Opinion Forum

From Piracy To Welfare

April 21st, 2009

Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the Somali pirate who survived a failed attempt to seize a U.S. ship and the Navy’s rescue of his hostage, was arraigned in federal court in New York today. If convicted of piracy and other charges, he will be sentenced to life in prison.

While in most photos he was smiling and seemed happy, during the arraignment he was described as “penniless and weeping.” He has an attorney, Ronald L. Kuby, probably at taxpayer expense. Undoubtedly his weeping was at the instruction of his attorney, whose job is to help him get away with piracy and, perhaps, onto the welfare rolls.

After all, Mr. Kuby was brought on the case at the request of Omar Jamal, “the director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, which helps Somali immigrants with legal and social issues.” In other words, he helps Somalis get away with crimes and get on welfare.

And now the lawyering beings:

“How did he come into American custody?” Mr. Kuby asked. “There are conflicting reports. Did he come on to the Bainbridge” — the U.S. Navy destroyer on the scene during the standoff — “to seek medical attention, or come under a flag of truce?” In either case, he said, holding the suspected pirate would be a violation of the principle of neutrality.

Mr. Kuby also tried to claim that Muse was too young to be tried as an adult, which was probably a willful lie. After some confused and conflicting testimony-by-telephone from the defendant’s parents, who seemed not to actually know when he was born, Muse himself admitted that he’s 18. Poor Mr. Kuby; even his client didn’t support his lie.

So what’s next? All the usual suspects will undoubtedly be heard from, and the media will send the usual useful idiots to give them sympathetic coverage.

The ACLU will probably demand to know if Muse was read his rights under the U.S. Constitution just as soon as those nasty Navy brutes got their hands on him somewhere on the high seas. Amnesty International will almost certainly declare him a political prisoner. Human Rights Watch will want to know if anyone on that terrible imperialist ship was unkind to him in any way. CAIR will issue press releases, pointing out that the persecution of this poor pirate is just another sign of America’s anti-Muslim crusade. Professors will organize protests attended by their ill-educated students and the press, all of them chanting “Free Abduwali” and carrying signs saying George Bush is a nazi. The Congressional Black Caucus will likely announce en masse on the Capitol steps, with Al Sharpton humming “We Shall Overcome” in the background, that Muse is just another victim of the legacy of slavery. And Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will proclaim that Israel should be wiped off the face of the Earth.

At the end of this typical American-style kabuki theater, Muse may actually be convicted and spend the rest of his life in a federal prison, at great expense to us stupid taxpayers (well, at least the 60 percent of us who actually pay federal income taxes). There will be a book contract of course, for a book ghost-written by a person who is actually literate, the way most celebrity books are produced. Hollywood will probably make a movie, too, with a hip-hop artist in the starring role, depicting how this noble man of the African soil was tortured and persecuted by the evil American government.

Meanwhile, Muse will live as a comfortable guest of the feds, eating better than he ever would have had he not taken up piracy and receiving first-class medical and dental care. All at taxpayer expense, of course.

Or, the Navy SEALs could have used just one more bullet….

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Law, piracy, pirate
Categories: Media, News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

5 Responses to “From Piracy To Welfare”

Brian Bagent | April 22nd, 2009 at 1:17 am

I’m all for treating them the same way they were treated during the Barbary Coast War in the late 18th century.

Article I Sec 8 of the constitution is pretty clear on federal authority to deal with piracy on the high seas.

Tony W | April 22nd, 2009 at 1:32 am

Such fear expressed. In the United State you are presumed innocent until proved guilty. Depending on the charges I believe the defendant will be convicted but in the process we will be provided with evidence of some of the crime committed against Somalia. The illegal fishing the Europeans, Chinese and Kenya has been doing off of the coast. The dumping of illegal toxic was off the coast that is killing the people and the fishing industry. In some case people are experiencing the effects just after entering the water. The United Stated over throwing the Islamic government plunging Somalia into even more lawlessness. With no government the coast cannot be defended and the people starve. Corporations have been paying these ransoms for years to avoid these truths from coming to light. If there is justice the defendant will not be serving time by himself concerning his charges. I wonder what would happen if the Chinese fished and dumped of the U.S. coast? Get ready for a wild ride.

Brian | April 22nd, 2009 at 3:50 pm

Tony, the Somalis entered a state of lawlessness almost before their Italian colonizers pulled out. And, knowing the state of Italian law, if you can really say that there is any such thing, Somalia was probably under a state of lawlessness while the Italians were still there.

As with most of the rest of Africa, prior to European colonialism, there were no nation-state geographical boundaries as we know them today. The idea of a nation-state is a recent introduction to almost all of Africa (some of the Saharan nations would be the exceptions).

Tony said With no government the coast cannot be defended and the people starve. Until the Italians took over, there never was a Somali government. The idea of a centralized government controlling vast geographical areas was, and is still, utterly alien to them. Their political condition today is about where Europe was 1500 years ago – all they really understand is tribalism. Nothing we do can fast-forward them 1500 years. They must discover it on their own.

There is no potential for the Jedi Council to send in a single knight with his Padawan learner to restore order to a place that was never particularly orderly, at least not by our standards.

doris | April 22nd, 2009 at 4:28 pm

He needs to walk the plank…. Our gov. will probably bring all the poor Somalis over to work with the other illegals. Then they will get on wellfare and we will be teaching the Somalian language in schools. We really need to make English our national language. Yeah, walk the plank, or blow them out of the water.