Somali pirates hijack US flagged ship with US citizens aboard

[Bob Gutermuth]

The fact that several countries paid ransom in past hijackings has just encouraged these brigands. I hope they get paid off in lead this time.

[Terry Britton]

Solution for the Piracy problem:

1) Get permission to man and mount 50 caliber guns on the ships sailing in the trouble waters.

2) Open a high seas adventure company where people pay $50K for the adventure and possibility to fight off pirates.

3) Have the clients man the guns for their two week adventure.

[Richard Fuquay]

The fact that several countries paid ransom in past hijackings has just encouraged these brigands. I hope they get paid off in lead this time.

And they were. Seems Obama has bigger nads than we thought.

[badbullgator]

And they were. Seems Obama has bigger nads than we thought.

Doubt that, what else was he to do? Anyone could have/would have made the same call

[Goose]

Agreed. Obama gets no credit for this. He probably thinks Navy SEALS are a bunch of trained fish.

All the credit and glory to the Navy! Job well done.

[badbullgator]

Gotta love these dumbasses

"From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)," Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, told the Associated Press from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl. "(U.S. forces have) become our No. 1 enemy."


Hummmmmm....let call out the US millitary that sounds like a good idea since they just took three shots and killed three bad guys. Keep in mind the bad guys calling them out couldn't even take an UNARMED crew to begin with.

Ok so now you say you are just going to kill the hostages. How long do you suppose they would have lasted if that is what they did???? Holding a hostage got them a few more days in their crappy lives before they lost their heads

I predict Jamac Habeb makes it to the ripe old age of 30.5....
just saying

[BrianW]

I, for one, am willing to give the President some credit for allowing the use of deadly force to rescue Capt. Phillips. At least this did not deteriorate into a "Tehran-style" hostage situation where SpecOps forces would have to try and get this guy out in a land operation for a possible repeat of Mogadishu .
But, I would be very curious to know how many times that requests for authorization were turned down first in favor of negotiations with the terrorists. Jmtc, but it never should have been allowed to get this far in the first place. Thank God, that if this incident did have to occur, that it happened now while our forces still have funds for the manpower, arms & training. How many of the teams are going to end up cut or not have the equipment to train with in the upcoming budgets? What happens when ships like the Bainbridge are going to be forced to sit in port like so many cops at a donut shop and take even longer to get on the scene?

Now, the Administration has placed itself in a no-win situation though. The maritime terrorists are vowing retaliation against American interests and state they willl kill the hostages from now on. Al-Quaida, (if they aren't already) will be more than happy to support 'noble warriors against the Great Satan' and the "marine-jahadin" will most likely get better weapons. The Navy vessels that will be kept in the area "for now"will be at an increased risk of a USS Cole type attack.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the former 'War on Terror"as they are forced to acknowledge that "Conflict Resolution 101" does not work with people that hate & despise you. They also have to know that when this wounded Somali goes to whatever 'court" ends up getting jurisdiction, that some "trans-nationalist: lawyer is going to make this into a circus sideshow regarding the issues of "self defense of national waters by the Somali "Coast Guard", & of the over fishing and nuclear waste dumping" that Julie R. referenced in her link from another post. In the end though, I imagine that the Somali's will end getting an Obama aplogy too and I wouldn't be surprised to hear of some kind of bailout for them in the guise of "more must be done to prevent future attacks"!

Also what message does 4 terrorists w/ AK's in a lifeboat having the ability of holding off the "world's only superpower" send to the Chinese, Russians, the Indians, Iranians, North Koreans etc., folks with real weapons and tactics? Achmedinajad's sides have to be hurting from laughing so hard.

And, finally, what message does Obama really send to the American people with his praise for the captain's actions? According to AP "As the pirates clambered aboard and shot in the air, Phillips told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself to safeguard his men. "
The message I read is "Don't fight back, run & hide as the person in charge gives up and waits for law enforcement."
Is that what you intend to do to protect your loved ones if someone breaks into your home?

[Last Frontier Labs]

Jim and I burst out laughing this morning while having our morning coffee. A news reporter asked a navy spokesman how many shots were fired when the Seals won Phillips freedom. The spokesman answered 3 and felt the need to add "they are highly trained". Bwahaha. That has to be the understatement of the year. Probably only 1 of 500 ways those Seals could have taken out those pirates.

[Henry V]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513183,00.html

What will the eunuch in chief do about this? NOTHING

Bob, Did yesterday's events change your self-answered response to the question which started this thread?

[Goose]

Were the pirates really being towed by a Navy vessel? I read the shot taken by the SEALS was less than 100 feet...boat to boat!

Love that .50 cal the SEAL snipers use. What a gun! Doubt they used it on these pirates, though.