Has anyone heard of any obvious signs of where the ransom money, that the Somali pirates have been collecting, has been going? It seems like if you injected that kind of cash, there has to be some kind of trace of where it is going.
Are there a handful of pirates who are living it up, or leaving the country? Is there the equivalent of a pirate king who is stashing it all in a Swiss bank account?
There have been numerous articles on the Somali pirates lifestyle. They do inject a lot of cash into the host village economies where they are stationed, but most of the money is blown on drugs, women, and conspicuous consumption lifestyle purchases.
The US has been looking for signs that the ransom money is going to terrorist groups, but no such linkage has yet been found.
Hearing something about this on the radio this morning is what triggered my question. Someone was asserting that the reason ship’s crews should be allowed to shoot at/kill pirates is because otherwise the money is going to end up in the hands of terrorist groups. When the interviewer grilled him on that, he had to admit that there is no sign of it happening but, gosh darn, we all know it will happen.
At that point, I reallized that I hadn’t heard anything at all about where the money WAS going.
Yeah but it is possible that some of the terrorist organizations are going to be looking at the risk/reward situation , vis a vis pirating. How they can displace the somalis enough to take over the franchise is a question, but they can do it in other parts of the world.
Declan
>Someone was asserting that the reason ship’s crews should be allowed to shoot at/kill pirates is because otherwise the money is going to end up in the hands of terrorist groups.
Just holding a gun up to someone makes you a valid kill target to law enforcement and the military. No need to drag the politics of terror into this.