Press Office
Somali pirates kidnap American writer
When an award-winning Californian surf journalist called Michael Scott Moore decided to take a break from the business of catching waves, he told friends that he intended to visit Somalia to write a book about the country's headline-prone professional pirates.
Little did Moore know exactly how hands-on the research projectwould get. Yesterday, he was identified as the latest unfortunateyoung American citizen to be kidnapped at gunpoint and held hostagein the African country's lawless northern region of Galmudug.
Officials believe that Moore was seized by a gang ofapproximately 15 gunmen last Saturday, on the road to Galkayoairport. The location is identical to the one where JessicaBuchanan, the 32-year-old freed by US Navy Seals last week, wasseized in October.
"With regard to a US citizen reportedly kidnapped in northernSomalia, we are concerned about this individual's safety andwell-being," said a State Department spokesman. "We have been incontact with the individual's family. We are also working with ourcontacts in Kenya and in Somalia to try to get moreinformation."
The Somalia Report website, a forum for Western journalists inthe country, said that his attackers were travelling in two largeSUVs. They took their victim into the jungle and are now believedto be holding him at Ceel Huur, a small village on the IndianOcean.
All of the kidnappers are members of the Sa'ad clan, who work aspirates under the leadership of an elder called Ali Duulaaye. Theyapparently suspect that Moore is a Western spy briefing hisgovernment about their activities, and are refusing to even startdiscussing his release until a ransom has been paid.
Moore's plight is only worsened by recent events in the region,where tensions have escalated following the dramatic dawn raid thatfreed Ms Buchanan and a fellow hostage, a 60-year-old Dane, PoulThisted. Eight pirates were killed during the operation, a tollthat will only add to the jumpiness of their survivingcolleagues.
The autonomous Galmudug region's president, Mohamed Alim,recently raised the political temperature by promising to fightpirates "with all we've got", and calling on Western governments tooffer military help.
Despite the fighting talk, he is reported to have attempted toopen peaceful negotiations to secure Moore's release early lastweek, but with no success. The amount of the ransom demanded by MrDuulaaye as a condition for talks beginning has not beenrevealed.
Ecoterra International, a human rights group operating inSomalia, says that it believes that Moore is being held with twoother men, one from Israel and another from the Seychelles. Theywere seized while travelling on a motor boat off the country'scoast earlier this year.
Moore is a native of Redondo Beach in Southern California, thelocation where surfing was first imported to the US mainland byGeorge Freeth in the early 20th century. Moore's first book, ahistory of the sport called Sweetness and Blood, was acclaimed byliterary critics and the surfing community alike and was one of TheEconomist magazine's books of the year in 2010.
He has spent recent years living partly in Germany, and is aneditor-at-large for Der Spiegel's online operation. During aninterview with The New York Times in 2010, he announced that hewould be writing the book on Somalia in conjunction with a novelabout surfing.
"I went to Africa late last year to write a series of articlesabout Somali pirates," he said. "A book about piracy has the sameappeal to me as the surf book: it has the same clash between hardfact and clichéd mythology. It would also involve a great deal oftravel."
Despite the success of the dramatic rescue mission carried outthis week, US officials were briefing yesterday that it is atpresent highly unlikely that they will attempt to liberate Moore ina similar fashion to Ms Buchanan. A source told NBC News thatoperations occur on a "case-by-case basis", but that, as a rule,the US military is "not in the business of hostage rescues".
