Connections to 18th Century Barbary?

Michael Oren in today's Wall Street Journal tries to connect the Somali pirates with the barbarous Morrocan pirates from the late 18th-century, but the analogy does not seem analogous. The Somali pirates of today have not attacked or captured any American ships, and they seem to care little to none about the political/religious/ethnic affiliations of the ships and tankers they are capturing...

In related news, the pirates released a Greek tanker, with all 19 of the ship's crew kept safe, after the ship's management company paid the pirates' ransom.

Also, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Friday that they are not negotiating with pirates and would not do so, but that what the oil tanker's owners did was up to them.

The same day, a radical Islamic group in Somalia (the same one fighting for power in Mogadishu) said ships belonging to Muslim countries should not be seized and that it would fight the pirates holding the Saudi supertanker.

Cmdr. Jane Campbell of the U.S. Navy's 5th fleet in Bahrain, said hijacked ships are docked in four or five ports along Somalia's coastline. Roughly 330 merchant mariners from 25 different countries are being held hostage, she said.

Also of note: Roughly 11% of the world's seaborne petroleum passes through the Gulf of Aden (off the coast of Somalia), where NATO, the United States, Russia, India, Malaysia and Denmark have warships patrolling.