re: #143 So?

When they say give me your money or I’ll blow the Captain’s head off or we’ll murder these hostages…these are terrorist actions. As is the invasion of a foreign vessel on the high seas. Let’s say these guys had airplanes and could do the same to commercial airliners, would you then call them sky pirates?

Terror may be involved in pirate’s action.
In the case of D.B. Cooper absolutely, or a simply hijacking of a bus (okay plane) to Cuba, that would be a hijacking nothing more.

However that was not the motivation of Islamists from Dawson’s Field to 9/11, effecting a political change was. The destruction killing is a tool to gain that end.

There is a difference. A terrorist would kill the crew and sink the ship in the Suez canal or blow an LNG tanker in New York Harbor.

The pirate wants money.

Therein lies the difference.