Latest Somali pirate hijacking update: US warships and air assets on the way
Latest wire and cable TV reports say US warships and air assets are being sent to the scene of the Maersk Alabama hijacking by Somali pirates. Captain is reportedly being held hostage on a lifeboat near the vessel.
Let us hope the Obama White House is prepared to use our military forces to “achieve” something more than “TV shots.”
***
Update: Crewman talks to CNN about the captive Captain.
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Well, let’s hope they start with bow shots, then move smartly to below the water line shots. The hell with the pirates. Put some SEAL team members in the water, fish our captain out and them start the chumming.
as long as the skinny fingers of Obama and the cankles of Chillary have nothing to do with this possible mission, I’d venture to say the pirates in the life boat are toast. My concern is if , otherwise, we make a big blustery entrance to the area of interdiction.
The coast off Somalia is now officially the most hazardous waters in the world. It used to be the Straits of Malacca, and before that it was the South China Sea.
If the last hostage is on a life boat, then it shouldn’t take much negotiating to resolve the situation . . “surrender or we will kill you” is a good place to start. Particularly if you have a Marine sniper shoot the ring leader before negotiations even begin.
Thanks, UN, for not allowing merchant ships to be armed.
How many presidential legacies is Obama going to eradicate? Now Jefferson’s legacy of obliterating muslim pirates is going to be trampled by his ineptitude.
The hostage takers are in an open lifeboat? BWA HAA
As a Navy SEAL once said, “We’re not that good. It’s just that everyone else sucks.”
Ssssh! Maybe this is a Carter moment!
Odopey will just hand this one off to Joe, cuz….. ya know, ya don’t mess with Joe. lol. flippin twinkie.
Solution: an attack submarine patrolling the area, with a Seal detachment on board. S-h-h-h! Seals can embark and debark from a submerged submarine. The bad guys would never know what hit them.
We can only dream.
If those pirates are smart, they’ll allow themselves to be captured, taken to Gitmo, given a hot shower, an abandoned house in Sacramento and in-state tuition at the University of their choice. That’ll teach them a lesson they’ll never forget!
Certainly our warships and choppers will deliver the Dear Leader’s apology to these pirates, give them their ransom cash, and tell them we’re not at war with them and mean them no harm.
And then apologize again..
/sarc
So now its down to a life boat.
300 plus miles to land. Where to the pirates think they are going to go???
ROW FASTER ACHMED!!!!
No mister president, I don’t know how that 5 inch gun fired on the lifeboat. Must have been an “accident”. Good thing the seals got the captian first!!!
Obama will give them a timetable for our withdrawal – they only need to hold out until then.
No mister president, I am talking about the Navy Seals, not the small fur covered mammals. Navy Seals?? They are like naval special forces. Okay mister president, let me just show you a movie called “Green Berets”. You will get the idea.
psst, perhaps you shouldn’t say ‘Malacca’; you know what trouble funny sounding words caused George Allen, you racist.
Um, this has been gong on for 14 hours, since the first phone call…
Where the F is my NAVY?
Oh, wait, 14 hours ago would have been 3 AM Washington time… guess nobody answered the phone…
Still don’t get it mister president???? sighhhhh…
Not to worry, spacey – he’ll never find out – he could never locate the straits if his life depended on it.
and barry’s response…
Oh, you’re sending Charlie Sheen?
They got the word to rush to the resuce about 45 mintues ago.
It took that long to educate obama that the guns on a destroyer aren’t really “popguns”
BTW, to my best understanding, per latest legal rulings, unless the pirates make the mistake of donning the uniform of a national military, as non-uniformed terrorists breaking the law of the sea and the rules of war, they have full habeas rights, are entitled to a court hearing where bail may be set, and are entitled to free representation when they face a trial of their peers, probably in Washington, DC, meaning a panel of people on welfare not clever enough to lie their way out of jury duty, who will no doubt feel sorry for poor oppressed African youths just trying to make a dishonest living.
Good opportunity for Fidel to help us out. Send him in to offer himself in exchange for the captain.
I trust to the sneek-and-peeks that the pirates’ peers will soon be the aquatic life of the sea bed.
