Wow! What a Shocker: Somalia Criticizes U.S. For Pirate Trial
The BBC reports that some cryptic ass hatgovernment official has criticized the US for tying Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the lone surviving Somali pirate from last year’s hijacking of the Maersk Alabama 280 miles from the Somali coast.
Mr Cumar told the BBC’s Network Africa he had been trying to work out why the US would have any authority to try Muse’s case and those of several other suspects in custody in the US.
Um…dunno, maybe it had something to with the Alabama being a US flagged vessel with an American crew, or that they were apprehended by Americans?
“The Somali government’s position has always been that we questioned the jurisdiction of this case,” he said.
Right, so the government of Somalia should have the jurisdiction and they would hold a fair trial and then execute sentence those convicted. Sounds fair to me right?
Somali pirate suspects have been tried in various countries across the world, as Somalia has no functioning central government. (emphasis added)
To be fair this Cumar fella does have a solution:
Mr Cumar says he wants a UN-backed international tribunal to deal with piracy cases.
This could work. What countries would be on the Tribunal? Maybe Rwanda, Somalia and Haiti? They all have experience dealing with this kind of thing? Or maybe the French the Swiss and the Venezuelans? Wait there is one problem:
Previous attempts to form an international tribunal have failed because of a lack of funding.
Okay. Well, it’s a good solution, but no one wants to pay for it. There is another solution:
Foreign forces have frequently caught pirates off Somalia, disarmed them and then put them back to sea because there is no local authority to deal with them.
Catch and Release. How’s that working for us? Since Somali piracy is on the rise, not so well. So here’s my idea. If the dysfunctional government of Somalia has a problem with us capturing and trying their problem children here after they attack our ships, then our new policy should be to sink the boats, torpedo the mother ships and declare armed pirates hostile. Then there’s no one to try and no one to attack the ships. Problem solved.
Category: Politics
“…and declare armed pirates hostile.”
While we’re at it, we can also declare the sky blue and water wet. Oi, but this situation has progressed right on through bizarre and well into the territory of insane. Therefore, I turn to the universal problem remover: Blow it up (shooting, torpedoing, and sinking are acceptable substitutes). Pirates attack you: Blow them up. They’ll get the idea pretty quick. If Somalia objects, they have the options of owning the pirates, functionally a declaration of war, or being ignored while we terminate unlawful enemy combatants. Simple, elegant, and entirely too reasonable for modern politics to allow. *sigh*
Right. But I was referring to the designation of hostile under ROEs for our military. IE If they are declared hostile, we can kill them. No quections asked.
I follow you. I was just poking fun at how ridiculous it is that we have to make changes just to treat pirates as, well… pirates. The rest was just my feelings on how to deal with the problem, namely through application of my mostly-humorous maxim, “As the magnitude of an explosion increases, the number of problems it cannot resolve approaches zero.” I just have a hard time looking at this ridiculous situation without laughing at the absurdity of a “catch-and-release” policy with pirates.
Holy crap, Doc–you coming around in your old age? The NY Times editorial board will not be pleased with your assessment. While I’m not quite as harsh as the Russian “catch and release” program, I do feel that the Somalis are pretty much SOL when more than 3 miles off their coastline. I mean, let’s run it down–as you stated, American-flagged tanker, captured by American forces, but more importantly, in INTERNATIONAL WATERS.
Bottom line, they can cry and moan all they want, but they know they’re getting a hell of a lot better deal here than they got at the hand of the Russians. I’m guessing the piracy rate on their vessels will drop to about zip-point-shit pretty quick.
To try these fellows in an actual court, (like you and I would expect to be tried in if we were criminals), is soooo cruel and inhumane. The Russians have the better plan. If they are hundreds of miles from Somalia, just take their weapons, radios, phones, and navigation equipment. Defuel their boats, (so they don’t catch fire with no way to call a firetruck), point to their homeland and let them paddle their skinny asses home. No messy unfair trial, no brutal handcuffs, and no paparazzi to harass them. Seems like an answer to me.
Now for an adaptation of that to use on the Wetbacks coming into Arizona……………
Nuf Sed
#4 NH Sparky:
My thought exactly – we capture them out in INTERNATIONAL WATERS. Where’s the Somali jurisdiction there?
And to add to the last paragraph, Catch And Release;
“Then there’s no one to try and no one to attack the ships.”
And no one to carry the story back to the mainland. Remember, “dead men tell no tales.”
Arrrrrr. . . .
Moreover, Mr. Woodman, there is no central Somali Government to to have jurisdiction if it existed. I think this moron believes that his people would be able to skate to pirate another day if they were not tried here.
I’m guessing that if a bunch of pirate skiffs and mother boats went missing, the locals would get the idea.