The Kenyan Army may be invading southern Somalia allegedly chasing “Somali pirates” yet the fact remains that zero cruise missiles, zero smart bombs and zero snatch and grab commando operations have been carried out against Somali pirates.

To this day not one Somali pirate has been killed on the ground in Somalia by the international naval flotillas in the Indian Ocean after receiving the ransoms they extract for the ships and crews they have captured.

With hundreds of ships seized, thousands of crewmen held in captivity, and by some estimates over half a billion dollars in ransoms paid to the Somali pirates so feared by seamen traveling through the Horn of Africa who clearly have immunity from the international naval task forces patrolling the Indian Ocean.

This immunity also seems to extend to the western media, for no one, not Jay Bahadur in the NY Times or the venerable USA magazine The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill whose CIA vetted junket to Mogadishu was heralded by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! as an “expose” have raised the obvious question, why do the Somali pirates have immunity from attack?

Maybe all the reporters covering the Horn of Africa have been inoculated with a vaccine to provide them with immunity from asking such a simple question, why hasn’t there been any retaliation against the Somali pirates?

As they say, “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist” to notice this, so maybe something is slipped into their inoculations immunizing them before they fly off to the Horn of Africa?

To those of us who actually follow the media based in the Horn of Africa, the answer has been obvious for sometime.

First, the Somali pirates are mainly based in the warlord controlled “autonomous” region calling itself Puntland, which occupies the very tip of the Horn of Africa. The warlord “President” of Puntland is well known for his alliance with and support from the Meles Zenawi regime ruling Ethiopia. Ethiopia has substantial military bases in Puntland and the leaders of Puntland are regularly reported to be welcome guests in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.

From on the ground in Puntland, Somalia;

Garowe Online (Garowe)
From Allafrica.Com: Somalia: Puntland President Meets With Ethiopian Foreign Minister
2 April 2010

The president of Somalia’s Puntland State government Dr. Abdirahman Mohammed Farole has held meeting with Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Minister Seyoum Mesfin in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The meeting which was held in Hotel Sharaton, where Puntland delegation is staying, was focused on relation between the two governments and the general security situation in Somalia.

According to press release from the Puntland Presidency, The meeting ended in good note with both parties reaffirming support.”

In Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa the Puntland warlords were seen shaking hands and embracing the top leadership of the Ethiopian regime though behind the scenes it is reported that suitcases stuffed with cash are delivered to Ethiopian V.I.P.’s and nasty quarrels break out over the amount of cash forked over.

A couple of years ago a Saudi Arabian newspaper published what is common knowledge amongst those in the know here in the Horn of Africa.

In an interview with the Eritrean Minister of Information (everything published in Saudi Arabia has to be cleared by the Saudi Intelligence services before publication so this reflected the unofficial position of the Saudi government) it was disclosed that Somali pirates were known to go directly to Ethiopian military bases in Puntland upon receiving their ransom payments.

Once they make their payoffs to the Ethiopians they are immune from attack for Ethiopia is the USA’s policeman on the beat in East Africa and as such their military is off limits to any attack by the international naval flotillas fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean.

With drones flying overhead sending live video feed via satellites to military attack controllers in the USA it is known exactly where these pirates go after receiving their ransom payments so ignorance is not an explanation for the immunity these pirates have.

Suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars buys immunity for the half a billion dollar piracy business in the Horn of Africa and is all to typical of how much of what passes for business is carried out in Africa as a whole.

This has been common knowledge amongst well informed observers in the Horn of Africa for years now and is the only reality based explanation for the absolute on the ground immunity that has protected the Somali pirates based in Puntland for over a decade now.

You pay, you play though those few poverty stricken Somali desperadoes caught in the act of piracy on the high sea’s remain sacrificial lambs, held up for the world to see that there really is a war against piracy in the Horn of Africa.

As I have said many times, truth is stranger than fiction when it comes to the Horn of Africa. That the Somali pirates have absolute immunity on the ground after receiving their ransoms is beyond dispute. The only important question remaining is why this immunity extends to the international media?

By Thomas C. Mountain

Thomas C. Mountain is the only independent western journalist in the Horn of Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain at yahoo dot com.

Map of Puntland

The Somalia Semi-autonomous state of Puntland has said yesterday that it will no longer recognize Mogadishu as the capital of Somalia. Puntland’s Minister for Justice Abdi Hassan Jimale, said that henceforth, Puntland as a state of Somalia does not pay allegiance to Mogadishu. Mr. Abdi Hassan Jimale said that the relationship that exists between the TFG and the Puntland government does not favour the TFG accord that states Somalia constitution will be drafted in Puntland.

According to the agreement signed in Galka’yo will make Puntland “a base for counter-piracy operations, host the process of drafting federal constitution, and receive 25% of the education funds allocated for Somalia including scholarships. It also allows Puntland to participate in international conferences on Somalia alongside TFG officials, enter into agreements with international agencies and commercial deals with foreign companies until Somalia’s federal constitution is passed and approved in a public referendum.”

President Sharif did not oppose this agreement in public but his former Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia members in TFG cabinet and parliament, criticised the agreement because they think such an agreement will make the TFG a powerless entity beholden to Puntland. Puntland’s main argument is that it has laid the foundations for self-rule that will provide the basis for a federal Somalia, and that it financed the TFG before the international community support for the TFG started to flow.

Flag of Puntland

Puntland sent a chunk of the revenue from Bosaso Port to Baydhabo when Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, was president of the TFG in the hope of entrenching Puntland in the future Federal Somalia structure. That dream was dashed when the international community put pressure on the former TFG president to resign, paving the way for a new TFG, and an expanded parliament. Puntland’s financial support for the TFG affected Puntland institutions negatively. For instance, for many months security forces of Puntland did not receive salaries, that had severe damaging impact on the morale of members of the forces.

Abdulaziz Billow
Afrobeatradio East Africa Correspondent, Somalia

The president of the semi-autonomous region Abdirahman Mohamed Farole also said that his forces captured some of the al-Shabab fighters and were now in their custody. He vowed to defend peace in the region from Al-Shabab and other terrorist groups. He also vowed to capture the group’s new leader Sheikh Mohamed Atam who has led the attack since Monday morning.

The president accused the radical militant group of Al-Shabab of trying to grab the mountains in Puntland and the areas bordering the Gulf of Aden so the extremist can ship more foreign fighters into bullet riddled Somalia. At least two members of Puntland’s security forces were also killed in the clashes in the mountains near Galgalo.

Puntland is semi-autonomous from the rest of Somalia but is allied to the embattled, UN-backed government in Mogadishu. Meanwhile, fresh fighting also broke out in the north and south of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Somalia has been without a functional government since 1991 after warlords toppled Siad Bare’s regime leading to an all out war and the emergence of dangerous rebel groups like Al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam.

News Report By Abdulaziz Billow
Abdulaziz Billow is AfrobeatRadio’s correspondent for East Africa.