just and anyone who disagrees is a monster.

Somali Pirates' Consultancy in London

The Guardian reports today that the Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean may be directed to their targets by a team of informants in London.

A European military intelligence document claims that these 'consultants' in London remain in contact with the pirates by satellite phone, and are well placed to provide information on which ships to attack- location, course and cargo. In at least one case, they were in contact with the pirates on a hijacked ship rather than the 'control centre' on the Somali mainland.

The report claims:

"The information that merchant ships sailing through the area volunteer to various international organisations is ending up in the pirates' hands,"

This enables the pirates to select their targets well in advance - and there is even evidence that once a target is selected, the pirates are 'trained' for the specific challenges involved in storming and capturing it.

There are cases where a ship has been hijacked by a team of pirates, then joined by more 'senior' pirates later on. Some captains have reported that the pirates already knew the ports of call, lay out and cargo of the vessels.

The nationality of the ship is also taken into account - some experts think British ships are often avoided because the pirates don't want to give their London network away to the police.

Solutions to Somali Piracy

On Sunday, French troops seized yet another vessel which had been captured by Somali pirates, and yesterday exclusive pictures were released.

The scourge of piracy in the troubled region continues apace; just yesterday a South Korean naval vessel rescued a North Korean ship which was in danger of being captured, and there have been several recent near misses, including two repulsed attacks on cruise ships carrying passengers.

In light of this, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed an 'international piracy court', because the law often requires NATO and aligned forces to release the pirates after securing their hostages.

Some are tried in Kenya, the French and American governments prefer to take them to their respective home soil to be tried.

Given the fact that Somalia is a violent, tumultuous nation, the idea of 'international justice' concerns me deeply. What will happen to these people if they are jailed in the West? Will it breach their human rights to deport them back to Somalia after any sentence is served?

Seeing as the idea of coming to the West is a dream for many Somalis, it would seem pertinent for any such court to actually operate in Africa.

Otherwise, pirates will be sentenced to a life living on EU taxpayers, or maybe ten years in prison and a lifetime claiming benefits in London or harassing women in Amsterdam or burning cars in Paris.

If that's the case, we might as well forget capturing the pirates and operate the courts via a lottery system involving the entire Somali population - it's hardly the prevention I imagine Medvedev is looking for.

A Past Perspective on Piracy

With the news over the weekend that Israeli security guards defending an Italian cruise ship with over 1,500 people on board had driven off a group of Somali pirates who attacked the vessel, it seemed interesting that Monday was the anniversary of the Battle of Derna in 1805, in which the US flag was raised in victory on foreign soil for the first time.

This was the culmination of the First Barbary War, fought by the fledgling United States against the Barbary pirates.

The Barbary pirates were feared throughout Western Christendom; they generally seized ships and their crews and demanded ransoms, but they also carried out slave raids along European coastlines. Some historians believe that up to 1.25 million European Christians were carried into slavery in these raids - some from as far north as England and Iceland.

The Barbary states demanded tributes from nations that wished to be safe from these attacks by signing a peace treaty.

The war can be largely attributed to the tenacity of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams; they saw the fact that the US Congress had budgeted for tribute to the Barbary states as a matter of dishonour.

In their roles as ambassadors to Britain and France respectively, they sought out the reasons why a people which they had not harmed sought 'to do them injury'.

Here is the answer they received:

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Upon inquiring "concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury", the ambassador replied:

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every muslim who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once. [2] [3]

Sound familiar? For all who say that the Somali pirate problem is all about poverty and lack of opportunity, or Somali resentment of the West, they need only click on the Wikipedia link above to think about an alternative perspective.

The situations are remarkably similar. For more detail, I refer you to this excellent video from Occidental Soapbox, in which he examines Leftist excuses for the 9/11 attacks and why many Muslims hate the West and wish it great harm.

In response to this, he asks: why did they hate us in 1783? Why did they attack Americans, kill and enslave them, a mere seven years after the Declaration of Independence? Nearly two centuries before modern Israel existed? Before Reagan bombed Libya, Bush Iraq, and all the other excuses used for Muslim violence and grievances against the free world.

