The biggest news of Jan. 20, 2009...

Two great articles out in the last 24 shedding some insight into the daily lives of knaves.
First, a crew member from the Sirius Star relates his two months under pirate watch. And with the quote of the still young year, Hussein al-Hamza:

"I looked down and saw eight Somali pirates in two boats, each about 18-feet-long."

"They looked scary."
...

Far more revealing into the pirate psyche is this interview from iol.co.za, clearly a bastion of the upper echelons of journalism, if domain names are any indication.
Yassin Dheere is candid about his trade as pirate kingpin, and also, impeccably aw-shucks polite.

"We held it for two weeks, then some Somali and Arab mediators stepped in to negotiate. We were convinced to take $50 000 (about R500 000) as compensation.

"Gosh! This was a huge amount for us. That inspired us and gave us an appetite for hunting ships.

"At that time we had no idea what we were doing, and we were very worried about what would happen."

Gosh? Really? I know this is translated from Somali or whatever, but you'd figure a guy who's spent most of his life either fishing for non-existent fish or trying to kidnap ships would provide a little more colour than "Gosh!"

He takes the same matter-of-fact approach to brazen prison escapes as well:

"I was also once jailed in Garowe. But my family attacked the jail and killed two of the policemen, and then in the exchange of fire I escaped with other prisoners."

Good to see that jailbreaks have held over from the late 1700s as well.

On the geopolitical side of this day in piracy, South Korea has decided to send out its navy in the peninsular country's first ever overeseas combat deployment. To fight pirates?!? Shit, the posses of Puntland must be doing better than previously thought, if they're as much of a theat to South Korea's existence as North Korea (a friendly reminder to everyone that more often than not, good fences (or demilitarized zones) make GREAT neighbours).

Wouldn't Allahu's Snackbar be a great name for a Lebanese bakery?