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[Puffin]

Thats exactly right. Paying them off is far cheaper than what it would cost to go after them with the military. Maybe there is a free enterprise solution, but I really dont see the govt, or Congress in particular giving official sanction to any particular group to do that.
At some point its going to get very expensive to insure cargo in the danger zone. Then I would not be surprised if the carriers resorted to hiring armed people to ride shotgun on the vessels.
 

[gore range]

...hype or a legitimate concern?....
.
....just read in an AP story today where last year ('08) there were just a smidgen under 20,000 vessels transiting the northern and eastern Somali coasts....

.
....there were 100 vessels attacked by the Somali pirates w/49 actually  captured (most of the attacks occur off the northern coast in the Gulf of Aden).....

 "....poking around I see world wide, in '07 there were there were 269 attacks on ships, up from 239 in 2006"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/world/africa/10pirates.html

....and that was "down from 276 in 2005".....
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_Strait_of_Malacca
 
.

....an enlightening series of maps:
http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=visualization&controller=visualization.googlemap&Itemid=89[/]

[NightmarePatrol]

Some very cool links Gore. It would appear that the Barbary Coast mentallity is alive and well. It does also seem that in the grand scheme of things it's not much more than a minor rash as far as businesses and governments are concerned.