Pirate's day in court: 'The rule of law'

by Mark Silva

A captured pirate gets his first day in federal court today, but who will ahrrrrg-ue his case?

This is part of that "rule of law'' that President Barack Obama was talking about in his appearance at the CIA this week, standing before an audience of about 1,000 - many who looked remarkably young, he noted - in front of the agency's wall of honor, with 89 stars for agents fallen in the line of duty. "Our nation is stronger and more secure when we deploy the full measure of both our power and the power of our values,'' Obama told the agents "-- including the rule of law.''

If the CIA is "the tip of the spear,'' as the president also said, then the military is the shaft of that spear, and it was some of the U.S. military's finest, the Navy SEALs, who took out the three remaining pirates who were holding Richard Phillips, captain of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama, hostage in a lifeboat off the coast of Somalia and rescued Phillips. One of the pirates already had given himself up to the crew of the USS Bainbridge, a teenager no less, and this is the one who appears in court today, at the base of the American spear.

The task that the nation's military and intelligence community faces has dramatically changed since the advent of the CIA in a Cold War era., "Here in the 21st Century, we've learned that the CIA is more important than ever,'' Obama told his audience at agency headquarters in Langley, Va., at the George Bush Intelligence Center, named for the 41st president and former CIA director. "We face a wide range of unconventional challenges: stateless terrorist networks like al Qaeda, the spread of catastrophic weapons, cyber threats, failed states, rogue regimes, persistent conflict, and now we have to add to our list piracy. ''

Today, the Somali teenager arriving in federal court in New York is believed to be the first to face piracy charges in the United States in more than a century.

Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the sole surviving Somali pirate from the foiled attack on the Alabama and hostage-taking of the ship captain, apparently faces charges under two obscure federal laws involving piracy and hostage-taking. e arrived with a chain around his waist and a dozen federal agents surrounding him.

Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, says 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. He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age."

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."

""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," 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. The family is penniless, he said.

""He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into," Muse said in a separate telephone interview with the AP through an interpreter - saying also that this was his son's first outing with the pirates.

The young pirate's age and real name remained unclear. His parents say he is only 16. Law enforcement authorities say 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.

His family also has asked the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center to help get him a lawyer, according to the executive director, Omar Jamal.
"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, noting that Muse speaks no English.
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Starting today, it appears, a young Somali pirate will start learning a new language, about the "rule of law.''