These questions are more pertinent today than they have been at any point since the Barbary War - yet many don't even know that such an event occurred, let alone why.

You would think with the danger we face, it would be taught in every school - but then that might be racist rather than tolerant.

Best to just pretend it's not happening - which seems to be the modern West's solution to everything else.

Pirate Pundits

The Somali pirates are fast becoming a fashionable Leftist cause.

The BBC insists on mentioning them when referring to the popularity in Britain of the Robin Hood legend. They fail to grasp that it's not quite the same - these gangsters buy 4X4 cars and laptops with their wealth, and even buy poor local women. Hardly altruistic behaviour, by any stretch of the imagination.

A letter to the free 'London Paper', from a man called John Baker, read thus:

"Regarding your story "Somali teen faces piracy charges in US" - it is incredibly disturbing that an African boy has been taken in shackles to the USA. It evokes memories of the most shameful period in American history. This is not the 'change' the world was expecting from America's first African-American President."

Simply boggles the mind, doesn't it? I hardly had high hopes for Obama, but even I never thought he'd start pardoning criminals just because they happened to be black. It's not as if they just picked this chap at random, is it - he was quite happy to violently rob people and hold an innocent man hostage for no reason.

The Finns are going one better, however. The brother of a Leftist Finnish MP made a documentary about pirates in Somalia and sold it to ABC's 20/20 franchise.

What he failed to mention, however, is that many of the Somalis in it had actually been living as refugees in Finland, and returned to Somalia to get in on a bit of the 'Jihad on the High Seas' action.

The documentary featured many scenes which were stage managed by the Finnish director, in Finnish. Yet oddly the director failed to ask how many other Somalis from Finland were currently in the area or seem overly concerned - he simply used the situation to his advantage.

Tundra Tabloids has more:

So that’s where all our Finnish Somali refugee males are going, to rake in the big dough for the jihad!At 20 seconds into the two and a half minute film clip, the Finnish director shouts to the jogging jihadi: “ja takaisin samalla lailla, se näytti hyvältä.” (And come back the same way, it looks good).

What makes the already juicy story of Somali refugees from Finland going back to Somalia to wage jihad and earn a wad of money, while a Finnish documentary crew directs them in Finnish, even juicier, is that the cameraman, Jussi Arhinmäki (click for a video of him), is brother to a member of the Finnish parliament, Paavo Arhinmäki, for the Leftist party (Vasemmisto).

He also goes on to ask the all important question of why didn’t the Finnish film crew ask about how many other Somali refugees from Finland are currently in the area, plying the seas for the jihad? But then again, since they’re directing the subjects they are interviewing… well, I don’t think that the thought would have ever occurred to them.

Kullervo Kalervonpoika also asks: “On the other hand, it would be also nice to hear what the Member of Parliament, Paavo Arhinmäki thinks of his little brother’s tinkering, and if he is somehow involved in the matter?”

BIG QUESTION IS, does ABC 20/20 know about what the Finns did? Has anybody out there seen the documentary in question?

This does raise some very interesting questions about the authenticity of things you might see in the media.

It seems that the world of 'Pallywood' might have some competition, and unfortunately there are no shortage of gullible people who will accept it as fact, or simply ask all the wrong questions.

Media Sympathy for the Somali Pirates

The Somali piracy saga is becoming increasingly bizarre.

A week after the announcement of a US strategy on piracy, the only surviving pirate responsible for the kidnap of American Captain Richard Phillips has arrived in New York to face trial.

After one unsuccessful escape attempt, Captain Phillips was rescued in a dramatic and skillful operation by US Navy SEALs. Snipers fired three shots in the dark from a rolling deck, killing three pirates simultaneously.

A fourth pirate, who had boarded a US warship to seek a ransom payment and medical treatment, was captured.

Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, pictured above grinning as he arrives on American soil, seems to be a fast learner, however; he not only claimed to be 16 to try to get restrictions on the ability of the US to try him, but he also broke down in tears in court.

His mother wants to be flown to the US so she can 'be with him'; before she gets a stack of US taxpayers' cash, there are probably some pertinent questions to be asked about where she was when he was holding terrified hostages at gunpoint and robbing innocent people.

