More Pirates

Now that the going ransom for ships seized by Somali pirates seems to be ~$1 million, it seems like there must be ways of fending them off. I would think that, for high-value ships (like the Saudi oil tanker), it would make sense to bring aboard a team of armed security guards who could stand around on deck conspicuously aiming their automatic rifles at anything that comes near the ship. A ship could take them on when it leaves port in the Gulf, and drop them off a couple weeks later at the Suez or in Capetown. The pirates seem to be operating purely for economic gain, so the mere presence of armed personnel would probably make it a lot less likely that pirates would take on a ship.

An interesting pirate-related point from my brother, who is currently on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea: although the Navy has a couple destroyers off the coast of Somalia, its official policy is that it is the responsibility of the country under whose flag a seized ship is sailing to deal with the pirates. Since no American ships have been hijacked, the US Navy is staying out of it.