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 ...
The reason is many ports refuse to allow ships in if the crew is armed.
There is no reason why once they’re in international waters they couldn’t be met by another boat loaded with security forces that could escort the ship around the horn, then transfer off to another waiting boat.
Granted an oil tanker or LNG tanker would not want to be involved in a firefight, but a regular cargo ship sitting up nice and high would be a perfect platform for defending against a bunch of idiots with rifles and perhaps at most a few RPG’s.
Turns out TOTUS is turning into a ‘chicken little” and will do nothing. Just an empty suit with no morals or convictions.
Yep, and don't forget the guy who stole the airplane in Canada and flew it to Missouri this week. Was it a test run? You can bet your last dollar that if this aircraft had approached the "no fly zone" around DC it would have been shot down. I'm a pilot and the FAA has gone to great lengths to let us know what will happen if we are intercepted by Air Force aircraft if we cross into the Air Defense Intercept Zone along the border or stray into a no fly zone. We are told exactly how to respond and what to do if we have radio failure. I guess the folks in fly over country must be considered expendable.....
Welcome Back, Carter...
And our SecDef wants to slash the budget for the DoD......welcome to the New World Order, the same thing that happened when Bill the Klintoon was in office. Slash and burn the US Navy and other services that could be watching over a place like this, instead, we read abt it in the MSM, and more than likely, we’ll be hearing that the entire ship and crew “disappeared”, and nothing will be done about it.
History DOES repeat itself, although I thought we were through paying tribute to the Barbary Pirates in the 18th century...........
And for the person who was asking abt why there isn’t a Convoy system in place to combat things like this? I was in one of those Units in the Late 90’s, but they were all but done away with by the “Higher Powers” because protective “Convoy Duty” was a thing of the past.....
Sad really...
That is really scary. A lot of people are too young to remember Carter and his disasterous foreign policy (Example: Sold out the Shah of Iran in favor of the Mullahs) double digit unemployment, double digit interest rates and double digit inflation. He was the worst President in the history of the country and is now the worst Ex President.
I think these guys made the wrong mistake this time... I wonder which SEAL team gets to take these guys out.
MILLIONS FOR TRIBUTE..NOT ONE CENT FOR DEFENSE. /S
See.. The BARBARY pirates should have waited a while.
Oh boy, what a pip we got on the bridge.
I would get on the phone to whoever is running Somalia and give them 24 hours to get the ship/crew free, and stop it from ever happening again.
After 24 hours, if not corrected, ever sea port in that country large enough to launch a 12 foot jon boat would look like a scrap metal dump.
Everything within 50 miles of their coastline would be ashes and rubble.
Before the TOTUS does anything, he will have to arrange for a loan from the Chinese so he can launch an offensive. About 3 trillion should handle it.
There’s something that works, that is employed by cruise ships. It’s called a Sonic Gun.
Please see: http://seatalk.blogspot.com/2005/11/sonic-gun-repels-pirates.html
He needs to apologize to them for America’s arrogance in sending its ships to sail the high seas. Let’s face it, we have been well wimpified.
It’s a Danish ship. TOTUS will pass the buck to NATO.
Sounds good to me.
I always thought, silly me, that if you fly the US Flag you are under the protection of the US Navy. Of course beginning with the Pueblo seizure, we know that not to be the case. With Illegals being given financial rewards to attend state colleges, with a non citizen running the government, and with this latest fiasco, I wonder why I value my citizenship so highly.
Vince
Zero will just write them a little note on monogrammed stationery.....sprayed with perfume. That’ll work. /s
That's a holdover from the days when piracy was treated as something to be dealt with firmly and quickly. Take back the ship, hang the pirates. Better still, kill them before they can take control of a ship.
The rules have not kept up with the times.
If it were my call, I'd have US special forces board the ship by night, behead the pirates, hang their heads on the railings of the ship and then quietly slip back into the night. The sight of a few ‘pirated’ ships sailing into port with the severed heads of the pirates on display would have a chilling effect on future plans of would-be pirates.
bookmark
Just look at the picture of that ship. A decent weapon placed high with a knowlegable operator would be able to take care of business. Sure, they could point the barrel up and lock it in place when in port, but out at sea it should be manned.
A test for King Baraq, as Biden predicted.
Will he have his electronic crib sheet handy to help him pass?
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