Somali Pirates Send More Ships to Area of Standoff w/US (dozens of hostages-human shields en route)

Maritime officials in east Africa say Somali pirates are sending several hijacked ships carrying dozens of hostages to the site of a standoff with the U.S. Navy over American captive, captain Richard Phillips.

Capt. Richard Phillips of Underhill, Vt., is seen in this family photo released on 08 Apr 2009 The officials say the pirates, who are holding Phillips on a lifeboat, are apparently trying to use the other hostages as shields. The lifeboat is being trailed by a U.S. warship, the USS Bainbridge.

The pirates have threatened to kill Phillips if they are attacked. They are demanding a ransom for his release.

Phillips has been held since Wednesday when hijackers briefly seized control of the humanitarian cargo ship he captained.

The French government, which was dealing with its own standoff against Somali pirates, said Friday that one hostage and two pirates were killed as French forces freed a yacht carrying French nationals off Somalia. Meanwhile, a Norwegian ship and its international crew were released. Pirates were quoted as saying they had received a ransom payment from the ship's owners.

Concerning the U.S. standoff, President Barack Obama refused to answer questions about it Friday, but other White House officials have said they are working toward a peaceful solution. Both the FBI and U.S. Navy are conducting negotiations with the pirates.

Pentagon officials say another Navy ship, the Halyburton, which is equipped with helicopters, has also arrived in the area.

A pirate is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying they are seeking $2 million.

Earlier Friday, U.S. military officials said the captured American captain tried to escape the lifeboat he is now being held on by jumping into the sea. But they say he was recaptured by the pirates. One of them is reported to have fired a weapon during the foiled escape.

Somalia's transitional federal government has condemned the increased piracy and called for the unconditional release of the American captain.

unfortunately it isn’t the first time the people wet the bed on presidential elections - remember this loser who killed many a good American...

Source - http://www.republicanandproud.com/clintonlegacy.htm

BILL CLINTON’S TRUE LEGACY

TO AMERICA.

