Interview With A Pirate

Wired Magazine recently managed to score an exclusive interview with one of the pirates operating off of the lawless coast of Somalia. So if you've ever wondered how the pirates pick their targets, haggle for ransom, or how to launch a successful hijacking of an ocean-going cargo ship, then Wired's interview is for you.

Two really interesting things from the piece - first, that instead of just being bandits in boats, the pirates actually have sophisticated logistic and intelligence networks backing them up and second, that they view themselves not as pirates but as defenders of Somalia - a viewpoint that another pirate expressed in this interview with AllAfrica.com last April. Like in that interview, the pirate Wired talked to also said that many of today's pirates were once fishermen. But once the Somali government collapsed, they had no Navy or Coast Guard to patrol their coastal waters, letting in poachers from around the world. The pirates argue that these international poachers have left them no other option but to turn to piracy as a way to earn a living.