The news doesn't get in the newspaper.
I think this is one of the best articles I have read on the subject...
it's still a WAR ON TERROR, whether the news media and the new Islam-loving Administration admits it or not.

The Somali Pirates Are Jihadists
by Robert Spencer
04/15/2009

This week, we celebrate the Navy SEALs’ rescue of American ship captain Richard Phillips. Their action, from the night airdrop that delivered them to the waiting warships to the split-second action in which three of the pirates were killed, was what we expect from our best special operations troops.

But while we praise their skill, let’s not lose sight of who Phillips’ captors were. His Somali pirate captors are Islamic jihadists, dedicated to the same goals as Osama bin Laden and other jihadists around the world.

In August 2008, when the pirates became especially active off the Horn of Africa, Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, declared that Al-Shabaab, a group of jihadists in Somalia, use piracy to fund their jihad: “According to our information, the money they make from piracy and ransoms goes to support al-Shabaab activities onshore.”

With ransoms for ships each bringing in at least $10,000 and some in multiple millions of dollars, and the pirates seizing ships at a furious rate (taking four in one forty-eight hour period last summer), piracy is a lucrative source of funding for the jihad. Journalist Stephen Brown noted in November 2008 that “security experts fear the ransom money the pirates are receiving will allow them to buy better equipment and weapons for larger operations.” And with astounding short-sightedness, European governments -- with the notable exception of the French last week -- have been paying these ransoms. In that light, the American refusal to do so, and the rescue of Phillips, is a welcome step in the right direction.

But now it must be followed up properly, for al-Shabaab has numerous links to jihadist activity elsewhere. Al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (“Jihadist Youth”) is linked to al-Qaeda and advocates the strict application of Islamic law. It came to the fore in that troubled nation after the 2006 toppling by Ethiopian troops of the Islamic Courts Union government that ruled briefly in Mogadishu. And Mwangura notes that currently “the entire Somali coastline is now under control of the Islamists.” Al-Shabaab now controls more of Somalia than the Islamic Courts Union did even at the height of its power, and its reach extends beyond Somalia. Some of the Somali immigrants who have mysteriously disappeared from the Minneapolis area have been recruited for jihad by al-Shabaab, which has also attracted jihad fighters from around the world to join its efforts to take control in Somalia.

Not only are the Somali pirates Islamic jihadists, but their religious identity is much more important to them than being considered the sons and heirs of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd. On Sunday, Reuters quoted one of the pirates saying, “We never kill people. We are Muslims. We are marines, coastguards -- not pirates.” Hostages have reported, however, that despite this pious disavowal, the pirates have threatened to kill them on more than one occasion. And the Navy SEALs only opened fire when it appeared they were about to kill Capt. Phillips.

Counterterror analyst Olivier Guitta, exploring Al-Shabaab’s connections with al-Qaeda, explained that the group “intends to take control of the Gulf of Aden and the southern entrance of the Red Sea.” This creates an acute problem for Barack Obama. If al-Shabaab does gain control of Somalia, it will not only continue to threaten shipping but will almost certainly expand its jihadist reach beyond Somalia to destabilize the Horn of Africa and work with other jihadist elements in the area, just as it has attracted foreign jihadists to its own cause. What’s more, the Somali jihad could come to the U.S. itself. In January, Newsweek reported about al-Shabaab that “a jihadist group able to enlist U.S. nationals to fight abroad might also be able to persuade Somali-Americans to act as sleeper agents here in the United States.” Al-Shabaab’s al-Qaeda ties make it quite likely that such a thought has occurred to the group’s leadership as well.

Accordingly, counterterror analysts and the mainstream media would do well to widen their narrow focus upon maritime piracy, and consider the role that this piracy is playing in the larger jihadist initiative. Unfortunately, with the Obama administration moving away even from the language of the “war on terror,” it’s unlikely that it will consider the implications of al-Shabaab’s links with the global jihadist network.

In an April 2008 statement, al-Shabaab vowed to “throw the West into hell.” Does Obama have the vision or the will to stand against this bloodlust before it grows even more powerful? And if so, what will he do?
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31458

Keep an eye on this story over the next few weeks.
The news media will call these Muslim Terrorist Pirates everything they can imagine in order to avoid offending the Muslims. Earlier this week the Associated Press called them "BANDITS"

Muslim pirates are nothing new, we can read the history of the Barbary corsairs and see that from the 16th to 19th century, those guys captured an estimated 800,000 to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Pirates

This article outlines America’s first confrontation with the Islamic world was actually with Muslim pirates, (also see Jefferson’s War: America’s First War on Terror 1801–1805, by Joseph Wheelan (2003):
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_...jefferson.html

[chette777]

history shows first Somalia and Ethiopia were Christians nations that became Socialist communist govts. than later Islamic nations.

Looks like the US is heading int he same direction.

could the one world religion of the Antichrist be Islamic and not RCC?

You bring up an interesting point brother... let me think about that.

[Winman]

I am not a big fan of Rush Limbaugh, I have heard his radio show maybe twice ever. But he spoke about this a few days ago:

RUSH: Now, you know, I may need to be corrected here, ladies and gentlemen. I just identified the Somali pirates as "Muslim." I could be wrong about this. The president said that we are not at war with Islam. He said it in Turkey. He said it, I think, a couple of times on his trip to Europe. He said, "We are not at war with Islam." Now, apparently elements of Islam are at war with us, but we are not at war with them. So if we're not at war with Islam, then it must mean the Somali pirates are not Muslim, right? 'Cause we're not at war with them! I hope you're following me on this. I'm just describing what the president said while overseas on the Cut America Down to Size Tour. We're not at war with Islam. We're not at war with it. So the pirates must obviously be something other than Muslim.

Maybe they're Orthodox Jews! Well, if they aren't Muslim, they gotta be something. If it's not Orthodox Jews, maybe it's reformed Jews. Maybe it's evangelicals. Everybody knows the evangelicals are mad as hell these days about a whole bunch of things. Maybe the Somali pirates are actually evangelicals! Maybe they're Southern Baptists. Who knows? But they can't be Muslim because we're not at war with Islam. I suppose they could be a rogue band -- a very, very, very tiny, small, infinitesimal minority of Islam. But we're not at war with Islam. The president said so. So the Somali pirates, the story is they're Muslim, but that can't be, because we're not at war with them. My guess is it's the Orthodox Jews. It's Orthodox Jews committing piracy in the open seas off Somalia. There's no question in my mind.

Rush has pointed out a serious problem here. President Obama is trying hard to be friends with Muslim countries. What he doesn't understand (I hope that is the reason), is that these terrorists are just going to laugh and take advantage of him, much as Hitler did with Neville Chamberlain at the Munich Agreement in 1938. You cannot appease terroritsts.

Very true. If it were not for the Israelis, Americans and a few others, the so-called "PIRATES" would have already taken over the world. Here's an interesting article...
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/...inst_chri.html

[Jeremy]

Imagine a functional Liberalistic Government.

[geologist]

Originally Posted by chette777

history shows first Somalia and Ethiopia were Christians nations that became Socialist communist govts. than later Islamic nations.

Looks like the US is heading int he same direction.

could the one world religion of the Antichrist be Islamic and not RCC?

I was wondering when someone here was going to catch wise about that!