1993-ATTACK ON THE WORLD TRADE CENTER

Treated as a “crime” with no foreign terrorist involvement. However, Blind Islamic Radical Sheik is convicted for conspiracy. Bin Laden named as an “un-indicted co-conspirator” in 1996. The same year he is offered to the Clinton Administration by the Sudan and refused saying they don’t have enough evidence to convict him. Bill Clinton never visits site.
1993-18 Soldiers killed in Somalia and 84 wounded in attack planned by bin Laden. Clinton pulls troops out of Somalia. bin Laden claims victory and gains status with his followers as one who is able to make the “Great Satan” run. Somalia falls into a chaos that remains to this day.
1993- the FBI identified three “charities” connected to the terrorist organization Hamas. Clinton ignored pleas that he create a “President’s List” of extremist and terrorist groups. He feared the political fallout of “profiling” Islamic charities. Money continues to flow freely to terrorist organizations for the next 8 years.
1993-The Srebrenica Report (Dutch) revealed in 1993 Clinton embarked on an Iran/Contra like affair with Islamic Terror groups in Bosnia. In both Afghanistan and the Gulf, the Pentagon had incurred debts to Islamist groups and their Middle Eastern sponsors. By 1993 these groups, many supported by Iran and Saudi Arabia, were anxious to help Bosnian Muslims fighting in the former Yugoslavia and called in their debts with the Americans. Bill Clinton and the Pentagon were keen to be seen as creditworthy and repaid in the form of an Iran-Contra style operation - in flagrant violation of the UN security council arms embargo against all combatants in the former Yugoslavia. a mysterious fleet of black C-130 Hercules aircraft appeared and Mojahedin fighters were also flown in. This report has just recently been made public.
1994- Algerian terrorists attempt to hijack French Airliner to fly into the Eiffel Tower. Plane is stormed by French police.
1994-”Terror 2000” was distributed to the Defense Department, State Department, FEMA, intelligence communities and members of Congress. “Targets such as the World Trade Center not only provide the requisite casualties but because of their symbolic nature provide more bang for the buck. In order to maximize their odds for success, terrorist groups will likely consider mounting multiple, simultaneous operations with the aim of overtaxing a government’s ability to respond, as well as to demonstrate their professionalism and reach.” At the State Department’s request, it was “scrubbed” of some details, including how to hit the Pentagon or White House by airplane using the Washington Monument as a landmark.
1995- Then-Rep. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., made secrets public at the behest of left-wing activist Bianca Jagger, his girlfriend at the time. The secrets suggested that the CIA had on its payroll one or more unsavory characters who had been involved in murder. He compromised American intelligence-gathering abilities around the world, adding that numerous CIA sources had decided to stop giving information for fear they would be outed by a congressman. Torricelli efforts paid off with the Clinton administration, which moved to ban the use of spies or the recruitment of spies that had any involvement with criminals or terrorists. Torricelli effectively blinded the CIA.
1995-5 U. S. soldiers killed in Saudi Arabia in bombing.
1995-Oklahoma City Bombing. 168 dead. Domestic terrorists blamed. Jayna Davis, Oklahoma investigative reporter attempts to turn over evidence she has in the form of security videos and witness testimony to the FBI, but after checking with his superior, the evidence is refused. A Justice Department inspector, one of Clinton’s own, admitted that the Oklahoma City bombing investigation “offered one of the worst examples of de facto evidence tampering by the FBI crime labs.” Jamie Gorlick, of 9/11 commission fame is in charge of the investigation and effectively blocks the investigation into any foreign involvement.
1995-”Operation Bojinka” plot hatched by an al Qaeda cell with an eye toward blowing up 12 American airliners. Some would be booby-trapped with bombs, like Pan Am 103, others hijacked like the four U.S. jets commandeered on 9-11 and crashed into buildings.
1996-CIA and FBI warn Clinton they have uncovered plot of al Qaeda “Martyrdom Battalion” terrorists to hijack planes and use them as missiles. This apparently is never passed on to the Congress.
1996-Philippine authorities warn the FBI they have received credible information that al Qaeda is planning on hijacking planes and flying them into Federal Buildings. Again, this information apparently stops with Bill Clinton and is never passed on to the proper Congressional Intelligence Committees.
1996-The downing of TWA Flight 800. 230 dead. Mechanical Failure blamed. Hundreds of eyewitnesses ignored as they claim they saw a surface to air missile launch and destroy the plane. Bill Clinton issues Executive Order 13039 to keep all involved in recovery process silent. Pilots Union claims FAA report on mechanical failure “bogus”. FBI tells witnesses what they saw was a single “fireworks” display. Read “Oklahoma City Bombing and TWA Flight 800” for more on these
1996-Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 and injured 200 military personnel.
1996-Sudan offers to turn over bin Laden to US through negotiator and Clinton supporter Mr. Mansoor Ijaz. He warns them not to slight the Intelligence Officer in the Sudan by sending an aide to the Sec. of State. They ignore him and send an underling. Insulted by the slight, the Sudan refuses to speak to him. Clinton blows off offer saying they don’t have enough evidence to indict bin Laden.
1996-bin Laden leaves Sudan and goes to Afghanistan as a “guest” of Mullah Omar, head of the Taliban.
1997-UNOCAL brought members of the Taliban here to the States to wine and dine them, take them to beach, show them their U.S. offices and take them to Washington to meet with the Clinton State Department. The fact they are harboring a wanted terrorist, bin Laden, is ignored.
1997- Final report of the Gore Commission on Aviation Safety comes out. The DNC received at least $498,000 from the airline industry. There was no deadline by which those requirements would have to be implemented and 2) there was no funding mechanism for ensuring that they were enacted. This insured that none of the recommendations would ever be implemented. Boston Globe, a known liberal newspaper, says Gore, “failed conspicuously to address airline safety.” That failure was traced directly to a series of campaign contributions from the airlines to the DNC.
1997- Warren Christopher resigns as Sec. of State over a conflict with Clinton over the removal of top secret defense technology from the realm of the State Department, with Congressional oversight, to the hands of Ron Brown and the Department of Commerce. He stated that that the president’s actions were reckless and may jeopardized the military defense of this nation. Admonished Clinton for planning to hand over to the Communist Chinese, American missile guidance programming source codes embedded in commercial U.S. satellites. Christopher, is said to have told Clinton, the Brown deal could jeopardize “...significant military and intelligence interests...” of the United States missile guidance system. Clinton quietly put out a post dated Executive order protecting the two companies under Congressional investigation from any criminal prosecution.
1997-The Northern Alliance threatens to overrun the Taliban and is poised to remove them from power. The Clinton Administration imposes a cease fire that both sides agree to. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan use this opportunity to re-arm the Taliban army. Clinton knows this is happening, but withholds that information from the Northern Alliance and Congress. This action assures that the Taliban will solidify their power and push back the Northern Alliance.
1997-Madeleine Albright becomes Sec. Of State. She later states, after the attacks, in her defense of Bill Clinton: “This is hard to say and I haven’t found a way to say it that doesn’t sound crass, but it is the truth that those {attacks before Sept. 11} were happening overseas and while there were Americans who died, there were not thousands and it did not happen on U. S. soil.”
1998-Bombing of the U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000.
1998- bin Laden issued his fatwa urging his followers to target the U. S. and all Americans.
1998- Sudan offered to extradite Sayyid Iskandar Suliman and Sayyid Nazir Abbass to the U.S. for trial. They were wanted by the US for being directly involved in the bombings of its embassy in Kenya and they had intimate knowledge of the operations of the alleged guerrilla chief Osama bin Laden. The State Department, in blocking the FBI from pursuing the lead, noted that Sudan has been listed for over a decade as a state sponsor of terrorism. Yet Sudan, the official said, had asked only for a “dialogue” with the United States toward restoring a more normal diplomatic relationship. Their offer was completely ignored and Clinton instead bombed the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum.
1998- UNOCAL gave up all hope of a pipeline across Afghanistan and pulled out. Not because of Afghanistan harboring a terrorist, but from pressure from the Women’s Rights groups over the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan.

