The situation with the pirates off the coast of Somalia must be one of the more bizarre stories floating around the world these days. Indeed, it can be hard to decide who the real pirates are; perhaps there are pirates and there are pirates.

An article by Jeffrey Gettleman in the New York Times of Sep 30th, 2008, Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money is truly strange. Some highlights from this article:

- Somali fishermen turned to piracy when their nation collapsed and foreign fishing fleets started plundering their coasts.

- A bunch of Somali pirates stumbled on a shipment of arms, including Russian tanks and antiaircraft guns, destined for Kenya. These pirates are asking for a negotiable sum of USD$20 million to release the ship and say they just want the money, not the weapons. There may have been a gun fight between pirates on the ship. ("Dude. get your hands off my tank or I'll pop you like Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan! ... This is my tank, go get your own friggin' tank!")