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The Royal Navy is regularly allowing Somalian pirates to go free because of the risk they would claim asylum if prosecuted in Europe. Pirates terrorising ships in the Indian Ocean, looting and taking hostages, are often given medical checks and fed after being caught, before being sent of their way. This is also sometimes because although they are carrying guns and other weapons, they have not been caught in the act of piracy and therefore have not technically committed a crime. More than 340 suspected Somalian pirates have been captured by international naval forces in the last year and subsequently...

Stung by the widely circulated “SEAL pals” account of what really happened in Somalia (discussed here last Friday), the Obama administration had National Security Advisor James L. Jones and a number of anonymous Pentagon sources give their side two days ago in a Washington Times exclusive. Their mission, according to reporter Bill Gertz, was: ... to dispel Internet reports that the military was delayed from taking action by indecision inside the White House. Clintonesque parsing of words is evident throughout the Jones-Pentagon account, amounting on more than one occasion to outright dishonesty. Yet the actual information they provide (as opposed...

(Eyl, Somalia - 4/23/09) Ever since the attempted hijacking of the vessel Maersk Alabama failed miserably, young males in this laid back fishing village have been lining up to become pirates specifically targeting American crews and American flag vessels. An unnamed spokesperson defended this action. "We are a poor fishing village and the citizens are constantly looking to make a better life for themselves. In the past, we would recruit young men to get into small boats with the specific intent to take ships and their crews into custody and request a ransom for the release of the ships and/or...

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2009 – Somali pirates fired on a U.S.-flagged merchant vessel south of the Gulf of Aden today, military officials reported. Pirates attacked the motor vessel Liberty Sun with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The crew put out a distress call received by the U.S. Coast Guard. “The pirates were not successful in their attempt to board the vessel,” said Navy Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain. “The USS Bainbridge, [which] was in the general vicinity, responded to ensure Liberty Sun wasn’t in peril.” The pirates had fled by the time the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US lawmaker known for broadsides at US foreign policy says Somali piracy has an age-old solution: "Letters of marque" empowering private citizens to chase the seaborne scoundrels from the oceans. Republican Representative Ron Paul and a handful of conservative theorists say it's time that the US Congress used the technique, pioneered by European powers in the 18th Century as a way to wage naval warfare on the cheap. Major shipping companies should accept a "go at your own risk" approach and not expect government help when they transit through pirate-infested waters, Paul said this week in...

While the rest of the world celebrates the Navy Seals’ killing of the Somalia pirates, and the freedom of Captain Richard Phillips, there is one group of writers who want to alert us all to the real message of this incident on the high seas: it’s the fault of the United States! First comes Matthew Yglesias, who departs his usual perch at The Atlantic to offer his words of wisdom to the readers of Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast. He tells us that “the ocean is extremely large.” Amazing that he noticed what so many others have failed to observe....

Sept. 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Courageous Captain Rescued by Navy Seals View SlideshowCaptain Richard Phillips, who has been held by Somali pirates since Wednesday in a small life boat off of Africa, has been freed. After this weekend, April 12 might become International Keelhaul A Pirate Day. With a rescue of captured Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama -- and killing the Somali pirates holding him hostage -- the US Navy created a feel-good Easter story. Even more significantly in a political sense, President Barack Obama suddenly makes himself look rather different on the national...

MOMBASSA, Kenya — Undeterred by U.S. and French hostage rescues that killed five bandits, Somali pirates brazenly hijacked four more ships in the Gulf of Aden, the waterway at the center of the world's fight against piracy. Pirates have vowed to retaliate for deaths of their colleagues_ and the top U.S. military officer said Tuesday he takes those comments seriously. But Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that "we're very well prepared to deal with anything like that." Still, despite Mullen's confident statement and President Barack Obama's warning Monday, pirates captured...

New wave of Somali pirate attacks There have been an estimated 10 hijackings by Somali pirates this month Somali pirates have hijacked a fourth vessel in 48 hours, seizing a Lebanese-owned cargo ship. The 5,000-tonne Togo-flagged MV Sea Horse was taken by gunmen in up to four skiffs, Nato officials said. Earlier, pirates hijacked a Greek-owned bulk carrier, the MV Irene, in the Gulf of Aden a day after Somali raiders captured two Egyptian fishing boats. Analysts say the gangs are clearly not put off by recent US and French hostage rescues that left several bandits dead. Somali pirate leaders...