1998-Missile strike against bin Laden’s Khost, Afghanistan training camp and a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory to take Monica off the front pages is a total failure. Clinton lobs over $70 million dollars worth of Cruise Missiles at Sudan and Afghanistan hitting nothing but tents, camels and the only pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan. Done without consulting his Joint Chiefs. He informs them of his plans one half hour prior to the attack. Their pleas for him to stop the attack due to inadequate intelligence, are ignored. They later distance themselves from the attack by admitting they were not consulted. The Military Commander in that area said it “would have been a million to one shot.”
1999-Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian, is arrested trying to cross the Canadian Border with explosives.
1999-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, (R-Cal), who has spent time in Afghanistan fighting with the Northern Alliance, received credible information as to the whereabouts of bin Laden in Afghanistan. He immediately contacted the CIA with this information. The Information was never acted on. During the Clinton Administration the Voice of America became known, within Afghanistan, as the Voice of the Taliban. “People go berserk when I say that Clinton supported the Taliban, but that is the truth.” says Rohrabacher.
1999-Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrows Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Oct. 12 in a military coup. Clinton later claims his plans to obtain bin Laden through millions in pay-offs to the Sharif Government collapse with the coup, which is very odd story since the Sharif Government was a supporter of the Taliban and bin Laden. Indeed, even the Musharraf Government supports the Taliban until after the 9/11 attacks when it becomes healthier to deal with the Taliban than an angry and hostile American military. He sees this as a chance to rid his country of the Islamic radicals that he says are the 1% of the population holding the other 99% hostage.
1999-Clinton’s own secretary of defense, William Cohen, in a July 1999 op-ed piece in the Washington Post, predicted a terrorist attack on America’s mainland.
1999-”Project Megiddo” goes public on FBI website. It is a directive, given in 1995 to FBI from Bill Clinton to direct their investigative efforts towards only domestic terrorism such as the Christian Right and militias. In short, foreign involvement is to be ignored which now explains why no evidence of foreign terrorists involvement was accepted in the Oklahoma City Bombing and downing of TWA Flight 800.
1999-A report, titled “Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?,” cautioned that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network might seek revenge for the 1998 U.S. air strike on bin Laden’s camps in Afghanistan. It is ignored as merely a psychological report, with no credible sources.
1999- the U.N. imposes sanctions to cut off funds for Taliban arms.
1999-the U.S. finally added bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization to its list of “foreign terrorist organizations”. Still, they did not single out Afghanistan or the Taliban nor add Afghanistan to the list of countries that harbor terrorists, despite the fact bin Laden is harbored there.
1999-Mullah Khaksar, then the Taliban regime’s deputy interior minister, met with U.S. diplomats Gregory Marchese and J. Peter McIllwain in Peshawar, Pakistan, in April 1999 and told them he wanted to oust Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar because of his support for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network. The offer was ignored by Bill Clinton. Bill told him, through his people, that “he didn’t want to get involved in internal Afghani matters”.
1999 - The Transportation Security Administration altered a terrorist report to exclude any and all references to foreign terrorists. David Holmes, head of the Commerce Department zeroed in on white militia groups in a 1999 threat analysis. Commerce officials who worked on the case say Holmes’ exclusion of every threat group that wasn’t white was in keeping with what they say was a broader Clinton administration policy of focusing on domestic threats from white militia groups, rather than Islamic groups, in combating terrorism. “Holmes made us take out every group that wasn’t white – no minority groups allowed,” “He was toeing the liberal line” of the Clinton administration.
July 2000 – three months before the deadly attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen another plausible offer to deal for bin Laden. The offer required only that Clinton make a state visit there (Yemen) to personally request bin Laden’s extradition. But senior Clinton officials sabotaged the offer.
2000-Bombing of the USS Cole. 17 sailors killed, 39 injured. Millions will be spent repairing the ship. bin Laden and the al Qaeda are the foremost suspects.
2000-Clinton orders the remains of TWA Flight 800 destroyed thus ending any possible further investigation into the downing.
2000-Bill Clinton has successfully cut the military in half over his eight years in office and blinded and effectively neutered our intelligence gathering ability.
2000-The Intelligence community around the world reports an “increase in traffic”, which means more than usual interaction between terror cells which usually is a precursor of an attack somewhere in the world.
2001-Bill Clinton leaves office. Does he brief Bush on all the foreign terror information he has? Only they know.
2001-George W. Bush has 8 months in office before bin Laden launches his next attack on the US.
2002- Many Democrats start asking “What did the President know and when did he know it” ala Watergate, implying that GW knew the attacks were imminent and did nothing...ignoring all the attacks and warning signs that occurred under Bill Clinton.
2002- Bill Clinton continues to try and re-write history. Claiming he was “obsessed” with bin Laden. His aides and those that know him, say differently.

