By Ross Balano, Midwest Voices Columnist
The threat to this country from Islamic radicals is not new. The first enemies of the new United States of America were the Barbary pirates.
A quick study of who they were and how the nation’s founders dealt with them should give us guidance in today’s war against terrorism.
The Barbary pirates, also called the Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates who preyed on Christian and other non-Muslim ships in the Mediterranean Sea, and in the West Atlantic and North Atlantic.
They captured ships for plunder and took the survivors as slaves.
In 1786 the U.S. ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson, and the ambassador to Britain, John Adams, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the ambassador to Britain from Tripoli.
Pirates had taken several American ships, sold everything on board and enslaved crews.
Jefferson and Adams asked Adja why his government was so hostile to American ships, since America had not provoked them.
The answer, as reported to the Continental Congress: “It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.
“He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.”
If this sounds familiar to you, it should. It is the same refrain that we hear from Islamic radicals today.
Back then there was no Israel/Palestine conflict. There was no Iraq war. There were no oil fields to fight over.
What excuse would today’s press have made for the actions of those Muslim pirates?
Almost every European country and the United States paid tribute to these pirates. This was extortion paid for the protection of ships and crews.
When Jefferson became president, he told Congress it would be better for the long term to defeat the pirates militarily rather than pay tribute.
After some serious and heated debate in Congress (there were pacifists back then as well), the U.S. Navy was born in March 1794. Six frigates were authorized, built and sent to protect the American shipping industry.
This act of standing up to the pirates led to the two Barbary Wars, the first from 1801 to 1805, and the second in 1815. The wars were hard-fought and expensive. American ships and lives were lost.
Jefferson persisted until victory was achieved. After 1815 the United States never paid tribute to the Muslim pirates again.
Finally, after the 1815 victory, the European countries decided that they needed to defeat the pirates in a similar fashion. This should sound familiar as well.
By 1830, the threat of the Barbary pirates was eliminated.
We should learn from history and not give in to terrorists. We need to keep up the fight until the threat is eliminated.
It would be safe to assume that Jefferson, as one of the founding fathers of our country, knew the intent of the Constitution.
Jefferson did not order the pirates arrested and brought to U.S. courts. No habeas corpus was given to them.
Last month five liberal Supreme Court justices ignored the lessons of history and the founding fathers by granting habeas corpus rights to terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. Surely this will result in American lives being lost.
I hope that when choosing a presidential candidate this year you will consider what kind of judges that candidate would nominate to the Supreme Court.
Ross Balano, of Kansas City, is a former business owner and current national accounts manager in the security and fire alarm field.
To reach Midwest Voices columnists, write to the author c/o the Editorial Page, The Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108. Or send e-mail to
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George Bush is NOT the re-incarnation of Thomas Jefferson
Apparently Scott Balano believes that the Barbary Pirates are the 19th century equivalent of Al-Qaeda and the George Bush is the 21st century equivalent of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson is not currently offering opinions about locking up prisoners indefinitely without judicial recourse, but you can get a pretty good idea where he stands from his writings. Start with the Declaration of Independence. George Bush's closest counterpart of that time is not Mr. Jefferson, but rather King George of England.
By the way, there are not five liberal members of the Supreme Court, unless you define liberal as anyone to the left of Attila the Hun. Republican presidents have selected seven of the current nine members, and while some of their nominations have turned out to be more moderate than expected, others are fiercely conservative. Even if there were five liberal members, their decision to limit the power of the federal government is a distinctly conservative action.
Steve Simon
Shhh! Genius at work
Keep it down, ladies. Barnacle Bill is hard at work documenting his next exciting thesis, that Pancho Villa's incursion into New Mexico is a clear precursor of the illegal immigration crisis of the present decade.
Balano history
I like the part about how Jefferson, elected President in 1801, told Congress it would be better to defeat the pirates than pay tribute. Then, somehow, 'After some serious and heated debate in Congress (there were pacifists back then as well), the U.S. Navy was born in March 1794. Six frigates were authorized, built and sent to protect the American shipping industry.'
I knew Jefferson had scientific interests and talent, but who knew about his time machine?
Since both Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison opposed Federalists in the first decade of the 19th century, I don't understand how they could agree with the thinking of Federalist Society jurists on the bench like Roberts and Alito (not to mention Scalia!) and others likely to be nominated by a Republican president.
Please read again Issy
Please read the column a second time. Never do I say that Jefferson was president when the navy was created nor do I say that Jefferson was the force behind its creation. That paragraph describing the creation of the navy was a historical fact added for background purposes.
As to the justices; I suppose you think that Jefferson and Madison would have approved of the four die-hard liberals on today’s court. Somehow I doubt that the founding fathers would have supported abortion and certainly they wouldn’t have wanted justices who would vote to ignore the second amendment as happened last month.
I guess we’ll never know for sure since the blueprints for Jefferson’s time machine were never found.
Ross Balano Midwest Voices 2008
Islamic Radicals
The Barbary Pirates were "Islamic radicals"? All this time I thought they were pirates who happened to be Islamic. Thanks for your thoughts. While you're on this roll Balano, I look forward to your next column explaining the virtues of 18th & 19th US solutions to labor (slavery) & voting (no girlz allowed)or indigenous rights (genocide).
Typical Balano baloney
I don't even know where to start with this one. He manages to use 18th century piracy as a justification for attacking one of our foundational guarantees of freedom and justice, the writ of habeas corpus.
Ross, why do you want to undermine American values and the rule of law? That's what bin Laden wants. Are you aligned with bin Laden?