Interview
Michael Scott Moore: Kidnapped - A Story of Survival
- Michael Scott Moore anticipates his book The Desert and the Sea will emerge as a narrative about a reporting mission that turned disastrous, with the concept originating from a 2011 pirate trial in Germany where he observed outdated laws reflecting the post-WWII founding of the modern German state.
- Moore plans to relocate to Berlin following the publication of his first novel and predicts the resurgence of piracy off Somalia in the mid-2000s was a direct result of the lack of a serious central government for several years.
- After deciding to travel to Somalia during the trial to investigate alongside colleague Ashwin Raman, Moore expects to find a guide and secure protection by becoming the guest of a local clan, though he anticipates pirates were lying in wait with a truck of roughly 12 gunmen.
- The narrative predicts Raman escaped safely via a separate flight to Mogadishu, while Moore was bundled into an SUV, subjected to beatings with Kalashnikovs that broke his glasses and wrist, and subsequently held by the pirate group.
- Moore expects to be the only Western writer held on a ship hijacked by Somali pirates, anchored near Hobyo during the summer of 2012, where he joined a captive crew of approximately 28 men from East Asia.
- While on the ship, Moore predicts pirates would preserve tuna on ice, carve it with power saws, and prepare it with Chinese food, while simultaneously holding his notes stolen since the first day of captivity.
- Financial expectations include an initial pirate demand of $20 million which lowered after 10 months to $19.8 million, with the final ransom settled at approximately $1.6 million after the media silence was broken by Moore's mother and support from several magazines.
- The account details a rescue attempt four days after capture that was successful for two other hostages but resulted in the deaths of about nine Somalis, leading to increased paranoia among the captors who believed they were being observed by the Navy.
- Moore anticipates the pirate guard team, potentially led by an individual named Boschko who was unaware of U.S. policy for 18 months, would threaten to go on strike after two months without pocket money and eventually sell him to Al-Shabaab or other gangs.
- The summary covers U.S. policy nuances, noting that while the government maintains a no-ransom stance, private payments by families are legal, and Moore predicts this policy does not effectively deter kidnappings due to confusion and the lack of special operations capacity in many regions.
- Post-captivity, Moore predicts he will fulfill his vow to surf by Thanksgiving, catching a few waves despite a lack of surf, though he expects to be exhausted, while also noting the mythology surrounding Mogadishu stems from the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" incident.
- The outlook addresses legal contexts, contrasting the potentially hung sentence for piracy in America with commuted terms of 36 years, and the lenient German laws, while Moore expects the business of piracy to shift toward targeting larger ships as regional governors attempted to enforce fishing rules.
- Media strategy involved Der Spiegel asking outlets like the New York Times to refrain from publishing the story, relying on Moore's mother's decision, though Moore believes publicizing hostage cases is vital when governments fail to act, and that a consistent policy of saving hostages would require accurate intelligence and capable special forces.