They have obviously gotten more organized since this began. And with 30 mil of funding now that is no surprise.
AFAIK the way it works is that they have inside men on the crews. What I don't get is why when everyone knows where the ships are being held the seals or equivalents are not sent in to mount a hostage rescue op and secure the ships release. Or why the ship owners themselves don't hire mercenaries to storm the ship rather than pay the ransom? Are these ships being wired to be scuttled at the 1st sign of an attack? http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-pirates31-2008oct31,0,564698.story Not Somalis but gives an insight in to how they operate: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/10/malacca-strait-pirates/pirates-text/1
What I don't understand is one machine gun one rocket launcher one trained individual would be enough to do a job. There is nowhere to hide at an open sea. I can't see how they would even be able to get close to the ship. Like with everything, international homo "community" can only whine and bitch. It's gonna be up to the U.S. to eventually waste these fuckers. Actually maybe not. A joke president-elect will probably want to talk them out of "doing baaad".
Maybe a country like Russia, China, Israel or Iran will be the victim one too many times, throw "international/diplomatic support" issues out the window and annihilate everyone that looks like a pirate in the immediate area.
Well we might as well get some oil while we are there right......? Maybe setup a government that agrees with ours??? Put a few people we like in power maybe??