9 comment(s)

1. Saul | Jan 8, 2009 | Reply

   I think that people should also read the back story. There have been documented reports of Euro and Chinese fishing trawlers devastating the fish stocks off the coast of Somalia destroying the livelihood of the local fishermen. In additiona there have been reports of the dumping of nuclear waste off the coast – with barrels of waste washing up on the shores and resulting in illness etc.
   Check out this article on the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are...

2. Caretaker | Jan 9, 2009 | Reply

   The issue is two wrongs don't make a right. The emergence of pirates and the other issues you mentioned are fallout of the failed statehood of Somalia. This is the ultimate solution to the problems…

3. Caretaker | Jan 9, 2009 | Reply

   Ttwo wrongs don't make a right. The emergence of pirates and the other issues you mentioned are fallout of the failed statehood of Somalia. This is the ultimate solution to the problems…

4. Caretaker | Jan 10, 2009 | Reply

   Unfortunately Saul we don;t live in a fair world. The strongest will always get to survive and eat the fruits of the land. Sad, but this is the reality of our world. The vacuum of power in Somalia must be addressed to stop what worries you, that is the only way out. Forget about the AU or UN, only the Somalis and neighboring states can solve the plunder and degradation off the coast.

5. Omotaylor | Jan 10, 2009 | Reply

   I doubt if the Pirates mission of seizing ships has anything to do with industrial or waste dumps, fishery and so on. To me these look like two separate issues and should be tackled with care and focus.

6. Saul | Jan 10, 2009 | Reply

   These issues are most certainly linked. That is my point. To say that they are two separate issues I think might be a simplification of the issue. My point, from the beginning, is that no one is talking about these other issues. Everyone is talking about the Somalian pirates but no one is talking, nor getting upset, about the European and Asian pirates. These issues are linked, and need to be addressed in a more comprehensive way. The selective attention – it only becomes an issue that gets international attention when the economic rights of the shipping companies are threatened – is what bothers me. Things don't "just happen" they are linked and driven by events and histories.

7. Saul | Jan 10, 2009 | Reply

   I totally agree that two wrongs do not make a right. That was not really my point. My point was that no one is talking about the back story. Other countries have an obligation to prevent their ships from invading the territorial rights of other countries – just because Somalia is a afailed state does not give anyone the right to destroy the fish stocks and dump waste in their waters. And the Somali's have a right to defend their waters. It does not make it right to hold them ransom however no one is talking about prosecuting or collecting from the countries that have pilfered the waters. What about that story?

8. xcroc | Jan 11, 2009 | Reply

   News services swallowing propaganda?: you can read some analysis at Fifth Fleet Arrogance. Reports of this force seem to be based on an intended misreading of a Fifth Fleet press release.

   The Agence France-Presse is the only wire service that asked a the imminent question. It reports:

   The Fifth Fleet said that the US ships are the only ones taking part in the new task force, however other nations were expected to announce their participation soon.

   So the U.S. announces a new coalition of the willing under its command, but has yet to find any one willing to be commanded.

   During the rule of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006 there was no piracy by Somali pirates off the Somali coast, documented in a paper from Chatham House.

   Two comments from the article, for some background:

   #2 – the u.s. has always been behind the scenes all along

   they drafted the u.n. resolutions providing for international actions in somali waters. they've been providing intel. they've been encouraging the thousand ship navy to come together – background:

   In the fall of 2005, Admiral Michael G. Mullen, the U.S. Navy's Chief of Naval Operations, challenged the world's maritime nations to raise what he called a "thousand-ship navy" to provide for the security of the maritime domain in the twenty-first century. Speaking at the Seventeenth International Seapower Symposium at the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, Admiral Mullen candidly admitted to the assembled chiefs of navy and their representatives from seventy-five countries that "the United States Navy cannot, by itself, preserve the freedom and security of the entire maritime domain. It must count on assistance from like-minded nations interested in using the sea for lawful purposes and precluding its use for others that threaten national, regional, or global security."

   that means china, which gets 30 or 35% of its oil from the continent of africa, not to mention all the other commodities/raw materials

   hell, they instigated the destabilization of somalia, making conditions for the proliferation of piracy possible

   #13 – the outrage is definitely manipulated to the point that the real criminals are usually portrayed as the victims. don't be surprised it's a story we've covered in depth over the past two years across multiple threads.

   two helpful references …

   <a href="http://www.wardheernews.com/Articles_09/Jan/Waldo...TWO PIRACIES IN SOMALIA: WHY THE WORLD IGNORES THE OTHER?

   The other more damaging economically, environmentally and security-wise is the massive illegal foreign fishing piracy that have been poaching and destroying the Somali marine resources for the last 18 years following the collapse of the Somali regime in 1991. With its usual double standards when such matters concern Africa, the “international community” comes out in force to condemn and declare war against the Somali fishermen pirates while discreetly protecting the numerous Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing fleets there from Europe, Arabia and the Far East. …
   <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=pKmWzpTu8N4C&amp...waters: somalia's maritime resource insecurity
   … Aspects of Somalia's maritime insecurity will then be explored as a prelude to an assessment of the environmental, economic, and security threat posed by IUU fishing in Somali waters. Finally, the Somali case will be set in its wider Indian Ocean context.

   … the u.s. has been anything but "totally absent" in the efforts to police the waters off the HOA

9. xcroc | Jan 11, 2009 | Reply

   Two piracies – corrected links:

   TWO PIRACIES IN SOMALIA: WHY THE WORLD IGNORES THE OTHER?
   By Mohamed Abshir Waldo
   Jan. 08, 2009

   <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=pKmWzpTu8N4C&amp...Plundered Waters

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