Negotiation - Saudi Style

After India blow up a "mother boat", every major navy is rushing the Gulf of Aden to show off how strong they are militarily - the Russians want to replace leaving war ship; Britain wants to lead NATO forces (which are also a replacement); and the Chinese want in on the action. A dramatic headline helps!

Those with no big navies or those with economic interests in the area, such as hijacked merchant ships are negotiating with the hijackers paying on average $1-2 million in ransom money per ship and crew. The Somalia coastal economy is booming with about $150 million pumped into the economy in recent months.

Life was good until some hijackers made a wrong move. They hijacked a $100million worth Saudi oil supertanker. Hijackers want a quarter of tanker's economic worth as ransom money. But they didn't expect this:

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Dozens of Somali Islamist insurgents stormed a port on Friday hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker that was the world's biggest hijack, a local elder said...

"Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesman, told Reuters. "Haradheere is under our control and we shall do something about that ship."

If anyone had any doubts as to who is funding Islamic terrorists groups, this episode should clarify those doubts.