Tags >> Africa
This article was taken from the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, February 4, 2009.

 Who imagined that in 2009, the world’s governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy - backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the U.S. to China - is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. 

 But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labeling as “one of the great menaces of our times” have an extraordinary story to tell - and some justice on their side.

 


Tagged in: Somalia , scandal , pirates , piracy , nuclear waste , lied , illegal , dumping , Africa

Pirate attacks have been on a steady rise for years now according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), but 2008 saw an unprecedented jump in the number of attacks reported, and the Gulf of Arden off the coast of Africa takes the spotlight.


The pirates approached the Biscaglia in this high-powered skiff


Tagged in: Somalia , pirates , piracy , crew , captain , Africa