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2009-04-21 -Lurid Crime Tales-

Somali Pirate Arrives in NYC to Face Charges

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Posted by Free Radical 2009-04-21 08:57|| || Front Page|| [11139 views ] Top

#1 The Associated (with Pirates) Press is rallying to his defense:

The Somali teenager accused of participating in the hostage-taking of an American ship captain was on his first pirating mission, his father said early Tuesday.

Abdiqadir Muse (AHB'-dih-KAH'-dir moo-SAY') told The Associated Press that his son had been outside the family's home in Galka'yo (GOCK'-ahl-ya) town in Somalia when armed pirates came to get him.

His son, Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse (AHB'-dih-WAH'-lee AHB'-dih-KAH'-dir moo-SAY'), left with the pirates about a week and a half before he surrendered to the U.S. Navy and ship captain Richard Phillips was rescued on April 12, he said.

Muse said by telephone through an interpreter with the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center that the pirates lied to his son, telling him they were going to get money. The family is penniless, he said.

"He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into," Muse said.

He gave his son's age as 16, which the boy's mother had previously said. A law enforcement official said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.

Muse called his son a good boy and a "very well-disciplined young kid." He had been going to an Islamic school at the time he left with the pirates, Muse said.

The teenager is in custody in New York awaiting a Tuesday court hearing where he is expected to face piracy and hostage-taking charges.

Posted by Seafarious 2009-04-21 10:32|| 2009-04-21 10:32|| Front Page Top

#2 Make sure the pirate's clan hires a top lawyer. Drain them so bad that they realize real piracy begins with a law degree.

Posted by ed 2009-04-21 10:38|| 2009-04-21 10:38|| Front Page Top

#3 Ron Kuby is an admitted Communist who defended El Sayyid Nosair, the Egyptian terrorist who assasinated a rabbi in NY in 1990. Got him acquitted, too. Judge in the case said it was "a rape of this country, of our Constitution, and of our laws".

Nosair was later convicted for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Last year, Kuby was hired by AirAmerica to replace Randi Rhodes. My guess is he'll take the case on a pro bono basis.

Posted by Zorba Craising6734 2009-04-21 12:19|| 2009-04-21 12:19|| Front Page Top

#4 Ron Kuby, huh?
Thst's why you shoot these bastards...

Posted by tu3031 2009-04-21 12:35|| 2009-04-21 12:35|| Front Page Top

#5 Oooooh....Mystery!

Another Associated (with Pirates) Press affair:

Mystery surrounds Somali pirate's personal life

At home in central Somalia, Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse studied English, frequented a dusty, outdoor cinema after school where he watched Bollywood films dubbed into his native Somali and, his mother says, "was wise beyond his years."

The neighborhood where he grew up in the central Somali town of Galkayo is one of small homes with corrugated iron roofs, and no running water or electricity.

Now Muse the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain is a world away in New York City to face what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century. He smiled but said nothing Tuesday as he was led into a federal building under heavy guard.

"The last time I saw him he was in his school uniform," the teen's mother, Adar Abdirahman Hassan, 40, told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday from her home in Galkayo. "He was brainwashed. People who are older than him outwitted him, people who are older than him duped him."

She said he was "wise beyond his years" a child who ignored other boys his age who tried to tease him and got lost in books instead.

"He took all his books the day he disappeared, except one, I think, and did not come back," she said, adding that she did not know which book he was reading Hassan is illiterate.

Muse's personal details are murky, with his parents in Somalia insisting he was tricked into getting involved in piracy. His age also remained unclear. His parents said he is only 16, but U.S. law enforcement said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.

Muse's mother said she has no records to prove his age, but she and the teen's father say he is 16. "I never delivered my babies in a hospital," she said. "A traditional midwife helped me deliver."

A classmate, however, said he believed Muse could be older and that he studied English at school.

"I think he was one or two years older than me, and I am 16," said Abdisalan Muse, reached by telephone in Galkayo. "We did not know him to be a pirate, but he was always with older boys, who are likely to be the ones who corrupted him."

It is rare for Somalis to have formal birth records, and U.S. officials did not say on what basis they believe him to be 18 or older.

The teenager was flown from Africa to New York, where he was being charged under two obscure federal laws that deal with piracy and hostage-taking, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.

Muse grew up poor in a one-room home, the eldest child of a divorced mother, in one of the most impoverished, violent countries in the world. A nation of around 8 million people, Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991. A quarter of Somali children die before age 5 and nearly every public institution has collapsed.

Muse's mother sells milk at a small market every day, saving around $6 every month for school fees for her oldest son. She pays 15 dollars a month in rent.

"I cried when I saw the picture of him," Hassan said, referring to the photo of her son being led in handcuffs in New York. "Relatives brought a copy of the picture to me. Surely he is telling himself now, 'My mother's heart is broken.'"

She said the last time she saw her son in person, she was pushing him out the door so he would not be late for school.

Since that day weeks ago, he simply disappeared. Asked why she believed he left, Hassan was at a loss.

"A young man, at his age, could say he needed money, perhaps," she said. "I used to give him his school fee because I could not afford more than that. But of course he needed money."

Posted by Seafarious 2009-04-21 12:57|| 2009-04-21 12:57|| Front Page Top

#6 The teenager's arrival came on the same day that his mother appealed to President Barack Obama for his release. She says her son was coaxed into piracy by "gangsters with money."

"I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial," Adar Abdirahman Hassan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Galka'yo town in Somalia.

The age and real name of the young pirate remained unclear. The mother said he is only 16 years old and is named Abdi Wali Abdulqadir Muse. The law enforcement official says he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to put him on trial in a U.S. court.

His worried family asked the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center to help get him a lawyer, said the organization's executive director, Omar Jamal.

"What we have is a confused teenager, overnight thrown into the highest level of the criminal justice system in the United States out of a country where there's no law at all," Jamal said. Wali-i-Musi speaks no English and may never have attended school, he said.

The suspect was taken aboard a U.S. Navy ship shortly before Navy SEAL snipers killed three of his colleagues who had held Capt. Richard Phillips hostage.

Posted by Seafarious 2009-04-21 13:08|| 2009-04-21 13:08|| Front Page Top

#7 I don't think that there is much doubt. This kid struck gold!

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2009-04-21 13:10|| 2009-04-21 13:10|| Front Page Top

#8 I'd be interested in what the good captain and crew of the ship have to say about his conduct. Did anyone ask them?

Posted by CrazyFool 2009-04-21 13:23|| 2009-04-21 13:23|| Front Page Top

#9 When Abduhl was a little lad
He proved so brave and daring,
His father thought he'd 'prentice him
To some career seafaring.
I was, alas! his nurserymaid,
And so it fell to my lot
To take and bind the promising boy
Apprentice to a pilot

A life not bad for a hardy lad,
Though surely not a high lot,
Though Im a nurse, you might do worse
Than make your boy a pilot.

I was a stupid nurserymaid,
On breakers always steering,
And I did not catch the word aright,
Through being hard of hearing;
Mistaking my instructions,
Which within my brain did gyrate,
I took and bound this promising boy
Apprentice to a pirate.

A sad mistake it was to make
And doom him to a vile lot.
I bound him to a pirate you
Instead of to a pilot.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2009-04-21 15:36|| 2009-04-21 15:36|| Front Page Top

#10 and he whimpered like a little bitch upon his deliverance to justice. Brave, brave Jihadi pirate

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-04-21 21:09|| 2009-04-21 21:09|| Front Page Top

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