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2011-01-25 Africa Horn

Seoul Mulling Prisoner Swap with Somali Pirates

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Posted by Steve White 2011-01-25 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 It seems to me that anti-piracy forces should simply gather up 50 or 100 Somali inhabitants of every Somali coastal town, and hold then in an internment camp - or aboard an internment ship somewhere - as trade "commodities" to use in exchange for pirate hostages.

As far as that goes, simply gather up coastal Somali boats, automobiles, anything else of value - its probably fair to assume that such artifacts are the fruits of prate plunder anyway - and "trade" them back for pirated vessels.

Posted by Lone Ranger 2011-01-25 00:19|| 2011-01-25 00:19|| Front Page Top

#2 That's piracy itself, Lone Ranger. Are you joking, or are you really that stupid?

Posted by gromky 2011-01-25 01:06|| 2011-01-25 01:06|| Front Page Top

#3 first put radioactive tracers inside their bodies before trading them. Really very radioactive...

Posted by Water Modem 2011-01-25 01:33|| 2011-01-25 01:33|| Front Page Top

#4 That's piracy itself, Lone Ranger.

How can it be piracy if you aren't using a boat?

Posted by gorb 2011-01-25 03:36|| 2011-01-25 03:36|| Front Page Top

#5 Hey gromky - if private individuals do it for their own benefit, it's piracy. If governments do it, by issuing a letter of marque, its legal. At least - it used to be, in the "old days" of piracy.

Issue "Blackwater Eric" a letter of marque, and I'm sure he'd be happy to serve as a scourge of pirates.

Posted by Lone Ranger 2011-01-25 09:04|| 2011-01-25 09:04|| Front Page Top

#6 if private individuals do it for their own benefit, it's piracy. If governments do it, by issuing a letter of marque, its legal. At least - it used to be, in the "old days" of piracy.

With a letter of marque, it's only privateering if the captains keep the booty. If they turn it over to the government, then they are merely private contractors fulfilling a government job.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-01-25 11:54|| 2011-01-25 11:54|| Front Page Top

#7 Richard Fernandez has an excellent article on the politics of piracy, which I tend to agree with.
Noblesse Oblige

Posted by tipper 2011-01-25 13:20|| 2011-01-25 13:20|| Front Page Top

#8 "You won't like Plan B. Trust me."

Posted by mojo 2011-01-25 15:57|| 2011-01-25 15:57|| Front Page Top

#9 Lone Ranger's plan wouldn't work for the same reason that the Korean plan wouldn't work - no way to guarantee that you've taken anything the particular pirates holding the hostages actually want. As I understand it, there isn't a hell of a lot of organization in the Somali pirate business - it's a lot of gangs, usually each organized around one or more mother-ships & in contact with landside negotiators and bagmen who don't actually work for the pirates except on a market basis.

As for the letters of marque and reprisal, don't they need to be issued *against* a wartime sovereign target? Privateers can't just go booming about the main, grabbing random individuals and ships willy-nilly, they have to be attacking flagged entities, don't they? There *isn't* a sovereign entity in the Somali piracy trade, Puntland and Somaliland make no claims to control their "volunteer coast guards".

Posted by Mitch H. 2011-01-25 16:06|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/ 2011-01-25 16:06|| Front Page Top

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