Free Gaza tripulation charged with "illegal immigration"

As you may know, the Free Gaza aid ship sailing to Gaza Strip with the express intention of avoiding Israeli waters was intercepted by the Zionist navy two days ago and its load of hope (and also practical items such as cement, medicines, toys and crayons) lays now idle at some colonial military facility.

But the irony is that, even if they wanted altogether to avoid Israeli territorial waters, they have been charged with "illegal immigration". Two of the 21 tripulants have been released but the rest remain in jail.

You can spam an aide to the Zionist Prime Minister at this adress: mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il.

Gazasolidarity, which is the source of this information, also offers an array of phones and faxes that you can spam with demands of freedom for Gaza Aid members and asking to allow the ship to enter Gaza, that is not Israeli territory in any case.

Update:

Protests against Israeli piracy actions and the criminal blockade of Gaza have succeeded in the last days. It is noticeable that the very UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk has described this action, as well as Gaza blockade, as a crime.

Cynthia McKinney, tripulant of the ship and former US Congress Representative, declared on this Zionist act of piracy:

We were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and illegally threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment, boarded and confiscated the ship.

All of us on board were then taken off the ship and into custody, and brought into Israel and imprisoned. Immigration officials in Israel said they did not want to keep us, but we remain imprisoned. State Department and White House officials have not effected our release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been condemned by President Obama.

.

Somalian pirates claim defense of national waters

There's an interesting first-hand account from a Somalian pirate at the BBC today. Dahir Mohammed Hayeysi claims that foreign illegal industrial overfishing and toxic waste dumping are the main reasons behind Somali piracy. He also claims that foreign navies can't do nothing to stop it, that only a government who can protect their waters can.
.

Did pirates invent Capitalism?

This is surely not a totally new idea (my uncle already flirted with it when I was just a kid, possibly inspired by the Marxist concept of property accumulation as mere organized robbery) but that is what Dr. Peter Hayes suggests in his latest work Pirates, Privateers and the Contract Theories of Hobbes and Locke.

Have not read it yet but there is a good review at Science Daily. In it Dr. Hayes is quoted claiming that pirates were backed by financeers, supported by the state as long as they paid taxes (privateering) and even had their own financial paradises in places like Tortuga and Madagascar. Pirates also ruled themselves in a democratic manner, what actually appears as a precedent of human rights... but to the exclussion of all others.

I'd argue that there are other precedents for corporations and democracy, though. The first ones can be traced already in Renaissance Italy, while the latter is found also in pre-Modern times in places like Switzerland and the Basque Country among other places. But still Hayes' idea is food for thought, specially as Capitalism and the now mainstream political theories of social contract appeared rather coincidentally not long after the golden of age of piracy. Piratic apogee was in the 17th century and the modern political and economical theories and praxis got consolidated in the 18th century.

Pirates!

A week ago or so, a Danish cargo vessel was liberated after paying a ransom of, allegedly, 700,000 dollars. Now a Basque fishing ship and its crew is being held for ransom in Somalia too, rumors talk of maybe only 100,000 euros this time. A few days ago an Italian oil tanker barely managed to escape another attack in Bab-el-Mandeb strait. France and the USA are working in a UNSC resolution that would allow to persecute pirates inside territorial waters. Several countries have deployed armed vessels in the area, included Spain - that weeks ago was ignoring the fishermen's plea to do it.

Somalia may have been without a real government for 17 years now but its territorial waters, unlike the arid land, are most strategical, to traders and fishermen alike. The vital shipping artery that goes through the Suez Canal, joining Europe with South and East Asia specially, necesarily goes close to the Somali coast, for an even larger stretch if the destiny port is in Eastern Africa. The best fisheries of the Indian Ocean are also close to its territorial waters.

Piracy is therefore a natural option for the impoversihed but well armed and organized somalian tribal and political militias.

They are not anymore just a handful of men on a boat with some riffles. Now they operate from cammuflaged mother ships that pretend to be fishermen at work. But their cargo are very fast motorboats (that can reach 40 knots) and rocket lauchers, not frozen fish. They are expert seafarers, well armed and equipped, trained by European mercenaries, protected by local militias (who get 50% of the bounty) and operating through Swiss banks, where the ransom is deposited safely, before they release the hostages and their ship.

The captain of the Danish vessel, Colin Darch, explains that the pirate gang that kidnapped them was led by some Omar Hassan, and that he would have wanted armed intervention, like the French did recently against those who had captured a luxury yatch. But that's not the opinion held by the fishermen in Bermeo, the home port of the fishing ship now held by the Somalian buccaneers. For them, first of all is securing the life of the hostages, by paying the ransom, and then they can proceed with armed operations if they wish.

Actually, the declarations of the Somali government of going to intervene militarly is causing worries in Bermeo. Fisherman E. Lauzirika thinks that:

It's very bad news because, besides of announcing that they are going to reduce them by force, they have declared that the pirates are sentenced to death, so these will be ready to do anything.

Opinion that is supported by his colleagues, like Barragán, who says:

Liberate them by force is a very bad idea, because one of these pirates, when faced with his end, dies killing. The good thing is to negotiate: pay whatever must be paid and then take whatever measures needed. But first is to save the lives [of he hostages].

Lauzirika also thinks that:

The pirates have a very complex international network that reaches well beyond Africa. They know when to operate and when to remain quiet. Now, with all this noise and with international intervention, they will be some time without operating.

The wife of one of the kidnapped fishermen with his photo and that of the ship 'Playa de Bakio'.

Sources:
- BBC: 'Somalia's pirates face battles at sea'.
- Gara: "Sientes miedo porque no sabes ni cuándo ni por donde te van a venir" (in Spanish)

____

Update (April 27): they have been freed after a payement of $1.2 million. The government doesn't comment on the payement but gestures on future reprisals - when they were totally ignoring the issue until a few weeks ago.