Pirate Arrives in U.S.

NYTimes reported A Somali teenager arrived to face what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century, smiling

He is very happy. Even if sent to prison here, it is better than living where he lived, and he may be freed in the US by some stupid judge.

but saying nothing as he was led into a federal building under heavy guard. The teenager was flown from Africa to a New York airport on the same day that his mother appealed to President Barack Obama for his release. She said her son was coaxed into piracy by ''gangsters with money.''

Her poor little baby. He took the AK47 willingly, didn't he?

''I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial,''

She wants a free trip to the US too.

Adar Abdirahman Hassan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Galkayo town in Somalia. The boy's father, Abdiqadir Muse, said the pirates lied to his son, telling him they were going to get money.

And they tried. They got a bullet to the brain instead.

The family is penniless, he said. ''He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into,''

Did youraise him to know that it was wrong to take a gun and hold someone for ransom?

Muse said in a separate telephone interview with the AP through an interpreter. He also said it was his son's first outing with the pirates

What difference does that make? If he had shot the captain he would have been just as dead as if the pirate had more experience.

after having been taken from his home about a week and a half before he surrendered at sea to U.S. officials. The young pirate's age and real name remained unclear.

Which is why he should not have been brought here.

Court documents list his name as Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, which the boy's parents have said is incorrect. His parents said he is only 16; law enforcement said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.



''What we have is a confused teenager, overnight thrown into the highest level of the criminal justice system in the United States out of a country where there's no law at all,'' Jamal said.





Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said he has been in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the Somali suspect. ''I think in this particular case, there's a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas,'' said Kuby. ''This man seemed to come onto the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate.

While his three buddies were treatening to kill the captain if they did not get $2 million.

He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody

Would he have prefered a bullet to the brain like his three buddies got.

and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age.''

He never should have been brought to the US in the first place. He should have been given a choice between hanging and walking the plank.