>To constitute the crime of piracy, the illegal acts must be
>committed for private ends....acts otherwise constituting
>piracy done for purely political motives, as in the
>case of insurgents not recognized as belligerents, are not piratical.
>
>http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/pirates.htm
Mass murder is scarcely a "nonprivate" or "purely political" act. The motivation for the act of 11 September last, as proven by the document left behind by the pirates, included religious elements and thus is also not "purely" political. The preparation for the piratical act included international travel, money transfer, and communication-- all involving spaces outside any national jurisdiction.
Moreover, the only documents cited on the FAS page include: "International law has long recognized a general duty of all nations to cooperate in the repression of piracy. This traditional obligation is included in the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas and the 1982 LOS Convention, both of which provide: "[A]ll States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State." If piracy could by definition only occur exclusively "on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State" that phrase would be redundant and the sentence cited would have consisted only of "[A]ll States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy."
Shane Mage
Écrasez l'infâme!
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