The Panther Bay
Pirate Blog

One particularly interesting spin on modern pirating activity off the coast of Somalia is the link to Islamic terrorist organizations. Jon Bowermaster has a useful overview of the main argument/concern, noting in a recent article,

"Increasing evidence links the mafia-like Somali clans that run the pirating to the Al-Shabaab Islamist insurgent group, which controls most of southern and central Somalia. Both the U.S. and the U.N. accuse Al-Shabaab of having links to al-Qaeda.

"The rag-tag pirates who are grabbing small private yachts and cargo boats loaded with lawn tractors may be providing a working model for terrorists interested in hijacking tankers loaded with chemicals and cargo boats carrying weapons.

"The pirates' increasingly brazen successes can only be encouraging to others hoping to follow suit."

The situation seems to be spinning increasingly out of control. Yet, the activity and threat of piracy is remarkably concentrated off the coast of East Africa and the western reaches of the Indian Ocean.

At some point nations will have to recognize the pirating problem as a threat on the same scale as a war, similar to the way the British viewed Caribbean pirating in the 17th and 18th centuries.