Posted on 04/08/2009 5:25:46 AM PDT by Jeff Head
NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a cargo ship with 21 American crew members aboard, a diplomat and U.S. Navy officials said.
The Kenya-based diplomat identified the vessel as the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet confirmed that a Danish-owned, U.S.-operated container ship carrying 21 Americans "came under attack" about 240 nautical miles southeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia.
Maersk Line is one of the U.S. Department of Defense's primary shipping contractors, according to GlobalSecurity.org. The Web site said the firm "manages a fleet of nearly 50 ships in commercial and government service, including vessels requiring Top Secret security clearances."
U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the vessel was not working under a Pentagon contract when hijacked.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Convoy?
ARM ALL SHIPS!
DUH!
Valuable cargo, in the middle of the ocean, little speedboats with barbarians and machine guns TAKE OVER huge ship?
Are we stuck on stupid?
A suitably armed ship could pick off these pirates before they get anywhere near boarding. Fer cryin’ out loud, we can read license plates from space but we can’t deal with this?
ARM THE SHIPS! Guns fore and aft and hand weapons for everyone. This is ludicrous!
Damn! I like how you think!
Civilized rules don’t work with barbarians.
As they rise to terrorize the world in many ways, we’d best
accept that.
A crew of 21, armed even with .308 semi's, who were trained in their basic use, would make mence meat of four guys trying to baoard a large ship form a skiff.
What kind of learning curve are we talking about here? How long have these pirates been doing this? It’s not rocket science.
Good grief- lets just take care of our own ships. If the rest of the world wants to be victims forever, let’em.
Several here have had logical ways to deal with this- including blasting the ports the pirates come from. I can’t believe these companies want to keep losing $$ to these half-naked scum bags.
Don’t get me started on why anyone is still shipping to this area at all.
Mercy aid to Africa? IF they want it, let’em stop the pirates, if not- let’em rot and starve.
To me it’s really very simple, you have to pay these bastards in the coin of the realm. Unless you deal with them in terms that are important to them, not you, you run the risk of failing to control them. One of their biggest areas of weakness is a religion that believes what someone does to you here can affect your life in the hereafter.
If you’re going to control them in the end you’ll have to use tactics you couldn’t bring yourself to use at first. The only ones who suffer from this inability to do it right in the first place are the innocents that die while you’re screwing up your political courage to deal with the barbarians.
This late afternoon, Glenn Beck opened his show with an entire segment devoted to this subject. He was brilliant. And throughout, he wondered why the appeasment administration has not and probably has no intention to send in the Marines and the Navy to stop these incidents.
Great minds run alike, Glenn, LOL. We were both on the same wave length today.
"Our flag's unfurled to every breeze from dawn to setting sun
WE HAVE FOUGHT IN EV'RY CLIME AND PLACE WHERE WE COULD TAKE A GUN
In the snow of far-off northern lands and SUNNY TROPIC SCENES
You will find us always on the job -- the UNITED STATES MARINES!"
Leni
B R A V O!
What the GOOD of this world are sorely lacking now is
courage.
Courage to do what they KNOW must be done to defeat evil
on every front.
Too many would rather feel they have been ‘fair’ than survive. And the evil know that.
This might be the only time in human history where so much of humanity is more afraid of unfairness than death.
We would all do well to remember the ‘Untouchables’ and the cops advice to Ness re. the mob.
“...and THEN what are you prepared to do?”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.