Pirates Attempt to Hijack US Cruise Liner

And they say if we don't pay attention to them now, next time it's the Space Shuttle!

Behind that small joke is the fact, of course, that the last thing that pirates want is to gain the world's attention, though it's what Somalia, the likely home of the pirates, needs.

The Mumbai attacks were tragic enough, especially with the focus it put on attacking Jewish people, but the fact that the world, including myself, were dragged off a good discussion of nearly two decades of tragedy in Somalia.

But no one wants anyone to hijack a cruise liner.  We don't want an Achille Lauro redo (though the Somalis so far haven't shown an inclination to be like the old PLF).

The AP report on this attempted hijacking does, to it's credit, offer some background and other current news on Somalia.

The current government (which is widely identified as a group of feuding warlords) again is being threatened by the Islamic Court group (now called 'militants') that controlled Southern Somalia for a while until Ethiopian troops invaded has now reclaimed all of the south again "except for the capital and the parliamentary seat of Baidoa" according to AP report "Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt" and the Ethiopian troops will be pulling out by the end of the year.  Interestingly, The Islamic Courts government did not allow pirates to operate from Southern Somalia, though the new information (possibly coming from US government intelligence filtered through the Bush administration which is not seen as credible) is that they are currently working with pirates in the north.  Those rocket launchers don't come cheap.

The AP report also has notes on other attempts on passenger ships.

tags: somalia  pirates  cruise liners  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit