Posted on 04/10/2009 4:45:16 PM PDT by BarnacleCenturion
Pirates on Friday sailed a hijacked German freighter and its crew toward a lifeboat off Somalia where an American hostage is being held.
They are reportedly doing so an attempt to help their comrades in a standoff with the US Navy.
Four pirates are holding the American captain of a cargo ship, Richard Phillips, in a drifting lifeboat and demanding $US2 million for his release and a guarantee of their own safety.
They have been holding him since a foiled attempt on Wednesday to hijack the 17,000-tonne, Danish-owned Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean.
A destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, is close by.
Another group that hijacked a 20,000-tonne German container vessel, the Hansa Stavanger, a week ago is reportedly heading to the scene of the standoff.
This is turning into a three ring circus on the high seas.
Is there a minute by minute news source on this?
We do know something interesting from all this. The Somali pirates do not leave their own behind, or do a lot of sacrificing and martyrdom. They've some kind of code, and probably excellent leadership.
And they know a coward and a weakling when he bows to them.
Cargo ships need to be armed. Then this type of nonsense wouldn’t happen.
Obama can’t be bothered by this...he has to prepare for the Easter egg hunt.
They have a pretty nice collection of boats.
A lot of these ships are a little long in the tooth
America Held Hostage - Day 2
I’m with you in thinking the pirates are organized with excellent leadership. I am still wondering why a couple of snipers on our war ship didn’t take out the pirates in the life raft before this!!!! What in the hell are hillary and zero doing for crying out loud?!!! [rant over]
I get it!!
I haven’t seen any minute by minute coverage.
Someone needs to turn this into the first stage of SOCOM.
Have a naval general send a SEAL team out and after they achieve their mission and return, say, “Well, it IS customary for the armed forces ro protect American citizens.”
He would still be fired by Obama though...
Um, just a wild idea here — could they not send some cloud of SOMETHING their way, put them all to sleep, pick up the captain and sink the ship? Just a thot.
Or a bazooka.
What a bunch of wienies the Westerners are. ‘Negotiators? We don’t need no stinken’ negotiators.’
The Navy may have to disable or sink the vessel, it may have been set up as a massive floating bomb.
Being that its been offloaded and riding way too high its apparent that it also has no sea ballast, it would be way too easy just by looking at this image if its for real to shoot the prop or rudder from a deck gun.
This could be a good thing, we can rescue a lot more hostages all at the same time, plus claim salvage rights.
I am concerned about that drifting boat. Really, in a humanitarian gesture, the Bainbridge ought to attach a tow line to it and take it farther away from land (where there is surf) and hold it there. Just to keep it safe from being accidentally bumped by something in the overcrowded shipping lanes or whatever.
Perhaps their lives are in so much danger that there won’t be time to get orders from Baba Yaga’s Hut (aka the White House where there is so much spin).
It isn't a raft. It is a covered pod.
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