The pirates off the Barbary coast (think Thomas Jefferson and the shores of Tripoli) were Muslims too. Regular Atlas readers know these "pirates" have been engaging in these hostile acts for some time now. Basta!
Somali pirates threaten to kill tanker crew Telegraph hat tip
A tense standoff has developed off the Somali coast between US warships and pirates who have hijacked a tanker packed with explosive chemicals.
Somali pirates are able to operate with relative impunity off the volatile Horn of Africa. Under seige from the US navy, the pirates have now threatened to kill all 22 crew members of the Japanese Golden Nori unless a $1 million ransom is paid.
Pay nothing! Declare war and spare the world this scourge.
The tanker, carrying up to 40,000 tons of inflammable benzene, was captured as it was sailing from Singapore to Israel.
Two US Navy ships picked up the ship's distress calls and fired on the pirates' speedboats, sinking two.
The warships followed the kidnapped tanker into Somali coastal waters and trapped it close to the Somali port of Bossaso, preventing supplies from getting to the ship.
Previous: Atlas Shrugs: GWOT: Navy Battles Pirates
Atlas Shrugs: Thomas Jefferson's Quran
"Pirate" Hijack Points to Al-Qaeda Presence
'I Could Tell the Guy Firing the Bazooka Was Smiling'
UPDATE: More on this region here from Caroline Glick hat tip Wolf
CONDI'S AFRICAN HOLIDAY Jerusalem Post
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduced a new venue for her superficial and destructive stewardship of US foreign policy during her lightning visit to the Horn of Africa last Wednesday.
The Horn of Africa is a dangerous and strategically vital place. Small wars, which rage continuously, can easily escalate into big wars. Local conflicts have regional and global aspects. All of the conflicts in this tinderbox, which controls shipping lanes from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea, can potentially give rise to regional, and indeed global conflagrations between competing regional actors and global powers.
The Horn of Africa includes the states of Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Kenya. Eritrea, which gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 20-year civil war, is a major source of regional conflict. Eritrea has a hot border dispute with Ethiopia which could easily ignite. The two countries fought a bloody border war from 1998-2000 over control of the town of Badme. Although a UN mandated body determined in 2002 that the disputed town belonged to Eritrea, Ethiopia has rejected the finding and so the conflict festers.
Eritrea also fights a proxy war against Ethiopia in Somalia and in Ethiopia's rebellious Ogaden region. In Somalia, Eritrea is the primary sponsor of the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Courts Union which took control of Somalia in June, 2006. In November 2006, the ICU government declared jihad against Ethiopia and Kenya. Backed by the US, Ethiopia invaded to restore the recognized Transitional Federal Government to power which the ICU had deposed.
Although the Ethiopian army successfully ousted the ICU from power in less than a week, backed by massive military and financial assistance from Eritrea, as well as Egypt and Libya, the ICU has waged a brutal insurgency against the TFG and the Ethiopian military for the past year.
THE SENIOR ICU leadership, including Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed have received safe haven in Eritrea. In September, the exiled ICU leadership held a nine-day conference in the Eritrean capital of Asmara where they formed the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia headed by Ahmed.
Read it all here.
