Posted on 04/11/2009 8:35:25 AM PDT by BarnacleCenturion
Somali pirates have hijacked a US-owned tugboat in the Gulf of Aden with 16 crew on board, reports say.
Maritime industry sources say the tug, which sails under an Italian flag, was towing two barges at the time of the attack, at 1100 local time (0800 GMT).
The crew are said to be unharmed. The US and Italian governments have not confirmed the hijacking.
Meanwhile pirates holding a US captain hostage have warned that using force to rescue him could result in "disaster".
The pirates said they hoped to transfer Capt Richard Phillips from a lifeboat to a bigger vessel, as US and other naval ships made their way to the area.
He is being held by four pirates hundreds of kilometres off Somalia.
In other developments:
- Sailors on a Panama-flagged bulk carrier repulsed a pirate attack with water hoses. Nato officials on a nearby Portuguese warship said an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade landed in the commanding officer's cabin
- On Friday, one Frenchman and two pirates were killed in a rescue operation by French troops on another vessel captured off Somalia. Four others, including a child, were freed from the yacht
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
I guess they forgot the SS Mayagüez. Figures.
He's under such pressure now, he's bound to do something disasterous and screw things up even more.
He waited too long for the TOTUS to come up with a plan.
He should consult with the head of the Israeli special forces to tell him what to do.
Leni
You can believe CNN if you want to.
The Coward in Chief is happy to let four of his brothers disgrace America.
He is trying to save your life with health care and gun registration. How much more ungrateful can you get? its the presidents primary job to fund social programs. /sar
The pirates don't know which country owns these ships. Heck these ships have so many "layers' of ownership the owners don't know who owns them. They also often have multi-national crews.
I think the reason these ships were caught is the pirates are having to go out 250-400 miles into international waters and also the piracy is up what 500-600% over the years? It was just a matter of time an American ship was hijacked.
Now, we'll see what the obama response is.
You heard right about dead Coyotes on fenceposts... and it is still done today (though to a much lesser degree because there are far fewer Coyotes today).
The pirates know we have a cheese-eating surrender monkey in the White House, expect these types of incidents to continue for 4 years.
Fub0 is not only failing to act but is protecting his brothers. Impeach.
Part of the problem is that there is no central govt. Thanks to decades of civil war and clan fighting, there’s not much of anything - no judicial system, no railroad, no federal military, no centrally controlled currency, not much industry or infrastructure - just clan rule, local politics and plenty of anarchy and radical elements like sporadic sharia law.
So there’s really no central powers to “do something about the pirates.” The American military should do as previous posters suggested - get them at home in their coastal headquarters. And I also agree with someone who responded regarding the captain - he’s someone’s husband, son, father. It’s not so easy when we actually remember that.
"We begin bombing in 5 minutes"
Yes. Obama has shown the world HE IS WEAK and AFRAID of pirates (and controversy).
He needs to get off his party circuit and start protecting Americans and American trade.
Subsurface SEAL drills small hole in lifeboat, pump in sleeping gas, situation over.
None of this is rocket science to our highly trained SpecOps teams. So clearly the only thing that is rocket science is the Amateur in Chief not knowing how to LEAD the Military and say, “Get our guy back, and report back to me when the job is finished. Followup orders will be to take out those pirates and their mother-ship, so begin making those plans now. After that, if any further pirate actions occur against Americans, notify me at once, because the gloves WILL come off at that point.”
That is so smart. But then again, you are hoping Obama would have the gonads to order a rescue operation.
He would have sent in covert operatives to threaten their families at home in Somalia.
Imagine being an American in a ROP country. The target all ex-pat Americans wear just got bigger and brighter. No, we don't necessarily expect the Marines to come get us if we're in trouble. That isn't the point. It is just that we're now more vulnerable.
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