Posted on 04/11/2009 7:15:37 PM PDT by fooman
Somali pirates obtained fuel for their hijacked lifeboat and were moving within 35 kilometres of Somalia's shore late Saturday with Phillips on board, ABC news and CNN reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at monstersandcritics.com ...
Obama had ordered the Navy to provide food, water and fuel to the lifeboat. Why is anyone surprised that the terrorists are making a run for the coast with their hostage?
If true I say we mobilize.....
I think the pirates are being fed disinformation. The boat can’t move 165 miles in a day. At that speed, it would take 200 gallons of gasoline.
I am not sure if I believe the source, although it cites CNN as its source.
from 500 to 35 Kilos ain’t far.
This will be very bad in the morning if true. If they are allowed to make it to shore, god help us.
Jimmy Carter redux.
Has the payoff been quiety made already?
How did it get around the destroyer?
They have been at sea for four days. How do we know when they would have gotten the fuel? Maybe from one of the other pirate ships?
All news accounts say the destroyer is keeping its distance, for fear of being shot at!
They obviously want to humiliate the US in the short term, but most probably will free their hostages as a gesture of goodwill to their crypto-muslim brother Hussein Baraka.
At which point, it will be telling if any United States retaliation post event occurs.
If not, taking US citizens hostage and firing at our military on the high seas will be forgiven in the interests of political expediency and a US socialist party propaganda event.
God save the USA.
When will the bowing "CIC" stop "following" and start leading?
This is incompetence. Three pirates with AKs against the entire US military!!! What is Obama waiting for????
FINISH THESE GOONS.
The boat is required to have sufficient fuel to run the fully loaded lifeboat at 6 knots for a period of not less than 24 hours which is 144 nautical miles ( 165.7 statute miles) but it only traveled a few. Why?
There are two likely explanations for this. First safety inspections are carried out by the 3rd mate who is the most junior (i.e. inexperienced) officer. It is possible that he missed a problem with the lifeboat engines or fuel delivery system.
A less likely answer is that the captain sabotaged the engine. It is necessary to connect the battery switch which is often located in the engine compartment, giving Captain Phillips an excuse to open the hatch. Once in the hatch you could crimp the fuel line or block the air intake system, being a diesel engine, restricting fuel or air are the only two ways to safely stop and engine once started.
http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/maersk-alabama-lifeboat-faq/
ABC news and CNN are both reporting the same set of events - numerous articles now appearing across the web... hopefully they are inaccurate
I’d hope so, but I hear the ocean currents in the area are enough to carry a drifting vessel to shore.
Look...all of this is happening literally on the other side of the planet from us, and there is no way in hell that we or anyone else outside of the Pentagon rally know what is going on. It’s hard to believe, but the Horn of Africa really is one of the remotest places on the globe from us.
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