There’s a new twist to the Maersk Alabama’s drama on the high seas. Like something straight out of Training Day, the Navy is investigating whether its own team of seal snipers or members of an international anti-piracy task force, or Maersk crew members themselves have anything to do with the disappearance of $30,000 taken from the ship after it was hijacked by pirates in April. The pirates had pilfered the cash from the Maersk’s safe and brought it back to their lifeboat, but it was, mysteriously, never recovered after three of the pirates were killed. We’re not ready to say there was any foul play involved maybe an opportunistic seagull grabbed the huge chunk of cash, or it drifted away unnoticed when the lifeboat was carelessly hoisted out of the water but if anyone is found to have stolen it, we think it would be great for the legal defense of Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the lone surviving pirate. Clearly, there is some unstoppable, mystical force in the waters off the coast of Somalia that seduces ordinarily law-abiding people into committing acts of piracy. If even a team of highly train Navy seals can’t resist its lure, should we really expect a poor “boy who fishes” to able to?
BEYOND THE CALL OF BOOTY [NYP]
