[WestCoastGal]

Negotiations over the American captain taken hostage by Somali pirates broke down on Saturday, according to Somali officials, after American officials insisted that the pirates be arrested and a group of elders representing the pirates refused.

Somali officials said the American captain, Richard Phillips, and the four heavily armed pirates holding him hostage remained in a covered lifeboat floating in the Indian Ocean about 30 miles off Gara’ad, a notorious pirate den in northeastern Somalia.

The negotiations broke down hours after the pirates fired on a small United States Navy vessel that had tried to approach the lifeboat not long after sunrise Saturday in the Indian

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/world/africa/12somalia.html?_r=1

[hellbender]

The negotiations broke down hours after the pirates fired on a small United States Navy vessel that had tried to approach the lifeboat

How ungrateful of them. Following orders from Hussein 0bama, the Navy was bringing a stock of halal food and water for the pirates, along with a GPS unit programmed to show the location of all American vessels in the area.

[ml/nj]

a group of elders representing the pirates refused.

Kill the f&*(ers, and anyone who happens to be within a mile or two of the mighty "elders."

ML/NJ

[Humal]

Good article. So negotiations broke down when the Americans insisted that the pirates be turned over to authorities?

I can’t believe this has gone on this long.