Glen Ford / Black Agenda Report & Lindsay Beyerstein / Majikthise – 2009-04-16 22:45:25
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22424.htm
US Has Won a Huge Victory
US Aircraft and Elite Navy SEALs
Defeat Three Somalis in a Lifeboat
Glen Ford / Black Agenda Report
“An estimated $300 million worth of Somali sea life is pirated by foreigners every year.”
(April 15, 2009) — What a weekend for American foreign policy! The United States Navy, backed up by warships from 20 other nations, knocked off three Somali guys crouching with rifles in a lifeboat tied by a rope to a US destroyer. To hear the US corporate media tell it, the Americans had won a huge victory over the forces of evil.
The sole surviving Somali was in custody — a 16-year-old who essentially gave himself up, earlier, after being hurt in a scuffle with the American cargo ship captain who is now celebrated as a hero of the seven seas and defender of United States national honor.
There is something obscene about a superpower whose media and population find great satisfaction, and some sick form of national catharsis, every time they manage to overcome a weak and desperate opponent.
Some dreaded seagoing Somalis began taking up piracy in 1991, when the Somali government disintegrated and there was no one to patrol the country’s coasts. About the same time, and not coincidentally, commercial fishing fleets from around the world took advantage of the lack of a Somali coast guard, to steal every fish they could find in Somali waters. That’s “robbery on the high seas,” the definition of piracy. An estimated $300 million worth of Somali sea life is pirated by foreigners every year. Other kinds of pirates nowadays often leave something behind – the piratical poisonous waste dumpers.
They seem to be mafia-connected outfits that dump the radioactive waste from European hospitals into Somali waters, along with heavy metals and dangerous chemicals of all kinds. A survey by the Somali news agency Wardheer News shows that 70 percent of Somalis “strongly supported piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters.”
Having seen their coastal waters pirated by foreigners since 1991, Somalis were then forced to endure the land and air piracy of the Ethiopians and the United States, who collaborated in late 2006 to invade the country and oust the only relatively effective government Somalia had had in 15 years. Occupied by Ethiopia with the backing of the American superpower, Somalis were stripped of the last thing they had on land or sea – their national sovereignty. The foreign super-pirates had taken everything.
“70 percent of Somalis ‘strongly supported piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters.'”
But the Somalis kept fighting back, anyway, driving out the Ethiopians and making the Americans fume with rage. The Somalis refused to roll over and die, or beg.
Black US Congressman Donald Payne’s airplane was targeted by mortars when he visited Somalia’s ravaged capital, Mogadishu, over the weekend. Payne opposed the US-Ethiopia invasion of Somalia, but some of the Islamist fighters battling for control of the country may not make distinctions among the foreigners who pass through or over their land – and who can blame them?
Barack Obama’s Ambassador to the United Nations, a young Black woman named Susan Rice, is positively rapid when it comes to beating Somalia into submission. She was more gung-ho for the US-Ethiopian invasion than George Bush. Susan Rice is no doubt searching for a military solution to Somali 20090415Piracygfpiracy – which would amount to more piracy by the same foreigners that have driven Somalis to such desperate measures.
© Glen Ford, For Black Agenda Radio.
On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
In accordance with Title 17 USC. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Enough Dead Pirate Porn:
The Press is Relishing the Killing of
Three Teenage Pirates With Disturbing Zeal
Lindsay Beyerstein / Majikthise Blog
(April 15, 2009) — It’s creepy to see so many Americans are exulting over the fact that the United States military managed to shoot three teenagers.
I’m relieved that the Navy SEALs rescued the American hostage from Somali pirates. Their skill and professionalism was indeed impressive. But really … Two days after the rescue, the banner headline on the front page of the Washington Post should not read “3 Rounds, 3 Dead Bodies.” And if that’s the frontpage headline, surely they don’t need a second story about pirate-shooting in the same edition.
The American public is relishing the deaths of the pirates to a degree that’s downright unseemly. Gates said the four pirates involved in taking Phillips hostage were 17 to 19 years old — “untrained teenagers with heavy weapons.” The pirate whom Reza wounded in the hand asked the USS Bainbridge for medical attention, effectively surrendering. [WaPo] All the jubilation is distracting from some serious questions about US policy towards piracy.
The on-scene Navy commander aboard the USS Bainbridge reportedly gave the order to fire because the hostage’s life was suddenly in danger. If that’s true, then of course the SEALs did the right thing.
Despite the blanket coverage of the SEALs who fired the shots, very little has been reported about the evidence that moved the commander to order the shooting. So far, nobody has explained why the commander decided that the hostage was in jeopardy at that particular moment. The standoff was dragging on and there was intense political pressure to resolve the situation. Maybe he just seized an opportunity to get three clean kills.
Given the international significance of this incident, I hope that a full and impartial report will be made available to the public in English, Arabic, and Somali. When the police shoot hostage takers, they’re held accountable for their decisions. We need the same level of transparency when the military goes after criminals on the high seas.
Imagine if some American criminals were holding an innocent Somali hostage in international waters. We’d demand answers if the Somalis shot them. It would be the responsible thing to do and we’d feel entitled to a full accounting of what happened to our people. But realistically, nobody’s going to ask the commander to justify his decision. He spared the politicians some difficult choices about whether to authorize lethal commando raids to liberate hostages, as the French have done.
It’s creepy to see so many Americans are exulting over the fact that the United States military managed to shoot three teenagers, albeit three very dangerous teenagers who may have been about to kill an innocent hostage. Even if authorities did the right thing, it was a sad, sordid necessity, not a glorious adventure
Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.
In accordance with Title 17 USC. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
