flag, not a fishing trawler, and it was carrying mostly humanitarian aid bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa. It was obviously a cargo ship flying a U.S. In fact, the Maersk Alabama was attacked in international waters, 240 nautical miles (440 km) from the coast of Somalia. In any case, Abdulkadir told a New York court that he was 18 before pleading guilty to hijacking, kidnapping and hostage taking.īut the bigger distortion is the characterization of the Maersk Alabama hijacking as a legitimate response to illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters. His mother and father gave different years for his birth - 19, respectively. Federal Bureau of Prisons lists his age as 31, which would have made him about 19 at the time of the hijacking. authorities claimed Muse gave them several different ages at different times, but the U.S. (His full name is Abdiweli Abdulkadir Muse.) There is conflicting information about Abdiweli Abdulkadir’s age. The portrayal of the ship’s hijackers as “defending” Somali waters is false. “When Abdiweli was arrested in 2009, his face was plastered on television like he was some sort of big criminal when in reality he was just a 16-year-old kid from the Somali coast that was forced to take up arms after his livelihood was destroyed due to illegal Foreign fishing.”Īlthough poverty, illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping in Somali waters are real issues, they had little to do with the Maersk Alabama incident. His only crime was taking up arms and defending his seas from Foreign vessels and trawlers looting Somali waters.” He was just 16 and vilified in the press as a pirate. “Never forget the story of Abdiweli Abdulkadir. Phillips’ saga was made into a 2013 movie, “ Captain Phillips,” starring actor Tom Hanks. court and sentenced to 33 years in prison. The Halgan Media thread focuses on one of the surviving hijackers, Abdiweli Abdulkadir, who was tried in a U.S. The ship’s captain, Richard Phillips, was held hostage in a lifeboat before being rescued by the U.S. On April 29, Halgan Media, which describes itself as “providing in-depth coverage on the Somali Peninsula,” posted a thread on Twitter marking 11 years since the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship off the coast of Somalia in 2009.
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