Somali Pirates

I know Capt. 'Roid has been very excited about the Somali Pirates. I also realize not everyone is as into pirates as I am, living with the Pirate Dogs. So here is an article from the Nov. 20 issue of The Economist together with a link to the complete article with graphics:

AHOY THERE!
Nov 20th 2008

The pirates of Africa's most failed state get ever more ambitious, and dangerous

TO BOARD the SIRIUS STAR, one of the world's largest oil tankers, Somali pirates had to haul themselves up ropes tied to grapnel hooks the height of London's Big Ben, with the 330-metre (1,100 feet) long ship pitching all the while in the tropical swell. Then there was the location, way out in the high seas, fully 450 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya. The feat of vertiginous thuggery will be taken everywhere as proof of what is possible; it was the biggest ever catch by any pirate, anywhere in the world.
As if to underline the point, the tanker's capture on November 15th, with $110m of crude oil bound for America, was followed by several other hijackings by Somali pirates, including a Thai tuna boat, a Turkish chemical tanker, an Iranian freighter loaded with wheat and a Greek bulk carrier. Against this, an Indian warship, the INS TABAR, reported that it had blown a Somali pirate "mother ship" to smithereens in retaliatory fire on November 18th. Warships from several countries now patrol the Somali coast.
Taken together, the attacks increase the threat against merchant shipping to levels not seen since the second world war. Every tanker using the Gulf and every freighter using the Suez Canal is now a potential pirate target, no matter what course they navigate or how big they are.
As a nascent and profitable industry in a failed and starving state, the Somali pirates will not lack for recruits. A share in a ransom translates into an easier life of meat and honey; not just pirate parties but a beautiful bride, a camel, a home, even a car. Conversely, the ransoms mean higher insurance premiums for the rattled shipping industry, delays for customers as more ships choose the longer passage around the Cape of Good Hope, lower revenues for the Suez Canal, and for the oil markets yet another variable to work into already volatile prices. Piracy will be bad news even for Somalia, accelerating the Talibanisation of the south by armed Islamist groups as more secular-minded gunmen abandon their poorly paid defence of Mogadishu for adventures at sea.
As THE ECONOMIST went to press, the SIRIUS STAR had dropped anchor off the Somali pirate port of Haradheere. There it joined a dozen or more other vessels, all anchored at ransom, their crews, about 250 people in all, held at gunpoint. Among them is the MV FAINA, a Ukrainian freighter captured in September with a cargo of tanks almost certainly bound for south Sudan (with Kenyan government help). Ransom demands for the FAINA have dropped from $20m to $8m since it was surrounded by American and Russian warships, but there is still no agreement on its release. The pirates are likely to ask in excess of $30m ransom for the SIRIUS STAR.

See this article with graphics and related items at http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12650244&fsrc=nwl