Johnny Lemuria - 05 May 2009 03:10 AM

Here you go.
Against all Flags: Question and Answers about Pirates and Somalia

I will try to address this point by point with what I see as facts.

Hold on. If this was part of the Cold War, why were we siding with a Marxist?

Somalia’s great rival was Ethiopia, and Ethiopia had just joined the Soviet bloc.

lol

It has nothing to do with Ethiopia, instead its in a prime shipping lane… The Barre government was funded by the Soviets for the majority of time in power. Only after the Soviets abandoned him did the USA step in.

Did Barre change his ways when he started getting U.S. aid?

We provide aid for lots of countries from many different reason. North Korea comes to mind. Again we had nothing to do with the Barre government coming to power.

And that’s when the United States and United Nations sent in soldiers?

Yes. As we all know, that didn’t go well.

UNITAF was charged with carrying out United Nations Security Council Resolution 794: to create a protected environment for conducting humanitarian operations in the southern half of the Republic of Somalia.

Other countries who were involved, meaning boots on the ground.
Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe

But when the troops pulled out, didn’t everything go to pot?

You’ve got it backwards. The U.S./U.N. intervention made things worse: It undercut local farmers by dumping free food into circulation

Again lol….

Thousands of people were starving to death everyday with over 3 million in danger of dying within the year from starvation. Only after aid workers were killed did the US, UN, Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe interven.

Wait. Back up. America aided the warlords?

Its rumored the CIA provided aid to them. Doing so would break international law.

Oh, so the US Government armed and funded a repressive, totalitarian regime in the name of “humanitarian aid”.
Oh, well, case closed.

Europeans are to blame for the romantification of pirates.

heres the proof.

Stellaaaaaah! Stellaaaaaah!

gawd I love that movie

A brief follow - up…

The ‘benefit’ of Somalia’s pirates

Fisherman in Kenya have reported bumper catches of shark and shellfish because commercial fishing boats from China and Japan have been scared away.

Now the fishermen are able to catch up to £200 worth of fish per day in an area where the average daily earnings are less than £5.

The massive factory trawlers which used to drain their fish stocks have been scared away and that means there is a huge bounty for local fishermen as well as helping to restore the health of the marine eco-system.

There’s a brief video if you follow the link.

Not the best reporting in the world, but it makes one wonder if there are, in fact, more benefits than those being seen by the pirates.

Is the same effect being felt off of the Somali coast?

Has this story simply disappeared?

So, them policing their own waters was effective, contrary to what the US claims?

Seems like it.

I don’t know how effective anybody’s policing is. These pirates are supposedly still taking ships “almost daily”, and are currently holding nine vessels & 200 people hostage. I think the news just gave up on it because it’s not ‘new’ anymore, and there’s no easy solution or clearly-defined bad guys. The piracy started when the local fisherman tried to drive off foreign poachers from their coast, and now it’s just grown to an industry.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jCWkk0Ivs9kdaW5xdPePDG9YgMBg

barry - 31 October 2009 12:29 AM

I don’t know how effective anybody’s policing is. These pirates are supposedly still taking ships “almost daily”, and are currently holding nine vessels & 200 people hostage. I think the news just gave up on it because it’s not ‘new’ anymore, and there’s no easy solution or clearly-defined bad guys. The piracy started when the local fisherman tried to drive off foreign poachers from their coast, and now it’s just grown to an industry.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jCWkk0Ivs9kdaW5xdPePDG9YgMBg

The “Pirating” is the “policing” which is being discussed in tatuaje’s article; The locals policing their own territorial waters against outside nations’ trespassing. It’s only those who are violating their commercial fishing waters who call them pirates. Sort of like if China was fishing off of say, Coastal Carolina against International law and locals fought back successfully.

Pirates Demanding $7M For UK Couple, Say Western Forces ‘loot’ Natural Fishing Resources

“I shall not name names, but suffice to say many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters,” he said. “We estimate that the value of the fish being taken from our waters is perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Pirate attacks have increased the last several weeks after the recent end of the monsoon season. An international armada is patrolling the region to try to stop the attacks.

Now, if an “international armada” could just patrol the region to stop the illegal fishing. Hmmmmm