Kathianne
04-09-2009, 11:24 PM
There isn't a problem in this locale, just misunderstandings:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090410/ap_on_go_ot/us_piracy
Officials: Pirates, terrorists not linked directly
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
28 mins ago
WASHINGTON – U.S. officials have found no direct ties between East African pirates and terrorist groups but continue to search for signs of links between the two factions in the wake of the Indian Ocean hostage incident. It was not clear whether officials were specifically scrutinizing the Somali pirates who boarded the Maersk Alabama on Tuesday and fled in a lifeboat after taking hostage the cargo ship's captain.
Military and counterterrorism officials say that in the transient world of Somalia's combative coastal dwellers, a Somali clansman can be a fisherman one day, a pirate the next, and a weapons trafficker the following day.
"If you look at the clan structure or the tribes — to think that there may not be linkages probably is a bit naive," Army Gen. William "Kip" Ward, head of the Pentagon's Africa Command, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, warned that some of the money from piracy could make its way into the hands of extremists.
"I certainly would not put that out of the realm of possibility," Leiter said at the Aspen Institute....No correlation, no connections, move along...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090410/ap_on_go_ot/us_piracy
Officials: Pirates, terrorists not linked directly
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
28 mins ago
WASHINGTON – U.S. officials have found no direct ties between East African pirates and terrorist groups but continue to search for signs of links between the two factions in the wake of the Indian Ocean hostage incident. It was not clear whether officials were specifically scrutinizing the Somali pirates who boarded the Maersk Alabama on Tuesday and fled in a lifeboat after taking hostage the cargo ship's captain.
Military and counterterrorism officials say that in the transient world of Somalia's combative coastal dwellers, a Somali clansman can be a fisherman one day, a pirate the next, and a weapons trafficker the following day.
"If you look at the clan structure or the tribes — to think that there may not be linkages probably is a bit naive," Army Gen. William "Kip" Ward, head of the Pentagon's Africa Command, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, warned that some of the money from piracy could make its way into the hands of extremists.
"I certainly would not put that out of the realm of possibility," Leiter said at the Aspen Institute....No correlation, no connections, move along...