MV Faina: The Rest of the Story

On September 25th, 2008 Somali pirates hijacked the Ukrainian-operated, Belize flagged vessel MV Faina with 21 crew off the coast of Somalia. The hijacking came with interesting news, specifically that the vessel was carrying 33 T-72 tanks.

At the time news media reported pirate sources on the ground in Somalia that these tanks were to be unloaded in Kenya with a destination in South Sudan. A few days later Kenya claimed the tanks were there.

The New York Times, as part of their Wikileaks coverage, has uncovered the true story. I am still very unclear regarding the rules for federal employees, military personnel, and government contractors as it relates to exposure to Wikileaks cables on media sites like the New York Times website, but as long as you don't click the "Related Documents" links to the original cables on the left side of the articles webpage you will be OK just reading the story.