Saturday, January 10, 2009

Sweet justice

Is it possible there may have been some sweet justice in the oil tanker hijacking case after all? After hijacking the Sirius Star, carrying the equivalent of a third of the daily output in Saudi Arabia, and demanding $25 million only to see the price of oil drop -- the hijackers settled for just $3 million and released the crew. Fortunately, the crew is safe.

The money was dropped by helicopter and the pirates left of their own accord. Now it looks like five of the terrorists got caught up in a storm, their boat capsized and they went down -- along with their share of the $3 million.

Good riddance. And screw anyone who would impede peaceful international traffic.

The waters of the Gulf of Aden, indeed all international waters, are open to all and we need the assurance of peaceful trade ... the Law of the Sea needs to be ratified by those countries which have not (especially the United States) and navies given the power to apprehend pirates for trial in the countries where the ships are registered. As far as Somalia goes, nearly 20 years of anarchy is enough -- it's time for a peace deal and a normalized government again, one that would have the authority to stop this kind of banditry.

Vote for this post at Progressive Bloggers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the, "storm", was caused by a submarine?

WesternGrit said...

It's sweet justice, but the pirates may have the last laugh... All the monies going to these folks is going directly to militias in Somalia who are fighting the West and Saudi regimes... In effect, every time the owners of tankers pay a ransom, they are further funding attacks on their vessels... The pirates can now afford to buy more RPGs, grenades, and other military hardware. Some of these very same Somali militias (or "pirates") are being funded by rich Saudis...

How the world turns... Hmmm...