Posted on 02/22/2011 7:33:13 AM PST by Allthegoodusernamesaregone
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 – Somali pirates killed all four Americans they had held hostage aboard a sailing vessel in the Indian Ocean this morning, U.S. Central Command officials announced.
U.S. officials were negotiating with the pirates for the safe return of the captured Americans when the murders took place, officials said.
Centcom officials said that in the midst of negotiations, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the S/V Quest. When the forces reached the boat, officials said, they discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds.
During the boarding, the Somali pirates fired on the U.S. forces, who killed two pirates and captured 13 others. U.S. forces already had captured two other pirates, and the servicemembers boarding the Quest found the remains of two other pirates.
“In total, it is believed 19 pirates were involved in the hijacking of the S/V Quest,” Centcom officials said.
“We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest,” said Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, Centcom’s commander.
The pirates seized the boat Feb. 18 off the coast of Oman. Somali pirates -– often operating from mother ships far out to sea -- have captured scores of ships and generally have held the ships and crews for ransom. News reports indicate Somali pirates currently hold 29 ships with more than 660 hostages.
Piracy in the region occurred originally off of Somalia’s east coast for several years. In August 2009, the pirates extended their attacks to the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia’s north coast. The pirates since have ranged farther out to sea -– up to 600 miles –- and now affect more than a million square miles in the Gulf of Aden, the west Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
The United States has worked closely with regional and international partners to attack the problem. In this case, American forces closely monitored and tailed the Quest. Four U.S. Navy warships made up a response force dedicated to recovering the S/V Quest: the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, the guided-missile destroyers USS Sterett and USS Bulkeley.
But anyway I consider this question of timeliness of attack-detection to be utterly irrelevant to the question of whether or not I should be allowed to defend myself.
You post lookouts, you do a spot-check-watch... whatever.
But if you are ARMED you have a chance. Doesn’t mean you’re 100% safe. Where are you 100% safe? Nowhere.
But you should have the RIGHT to be ARMED. Period.
Obama = Epic Fail.
Or:
Obama = Epic Traitor.
I am waiting to hear Obambi bleat about our Moslem “friends”. What a phony he is!
The original assumption was that the Federal government outlaws arming the crew, which I was suspicius of. I believe the answer at that post was that it is legal for them to either have small arms, or guns not visible mounted. It's just that the ship owners don't allow it for a variety of reasons, which may or may not be valid.
I personally wouldnt want to be in that area without professionally trained armed fighters as an escort. Life is not an action movie where the dumb blond stripper mows down the pirates with a machine gun (Under Siege (1992) ). More like she would accidently shoot the crew.
This situation reminds me of the Clinton Black Hawk Down episode. We evenually fled Somalia. This really is a US military problem.
Those folks who keep voting for the liberals are merely tools of the liberals and their strangle hold on public education. They inseminate (and yes, that is exactly the word I mean) their views of liberal group-think and the distinct lack of any sort of absolute morality into the minds of our children so that by the time these kids finish (or are finished BY) college; liberalism is ingrained into their very nature. It's a massive setup by the father of Lies that began in the late 1950s and we never saw it coming. Now it is paying off in hugely Satanic dividends. As generation after generation is more and more liberally indoctrinated and those new professionals seep into the institutions that produced them (like teaching) it becomes a self generating machine. Don't worry, the end is almost in sight. RAPTURE READY?
Two words on how the Navy should handle this in the future: “Rule 303.”
ma duce and tracers, along with being aware of yer surroundings while in 'indian' country would make the pirates think twice...
its my understanding that the biggest prob is the various gun laws in differing countries, and many/most wouldnt allow even stowed/locked guns in their waters, much less in port, with penalties that make NYC look like candyland for any offense...
kinda screwed unless yer willin to toss yer weapons overboard everytime time ya make port...
Is that Vattel’s Law of Nations?
This is one of those problems where you have to be suspicious over the ‘easy solution just not being taken’. Clearly this is a difficult one.
I remember my neighbors (and FNC BoR) telling me years ago that ethanol and windmills would make us energy independent. Try putting that windmill on a jet-liner.
yesSir, long before i was born, it was a done deal that Id be brainwashed in the trough of collectivism...thankfully the Lord uses all that darkness to emphasize His Light...
as far as hidin a few weapons, sure its do-able, but man ifn ya get caught ,yer screwed, and the U.S. has more or less agreed to let ya twist in the breeze according to international 'law' rather than telling the collective 'world' to bite us...
THAT is the pity...and i dont know what kinda range these goons have, but it seems that sailing around their reach is more difficult than taking yer chances sailin thru em, at least til, like on the hi-way, yer number gets called to be pulled over...
Even Carter didn't get the hostages killed.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! All those assets and the "negotiations" end with all four murdered?
Is it possible that the pirates would stop if Obama publicly apologized for some past grievance on our part? Maybe they just dont understand that with Obama as president we ALL are citizens of the world now. Maybe some sort of sensitivity training would help. Or he could tax the merchant ships to pay off the pirates like we do with criminals in the US Cities. Good old fashioned redistribution can fix anything.
There must be a misunderstanding here. All people are good, except maybe racists/sexist/homophobes like conservatives, Christians, white males and Tea party protesters, ...and CEOs, unless they own green companies like Gore.
See how easy it is ?? :)
well if we’re ‘spittin’ in a hand, THAT could take awhile...in the meantime, bambam & co. have already loaded the garden plot with wheelbarrows full of the ‘other’...8^}
This whole thing with the Somali pirates is insane. We could take out their installation and most of them with just a few little missiles.
I still like the idea of Extreme Reality Cruises. I know it’s an idle daydream, but no more so, at this point in our history, than dreaming of a US President willing to take a stand against US enemies.
there should have been no survivors among the pirates
I thought it was interesting when the PRChinese navy ships started patrolling those waters looking for pirates. They are a world player now and consider their economic interests first. They know how to do business unlike SOME countries, ironic given PRC past.
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