Here’s a comparison of other Presidential Crises, with American hostage-taking and military/civilians killed (various actions against our civilians and/or actions that we took in response to such crises. It’s a good comparison for what is going on today, as to what has happened in the past with other Presidents...

Presidential Crises - Hostages and/or Killings of Military and Civilians

—

Johnson — Killed (34), USS Liberty, Israel
Johnson — Hostages (82/1 Killed), USS Pueblo, 11 months, North Korea
Ford — Hostages (21), SS Mayaguez, Cambodia
Carter — Hostages (52), Tehran Embassy Hostages, 444 days, Iran
Carter — Killed (8), Operation Eagle Claw, C-130, Iran
Reagan — Killed (241), Marine barracks bombing, Lebanon/Iran
Reagan — Hostages (20), Islamic Terrorist Hostages, Lebanon/Iran
Reagan — Killed (5), Islamic Terrorist Killings, Lebanon/Iran
Reagan — Killed (37), USS Stark Missile Attack (FFG-31), Iraq
Clinton — Killed (6), 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan
Clinton — Killed (168), Oklahoma City Bombing, Domestic Terrorists, U.S.A.
Clinton — Killed (19), Black Hawk Down, Somalia
Clinton — Killed (17), USS Cole Bombing (DDG-67), Al Qaeda, at port in Yemen
Clinton — Killed (142), TWA Flight 800, Terrorism [controversial*], Terrorists
Bush — Hostages (24), Hainan Island incident (EP-3 Aries), 11 days, China
Bush — Killed (2,998), 9/11 Attack, Al Qaeda, Afghanistan
Obama — Hostages (1), Somalian pirates, ongoing currently...

—

—

Please help add more so I can update this. If there is another event that happened within a particular President’s term (hostages taken, military killed in actions regarding the crisis, etc...), give me the info and any pertinent links. Still working on it and adding information...

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.