MOMBASA, Kenya – Somali pirates captured four ships and took more than 60 crew members hostage in a brazen hijacking spree, while the American captain freed from their grip planned to reunite with his crew and fly home Wednesday to the United States. Capt. Richard Phillips and his 19-man crew will reunite in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on Wednesday and fly from there to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on a chartered flight, according to the shipping company Maersk... ... Pirates have vowed to retaliate for those deaths and two others slain by French forces in a separate...

MOMBASA, Kenya — A day after the U.S. military killed three pirates and rescued an American sea captain, Somali pirates threatened to retaliate by killing captured U.S. seamen and the Pentagon said there's little it can do to stop future attacks. Crewmembers of the freighter Maersk Alabama, in their first formal remarks to reporters, gathered at the dockside in Mombasa Monday and called on President Barack Obama to take a lead role in fighting piracy. The president called for an international effort, but he offered no specifics on how to address the problem. "We would like to implore President Obama...

NEW YORK (AP) — Barely a day after the daring rescue of an American sea captain, cable TV's Spike announced a deal Monday to produce a show about U.S. Navy pirate hunters. Two crews for 44 Blue Productions hope to be on board Navy vessels patrolling in the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Africa within two weeks. The company is aiming to have a series ready to put on the air by September, said Rasha Drachkovitch, 44 Blue's president and founder. He'd been talking to the Navy about the idea for three months, but it was finished late last...

Mombasa, Kenya (AP) Undeterred by U.S. and French hostage rescues that killed seven bandits, Somali pirates hijacked three more ships in the Gulf of Aden... The latest trophy for the pirates was the M.V. Irene E.M., a Greek-managed bulk carrier... The Irene was attacked and seized in the middle of the night Tuesday...

Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy - backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China - is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labeling as...

How out of touch with reality do you have to be to believe this? The pirates' modus operandi is that they hold the crew, ship, and cargo harmlessly until a lot of money is paid to them. Phillips "heroic" actions put his crew and himself at risk. If he'd done nothing except acquiesce to the pirates' demands, there would have been no risk, just possible discomfort until the extortion money was paid. Instead he put himself and the Seals at grave risk. I applaud the crew, the Seals, and the military chain of command for their actions. I think Phillips...

Now that the crisis has passed with the Maersk Alabama and Captain Richard Phillips, along with three of the four pirates holding him, we need to determine how to avoid this in the future.  Fred Iklé has a couple of common-sense suggestions in the Washington Post today, mostly by returning to traditional methods of exterminating piracy: So why do we keep rewarding Somali pirates? How is this march of folly possible?Start by blaming the timorous lawyers who advise the governments attempting to cope with the pirates such as those who had been engaged in a standoff with U.S. hostage negotiators...

Defense officials said the U.S. military is considering attacks on Somali pirate bases on land and aid for the people there to help stop the hijacking of ships off Africa's coast... The plan would include helping Somalia create their own coast guard and create security forces...

With the rescue of American Richard Phillips from the hands of pirates yesterday, there was a blip of good news from the Indian Ocean, but it remains a scandal that Somali pirates continue to routinely defeat the world's naval powers. And worse than this ongoing demonstration of cowardice is the financing of terrorists that results from the huge ransom payments these pirates are allowed to collect. It is naive to assume that the millions paid annually in ransom to pirates merely enables them to purchase villas and fancy automobiles. Somalia is a country without government, where anarchy is being exploited...

Former UN Ambassador John Bolton makes a case to deal with pirate "outlaws" with a "prudent use of force." Sound great, except does anyone actually think France, Germany or England would risk the political implications of such a move? Not to mention, I seriously doubt Obama has the guts to attack a rogue Muslim African nation.

The operation to rescue Capt. Richard Phillips involved dozens of Navy SEALs, who parachuted from an aircraft into the scene near dark Saturday, landing in the ocean. The SEALs were part of a group of Special Operations forces involved in the effort, according to military officials. The SEALs set up operations on the USS Bainbridge, which had been communicating with the four pirates via radio and had used smaller boats to make deliveries of food and water to their lifeboat. Yet the pirates were growing increasingly agitated, the officials said. At one point Saturday, the pirates opened fire on one...