….oh wait! I think we gave that to Gordon Brown. Maybe Netflix has it…
People, PLEASE stop calling them “Pirates”. The preferred PC term is “Maritime Organizers”.
Thank you.
Yeah, and isn’t there a cook or somthing that can help… or is that just on battleships?
You’re behind the times…
These are representatives of the Maritime Bank, Wealth Redistribution Division… and Tim Geithner oversees the Somali chapter…
——————————————————————————–
Quint: [seeing Hooper's equipment] What are you? Some kind of half-assed astronaut?
[examining the shark cage]
Quint: Jesus H Christ, when I was a boy, every little squirt wanted to be a harpooner or a sword fisherman. What d’ya have there – a portable shower or a monkey cage?
Hooper: Anti-Shark cage.
Quint: Anti-shark cage. You go inside the cage?
[Hooper nods]
Quint: Cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark’s in the water. Our shark.
[sings]
Quint: Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain. For we’ve received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again.
One thing people are failing to grasp here. This is not a small-time operation. There is a lot of sophistication in these attacks, even though the execution may be simple. For over-the-horizon attacks such as this, especially in international waters, the pirates have a mother ship which they use as a base of operations. This ship must have extremely sophisticated tracking equipment, plus satellite navigation, communications, internet access, and access to shipping schedules from around the world. This isn’t any sort of a piker operation at all. It has full government backing, whatever government is in Somalia at the moment, plus funding from other sources. It ain’t cheap, folks. The proceeds from their successful raids surely isn’t staying in Somalia. It has to be going somewhere else.
If anybody is serious about rooting this out, it’ll take more than the loss of four pirates and one boat to do it.
Step one: the mother ship.
Step two: whoever is backing this piracy.
Step one could easily be accomplished, but step two would require more cojones than exist in the world at the moment, especially from POTUSINO and company.
Unless they’re dead.
No, no he gave Gordon the fist season of McHale’s Navy… the show that most resembles Odumbo’s strategic military solutions.
just helo over them, pull hostage out under threat of swamping the boat with rotor blow, and leave them to row back to land.
The U.S. is Politically Stupidized again. Just send a attack heli to completely demolish and sink the pirates one and all, everytime they show their face.
I wouldn’t waste a Mk 48 or a tomahawk on the lifeboat. A firehose will sink it in a few minutes.
Oh my… It’s VIET NAM ALL OVER AGAIN !!!
What happened to Obie’s policy of sitting across the table with no preconditions?
I’m appalled.
I’d like to know where the outrage is from the left – in particular the Congressional Black Caucus…the vessel is full of containers of food aid headed to the Muslim country of KENYA from:
USAID (US taxpayers)
UN’s WFP (US taxpayers)
Serving God Ministries (Christians)
Catholic Relief (Christians)
Whatever Obama does, it will be more than Bush did. Somali pirates are not a new problem, only conservative huffenpuffery about it.
Pirates exist in Somalia because it is a failed state, one of the many Bush foreign policy failures. (you wake up after sleeping 8 years and wonder how the world got to be such a mess).
That’s what I was thinking.
You must remember though, with the touchy feely Obama Nation, the pirate MUST be afforded all the rights provided by the U.S. constitution.
The plight of this poor African citizen of the world must be taken into consideration when deciding what action, if any, to take.
Piracy, although striking “terror” in the minds of it’s victims, is not actually “Terrorism” as defined by B. Hussein Obama…it is only a little criminal act, and a cry for help.
Astonishingly, he is able to sympathize with the pirates, because the only difference between them and his administration is the manner in which the theft occurs.
Just got more info. These pirates are clearly not the top of thier class. First thing they did after taking the ship was SINK THE BOAT THEY CAME IN ON. Thats why they are on the lifeboat. Clearly we are dealing with the lower part of the pirate food chain here.
Somolia is a BUSH mess???
Rent black hawk down and try to catch who the president was who screwed that one up.
HINT: it happend in 1992 – 1993.
Does this mean O will apologize to the pirates for the arrogance and derisiveness of the American crew?
You know damn well he won’t let the war ships do anything.
LGM,
Somalia is a U.S. foreign policy failure HOW?
Why is it U.S. military intervention in places like Darfur and Somalia acceptable, but intervention in Iraq or N. Korea is not?
