Posted on 04/11/2009 9:14:53 PM PDT by Steelfish
Negotiations Break Down in Standoff With Pirates
By THE NEW YORK TIMES Published: April 11, 2009
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 Ocean.
It was the first such approach since the standoff began on Wednesday, and the vessel returned to a nearby Navy destroyer, the Bainbridge, after the pirates fired warning shots in the air, according to an American military offici
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
darn server storage
If the government of Somalia will NOT allow the pirates to be punished, that is an act of war, and we should level every single port in Somalia!
Pirates rebuff a coward.
Give the guy a break...would ya? He’s busy!
It’s pizza and puppies for the Pantywaist in Chief this weekend.
At this point, Obama and the pirates are exchanging those sneaky middle-finger motions.
What? This isn’t a baseball thread?
Is all this free “pirates” publicity helping or hurting Pirates season ticket sales?
why doesn’t a SEAL Team just go and kill the pirates?
We can’t make the pirates upset!!! What if they called us “stupid” and “racist”???
shades of jimmy carter...
Under cover of darkness. They could do it...but Bambi won’t let ‘em.
Well they are done for tonight. Hopefully both sides get some rest and resume negotiations tomorrow....??!! WTF! This just cant be unfolding as it appears.
A CHRIME SCENE
What an idiot the chosen one is
this is the case... and people need to be made aware of it
that would infringe upon the pirate’s human rights
Obama is Hoping they will Change their minds.
“If the government of Somalia will NOT allow the pirates to be punished, that is an act of war, and we should level every single port in Somalia!”
Will not happen with a muslim president. they are NOT fearing any retalliation from obama.
The United States is losing face and power due to this situation. And yes, I can sit here at a computer and say such things, because I have 11 years Navy service. This has gone on too long.
Without the SEALS doing their thing and risking the hostage, the result will be MORE piracy and terrorism, which we've already seen with the US tugboat that was captured today.
That was what the Clintonistas did after the USS Cole and WTC1 and gave us “The Path to 9/11” Terrorism was treated as a “crime” and so here comes a 9/10 mentality.
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