http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/12/08/36456887.html
USA is against international anti-piracy court Andrei Ptashnikov <http://english.ruvr.ru/by_author/2259375/index.html> Dec 8, 2010 17:46 Moscow Time cid:[email protected] Pirate. Photo: EPA According to information from Washington, the US Department of State finds setting up an international tribunal for sea pirates inappropriate. Donna Hopkins, a Department of State representative, made the respective declaration. In her work she deals exactly with problems of the struggle against international piracy and guarantees of security in the world ocean. It means Donna Hopkins knows what she is talking about and, undoubtedly, this was not her personal viewpoint. She said that at present there was no need to create any international legal structure to punish sea bandits because it would take too much time and money. As Hopkins declared, the existing close cooperation between states, in particular, between the USA and Russia, is quite sufficient for solving the problem. In that case, it is logical to ask, why the piracy problem is still looming large. Only in the last few days, Somali pirates have captured two more cargo ships belonging to Bangladesh and Malaysia. In total, they are now holding over 20 ships and 500 sailors. Another question is how we can reconcile Hopkins' words with her boss Hillary Clinton's declaration made last year. No one disputes this. Exactly for this reason, it was decided to set up an international tribunal to try bandits and to punish them according to modern judicial principles. Recall that this initiative belongs to Russia and President Dmitry Medvedev once more confirmed its importance in his recent address to the Russian Federation Council. "We should more energetically develop international cooperation in the struggle against piracy. Establishing an international court dealing with pirates will help institute criminal proceedings against them. Until today, impunity remains the main driving force behind pirates." There are figures to prove this. In recent years, about 500 bandits were caught in the act. Over two thirds of them were released without punishment because there is no generally accepted legal base for doing so. Annual damage from pirates' activities exceeds $15 billion. This money is enough to set up more than one tribunal. And Mrs. Hopkins asserts there is no money for this. It will be cheaper to pool funds for a common cause once than to continue to suffer huge losses every year and pay pirates ransom on top of that. As the saying goes, a miser pays twice. and maybe three times. <http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/12/08/36456887.html> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
