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  • 2009-07-01 (xsd:date)
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  • Can You Shoot at Pirates on a Luxury Cruise Along the Somali Coast? (en)
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  • In the fall of 2008, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1838, which called on nations with vessels in the waters near Somalia to apply military force to repress acts of piracy along that coastline. While pirates had been plying their trade in area since the early 1990s, the rate of such incidents had markedly increased by 2007 and 2008. Pirates either overrun ships and take their cargoes or they kidnap passengers to hold for ransom. Attention was focused on this issue by two incidents that occurred in April 2009: six armed pirates in a speedboat attacked the Italian cruise ship Melody off the coast of Somalia (but were foiled when the Melody's captain ordered his security crew to fire back), and Somali pirates seized the Maersk Alabama, a relief ship laden with supplies destined for Somalia, Uganda, and Kenya. The Maersk Alabama's captain, Richard Phillips, was taken hostage; and when his life appeared in danger, U.S. Navy snipers killed three of the four pirates and effected his release. These successful defensive acts against Somali pirates were widely applauded by those who favor countering aggression with aggression over slowly negotiating for the release of hostages taken captive by pirates and then forking over hefty ransoms for their safe return. This mood of hearty approval over those responses may have inspired a satirical piece about pirate-hunting cruises aboard luxury yachts plying the coast of Somalia, trolling for buccaneers to blast to smithereens: That satirical item was a 7 May 2009 article written for, and posted to, the humor section of the web site To the Point News. The joke was subsequently picked up and reworked by another web site, Somali Cruises. As an editor at the Cruise Critic web site observed of this improbable business scheme: Nonetheless, after the Ananova online news site presented the Somali pirate cruise send-up as a factual item, several other news outlets and publications (including Canada's National Post newspaper) picked up the story and ran it as true, thereby fostering belief that the spoof pirates cruises were a real offering. (en)
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