Yesterday, the New York Times carried a report that the United States will place a proposal before the UN Security Council that could authorize attacks on pirate bases in Somalia by land or air. You can read the article here.
In addition, yesterday’s press also carried the news that the proceeds from piratical activities are making their way to North America and into the hands of expatriate Somalis. An article from the Associated Press carried by the Toronto Star claimed that “among the 200,000 Somalis living in Canada, [some of them] offer funds, equipment and information in exchange for a cut of the ransoms.” Further, it said: “Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Centre, an organization based in St. Paul, Minn., with ties to Toronto, says the network is “an open secret within the (Somali) community.”
As the complexity of the tactical situation off the Somali coast increases and new operational avenues are explored, the relevance of distant pirate attacks to Canada has taken on a more human dimension that just a statistical one concerned with the cost of shipping commodities.
