Blood-quickening, well-researched Wash Post story about high-seas piracy. Required reading for anyone who describes file-traders as “pirates.”

Modern pirates are terrorizing cargo vessels for many of the same reasons as their rum-chugging, peg-legged predecessors: financial desperation and a sense of impunity. Most Asian countries have not fully recovered from the economic crash that began four years ago. Armed insurgencies, particularly in Indonesia and the Philippines, have distracted naval and coast guard units. And despite a raft of maritime treaties, international waters still are the no man’s land of the global economy.

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