What sort of idiotic Boolean bubble-chart are we supposed to use?
Why don’t we send the British in to deal with it? They’re expert at hostage situations. Maybe the pirates will get new suits out of the deal.
lgm: When did Somalia become Bush’s failure? Was that before or after Clinton pulled out of there faster than Monica’s mouth after our soldiers were dragged through the streets?
Answer now. I usually read your POVs critically. Your last was simply EPIC HISTORY RECOLLECTION FAIL.
Let me explain what lgm meant.
hmmmm…
Well there is the fact that….uh wait no.
Okay. I have to admit this one has even me stumped.
Though it is true this piracy has been a problem for a while. We seemed to have ignored it up until now.
I take it that LGM slept through the 8 years of Clinton. And then he woke up and got to blame everything on Bu$Hitler!
(note: I am not a rabid Clinton-hater at all. But Somalia is Bush’s mess? Come on. Can’t the trolls do any better than this?)
Bush was the one that sent ships there for anti-piracy patrols.
They have been there for more than 2 years.
Also, please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the first time an American crew was hijacked?
chap, I think it was just the automatic reflex to blame everything on bush. LGM has a BAD case of BDS.
An all american crew? Yes.
lgm fails to surprise once again. Cosmo, sonofdy, et al, there really is no point in engaging him. His POV is perfectly summarized in his first sentence:
This is the rigid mindset which you are now addressing. Whatever Obama does, lgm will approve. It really doesn’t matter to him. Even if liberals disagree with it, he’ll hit the second phase: blame Bush.
He’s made up his mind before President Obama acts and there will be no swaying his judgment.
Don’t waste your time.
Have we? Okay, I stand corrected. But are we talking escort stuff or actively pursuing the pirates?
I think others have already adequately schooled you on this.
I’ll move on.
Not a new problem? Or not a new US problem?
Should the US expend resources to defend non-US ships?
While we’re at it, should the US expend resources on international drug interdiction?
And should the US expend resources on international fishing violations?
I don’t think so, but let me know if you disagree with me on these maritime issues.
BTW, these pirates just became a US problem.
Just for the conspiratorial folks: Note that Maersk is a Danish corporation–#2 and within the Global Fortune 500.
The key fact there, however, is that they’re Danish. Perhaps this is more cartoon backlash.
I wonder what the chances are the pirates are muslim?
Read my post above.
We are talking ships in the general area. No escort or pursuit unless they happened to be in the area. Not very effective considering the size of the area. Almost to the point of ignoring the problem. But not quite.
Shurg, how do you patrol that much ocean with that few ships.
Listen to the ___-pirate speak!
Lgm, you really are a moron, aren’t you?
Piracy has been part of the African heritage since before the U.S. had encountered the Barbary Pirates in the days of Teddy Roosevelt, as was slaving.
Not to let you off the hook, but B.J. Clinton could have eliminated generations of these Somali pirates, and eased the Somali humanitarian crisis, had he been proactive with the warlords when the opportunity availed itself…but it is difficult to make Command Decisions when you’re more committed to making monkey business with cigars and interns, than you are with taking care of real business.
But, let’s place blame (if we must) on the person really at fault…
Shaka Zulu!
Ahhh yes. No history prior to W. Convenient leftard quip by lgm.
Weren’t we in Somalia under Clinton? Oh ya…define the word “in”.
We had an opportunity to pave the place and didn’t.
Anyone surprised lil bHo is getting tested? We aren’t at war with Islam right?
Chicken turd. A complete chicken turd.
Bear1909 out.
Damn that George Soros!!!
I don’t think the fact that this is the first time a US crew has been held hostage means it wasn’t a problem for us. But in any case, apparently we have been engaged in anti-piracy activities since at least 2006, so I still stand corrected.
It was mostly limited to the defense of US SLOC until now.
Um, the big failures in Somalia happened in the 1990s, under the watch of Bill Clinton and the UN:
By the way, Bush isn’t president anymore.
I know it’s fun and easy for liberals to blame him, but you guys acted like the Lightworker would come in and make everything better.
So let’s see if Obama does anything significant, huh? This “It’s Bush’s fault!” meme is childish, stupid, and worn out.
It goes back a lot farther than Clinton too, ask Thomas Jefferson and maybe even Marco Polo.
