A Bluff?

Somalian pirates are all over the news in recent weeks. I've been wondering why various high-tech navies in the region can't do anything about it? This segment from the Times of London, about the massive Saudi oil tanker that had been hijacked, had me wondering:

None of the governments that have sent warships to the region seems willing to use force to free the supertanker, preferring instead to see the matter settled by ransom negotiations. Both the US Navy Seals and Britain’s M Squadron, the Special Boat Service’s maritime counter-terrorist unit, have the expertise and training to infiltrate a hijacked ship covertly. “The risks are just too great,” said Lee Willett, a maritime security expert at the Royal United Services Institute. “I don’t think there is a real military option. It’s now more a matter of negotiating the size of the ransom.”

This sounds to me like a massive bluff. "Negotiating the size of the ransom?" Bull. If you are going to go in, you don't warn them in advance.

UPDATE: Pirates enjoy lavish lifestyle on the new Barbary Coast.