She appealed directly to President Obama to release her son: 'I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial,'

Preferably the latter option, presumably - might as well bring the family, too.

Incredible as it may seem, some are already plotting to throw every obstacle possible in the way of the trial - the man's mother has also appealed to the Somali Justice Advocacy Centre in Minneapolis. Director Omar Jamal has promised to help get 'justice' for her son.

Jamal said:

'What we have is a confused teenager, overnight thrown into the highest level of the criminal justice system in the United States out of a country where there's no law at all,'

Ah yes. Best absolve him of all responsibility for his actions, then. Because everyone who has never had an education and comes from a failed state becomes a murderous robber, don't they?

Even Americans are in on the act:

Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said he has been in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the Somali.

'I think in this particular case, there's a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas,' said Kuby.

'This man seemed to come onto the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate. He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age.'

I personally find such thinking astounding, but then Mr Kuby is far from alone. At the weekend, Dutch commandos freed 20 hostages from yet another ship being held to ransom by Somali pirates.

A fishing vessel had been captured and was being used as a 'mother ship' to instigate attacks on larger ships in the region. What did the Dutch do with all the captured pirates?

The spokesman said the pirates were set free because NATO does not have a maritime detainment policy, meaning Dutch national law would apply in this case.
"They can only arrest them if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from the Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands waters," he said.

Of course. I'm surprised that they haven't launched a legal action against the Dutch government to get their confiscated weapons back.

However, the 'poor them' aspect is perhaps the most effective strategy these people have. The BBC are in on the act, using the term pirate in inverted commas and calling the man involved a 'teenager' to evoke sympathy.

Independent journalist Johann Hari, a man who once compared the British Empire to Stalin's Russia, seizes the opportunity to rehabilitate not only Somali pirates, but the European ones that were the curse of the 17th and 18th Centuries. Apparently their egalitarianism and system of wealth distribution was second to none, and their only crime was being murderous, thieving thugs - not much of a crime at all, nowadays.

According to Hari - and this may shock you - Somali piracy is all the fault of the West anyway. Who'd have thought it?

You see, mysterious European ships apparently keep dumping toxic and even nuclear waste off of Somalia's coast. They don't have an effective government (something else which is presumably our fault rather than theirs), so they were powerless to prevent this. It seems that Hari found at least one trustworthy minister in Somalia, who told him that European governments were passing hospital and industrial waste on to the Mafia, who then kindly dump it off the coast of Somalia to the consternation of all poor, law-abiding Somalis.

No, this is not the plot of the next Rambo film, although it does seem just as unlikely.

I'm prepared to accept that some unscrupulous criminals are doing things like this; but the way the Somali government tells it through Hari, we get very much into the famous Somali/Muslim 'everything is a Western plot against us' mindset.

He then goes on to pretend that these pirates, or at least many of them, are romantic, heroic figures, plucky little men taking on the might of an unjust world. Maybe Hari could write the script for that new Rambo film?

Because his worldview is pure fantasy. He acknowledges that some of the pirates are 'just gangsters', but fails to explain in any meaningful detail how taking innocent people hostage then demanding large sums of cash is helping to defend Somalia from anything. I'm sure if one of these brave men (whom he refers to as 'the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia', seemingly without embarrassment) had ever captured a vessel which intended to dump illegally, he'd have told us all about it.

So I can only surmise that not once, out of the hundreds of pirate attacks over the last few years, has such a vessel ever been caught. This either means that Hari's perspective is based on lies and self-deception, or the volunteer coastguard work about as well as everything else in Somalia - you decide.

Hari continues:

The independent Somalian news-site WardherNews conducted the best research we have into what ordinary Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence of the country's territorial waters." During the revolutionary war in America, George Washington and America's founding fathers paid pirates to protect America's territorial waters, because they had no navy or coastguard of their own. Most Americans supported them. Is this so different?

If you've ever wondered about the famous British sense of humour, I can only assume it is on display right here. Of course ordinary Somalis support the pirates - the ransoms account for their only national income other than the aid we give them. That and the fact they're stuck with the 'us Vs. them' mindset which permeates the Muslim world and does far more harm than good.

As for the George Washington example - well yes, it is actually very different, clearly.

