A slightly different take on what the deal is.
The pirates off the Somali coast are now more of a nuisance than a problem. Estimates are that 25,000 to 30,000 ships per year transit the area, most headed for the Suez Canal. Successful hijackings over a multi-year period have been very low in comparison, but have increased.
In 2007, for instance, there were 12 successful hijackings. In 2008 pirates attacked 130 ships, but didn’t have much success, being driven off by water hoses, thrown deck chairs, or simply accelerating to full speed ahead and running away. There’s been 30 successful hijackings so far this year in 2009, but twice as many failures.
The pirates switched tactics to using "mother ships" allowing them to get further out to sea, 400 miles or more to hit more ships.
The Maersk Alabama was both a high profile hijack attempt, and a wake up call to pirates that the US military was not to be taken lightly. The latest is using people smuggling, Africans to Yemen, and the pirates use some of these refugees as human shields, or just camouflage.
Source: Dailykos.com
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