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This file photo released by the NATO on May 2, 2009 shows detained suspected pirates aboard the Portuguese Frigate Corte Real off the coast of Somalia on May 1, 2009, captured after foiling an attack on an oil tanker. The 19 were released after contacting Somali authorities. Pirates have been maligned for centuries, cursed as thieves and sea dogs, but according to one economist they in fact formed vanguard capitalist democracies, with constitutions, elections and even healthcare plans. With images of gun-toting Somali pirates recently emblazoned on the world's television screens, Peter Leeson, an economics professor at George Mason University outside the US capital, has set himself the unenviable task of salvaging pirates' reputations.