The only way to control it is to carry a bigger stick than the pirates, and that doesn’t mean a couple of patrols.
If you have varmints, you have to exterminate them.
Another gum ball from lgm:
What a joke. Bush did more in 8 years than anybody prior, racking up an al-Qaeda body count in Iraq (over 20,000), strengthen the intelligence community of the US to prevent attacks on our soil. Deposed Sadamm Hussein and cleaned out Iraq.
lgm merely reflects the fairyland most leftards live in. if they didnt think about something for 8 years it meant their political adversaries were asleep.
well, howzabout Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, lgm. did you see them in your dreams and the tsunami your boy Geithner and his boss/mentor Larry Summers created under the watchful eye of Barney “Pork Me” Frank and Chris “Facade” Dodd with help of Clinton crony Jamie Gorelick (and Clinton too)?
gimme a break.
Bear1909 out
Does this mean we can blame the failed poicies of Jefferson?
Jim, BO would not call them “organizers”. Too close to home.
But he would never call them who/what they are, i.e., Islamofacists!
I think at this point it is less important as to whose fault it is (Clinton, Bush, Obama) and more important as to what the current President is going to do about it.
He can send a signal to the world that we won’t put up with Americans being taken as hostages or we can negotiate and capitulate so as to maintain the pirate vote.
But the ship is also that rarity of rarities: An American flag vessel with an American crew – the first one seized in about 200 years, if what I heard earlier is correct.
What nationality was the Mayaguez?
Send Sean Penn to the rescue. He has a gun and he can handle deep water.
Can someone explain to me the difference between an islamofascist and your everyday run of the mill headbanging muslim?
Non sequitur
Somalia was taken over by their military in 1969. In 1976, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party was founded and controlled the Somali military. Civil war broke out in 1986, eventually throwing out the Government of Siad Barre in 1991, but no new government has been established since. The country has fragmented.
Note, both Clinton and Bush took office with Somalia already a failed state, torn to pieces by civil war.
So, just what should US forigen policy towards Somalia have been?
cpodug, this brings to mind what I’ve been thinking all day. Is it not interesting that no American vessles have been targeted until BO was elected?
Things that make me go, “Hmmmmm?!”
Wow–that twat on CNN wouldn’t let the guy on the audio go, even when he said ‘huh? I gotta go…’
Well, if you’re going to touch on the Barbary pirates, you can go further back to President Jefferson. Ask any Marine. The Barbary wars demonstrate not only a history with fighting pirates, but muslim pirates.
All of this, of course, is Bush’s fault. If only the founding fathers had ignored President Bush’s lies!
Sadly once our military heroes save the day, the agenda driven media will give all credit to The One and Bozo will say, “See, I told you…”.
Thoughts and prayers to the merchant sailors and the military dispatched to save them.
That was American flagged, but it was seized by the Khmer Rouge, not pirates. I stand corrected.
Thomas Jefferson sent ships and the Marines to the Barbary Coast, specifically to send a message to Muslims. He recognized and wrote about the fact that we , as a nation, could not ever expect equal footing with them because they saw us back then as infidels. So,dear liberals, follow Castenada’s warning… not that you will…. you feeeeeeeel too much, nimrods.
Oh and I must apologize publicly to MM and her staff. I wrote something in response to lgm’s fraudulent comment about Somalia that was rude, vulgar and not worthy of my intellect. I am sorry and will endeavor to be more careful in my expressions.
What a dolt! Somalia was Clinton’s contribution. I was there with 10th Mtn. Div, dipweed! Lets see, you failed History but your Bush Derangement Syndrome is intact!
God Bless your pointed little head!
oldtrooper
welcome home and thank you for your brave service.
Nope Obama will apoligize to the captured Somali pirate for American Arrogance, pay 1 trillion dollars in reparations & air drop i million Ipods over Mogadishu
so within lil bHo’s first hundred days he kisses Saudi butt, insults the entire population of American WW2 veterans by skipping on Normandy beach visit, declares we are not at war with Islam, let’s the NORKs test a nuclear ballistic long range missile, and has the first act of war by Somali muslims perpped against the USA.
(Not to mention he hasnt’ staffed the Treasury department yet to “deal with the worst crisis in our history.”)
