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 | Pirate hunter guns for Somali raiders Posted by Michael E. Marotta on 7/23, 6:26pm | |
| Max Hardberger is a 62-year-old adventurer from Louisiana who specialises in stealing back ships that have been fraudulently seized in corrupt ports, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean. (This is from the Telegraph (UK) and was posted on the "Carpe Diem" blog of Prof. Mark Perry.) The first phase is for me to get my expenses and go into the port to do my research. I either keep a very low profile, or I hire the youngest prostitute I can find and pretend to be a drunken old American ship captain who has gone native with a teenage girlfriend. There’s one in every port so people see me in that role and they don’t look past it, and I can look around and ask questions without attracting attention.’ [...] The cost of one of these armed extractions will be in excess of $100,000, and Hardberger believes it is a reasonable alternative to paying ransoms and ever-escalating insurance premiums, and the only way to actually stop the piracy in the long term. 'The answer to this is for the warlord to turn on his television, because they do have televisions, and see the dead bodies of his pirates floating in the ocean, his skiff gone and his investment wasted. A warlord won’t last long if he puts $100,000 into a pirate skiff and it doesn’t come back.’ Hardberger, ultimately, is a moralist with very firm notions of right and wrong, and the idea of being a righteous avenger sits very well with him. In the past his opponents during extractions have been underpaid guards, and the idea of using violence against them has been morally repugnant to him, so he has always gone unarmed. All that changes with Somali pirates, and he fully intends to take up an automatic weapon and join his team when, and if, they do their first armed extraction in the Indian Ocean. 'The first two guys on board will have silenced weapons and, unfortunately for the sentries, we can’t offer any chance to surrender, because they will raise the alarm. Except for them, I will do everything possible to avoid loss of life. Once we’ve gained control of the vessel, everyone else can get off, and I’ll even give them the ship’s lifeboat to go to shore. I’ve got no interest in taking prisoners, or getting involved in the ramifications of arresting these people. It only makes extra difficulties for the shipowners.’ | ||
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