Following the recent rescue by Navy SEALS of Capt. Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage by Muslim pirates off the coast of Somalia last week, the Justice Department is contemplating what to do with the one pirate the rescuers captured.
What is clear is that the U.S. government is treating the matter as a criminal case because officials have "found no direct ties" between East African pirates and terror groups. This will not do. These "criminals" are jihadist Muslim pirates and must be dealt with in the context of America's larger regional and international war against Islamist terror networks.
For starters, the Somali pirates do not think of themselves as pirates, but instead consider themselves to be devout Muslims protecting Somalia against the infidel West. As one pirate put it to a Reuters news agency reporter, "We are Muslims. We are marines, coast guards - not pirates." According to a recent report on Radio Garowe, the Puntland community radio station in northern Somalia, these Muslim pirates have been praised for "protecting the coast against the enemies of Allah" by Sheik Mukhtar Robow ("Abu Mansur"), a terrorist leader and spokesman for the radical Islamist and al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen group. Sheik Hassan Abdullah Hersi al-Turki, leader of the Al-Shabaab-linked Mu'askar Ras Kamboni (designated by the State Department as a terrorist group), said: "I can say the pirates are part of the mujahedeen [religious fighters], because they are in a war with Christian countries who want to misuse the Somali coast." According to a Reuters interview last summer with Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, "The entire Somali coastline is now under control of the Islamists. ... According to our information, the money they make from piracy and ransoms goes to support al Shabaab activities onshore." In other words, the actions of Muslim pirates off the coast of Somalia help support the larger jihad taking place in East Africa. ..more..http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090422/OPINION/904220400/1049
What is clear is that the U.S. government is treating the matter as a criminal case because officials have "found no direct ties" between East African pirates and terror groups. This will not do. These "criminals" are jihadist Muslim pirates and must be dealt with in the context of America's larger regional and international war against Islamist terror networks.
For starters, the Somali pirates do not think of themselves as pirates, but instead consider themselves to be devout Muslims protecting Somalia against the infidel West. As one pirate put it to a Reuters news agency reporter, "We are Muslims. We are marines, coast guards - not pirates." According to a recent report on Radio Garowe, the Puntland community radio station in northern Somalia, these Muslim pirates have been praised for "protecting the coast against the enemies of Allah" by Sheik Mukhtar Robow ("Abu Mansur"), a terrorist leader and spokesman for the radical Islamist and al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen group. Sheik Hassan Abdullah Hersi al-Turki, leader of the Al-Shabaab-linked Mu'askar Ras Kamboni (designated by the State Department as a terrorist group), said: "I can say the pirates are part of the mujahedeen [religious fighters], because they are in a war with Christian countries who want to misuse the Somali coast." According to a Reuters interview last summer with Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, "The entire Somali coastline is now under control of the Islamists. ... According to our information, the money they make from piracy and ransoms goes to support al Shabaab activities onshore." In other words, the actions of Muslim pirates off the coast of Somalia help support the larger jihad taking place in East Africa. ..more..http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090422/OPINION/904220400/1049
Joshua E. London
must be one of our our loyal visitors ,last week we discuss same subject..We just want to say thanks-your good artical
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