And all of this is because of Bush, right?
Bear1909 out
MNUSMCDavid: Thanks Brother. The best 28 years of my life were spent defending the Nation I love.
Now I’m retired and watching Obama apologize for it as his Merry Band of Socialists are destroying it.
bear1909
BREAKING NEWS today…Special Olympics President, Barack Whose-Named Obama, when slammed by Veterans for not visiting Omaha Beach on his G-20 American Arrogance Apologies Tour, said it will one of his highest priorities the very next time he is in Nebraska Our 57th State!
Idiot boy said: “Pirates exist in Somalia because it is a failed state, one of the many Bush foreign policy failures.”
We own Somalia, so we?
Arrrrrghhh! Talk to the bird!
I see now that the SHIP’S CREW have retaken the vessel. This is because they are AMERICAN. Real Americans will not put up with this type of mess. they Pirates have taken the Captain – hopefully it will not take long to liberate him and return him to his family. At the same time, I truly hope the thieving scum who took him are allowed to go meet their God very quickly. Or slowly and painfully, I’m fine with either way.
Once again, World, mess with Americans, get burned. Best of luck Maersk Alabama.
“Whatever Obama does, it will be more than Bush did.”
Do you teach third grade? Because you sound like you have picked up third grade playground talk.
This just in….
Clinton later stated that if the Somali pukes(just can’t bring myself to call them pirates as their was a code of honor that existed among pirates and imputing any honor to the pukes would simply be inappropriate…) did not respond in a positive manner to our “deep concern” that we might have to escalate the affair, perhaps as high as “off to bed without milk and cookies…”
If this administration grows any more intellectually dim, they’ll need night vision goggles to find the head…
Lord, hear our prayers and please help us…
from, Shinola
One last thing – History of Piracy and Maritime law:
The United States has, since the Quasi War with France, taken the stance of “Freedom of the Seas”. That means actively ensuring that the Sea remains the domain of the world for peaceful commerce. Piracy is the antithesis of this.
The US could simply escort US flagged vessels through the Arabian Sea but, since the 1960′s, we have taxed most US flagged commercial vessels out of existence so the majority of large ships are flagged in countries such as Panama or the Bahamas where the taxes do not make them unprofitable. Of course, we could simply kill anyone found in the affected area who attempts to stop a ship by force of arms. Ships could also “man up” and do what ships have done for the last 5000 years and carry arms. There are no laws against it. Hire private soldiers to defend commerce. A couple of tangles with Ex Marines or SAS types would stop these idiots very quickly. Per international law, there is no restrictions of ships defending themselves. Like someone said, Maersk is a Fortune 500 company. It wouldn’t break the bank to hire security.
Then again, one Maersk ship had an American crew, like I stated above, messing with American sailors has been a nightmare for our enemies for more than 230 years. Instead of crying about it, we should be saying “Try it again, we dare you!”
Out
Never fear folks, our fearless secretary of state, who has had her own sniper fire experience in Bosnia, has issued a statement that the world needs to take action!
After having just witnessed the effectiveness of the world against North Korea, it’s reported the pirates (ie scum bags) are shaking in their boots.
Of course the pirates are also already fully aware of the fearless actions taken by Hilly’s hubby after the bombing of the US Cole.
Bring back the Q ships of WWII:
Blow their skinny butt right out of the water. Film it for YouTube.
I wonder what took bo so long to send in the rescue troops. The fact that its publicised, will mean we will loose some good men and women in the rescue attempt. I guess no covert operation for bo, he probably has no clue he could have ordered a covert operation and saved lives. For all that matters when did bo have time to order the rescue, he hasn’t sat in the oval office for more than 10 minutes since he was elected.
The closet destroyer is hours away. Arm the merchant ships but in the meantime find and destroy the pirate bases. Make it costly.
Make it costly for the pirates, and their sponsors… Not the US taxpayer!
But not jaw jaw as our precious SOS states. And definitely not responding to the troll who shall not be named spouting off tripe and talking points at every opportunity.
As per Tail Bummer Joe, the big Zero is being tested daily and our opponents increase with each and every Epic Failure this administration produces.
Forgot to mention his patented “Swoop and Poop” attack