US should work with Somalia in battling pirates, kidnappers

While leaders of pirate gangs in the East African nation of Somalia are warning of dire consequences if the United States’ successful hostage rescue late last month becomes standard operating procedure, the United Nations-backed government in Mogadishu is hailing the operation by U.S. Navy SEALS that resulted in an American and a Dane being freed. The killing of their nine kidnappers has won support from the weak Somali government that has been unable to rid the country of kidnappers and pirates.

“Pirates have no place in our society,” said Abdirahman Omar Osman, a government spokesman, in an interview with the Associated Press. “This is a huge and unforgettable lesson for them.” Osman said the nine dead kidnappers got what they deserved.

Such support for the U.S. operation must not go unnoticed by the White House. It is an opportunity for President Obama and his national security and foreign policy teams to develop a strategy for taking the fight to the pirates and other groups holding hostages for ransom inside Somalia.

Threats of retaliation should not dissuade the administration from planning and executing other rescue missions. That part of the world only responds to brute force.

“If they try again we will all die together,” warned Hassan Abdi, a Somali pirate connected to a gang holding an American hostage. The hostage was moved at least three times after the rescue of Jessica Buchanan, 32, a native of Cincinnati, and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, of Denmark. Buchanan and Thisted were aid workers kidnapped by gunmen in October while they were working on demining projects for the Danish Refugee Council.

U.S. Navy SEALS from the same unit that killed the world’s leading terrorist, Osama bin Laden, in his home deep inside Pakistan, parachuted into Somalia in the early morning hours of Jan. 25 and hiked to where the captors were holding Buchanan and Thisted. A shootout ensued and the nine captors were killed. Neither the hostages nor the American troops were harmed. Buchanan and Thisted were taken by helicopter to the U.S. Naval Base at Sigonella, Sicily, as part of their reintegration process and underwent more compete medical examinations and debriefing.

The Obama administration made the decision to proceed with the rescue because of Buchanan’s deteriorating health. A Frenchwoman kidnapped by Somali pirates last year died in captivity because of not having access to her medicine.

Blood money

It is clear that these individuals whose business is blood money deserve to be treated in the harshest way possible.

It is instructive that the Somali government welcomed the American rescue operation, while the United States’ chief ally in the war on global terrorism, Pakistan, was harshly critical of the bin Laden killing.

The Pakistanis were angry that the SEALS’ operation was kept under wraps and not even the government in Islamabad nor the military was informed of it.

But unlike the government in Mogadishu which is clearly supportive of cracking down on the hostage taking and acts of piracy in the Indian Ocean, Pakistan’s government has been a reluctant partner in the war on terrorist organizations operating within the country.

The rescue of Buchanan and Thisted is another feather in President Obama’s foreign policy cap.