WRAPUP 5-Warships Track U.S. Hostage Floating to Somalia

Reuters ^ | Sun Apr 12, 2009 | Staff

[SampleMan]

MSM speak:
Any boat with a gun is a battleship.
Any vehicle with a tread or a turret is a tank.
Any aircraft with missiles is a fighter plane.

And any moron with a pen is a journalist.

[stubernx98]

One of the ways we can solve the pirate problem is to outfit a few freighters and Yachts like they did in WW 2, that acted as decoys and when approached dropped their camouflage to reveal big guns and blow the scum out of the water.

[bill1952]

>Somehow I doubt there are any actual battleships involved.

there are no actual active battleships in the US Navy.

[4integrity]

‘...And any moron with a pen is a journalist...’

ROFL. Touche(pardon my French).

[united1000]

thanks for the re-post, I had not seen that.

[browardchad]

That does make sense. There's no gas involved; they're drifting on the current.

There is some disagreement on exactly how close they are to shore, though. "U.S. officials said the lifeboat had drifted to within 20 miles of the Somali coast but pirate sources and a regional maritime group said it was still much further out." Leave it to Reuters to have "pirate sources."

[Ax]

“Pirate Source” implies that there is a central pirate office somewhere ashore. It’s a business, clearly.

[bert]

We have a naval base very close by at Djibouti, the home of Africa Command

[cardinal4]

"The Americans give them food and water -- helicopters drop them on the lifeboat," a pirate from Hobyo village, who identified himself as Hussein, told Reuters

You know...Ah never mind..

[Jim Noble]

there are no actual active battleships in the US Navy.

Unfortunate, because an Iowa-class BB is just what the pirate city of Eyl needs.

[iopscusa]

Oh nose, a Hussein from Hobyo, some of the better Husseins, the worst ones emigrated to the US.

[womanvet]

We negotiate with Pirates? send food to terrorists? What’s the matter, why haven’t we surrendered our Navy to them yet? Is the Pretender-In-Chief looking for a Pirate Sheik to kowtow to before surrendering?

Will one of the Marines at the White House please explain to Mr. Chicago that “to the shores of Tripoli” did not mean to take part in a Haj?

[Sherman Logan]

A very good reason it’s unlikely any are involved.