Hostage takers could face charges in U.S. courts

The standoff between hostage-taking pirates and a U.S. Navy warship looks like a military showdown, but as a matter of law, it's more like the aftermath of a bank robbery gone bad.

Whether a U.S. citizen is taken hostage at a bank or on the high seas, federal authorities can claim the authority to capture suspects and prosecute them in U.S. courts.

That means the Somali pirates holding a U.S. cargo ship captain hostage might have to answer to the FBI. U.S. law applies to any crime committed aboard a U.S. ship, or aboard any ship when the victim is a U.S. citizen.

The most common criminal investigation launched in international waters involves assaults committed aboard cruise ships, then-Assistant FBI Director Chris Swecker told Congress in 2005.

The U.S. military has agreed to transfer captured pirates to Kenya, but that agreement never has been used in cases involving piracy against a U.S. ship. Attorney General Eric Holder was noncommittal when asked whether the Justice Department would try to prosecute pirates in the U.S. after this standoff.

If the pirates are captured at sea, it will be much easier for U.S. authorities to prosecute. If the pirates make it back to Somalia, things get murkier because the U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Somalia.

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Private shipping companies generally have preferred to pay ransom rather than to arm their ships and engage in gunfights with pirates on the high seas. Doing so, the logic goes, would create a more violent situation.

The companies also are motivated to keep their ships unarmed by a concern the pirates seem to understand: money.

Putting armed guards on ships could trigger an array of legal and financial trouble for shipping companies. They might not be granted access to certain ports, for instance, and arms on a ship sharply escalate the cost of insurance. Paying ransom still is cheaper than insuring a heavily armed ship.

"For now, this is a sustainable business for the pirates," said Ken Menkhaus, an expert on Somalia and the piracy epidemic off its coast. "Everyone's doing a cost-benefit analysis."