In further evidence of the ongoing creation of a pirate economy, Kenya's foreign affairs minister said Friday Somali pirates have collected more than $150 million in ransoms over the past year, and called on ship owners not to pay when their vessels are hijacked.
In the past two weeks Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates have seized eight vessels including a huge Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. Several hundred crew are now in the hands of Somali pirates.
"We are advised that in the last 12 months, ransom to the excess of $150 million has been paid to these criminals and that is why they are becoming more and more audacious in their activities," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said.
One wag suggested that the U.S. Navy should make an offer to all these oil sheikdoms that have spent all their money on palaces instead of frigates that we offer protection for the multimillion dollar oil shipments...for a fee. They can keep doing business as they are and pay millions to pirates, or they can pay a little less and the Navy will keep the bad guys at bay.
Works for me.
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