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Today’s Pirates


justinp

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  • 4 weeks later...

So, hypothetical scenario here...

 

What happens when an American ship is captured? We have a long-standing policy in this country of not negotiating with those we deem to be terrorists. But are we now going to pay the pirates' ransom to get our ships and people back unharmed? So pirates are not the same thing as terrorists. I see now...

 

PS: If this scenario comes to pass, I'll lay even money that there will be a lot of relatives of dead Americans in this country who might take a small bit of umbrage with this policy.

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Paul, I don't believe that it is the national governments of the ships' owners that are negotiating with the pirates but rather the companies themselves. In the case of a US ship being captured I would expect the shipping company or cruise line to enter negotiations. Just because the US government doesn't negotiate with terrorists (Iran-Contra ) doesn't mean that other entities are prohibited from doing so.

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Ah Marcin, but I think it does. To allow private American companies to negotiate with terrorists/pirates would undermine the government's position on the matter. I would expect that there would be some serious governmental pressure on these private companies to toe the "party" line. No?

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Nope, there is no prohibition on negotiating with terrorists or other hostage takers. This is just US government policy and not reflected in any laws. Private parties can do what they will. There may be pressure, such as in a kidnapping case where the authorities may prefer that you don't pay for example, but they can't throw you in jail for that as long as you did not break any laws.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Today's pirates

.....are a little Special Ed. I heard reports that a significant amout of the 3 million ransom as well as 6 pirates went to the bottom of the ocean when a pirate skiff overturned on the way home from the hijacked ship. Serves ya right!

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Read that too, only the report I saw listed 5 dead. The uncle of one of the pirates blames the US and the naval surveillance as the reason for his nephew's death. Paraphrasing the uncle: "If the naval surveillance was not in place, then my nephew would not have to run from the warships, and his boat would not have capsized."

 

Yeah, that's some blistering logic there, Unc... :rolleyes:

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