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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Pirates of the Horn

On one side are the eight navies, the world’s largest shipping companies, the rich Persian Gulf states that need to get their oil to market, and the great powers, whose commerce depends heavily on the shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa.

On the other side are a few thousand Somali pirates in small boats with light weapons. So why are the pirates winning?

Not only are they winning, but the forces of law and order are almost completely paralyzed. The pirates have seized dozens of ships, extracting ransoms that total about $30 million this year alone.

Fourteen ships, including a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying two million barrels of oil, are still anchored off the Somali coast awaiting ransom.

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