Posted on 04/12/2009 3:37:39 PM PDT by fiodora
Congratulations all around to the daring warriors who rescued Captain Richard Phillips and captured one of his captors alive.
I am delighted that President Obama's team did not endlessly equivocate. I credit them with bringing the incident to a close. If they needed time to position assets and plan, I am glad they waited.
Update: Reports are that Captain Phillips jumped overboard again. Fragmentary reports suggest sharpshooters may have opened fire allowing him the escape. It is still unclear if there was an actual rescue operation launched
Further update: The head of Maersk just had a news conference ion Norfolk, and stated that a rescue operation approced by President Obama was involved. This is a very encouraging sign, if true.
Further update: Admiral Gortney, speaking from Bahrein to reporters at the Pentagon, just stated that there were standing orders allowing the Captain of the Bainbridge to take action if he saw that Captain Phillips' life was in imminent danger. When one or more AK 47s were pointed at Capt. Phillips, the Bainbridge acted. The Admiral stated that the sharpshooters were on board the Bainbridge when they fired. The Bainbridge was 25-35 meters away from the lifeboat at the time. The Admiral just confirmed that Capt. Phillips was tied up at the time.
It seems clear that the Obama administration deserves some credit for allowing the Bainbridge captain to take action if Capt. Phillips' life was in danger. It would have been hard to justify a ban on such action.
It also seems clear that the personnel on the spot, especially the sharpshooters on the fantail of the Bainbridge and her captain too, deserve our deep gratitude. American Special Forces are simply superb human beings, superbly trained. American military doctrine generally allows the commander on the spot considerable discretion, and it is clear that in this case, the wisdom of that approach was confirmed.
I remain concerned that the captured terrorist will be treated as a criminal defendant, with all the rights of discovery and other secret-busting apparatus that make criminal action inappropriate for terror groups. We know that he will not be subjected to any interrogation techniques that make him seriously uncomfortable.
I also suppose he will be provided a Koran, halaal meals, and (naturally) access to both left wing lawyers and Islamic clergy, whose conversations with him will be held beyond the reach of the good guys.
Phil Aver in an email raises the question of whether or not the captured Somali had his Miranda Rights read to him in a language he understands. If not, he probably walks.
Obama man he is a leader we should be proud
Hopefully the Plank.
Said it before and I’ll say it again, 3 clear head shots on terrorists holding an American hostage = Priceless!
Thank God for our Navy and our Seals!
Easter Seals
Sharp shooting from a boat is all that more amazing....
I’m really not familiar with how this works. Does this mean to say that our military must wait for the President to tell them it’s ok to take action?
The fourth pirate needs to be hung from the neck until he’s dead.
Easter Seals! Love it.
Easter Seals save our captain!
WTG USN and all aboard the Bainbridge!
Freegards,
Lex
The CPT was in danger from the day they took him hostage,these are muslim terrorist we are talking about here they could care less, if they didn’t get the money they would have send the Captain Phillips head home in a box to show they mean business..i wonder how much persuasion the nit wit needed to give the order to attack the pirates..The Navy should have blown ever pirate ship into kingdom come while they were at it..Now they will bring another terrorist to America for Obama to pardon and live among us..Sorry folks I don’t see where the Muslim was a hero here..
Easter Seals
LOL
The lifeboat was in tow and the shots were taken from the fantail at 25 - 35 meters. With the boat in tow, it presented a stable target for the snipers. Good shooting, though.
Below the nose,
Above the lip,
And you can be sure
The sear won’t slip.
Seems to me they should have shot when the pirates were least able to retaliate by killing the hostage.
Thank you, Obama, for letting real men do men’s work.
“Obama man he is a leader we should be proud”
In the end, he solved the problem the way that Bush would have solved it. Kinda ironic given that he’s spent the last 8 years trashing the Bush terror philosophy.
How I would love for the bombing runs to start NOW!! Teach the lesson that Americans are not to be messed with.
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