Those Wascally Pirates

After all the fanfare about the launching of the Absalon and the commissioning of Task Force 150, it turns out that the Western Powers are not all that serious about deterring the Somali pirates. The Danes have just released a batch of pirates with a slap on the wrist. Actually, I don’t know if giving them a free ride home and taking away their AK-47s even rises to the level of a slap on the wrist. If this is all the West is going to do to deter pirates, then we are in trouble.

You’ll notice that this insanity is mandated by human rights considerations: we are required to ensure that the pirates are not returned to place where they might face torture or execution.

According to Jyllands-Posten:

Military Frees Pirates

Politicians are fuming over the Defence Ministry’s decision Tuesday to release 10 pirates captured off the Somalian coast last week.

The men were apprehended by the crew of Danish naval vessel ‘Absalon’, which is part of international maritime patrol team ‘Combined Task Force 150’, operating in the Indian Ocean off Africa’s eastern coast.

A cache of weapons was found on the pirate ship and confiscated. But after over a week of deliberation, the Defence Ministry determined that turning the pirates over to an African country’s authorities might result in their torture or execution.

Politicians from both the left and right criticised the pirate’s release. But Søren Gade, the defence minister, defended the move.

‘Other countries have had to do the same thing in previous similar circumstances,’ Gade told TV2 News. ‘The crew of the Absalon fully understands that Denmark must abide by international conventions. We could not hand them over knowing that the 10 men could be tortured or receive the death penalty from the Somali authorities.’

The pirates were set ashore near their hometown with their personal belongings in tact. Their weapons, however, were not returned.

Those poor boys will now be forced to scrounge up some more Kalashnikovs for their next operation. Doesn’t that violate their human rights, too?

Meanwhile, the EU is planning yet another meaningless gesture against the scourge of Somali piracy. If Denmark can’t do more than haul the pirates back to their homes, what can the EU be expected to do?

According to EU Business:
– – – – – – – –

EU Nations Agree to Piracy Security Operation Off Somalia

(DEAUVILLE) — European Union nations agreed Wednesday to launch an anti-piracy security operation off the coast of Somalia, perhaps as soon as next month, French Defence Minister Herve Morin said.

“There is very broad European willingness. Many countries want to take part. Ten have clearly given their accord to take part in such a mission,” he said at a meeting of EU defence ministers in Deauville, northern France.

“We have given a mandate (to EU top brass) to continue the planning for the launch of this operation in the month of November,” he told reporters. “We will see what means, NATO and European, can be added.”

The initiative comes after Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed urged Somalis and the international community to combat rising piracy off the lawless nation’s waters, which has seen 60 ships seized this year alone.

[…]

Morin said France, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, had suggested that Britain should host the mission’s headquarters, with a forward operating headquarters at a yet to be determined location.

So Britain will be in charge. That will be swell, because the UK is one country whose laws require the pirates to be granted asylum if they ever manage to get ashore.

Once again, mass insanity is the only possible explanation for all this nonsense.



Previous posts about the Somali pirates:

2005   Nov   5   Barbary Pirates Redux
        8   Update on the Somali Pirates
        14   The Mother Ship
2006   Mar   24   The Jamaica-Somalia Connection
    Apr   8   The Taliban, Somali-Style
    Jul   5   Pirates in the Strait
2007   Jun   5   Somali Pirates Take Danish Hostages
        6   The Territorial Waters of a Failed State
        8   Q-Ships for the Somali Coast?
        11   Pirates Demand Ransom for Danish Seamen
        13   Q-Ships, Pirates, and the Waters off Somalia
        25   The Danica White Runs Out of Food and Water
    Jul   11   Gossip-Mongers in Denmark
        21   The Danica White: Eight Weeks and Counting
    Aug   22   The Danica White Has Been Released
    Nov   24   Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Snaps
2008   Apr   21   A Spanish Danica White?
        29   Reputed $1.2 Million Paid to Free Spanish Hostages…
    May   2   A No-Pursuit Policy for Pirates
    Aug   23   Targeting the Somali Pirates
        23   More on Task Force 150
    Sep   8   Danish Ship Averts Pirate Attacks
        11   Those Undeterred Somali Pirates
        26   The Russians are Chasing the Somali Pirates
        26   A Quarrel Among Pirates
    Oct   1   Somali Government Asks for Russian Help Against Pirates
        3   Taking Kickbacks From Pirates

Hat tip: LN.

14 thoughts on “Those Wascally Pirates

  1. “Other countries have had to do the same thing in previous similar circumstances,’ Gade told TV2 News.”

    Little boy: But mommy that other little boy let the pirates go too!

    Mother: If that little boy jumped off a bridge would you jump too?

    Little boy: Yup.

    Mother: Then put on your bathing suit.

    What a bunch of p*****s.

  2. STUPID OR AFRAID?
    I vote for stupid!
    ….
    “What is in a name? A pirate is a criminal with guns and a boat. A pirate has the same ideology as the Mafia, wealth by theft – easy money. But a jihadist on the sea has another motive-advancing Islam by hurting the kafirs and taking their money. It is Sunna-the way of Mohammed. The only difference is that Mohammed’s jihad involved camels, dust and swords, whereas, the oceanic jihadists use boats, water and guns. The result is the same – kafirs losing their lives and money.”

