Word: ransoms
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...attacked by pirates this year in the same waters. And Ali and his men had no reason to believe the outcome of this hijacking would be any different. In a well-established routine, a vessel is typically held for a few days or weeks while the pirates negotiate a ransom with the ship's owners, usually netting between $500,000 and $2 million. Then ship and crew are then released unharmed. This year, according to a new report by the British think tank Chatham House, the Somali pirate industry has raked in as much as $30 million...
...would not be wrong to suggest there are a lot of reasons why we shouldn’t pay these swashbucklers their ransom money. Would that there was a way to dispense with the problem more surgically and without having to spend a dime. But alas, this is a potentially explosive global situation, the sixties are over, and sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and open your wallet—wide...
...Today's pirates pursue their prey with outboard motors instead of oars and tote rocket-propelled grenades instead of cutlasses. With upgraded equipment and loftier stakes - the group demanded $20 million in ransom for the Faina's return, a figure that reportedly plunged to $5 million on Oct. 1 - these 21st century buccaneers, like their peg-legged predecessors, are economic opportunists exploiting the largely unpatrolled waterways through which 90% of global trade flows...
...think you can learn from history. When I started reading, I got interested in the Barbary Wars, when extreme Muslim pirates were capturing our ships and holding them for ransom. Congress decided to negotiate with the Barbary pirates, and Tripoli started a war with us anyway. It was interesting reading about this situation where we dealt with extremists 200 years ago, and thinking about where...
...little hope of the government turning things around anytime soon. At the Martí funeral last Sunday, expressions of anger, fear and impotence were the norm. Alfredo Harp, who had been kidnapped by a leftist guerrilla group in the early '90s before being freed after the payment of a ransom said by family sources to be more than $50 million, stood next to the bereaved father, as did a number of other kidnapping victims from the business community. The talk in this community is increasingly focused on taking matters into their hands in the face of government ineffectiveness...