Russia says that the pirates they captured have all died somehow...

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After capturing 10 Somali pirates, Russian special forces commandos said that they let them go due to "imperfections" in international law that would have complicated their trial in Russia.

It is so sad, but somehow all the pirates died on the way back to Somalia in their little boat.

An unidentified high-ranking Russian Defense Department official told Russian news agencies the pirates' boat disappeared from Russian radar about an hour after their release.

"They could not reach the coast and, apparently, have all died," the official said.

The statement was met with skepticism, especially in light of a comment made by the Russian president.

"We'll have to do what our forefathers did when they met the pirates" until the international community comes up with a legal way of prosecuting them, Dmitry Medvedev said on the day the ship was stormed.

This is not what happened.  I swear!

The Russians always seem to know how to handle this kind of stuff:

When Islamic fundamentalists kidnapped four Soviet diplomats in Beirut on 30 September 1985, at the height of the foreign hostage crisis in Lebanon, and demanded Moscow press its client state Syria to stop shelling Sunni Muslim militiamen in the northern port of Tripoli, the KGB responded with characteristic vigour.

After clandestine negotiations failed to secure the men's release, Soviet agents grabbed half a dozen fundamentalists in West Beirut and reportedly sliced off a few of their fingers, sending the severed digits to the fundamentalist leadership with the message: "Release our people or you'll get your people back piece by piece."

As I recall, the scuttlebutt at the time was that it was not fingers, but another anatomical part that was severed.

The Russians were released immediately, but several American captives languished for years.
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