More on pirates . . .

Why am I so bugged about the piracy off Somalia?

For one thing, Dale Brown and I have been writing about it for something like five years. We've seen it progress from (mostly) random acts of highway robbery to an organized activity yielding untold millions a year. The press talks about the pirates as motley collections of near homeless men. (I assume this is because of their sources; I doubt they've talked to any.) The truth is, most of these guys are being outfitted and run by highly organized bandits using high tech to make good their ransoms. Islamic terrorists and organized crime - hard to tell them apart here - are involved.

Beyond the shameless plug for our Dreamland series*, my point is this: if two fiction writers can figure this out, what's with the people who are actually paid to consider national and international security issues?

The way things are going, I expect that next the pirates will take over a bank and ask for a bailout.

* - They make an appearance in a couple of places; check out Satan's Tail, where one of our all time favorite characters, Captain Harold "Storm" Gale, makes his debut . . .
And speaking of plugs- yesterday's excerpts came from the Wall Street Journal.