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SEALS. Plain and simple, SEALS. Kickin' Somali ass, and takin' pirate names.
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U.S. Navy snipers opened fire and killed three pirates holding an American captain at gunpoint, delivering the skipper unharmed and ending a five-day high-seas hostage drama on Easter Sunday.
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The pirates were pointing AK-47s at Capt. Richard Phillips and he was in "imminent danger" of being killed when the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge made the split-second decision to order his men to shoot, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.
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Phillips' crew, who said they had escaped the pirates after he offered himself as a hostage, erupted in cheers aboard their ship docked in Mombasa, Kenya. Some waved an American flag and fired flares in celebration. A lawn sign in the captain's hometown of Underhill, Vermont that read "Pray for Captain Phillips' release and safe return home" was changed to read, "Capt. Phillips rescued and safe."
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The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet said Phillips, 53, was resting comfortably after a medical exam on the San Diego-based USS Boxer in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. Gortney said the captain had been "tied up inside the lifeboat" over much of the ordeal.
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Schteveo
31 comments:
And my letter to the UN is expected to arrive tomorrow so they can condemn the pirates' actions in the harshest terms. That would have solved it with no bloodshed. Now I have to answer to France. It's Bush's fault, but rest assured, I will take the credit. teleprompter? where is my teleprompter?
They could have just shot the captain then only ONE life would have been lost rather than 3.
Nice to see they basically took my advice. (see last weeks thread)
oh who cares about this stuff, I want to hear about Bo, the new presidential dog
Bill,
I was, and am, with you on this one. Dead pirates are way less dangerous.
(no Yellow Beard jokes please)
After reading Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell I have a whole new respect for the SEALs
... and now the US Asks Where to Charge Captured Pirate
A couple snippets:
Both piracy and hostage-taking carry life sentences under U.S. law.
"We have multiple avenues," Gortney said at a Pentagon news conference conducted by telephone. "We could possibly bring him back here to the United States and try him since this was an American flag vessel."
He said prosecutors were also considering taking the pirate to Kenya, where the military has an agreement under which captured pirates will be tried. But that agreement has never been used following an attack on a U.S. ship.
makes you wonder if any of the old "Hanging for Pirates" laws sare still on the books...
I do believe that one of the few areas where the Constitution gives explicit criminal jurisdiction to the federal government is for crimes on the high seas. I do believe this qualifies.
Missy,
Did you see in the news last week that Marcus Luttrell's dog got murdered and what he did about it?
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_619891.html
Obviously, if the United States Navy hanged some eye-patched, peg-legged blackguard from the yardarm or made him walk the plank, pious senators would rise to denounce an America that no longer lived up to its highest ideals, and the network talking-heads would argue that Plankgate was recruiting more and more young men to the pirates' cause, and judges would rule that pirates were entitled to the protections of the U.S. Constitution and that their peg legs had to be replaced by high-tech prosthetic limbs at taxpayer expense.
I think we missed a HUGE opportunity here. If they had allowed the senior office afloat out there to open a sea court, we'd be done with Somali pirates attacking U.S. merchant ships.
The pirates on the beach are savvy with technology. They would have seen this pirate swinging from a yardarm (yes, they still exist)on CNN, and they would ever after stay away from our merchants.
It's the same way the USSR handled kidnapping in Beirut back when Terry Anderson was held.
The Lebanese kidnappers grabbed a Soviet Military Aide and issued a demand. The Russians ignored the demands. The day after the kidnapping, the Russians had delivered a burlap sack to the 2nd in command of the kidnappers. Inside the bag, was the dead commander of the kidnappers. News stories varied on the NUMBER OF PIECES he'd been cut into.
There were no more kidnappings of Russian, or Eastern Block personnel, in Beirut.
We should have hung this SOB and then told the whole world to kiss our sovereign, self-protecting, national ass.
this senseless killing of pirates must stop! Just because 4 pirates took one man hostage doesn't mean all pirates are bad. You must not judge the entire community of pirates by the actions of these few.
The USA must protect other pirates from acts of violence by those bigoted people who think all pirates are bad.
and the USA must pay reparations.....
now that pirates are 'bad" will Disney close their ride??
Ever notice that there were no pirates named "gray beard" or "white beard" or even "salt and pepper beard?"
That was solely because back in the good old days of high-seas piracy, no pirate ever lived long enough to even start to go gray. He was either blown to bits, drowned, or hanged well before his hair color started to change.
THe way it was is a good start for the way it still ought to be. The pirates threatened reprisal. I simply hope for our sakes that we respond to that threat with action, instead of a strongly worded memo. Put the message out to all the peoples of the world, that messing with the USA carries such horrific consequences, that no one would ever risk it. Ever.
