Posted on 04/08/2009 6:28:05 PM PDT by tsmith130
The U.S. is closing in on pirates that hijacked a U.S.-flagged ship off the coast of Somalia. According to a spokesman for the owner of the Maersk Alabama, which had been hijacked by pirates before American crew members were able to regain control of the vessel Wednesday, a U.S. Navy warship arrived at the scene Wednesday night.
The ship's captain still is being held hostage on a smaller boat.
Family members said Capt. Richard Phillips surrendered himself to the pirates to secure the safety of the crew. "What I understand is that he offered himself as the hostage," said Gina Coggio, 29, half sister of Phillips' wife. "That is what he would do. It's just who he is and his response as a captain."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Wednesday for world action to "end the scourge of piracy" as U.S. warships raced to confront the pirates.
"We are deeply concerned and we are following it very closely," Clinton said. "Specifically, we are now focused on this particular act of piracy and the seizure of a ship that carries 21 American citizens.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
good thing I’m not president, i would tell them “you have fifteen miutes to release the captain before the carpet bombing of Mogadishu begins, I’ve been wanting to do that since blackhawk down anyway” then see how the pirates bosses in Mogadishu react
I might consider some realistic CGI film made up to make him think its happening in real time that shows his home village being raked by a C-130 gunship, all the ships on fire and off in the distance a fleet of warships ready to launch Marines on the beach.
Then let him decide where his fate lies.
Well this is interesting... there’s no verification of the report that the ship itself has gotten underway again, or the other report that the owner was paying a ransom. It’s the old ‘fog of breaking news’ bit again.
Sometimes I think the MSM just charts out all the possible permutations of these stories, then just goes down the list reporting all of them. The New Jersey incident, where we went from “assault rifle” to “high powered rifle”, to “automatic pistol”, to “semi-auto pistol” is a case in point. Bet they were getting really nervous when they realized “slingshot” was the only thing they had left on the list.
Kinda like this one, “can’t talk now, we’re surrounded by warships”.
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN09295199
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