If the Somali pirates are so desperate and impoverished how do they afford shoulder launch missiles and guns?

B0uncingMoonman@aol.com

It`s obviously a big operation, using `small` men. Someone or some big organization is probably funding them behind the scenes - and look at the huge ransoms they demand, and often get.

Jacob

probably stole them..they are pirates after all

Joel

In that region of the world, coming across old Russian built weaponry (AK-47, RPG-7 etc.) is cheap and easy.
They should probably just deal arms instead of hijacking ships, then people would just continue not to care about Africa.

mnbvcxz52773

Plenty of shipping companies have been paying them ransoms for several years now.
As for weapons initially, Somalia is led by several warlords, weapons were all over the country since it is still actually engaged in a civil war. They started off with diamond smuggling, then raiding small boats and trading slaves, now they moved up to ships that have largely un-armed for a long time now.

Also, in a lot of cases, they don't know the exact time and place of a ship, but they can look up routes and study patterns to figure out where traffic goes and then see who falls into the net. The pirates didn't know specifically that the Alabama would there, they just knew that ships travel that area, it could have been any ship, and I imagine if they knew it was a US ship beforehand, they would have had second thoughts.

Max Hoopla

The pirates have resources. It is the rest of the country that can't afford dirt.

Golden

well, they ar pirates after all. pirates have been known to steal.

but i'm inclined to agree with the bouncer guy. something about this we are not seeing. these people are organized and funded by someone. not a bunch of high school thugs out for a good time.

question: how did they know to head 250 miles out into the sea, to an exact location (and at the right time) to intercept a ship? how did they know there would be no security on board? answer: they knew because elements associated with the pirates advised them.

Good question. Probably the same way people get money for drugs and weapons. steal...or they could be backup up by organized crime...just a thought...

monkey3444

They stole them. How else?

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090411042704AAsGjfc

Apollo

Supplied by the CIA most likely.

B G

They got them from American gun shops and smuggled across the Mexican border. At least that's what the liberals said. "95% of all guns used in crimes are made in America and smuggled across the border into Mexico"

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