Pirate State

February 28, 2011
Veteran journalist Eichstaedt's (First Kill Your Family) compelling book, based on his extended African visits, portrays a country in chaos, torn about by tribal fighting, corruption, and the violence of desperate people fighting for survival. Beginning with the dramatic re-telling of Maersk Alabama's capture by a small group of pirates and its eighteen year old leader, Eichstaedt then discusses the tiered payment system for the pirates and the countless individuals vying for the million dollar ransoms. Although piracy began in response to the usurpation of Somalia's fishing waters by larger foreign vessels, it quickly became a money-making operation generating a "total ransom purse " of $82 million in 2009. We see interviews with the Somali refugees who fled from a camp in Kenya, and we see the devastating effects of piracy on ordinary citizens. The book includes an analysis of the UN efforts to end piracy, the hijacking of humanitarian food supplies, and even the expansion of criminal networks into other countries. Eichstaedt recognizes that Somalia's pervasive poverty and illiteracy pose major obstacles to change. His even-handed polished style, and impressive documentation let the horrors and ramifications of piracy speak for themselves. The only quibble is that an additional map of Africa is sorely needed.

August 1, 2010

Veteran journalist Eichstaedt (First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army, 2009, etc.) explores the murky waters of Somali piracy.

In the seas around the Horn of Africa, which form the coast of troubled and fractured Somalia, pirates attack ships on a near-daily basis, and often successfully hold craft and crew for expensive ransoms. Who are these pirates and what are their motivations? Eichstaedt traveled to East Africa in search of answers, and what he discovered depended on who he talked to. The simplest answer may be that "[i]n a deeply divided, impoverished, and lawless land, the lure of piracy was virtually irresistible." Decades of civil war robbed young male Somalis of hope and work. Under such circumstances, attacking a giant tanker in a small skiff made sense, and some suggested that piracy had evolved "into a sophisticated and well-organized industry." Piracy on this scale, writes the author, must have clandestine backers, funding from other African and Islamist states that travels in and out of Somalia through the secretive global hawala system of money transfers. Most ominous may be the ties between pirate groups and the radical Islamist militia, al-Shabaab, which now controls southern Somalia. Ransom money may be used to purchase weapons for the group, and pirates may be engaged in gun-running for them. If so, writes Eichstaedt, the stakes are higher, as al-Shabaab becomes both a regional danger—especially to neighboring Kenya, which houses a refugee camp with 300,000 Somalis—and a global threat. The author admits that much remains unclear, but he returns often to the theme of piracy as an outcome of poverty and lawlessness. These conditions are not inevitable, and he concludes with precise recommendations for how the international community might end piracy and rebuild Somalia.

Clear, expert reporting on a region of which many Americans may be unaware.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 15, 2010
In 2009 when Somali pirates hijacked the U.S. ship Maersk Alabama and kidnapped the captain, the U.S. began to pay more attention to a region that the nation had ignored since its 1993 humiliation in the Battle of Mogadishu. Illegal fishing and depletion of fish supplies, as well as dumping of hazardous wastes off the coast of Somalia, had for some time prompted fishermen to turn to piracy. The enterprise had grown from impulsive acts of ragtag bands to highly organized, well-financed missions tied into gun-running for extremist Islamist militia as Somalia continued to struggle with a lack of organized government. Journalist Eichstaedt interviewed pirates in prison and refugee camps, their friends and family, piracy negotiators, and those enlisted to stop the piracy for a wide perspective on the problems of poverty and lack of order that have led to illegal enterprises. Eichstaedt explores the connections between the pirates and extremist groups that control southern Somalia, itching to make the area a base for global jihad. Photographs enhance this well-researched, compelling look at modern piracy, the threat to international shipping, and the impact on global terrorism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)