Does Bill Cosby agree with Idi Amin henchman that 'brave' Somali pirates 'had no choice'?

 [From my 2009 Gun Rights Examiner article-- internal links may not work]

It would seem that, like other predators preferring prey that can't hunt them back, pirates respond rationally to a show of deadly force:

An Italian cruise ship carrying armed Israeli security guards successfully averted a hijacking attempt by Somali pirates late Saturday, according to multiple reports. The MSC Melody, which was carrying more than 1,500 people, opened fire on the speed boat when the six men armed with Kalashnikov rifles tried to put a ladder on the bow.

Some of us have been saying this would work for some time. I first wrote about in in 2002 for Guns and Ammo magazine. But I went a step further and recommended armed crews, not just special security teams. And it appears some fed-up Somalis are bearing this out:

Somali vigilantes captured 12 armed pirates in two boats after regional leaders in the coastal towns of Alula and Bargaal in Somalia’s northern Puntland region told the BBC that they have formed a militia of fishermen to catch the modern-day swashbucklers.

Naysayers to the contrary, it can be done. That is, if you don't first advocate citizen disarmament, and then if you don't actually take the side of the pirates.

Except we mustn't call them "pirates." Al Sharpton thinks "'voluntary coast guard'... may be more apt."

And then we have our good friends of recent days, The Black Star News (see here and here) who, through occasional columnist Bob Astles, defines them as:

...brave Somali fishermen; and make no mistake, they are very brave seamen and navigators. They had no choice but to take revenge on foreign shipping and earn a living by ransom demands.

No choice. The Man is holding them down. The surviving pir...uh...heroic mariner from the Maersk Alabama hijacking will, according to Astles, "make a gallant stand in front of America’s might and defend, in front of the watching world, the Somali fishermen’s reasons for disturbing trade vessels of the super powers."

"Disturbing."  What a nice, sanitary way to justify kidnappings and murder.  Never mind that the bold navigator's mother tells us:

[H]er son had been studying at an Islamic school when he was coaxed into piracy by “gangsters with money”.

“The last time I saw him he was in his school uniform,” she said. “He was brainwashed. People who are older than him outwitted him, people who are older than him duped him.

He simply had no choice but to "make a gallant stand," you see.

No one is arguing that there aren't very real problems with foreign fishing fleets in Somali waters. International conventions define territorial waters as 12 nautical miles, with another 12 nautical miles defined as a "contiguous zone" (for protection of customs and regulations), and an exclusive economic zone extending 200 nautical miles, where a nation controls economic resources, including fishing, oil drilling and the like. But the main problem lies with the fact that Somalia has not established itself as a stable region where legitimacy of claims can be validated by any objective standard.

So which warlord clan do you deal with, and what, besides a propensity to engage in mass murder, makes them legitimate representatives to authorize a licensing agreement?

A Taiwanese fishing vessel apprehended off northern Somalia in January 1998 was found to carry a licence of dubious legality, written on ex-Somali government letterhead and signed by a warlord in Mogadishu claiming to represent the previous Barre regime, and providing fishing access rights to demarcated areas of the Somali zone...A London-based licensing corporation was given access to waters from the Kenyan-Somali border to about 9 degrees north latitude. It is unknown who the London-based shareholders are in these companies, but it is alleged that five authorities or clan faction leaders along the Somali coast receive royalties from the corporation through these operations. Tensions are exacerbated among different Somali sub-regional administrations aware of this activity.

And how will dealing with any of these gangs, that is, providing the warlords with resources to help them tighten their oppressive grasp on power, result in freedom and prosperity for the Somali people? In truth, short of taking their territory over by force and backing one or more evil strongmen to the exclusion and bloody overthrow of the others, with the attendant civil war and Islamist insurgencies, choices to help are limited. If we give aid, it will be stolen by those in charge of their particular piece of turf and sold on the black market to further enrich them. The people will still be unfed and expendable. So who's up for volunteering for the UN force to go in and bring order? Are you willing to die to do that, or have your kid go? And are you willing to kill those who oppose this? Or do you expect a proxy to do it for you?

Besides which, fishing is a "small" part of the total Somali economy, and as we see from the "vigilantes" who arrested the "voluntary coast guard/very brave seamen and navigators," choices other than "revenge" are still possible.

Look, the whole argument is ridiculous. You don't revenge yourself on Chinese fishermen by going after an Italian cruise ship. Astles and his Black Star News admirers are simply engaging in excuse-making for thugs, thieves and murderers of the lowest order--something both are adept at.

In another life, Astles was known as the "white Rat," a trusted aide to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, and still his unapologetic defender:

He is unrepentant today about what he did and his friendship with one of the most evil men who ever lived. "I loved it," he says of that period of his life when he was at Amin's beck and call. "When my minister (Amin) asked me to do something, I'd do it. And I'd do it all again, definitely."

We're talking about giving unequivocal and enthusiastic approval and support to a monster:

...a man who, in the 1970's, had ordered the deaths of 300,000 of his countrymen, raped and robbed his nation into endless misery and admitted to having eaten human flesh...

We can extend this lunatic philosophy to the way the Black Star News similarly blames domestic murder on private gun ownership, a threat to predators at both the personal and societal level. By their logic, gangbangers are Minuteman Patriots, heroes of the hood. They only kill because they're exploited. And since it is just revenge and they have no other choice, it is our duty to understand, cooperate and support their "gallant stand."

Which seems to run contrary to everything I've ever heard come out of Bill Cosby about personal responsibility in the black community:

Cosby was clearly trying to connect with a message that black poverty would only end when and if black people themselves took responsibility for changing their lives. This was a very different message from the politics of guilt, where the message had been that white racism had placed barriers to African American progress, and these were the causes of racial injustice and inequality. Since the 1960s, many barriers had been removed; still the problem of black poverty persisted.

OK, but this seems like a non sequitur. The message is clear, but what the heck does Bill Cosby have to do with genocidal tyrant apologist Bob Astles, or the message promulgated by the Black Star News?

Just this. It's publisher/editor-in-chief, Milton Allimadi, proudly proclaims he "co-founded The Black Star News in 1997 with some savings and with seed money from Camille and Bill Cosby."

Since he bears partial economic investment responsibility for inflicting these people on us, and since the message they promote appears in direct contradiction to the one he preaches, I don't think it's out of line to ask Mr. Cosby if he wants to continue having his name associated with this paper. I think it's fair to ask him how he likes his "seed money" being used to poison minds in the community he is trying to help with this kind of obscene, hateful nonsense.  Because supporting Amin is obscene, as is showing public respect for and promoting the opinions of a twisted creature who does.

Here is a link to the official Cosby website. There is a "Contact Us" link on the bottom where you can include a link to this column, and ask his representative yourself.

Will you?