Does protecting the coast really entail robbing and holding to ransom everyone who approaches it? Is this what George Washington had in mind? I doubt it - there is a huge difference between pirates and mercenaries.

Anyway, the bottom line is we must stop committing 'crimes' before expecting the Somalis to do the same.

But these men are no modern day versions of Robin Hood. Whilst their country starves and collapses around them, they spend their cash on flash cars, women and even have accountants and spokesmen. If anything these gangsters perpetuate the sorry cycle of misery that is life in Somalia.

Ben MacIntyre in the Times has a different and slightly more interesting perspective; he outlines the idea that these men are not pirates but 'Shifta', African bandits which have plagued this region for centuries. The difference is that now they operate at sea because the pickings are far richer.

Here's a description of these fine, upstanding Robin Hoods (as Johann Hari would have it):

They had a reputation for extreme barbarity. One British officer based in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya in 1942 described the marauding, heavily armed bands of Somali shiftas as “ruthless outlaws who killed for the sake of killing, holding human life cheap if it stood in the way of rape and pillage”.

However, the telling 'we must improve conditions in Somalia' tone is still there.

We tried, and we failed. We now prop up a puppet government which effectively has no control outside the grounds of the presidential palace and pretend we're helping.

We're not. We must leave Somalia's internal affairs to Somalis. It is the only way. Pirate vessels should be blown out of the water on sight, and it should be made clear that any ship taken will be rescued with lethal force if necessary, and that includes attacks on the pirates' land bases.

No payment, no legal aid, no asylum for captured pirates.

We need to demonstrate that we will defend our property, our citizens and our trade routes, and not let the world descend into darkness and barbarity.

There came news last Saturday that French troops had stormed a yacht being held to ransom. Four French hostages were freed successfully, but one died in the operation, along with two pirates. The French government confirmed that they were willing to recapture any French-flagged vessel targeted by pirates, by force if necessary.

It is tragic that a hostage died, but the crack troops will get better with practice. It seems the only way to stop Somalia's problems further becoming the entire world's problem.

More Violence & Lawlessness in Somalia

There was much news yesterday about the hijacking of the MV Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates - the first American flagged vessel to be captured by pirates since the Second Barbary War (which was also an Islamic war on infidels).

The crew managed to fight off the pirates and wrest back control of the ship, but the captain is still being held hostage in a lifeboat as the FBI attempt to negotiate. Named as Richard Phillips, this selfless individual offered himself to the pirates to secure the rest of his crew.

Here's the story, courtesy of Wikipedia:

On April 8, 2009, the ship en route to Mombasa, Kenya, was hijacked (7:30 am local time) by Somali pirates 310 miles (500 km) off the coast of Somalia. All 21 crew are believed to be from the United States. The ship was carrying general cargo, most likely aid supplies to Ethiopia.[3][4]

In what The Christian Science Monitor called a "Hollywood-worthy episode", the crewmen reportedly overtook the pirates and used cell phones to provide updates on the events.[5] According to media reports released on April 8, 2009, that quote a U.S. military official, the crew may have captured one pirate while three others attempted to escape.[6] Other reports indicate that the vessel's crew had captured one of the pirates, whom they kept tied up for twelve hours before releasing during negotiations for the release of the ship's captain, Richard Philips. The captain had reportedly offered himself to the captors to secure the safety of the rest of the crew.[7] The pirates left the Maersk Alabama in one of the ship's lifeboats with Captain Philips.[8]

On April 8, 2009, the USS Bainbridge was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden in response to a hostage situation. The warship reached the Maersk Alabama early on April 9th. The pirates are reportedly floating nearby in the ship's lifeboat, out of fuel, while they continue to hold the ship's captain hostage.[9]

The troubling part is that the only thing which makes this particular episode unique is the bravery of the crew. Somalia, a failed state run by various lawless clans and Islamists, continues to emanate misery and violence for all who venture near it (and for many who don't) - there were 130 hijackings last year alone, and the problem is being spread more and more widely.

Earlier this week, a British-owned vessel was captured.

Piracy isn't the only thing currently happening in Somalia, though. There's all sorts - murder, rape, kidnap - all of it apparently justified by the Koran and local customs.

