NATO turns victory into defeat

NATO warships scored a victory over Somali pirates last week. Sort of.

Seven Somali pirates attacked a Norwegian-flagged tanker. The ship thwarted the pirates' attempted boarding and alerted anti-piracy patrols in the area. Portuguese, Canadian and American ships and helicopters arrived on the scene, pursued the fleeing pirates, and after a seven-hour chase caught up with them. The pirates threw their weapons into the sea and surrendered.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the pirates were promptly released to return to their bases. Re-armed and re-supplied, they may even now be carrying out another attack on world shipping.

NATO apparently has no governing legal authority to arrest, try or punish Somali pirates.

"When a ship is part of NATO," a spokesman said, "the detention of persons is a matter for the national authorities. It stops being a NATO issue and starts being a national issue."

Well, that certainly clears that up. But if that's what the law says, then, in Mr. Bumble's deathless prose from "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens, "the law is a ass."

What a pretty pass international lawyers have gotten us into. This year alone, pirates have staged more than 80 attacks in Somali and adjacent waters. And they still hold hundreds of hostages.

Everyone knows the steps that need to be taken to end the scourge of Somali piracy. Pirate bases ashore (there are but a few) should be attacked, and everything that floats in them should be destroyed. Sea-based "mother ships" should be re-captured or sunk.

The old law of the sea that considered pirates common offenders against mankind should be restated in unmistakable terms.Giving them a free pass to resume their criminal behavior is, in a word, nuts.