Pirates Hit the Jackpot

~Avast, ye scurvy sea dogs! On Thursday, pirates seized a Kenya-bound Ukrainian ship off the coast of Somalia. Since Somalia fell into anarchy in 1991, piracy has become a serious problem in the busy shipping routes around the Horn of Africa; for example, last year a French yacht was captured, and before that a cruise ship was approached by pirates.

Currently, over a dozen hijacked ships are being held by pirates in the town of Eyl, and the pirates collect over $100 million annually from ransoms. The pirates are said to operate out of large "motherships" which lurk off of the Somali coast, dispatching pirate-filled speedboats to surround and seize passing ships.

The seizure of this ship, the Faina,was different, because the cargo hold is crammed with grenade launchers, ammunition, machine parts, and 33 Russian-made T-72 tanks! Details of the cargo soon emerged. The tanks were acquired and refurbished by Ukrainian state-owned armed company Ukrspetseksport, which then legally sold them, the parts, the ammo, and the grenade launchers to Kenya for about $30 million.

Although the pirates may feel as if they've hit the jackpot, the tanks may be more trouble than they're worth. Even unloading them will be difficult without large cargo cranes. Even worse for these modern-day buccaneers is the response that the seizure has drawn: both the U.S. and Russian navies have dispatched heavily-armed warships to recover the cargo ship and patrol the area.

Still, I hope they get the tanks back, otherwise U.N. or Africa Union troops dispatched for peacekeeping duties in Mogadishu may find themselves confronting more than AK-47's. The piracy situation in the area has gotten out of control, with over 50 ships attacked this year and 25 successfully captured.

I have a suggestion for solving the problem: bring back Letters of Marque! Rules for granting them are actually in the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8, paragraph 11), so we might as well use them. Arrrrrr!