Nah. Those are pirates of the Caribbean, not Somalia.
I just read that we can't just string up the pirates, that 21st century pirates call for 21st century solutions. OK hang 'em with a good length of CAT5 Cable, but make them an example.
Yohoho, matey!!
Shows how hip you are - you should use a length of glass fibre - more like a garrote, plus carries more bandwidth.
Oh my, you people aren't going ot like this!
Obama Earns Praise For Captain Phillips' Rescue
Sunday's rescue of hijacked sea Captain Richard Phillips from his Somali pirate kidnappers dominates today's headlines, with President Obama's performance in the standoff receiving much praise. Under the headline "An Early Military Victory For Obama," the Washington Post says the incident was "one of the earliest tests of the new American president," and "the result...left Obama with an early victory that could help build confidence in his ability to direct military actions abroad." The AP says "Obama's 'no drama' handling of the...crisis proved a big win for his administration in its first critical national security test."
OUCH! That's gonna leave a mark!
There is an old adage:
"Indecision is the cornerstone of flexibility."
It is easy to say that Bambi maximized his flexibility in this situation.
Now now. Don't be bitter! Maybe next time the hostage will be killed and you can blame Obama!
but now the pirates are mad at us!!!
& obama promised that he would "talk" before taking action, oh well, another election promise broken
how did Hillary vote on this?
HLF, you ignorant bastard. If you looked at anything else other than the inside of your own anus, you'd be aware that your big "O" stayed on the sidelines and waited to spin any outcome. Unlike you, I AM privy to certain things regardless of whom the figurehead happens to be. And I'll leave it at that
How about some air strikes on Somalia now? Take out some pirate hot beds? I'm sure O won't mind.
I have a feeling that they weren't off-hand shots. Rather an automatically stabilized shooting contraption like what keeps an M60 tanks cannon on target while it's going 60 mph over hill and dale.
Roy RojerPoot
Look at the bitter sore losers, miserable that Obama didn't fail!
You're some real nasty people. Miserable turds.
Obama was too busy deciding which toppings he wanted on his pizza to be bothered with such mundane things as a few pirates.
I hope this was Obama's victory. It would certainly leave me feeling a lot better about who is in control if I knew that he was willing to give the order to shoot.
The actual order itself came from the captain of the vessel on which the SEALS were stationed. This wasn't a "call the president" type moment. I also doubt very much that it was Obama that ordered the SEALS to the area to begin with. THis thing has been going on long enough that I'm sure some form of autonomy was granted to the commanders on the sea to deal with the situation as it developed, and since the US had a presence int eh GUlf of Aden, along with SEAL teams, long before Obama became president, I have a hard time lavishing praise on him for this occurence.
That is simply me looking at it logically, no partisan politics involved. If obama really did engineer this, I am impressed and very much relieved that he really can be the Commander in Cheif. However, logically, I have my doubts that he did anything beyond staying up to date on the situation and being prepared to step in if he was needed. He was not, so he didn't.
He couldn't even comment on the situation when asked at a press conference. Now, that could be a reticence to comment on a standing operation, or it could be that he didn't have a clue one what was happening. I won't make a call there, but if it was the former, why not say "I'm not going to comment on a standing operation" instead of saying "Come on, guys, we're talking about housing here," in the tone and demeanor he has taken many times in the past when he's been caught off-guard by the press?
And HLF, I am not really sure why you think we are disappointed that no one but bad guys got hurt here. I haven't seen anyone on here say "Damn, I wish they'd just died so that Obama looked bad"
That's some pretty evil projection coming from someone that probably popped the cork on a champaign bottle every time a US soldier was killed under the Bush Administration, in my opinion, and nothing more. You really are pathetic.
That is simply me looking at it logically, no partisan politics involved. Sure. Uh huh. Riiiight.
I haven't seen anyone on here say "Damn, I wish they'd just died so that Obama looked bad"They don't have to say it. It's totally implied by your side's constant hunger for bad news now that your guys got removed from office in 2006 and 2008. You people LIVE for bad news now.
Nice response. Real intelligent. Care to respond to anything I wrote, or just minimize it and ignore it because you cannot come up with any coherent arguement otherwise?
Like I said, more projection from a guy that probably rubbed one out every time Bush got a US soldier killed.
You didn't say anthing worth commenting on. Nothing factual. It was just the standard "I'm not a conservative but Obama is bad" innocence you feign.
Coming from someone who thinks that Wall Street financial wizards were tricked into buying toxic debt from Fannie & Freddie, that doesn't surprise me.
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