Posted on 04/10/2009 6:21:26 AM PDT by broken_arrow1
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US ship captain being held hostage by pirates off Somalia jumped off the lifeboat where he was being held early Friday but failed to escape his captors, US networks reported. Captain Richard Phillips jumped into the water during the night and tried to swim towards the nearby US destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, but pirates jumped in and recaptured him, three US television networks reported. US military officials told CNN that Phillips was in good condition and that the pirates did not hurt him. The Bainbridge, accompanied by a P-3 Orion surveillance plane, was preventing the pirates from moving their hostage to a larger ship. Meanwhile Vice Admiral William Gortney, the commander of the US 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, told CNN that negotiations between officers on the Bainbridge backed by FBI experts and the pirates were continuing. "We have the USS Bainbridge on station currently negotiating with the pirates to get our American citizen back," Gortney told CNN. Gortney said a key concern was that the pirates were in touch with clan members on the mainland and could try to draw reinforcements to the standoff. "They are communicating. With communication possibly comes coordination, cooperation with each other," Gortney said. Somali pirates have attacked numerous ships in the area in recent months, but this was the first attempted hijacking of a US-crewed vessel -- an act Gortney said represented a new stage in the piracy crisis. "We always thought that one of the potential game changers out there was the US flag -- with US citizens onboard.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
All they really need do is start putting a an armed security detail on US-flagged vessels. A squad of Marines, say. Put them on at the port of embarkation; take them off when they are clear of pirate waters -- like a harbor pilot. You don't even have to do it with every vessel. Just often enough that the pirates would be gambling anytime they selected a US vessel. Game over.
I’m mostly a lurker here; I look to FR for education and I am not a legal scholar but I’m thinking...
Say, God forbid, this goes from bad to worse and the captain and/or others are killed and it is learned that the WH had ordered to “stand down” or whatever the order would be to not fire. Would then, the captain’s widow, family and employer be those considered to have “legal standing” in a lawsuit demanding documentation from BO proving elegibility to be president? If not, who DOES have legal standing?
Sorry if this is a dumb question...
Yup, he didn't fail. He had guts. Navy failed. What a great Country we have become.
LOL!
They are “somalis”...wonder if they votd for Al Franken via absentee ballot?
Agreed. A timid reaction will result in escalation on the part of the pirates.
Wouldn't a Barret .50 be better for sniping?
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