Overview

This report examines modern day piracy. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade is going to look at a problem that is not a new problem on this planet. The Romans branded pirates outlaws of humanity, and they punished them severely, as did the British and certainly the U.S. In our country's early history, we forcefully, we very decisively confronted pirate attacks off the Barbary Coast. But today, we face a very different situation. Today, maritime piracy is booming without any credible deterrence, without the type of deterrence you saw at one point in time from the British Navy or from the U.S. fleet. Pirate "investors," as they call themselves, investors, who back attacks, span the globe. There are pirate investors in Europe, in the Middle East, and in Australia. Piracy has become a vast criminal enterprise. We must track down these criminals.