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POPSTop 25 Censored Stories for 2009/10 "Project censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcast outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism." — Walter Cronkite
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POPSPirates Set Up An Exchange to Manage Their Investments
"The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials ... we've made piracy a community activity." Haradheere, 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Mogadishu, used to be a small fishing village. Now it is a bustling town where luxury 4x4 cars owned by the pirates and those who bankroll them create honking traffic jams along its pot-holed, dusty streets. Somalia's Western-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is pinned down battling hard-line Islamist rebels, and controls little more than a few streets of the capital. The administration has no influence in Haradheere -- where a senior local official said piracy paid for almost everything. "Let the anti-piracy navies continue their search for us. We have no worries because our motto for the job is 'do or die'." Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out
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POPSSomali pirates hijack US-bound tanker, the Maran Centaurus Do we have a Thomas Jefferson among us? And how about those patrols and drones actually DO something? Millions of dollars in oil (what's $$ to Obama)? The environmental concerns?? How about the lawlessness and extortion of peaceful commerce in the region? Oh...and the UN "is too busy fighting the Islamist insurgency" to bother with piracy? yeah, sure. :~(
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POPSRed Teeth the Pirate...I Mean, Environmentalist And that those "80 luxury automobiles crowded the shore as friends and family members of pirates clamored to get a share of the ransom money" have nothing to do with real motives. We've seen this before. We've seen Al Sharpton call them the "voluntary coast guard." And we've seen the "white Rat," an Idi Amin henchman, describe them as "brave...fisherman...seamen and navigators. They had no choice but to take revenge on foreign shipping and earn a living by ransom demands." Seriously. Is this where we break into "Gee, Officer Krupke"? Colleague Howard Nemerov made another telling observation about all this in yesterday's Austin Gun Rights Examiner column: The New York Times downplayed the fact that guns were aboard the Alabama, hiding it within one paragraph among other methods employed in the ship’s defense: "But a security team on board the Maersk Alabama responded with small-arms fire, long-range acoustical devices painful to
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POPSPiracy: You're doing it wrong "Once they realised they were facing a ship that was responding and was heading towards them, they stopped shooting and attempted to flee,"
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POPSWho Are The Real Pirates In Africa's Waters? Like the pirates of the ``golden age’’, today's Somali pirates see themselves as fighting for justice. As Sugale Ali told the October 1, 2008, NYT: ``We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.’’ ``The truth is, if you ask any Somali, if getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western vessels, and the production of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high. It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums.’’
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POPSThe Israeli Pirates Unlike the Somali pirates, this piracy will not be televised. Target: Palestinian fisherman (unarmed).
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POPSUS Navy warns of increased pirate activity Myself i can't understand it how nations permit it. They are there to do harm to you same as being kidnapped. You can see them coming. I now if i saw a kidnapper coming after me i would grab my 9mm and start firing.. Enough of the morality of it. Put security on all vessels, cost hell of a lot less then millions you pay in ransome to these thugs. Wait until they get right up along side of you and mow em down with machine guns. Better yet arms with short range rockets and blow them out of the water. After 2 or 3 incidents like this they would go back to herding sheep like they use to do. Have pity on them ? no not me. not in any shape. They want to resort to terror.... time to draw the line.
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POPSLuxury Pirate-Hunting Cruise Testimonials from previous participants in the Somali Cruise: "Six attacks in 4 days were more than I expected. I bagged three pirates, my wife nailed two, and my 12-year old son sank two boats with the mini-gun. This wonderful cruise was fun for the whole family" -- Fred D., Cincinnati, OH "Pirates 0, Passengers 32! Well worth the trip! Can't recommend it highly enough!" -- Ben L., Bethesda, MD
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POPSGhosts of Democrat Presidents Past Here's the wrap: Clinton did take a stab at redemption, shooting a missile at an aspirin factory—oh, and at an intern named Monica Lewinsky. One missile missed its mark. Thankfully George W. Bush stepped in and re-established America's position on "Don't Mess with Texas," by kicking some Iraqi tail. Bush also told the world that the US is not beholden to anybody when it comes to our sovereignty and protecting our citizens. With all the potential world hot spots looming, is there any sane person who believes Obama to be the right man for the job? I know he was recently battle-tested in Somali with that confrontation...with the four Somali pirates.
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POPSMaersk Alabama crewman sues Maersk Alleges Maersk has ignored need to improve safety. I think the US Govt should sue Maersk for the cost of the rescue; the ship shouldn't have been there alone.
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POPSItalian cruise ship foils pirates pirate global map overview -- can be viewed at the site. "where is Cartman?" They should have a picture of the 6 on the speedboat. I am doing some serious laughing now.
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POPSAl-Arabiya TV Interviews Somali Pirates and Displays Their Mode of Operation 
Following are excerpts from two Al-Arabiya TV reports on Somali pirates, which aired on April 19 and 20, 2009. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2087.htm. Reporter: "We Wanted to Talk to One of the Most Famous Pirates, Who Is Known as Boyah, the Emir of the Pirates" Reporter: "Here in the Somali coastal town of Harardere, Sirius Star, the biggest oil tanker in the world, was anchored, until the pirates released it in exchange for a three million dollar ransom. During the three months in which Sirius Star was held captive, an Al-Arabiya TV news team made an attempt to approach it, aboard a small fishing boat. They managed to get as close as 500 meters from the Saudi vessel before the guards warned them not to come any closer, forcing our colleagues, Al-Zubeir and Al-Bukhari, to return to shore. "A few days before the tanker was released, however, one of the pirates sent us these exclusive images of this enormous Saudi tanker, which is bigger than a
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