    “What have we learned in the last 200 years? Not a thing. Why is it that a civilization that can send a man to the moon cannot learn a simple word – jihadist? There are two answers – we are not intelligent or we are too afraid to learn. The right answer is that we are too afraid. If we were to face the fact that there are no pirates off the Somali coast, but only jihad, we would be connecting the dots, seeing the pattern. If the pirates are only jihadists, then the terrorists might only be jihadists. It might be Islam. Under no circumstances must we ever connect the dots. “
    ….
    http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/there-aint-no-stinkin-pirates/

  3. Once again, the POW calculus:

    1) You don’t ever want to fight anyone twice;

    2) Some POWs may have useful information;

    3) Capture, relocation and detention of POWs requires the
    use of scarce resources.

    I’ll do the math.

  4. I’ve posted part of Kipling’s poem several times on various blogs and once on my own blog:

    “We never pay any on Dane-geld,
    No matter how trifling the cost.
    For the end of the game is oppression and shame,
    And the nation that pays it is lost.”

    C-CS

  5. Stupid or afraid?

    I have a third alternative. Let me quote someone I forgot:

    If you are not part of the solution, good money can be made on prolonging the problem.

    Pretending to fix the problem, raking in the resources to do so, but abstaining when opportunity arises. Classical bureaucratic growth.

    Beat the crap out of pirate scum.

    Let that be a lesson to survivours.

    BTW, Islam was founded on piracy.

  6. This is depressing news. Here we have a bunch of evil barbarian pirates who terrorize the seas and people in authority are more concerned about the human rights of this scum. Apparently, the right of people not to be kidnapped, terorized, held for ransom and even killed isn’t as important.

    What makes it even more depressing is the fact that if there was the will, this problem could be easily solved with the application of force. Instead, we get politically correct responses that will do nothing to erradicate this threat, and indeed, will embolden these scumbag pirates to do more mayhem.

    This has implications far beyond the threat of piracy. If the West isn’t willing to deal forcefully with this barbaric scum, can we expect the so called “authorities” to respond correctly to the threat represented by Islamofascism? To defend our right not to be Islamized?

    Folks, if this is what we can expect from our nations, we may be doomed.

  7. At some point, the pirates must debark from the vessel they have seized. This is when you kill them. If they have hostages, wait until they go ashore and, once the two groups have separated, kill them there. The notion that these scumbags should be left alive to continue their theft of oxygen is preposterous. If it takes wiping out the villages these pirates come from, then do it. Tribes which perpetuate the mentality that sanctions piracy are of no use to the modern world. The delicacy with which these maritime criminals are being treated defies all comprehension.

  8. “the Defence Ministry determined that turning the pirates over to an African country’s authorities might result in their torture or execution.”
    ====================================

    And this is bad? Why, exactly? Isn’t the concept of “punishment” and “deterrence” valid any more?

  9. The pirates should have been “turned over” to Davy Jones at the bottom of the ocean! By their actions they define themselves as hostis humani generis – enemy of humanity in general, and HAVE NO RIGHTS. Have all the European powers forgotten their DUTIES in fighting piracy (and all other forms of predatory warfare, including jihadism) under the 1856 Declaration of Paris AND under The Law of Nations?

    http://ajacksonian.blogspot.com/2007/08/piracy-terrorism-and-wider-view.html

    Maybe the U.S. fleet needs to patrol the waters off Somalia, and be the point of contact for all countries affected by piracy. They’ll send the pirates to Davy Jones Locker where they belong.

  10. .
    Just put the poor Buccaneers in a UK prison for a few years and then let them out and give them asylum and hefty benefits, and even more $$$ when they have multiple wives. Allow them to be jihadists in Britain so some other young Somali Jihadists can take over their pirate duties; and maybe get lucky and get captured and then moved to the UK.

    Being Muslims, they must be peaceful pirates at least. These Somali pirate monkeys are out of control. They go out for weeks in little rickety boats with just weapons and water and eat raw fish they catch and keep hijacking bigger then bigger, then bigger boats.

    These terrorist monkeys must be exterminated with extreme prejudice. Several drones into their camps when they’re fat and happy celebrating their new money should do the trick.

    Lots of great Pirate coverage over at Dinah Lord:
    Somalian Gov’t Charges Pirate Negotiator Andrew Mwangura
    .
    absurd thought –
    God of the Universe says
    don’t exterminate pirates

    seizing ships for ransom
    everybody gets rich

    .
    absurd thought –
    God of the Universe says
    let pirates operate

    you will get cut of ransom
    and maybe some weapons too

    .
    All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech there can be no real freedom.
    .
    Philosophy of Liberty Cartoon
    .
    Help Halt Terrorism Today!
    .
    USpace

    🙂
    .

  11. I managed to get a (small) readers’ letter in Jyllands-Posten yesterday, where I advocated bombing their bases and questioning the Somali ‘president’ over his suspected income from the pirates.

    We have to speak up on the matter, in public. Not just here.

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