Please spare a thought for the ordeal currently being experienced by a female Canadian journalist, Amanda Lindhout, and her Australian colleague, kidnapped by Islamists in Mogadishu whilst on an assignment.

Jihad Watch has the story:

Somalia: Islamists rape, and impregnate, Canadian captive - and demand 2.5 million as ransom. Here's another arrangement: Instead of returning the Somali-Canadian terrorist just arrested back to Canada, Somalia can keep him and return in his stead these captive Canadians to Canada. Something of an even swap.

Canada returns the "Hawiye kidnap Canadian journalist is pregnant," from TFSF, April 8 (thanks to Patrick Poole):

MOGADISHU --Amanda Lindhout, a Canadian journalist who was abducted by habar-gidir .. hawiye al-shabaab wing gunmen in the Somali capital Mogadishu about eight months ago is reportedly pregnant after she was apparently raped by her abductors.

Sources say the Canadian journalist Amanda and an Australian photojournalist are being held by the militia in the northeastern neighbourhood of Suqa Holaha habar-girir hawye Terrorist neighborhood in Mogadishu. The abductors have demanded $2.5 million of ransom from the two journalists to release.

Amanda and the Australian photojournalist once escaped from a house in Suqa Holaha neighnourhood and entered a mosque near by, but they were recaptured again. militia who kidnapped the journalists claims they are al-shabab Terrorist Hawiye wing . Some reports suggest that one the abductors made Amanda as his wife...

Everything you need to know not only about Somalia, but also Islam, right there I believe.

Germans & Greeks Smite Somali Pirates

Somali pirates have been a problem off the Horn of Africa for some time now, taking their nation's violent lawlessness out to the high seas and spreading it far beyond their borders.

They capture foreign vessels, impound them with their crews, then demand an exorbitant ransom from the company which owns the ship or is paying for the goods to be transported.

Most attacks occur in the Gulf of Aden, but the pirates have been increasing their range, reaching the coasts of Kenya and Yemen.

In 2008, 111 vessels were attacked and 42 captured. 11 are still being held by the pirates as ransom negotiations continue. So far this year, another 7 ships have been seized, despite the efforts of an international naval task force.

So, as you can see, the pirates are running a pretty successful and lucrative operation for peasants from one of the most backward countries on earth. But it doesn't always go their way, and they are prone to rather amusing mistakes.

The best known of these incidents is that whilst collecting a ransom for the release of Saudi-registered oil tanker MV Sirius Star (loaded with $100 million of crude oil), five pirates overturned their boat and drowned, weighed down by the $3 million ransom which had been dropped from a plane.

However, I now have a new favourite in my 'How not to be a successful Somali pirate' section:

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — 'Seven pirates opened fire on a German naval supply ship in the Gulf of Aden but were chased down and captured by an international anti-piracy task force, the U.S. Navy and European officials said Monday.

Meanwhile, Yemen reported that pirates killed a Yemeni fisherman and wounded two others in an attack on a fishing boat Saturday, also in the Gulf of Aden.

The expanse between Somalia and Yemen is one of the world's busiest waterways and the thousands of ships passing through each year have been plagued by pirate attacks.

In the attack on the German ship, pirates apparently mistook German FGS Spessart supply vessel for a commercial ship when they opened fire on it on Sunday afternoon, U.S. Navy 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nate Christensen said.

The German sailors returned fire and pursued the skiff while also calling in for support. Several naval ships — including a Greek and a Dutch frigate, a Spanish warship and the USS Boxer — sped to the area while a Spanish marine aircraft and two U.S. Marine Cobra helicopters joined the pursuit.

Five hours later, Greek sailors reached the pirate skiff, boarded it and seized the seven suspects and their weapons, including assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the Greek navy said. The suspects were disarmed and transferred for questioning to the German frigate Rheinland-Pfalz where they remain Monday, pending a decision on whether they will be legally prosecuted, Christensen said.

Germany's Ministry spokesman Christian Dienst said no one was injured in the attack, the first on a German naval ship in this area.'

Piracy rule number one; do not open fire on a modern Western naval vessel. You will lose.