Altruistic Piracy Posted by Adam Blickstein

 Well, out here we call them "pirates," Ned.

The recent spate of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia is pretty redoubtable, a 21st century return to the Barbary Coast's buccaneer glory days. The New York Times seems to have scored an improbable interview with the pirates who last week seized a Ukrainian ship loaded with millions of dollars of military hardware and tanks heading to either Sudan or Kenya. Whatever you think of the pirate's ruthlessness, you have to kinda respect their beneficent sentiments: 

In a 45-minute-long interview, [pirate spokesman] Mr. Sugule  expounded on everything from what the pirates want — “just money” — to why they were doing this — “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters” — to what they eat — rice, meat, bread, spaghetti, “you know, normal human-being food.”

He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”

He insisted that the pirates were not interested in the [seized] weapons and had no plans to sell them to Islamist insurgents battling Somalia’s weak transitional government. “Somalia has suffered from many years of destruction because of all these weapons,” he said. “We don’t want that suffering and chaos to continue. We are not going to offload the weapons. We just want the money.”

Of course, spin is spin, whether it's from the mouth of an unprincipled political flack in America or a swashbuckling Somali seeking fortune on the Arabian Sea. And while these guys did in fact begin their pirate careers protecting the waters from illegal fishing, they've evolved into something slightly more sinister. Because of that, their more benign motives should probably be tossed overboard.

Comments

[Caitlyn]

I'm a bit suspicious of the NYT "interview." Don't you think that presentation by "Mr. Sugule" was edited just a bit? Or perhaps he has an english instructor who spoke grammatically correct english with an american accent. Or perhaps he was coached and edited to make a good story? I respect the Times' reporting to a point, but not this far.

[What A Hoot]

"Of course, spin is spin, whether it's from the mouth of an unprincipled political flack in America or a swashbuckling Somali seeking fortune on the Arabian Sea."

Uhhhh, would the Press Secretary for the National Security Network consider his occupation to the acme of learned discourse in American politics? Or does he have a parrot on his shoulder, a peg-leg and a penchant for using "Aye, me matey" as punctuation?

Perhaps aboard the SS Hypocrisy (in lieu of "Democracy Arsenal"), gullible readers are just as juicy of targets as the Spanish Main.

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Caitlyn,
First off English is not one of the hardest languages to be learned! it is those whom do not have it as a 1st language are the one's to be perfect at it ! accent or no accent his story was heard, Now as the people of America we have a choice to believe it. As bad as this may sound these men are "HEROES"

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