Open up a detention camp on Sylt? Damn. I’m impressed doch (after all). A German frigate actually stopped a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia and took nine suspects into custody the other day. These guys were considered suspect because German and American helicopter crews caught them attacking a merchant vessal and later when they got busted their rocket-propelled grenade launchers were still smoking pretty good here and there, even though they claimed they were just out fishing, I’m sure.

But what now? What does Germany do now with these icky yucky pirates? Hmmm, could it be that your problems just begin once you capture guys like this red-handed? It sounds familiar somehow, somewhere, sometimes.

“First, independent prosecutors in Hamburg need to decide whether the men should face trial in Germany. The German navy has given them all its evidence, and it is now up to them to say whether German interests were at stake during the attack. A specially convened commission, representing Germany’s Interior, Foreign, Defense and Justice ministries, met this week to discuss the legal status of the pirates — hitherto unchartered legal territory.”