U.S. ship captain held by pirates off Somalia, has been freed,

CNN ^

[Ladycalif]

U.S. ship captain held by pirates off Somalia, has been freed, senior U.S. official says. Three of four pirates killed.

[fella]

How did they ever plan the time for the captain to jump out of the life boat?

[dirtboy]

Do not compare the Iran hostage crisis to this in term of magnitude and difficulty.

The point is, so what if it took five days? We got the ideal outcome. We showed we have the military capacity to pull off a rather difficult tactical rescue, saved our citizen, killed three pirates and captured the fourth for questioning. Picture perfect.

Do not compare the Iran hostage crisis to this in term of magnitude and difficulty.

And I am saying that it is better to show you have the patience to let your military plan, stage and execute rather than respond to the impatient armchair generals. Bush did the same in Afghanistan - I remember a lot of freepers were ripping into Bush, acting like kids in the back seat asking every five minutes "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" When the hammer fell, it was devastating. So was this. From initial appearances, a picture-perfect tactical approach.

[HollyB]

Even better point. This would never have happened before O came into office. I’m so proud of our Navy and the Captain.

[FTL]

"Thank you Mr. President for trusting our Military. They are the best and will be your best and trusted friends". How about a Barf Alert before posting? You are joking, right? Besides "Mr. President" makes the assumption that he is legally president and that has not been established as far as tens of millions of voters are concerned.

[Syncro]

CNN has had better and faster coverage of events of this nature for the last few months.

I always look at Fox and MSNBC and then go to CNN and they usually are right on the story.

Fox is usually last to start coverage. After CNN had announced that the Captain was rescued 2 hours before the Media go the news, I switched to Fox and they were just putting out the news that the Captain was rescued "20 minutes" ago when in fact it was over two hours.

[LA Woman3]

Are the other pirate ships still headed to the area?

[TornadoAlley3]

Obama will make statement soon, about how he stayed quiet but had this planned all along.

[Chode]

yup...

[STARWISE]

Amen.

[djf]

I doubt there was anything classified.

Pirates were sitting there in their canoe out of gas.
Kinda outgunned, ya think?

[Liberty Valance]

L O L ! Easter SEALs? :-)

[Kansas58]

Face the facts, folks!

The Navy did not INITIATE anything, it appears that our military was ordered NOT to initiate any action.

If Captain Phillips had not tried so hard to escape, we can not be at all sure that the Navy would ever have been allowed to act.

[LimaLimaMikeFoxtrot]

Now watch all the politicians line up to take credit for this outcome.

[dirtboy]

There was enough time to have SEALs under the lifeboat the first time brave Captain Phillips jumped out

Last I checked, you don't have SEALs stationed on every last ship in the Navy. They probably developed a plan and even did a couple practice tactical runs on a mock-up before flying out to the scene - assuming that Special Ops were involved here.

[Wissa]

How did they ever plan the time for the captain to jump out of the life boat?

As I understand it, that lifeboat doesn't have a head. They had to go out to the back of the boat to relieve themselves.

Just speculation on my part.

[GOPJ]

Great news!

[don-o]

Thank you for posting what I am thinking in light of all these armchair strategists here.

[donna]

They are going to arrest him and give him a federal trial, LOL.

I think they should release him on bond, right next to the White House or the Capitol. Maybe give him some food stamps to get by.

[Kenton]

Why were’nt the “pirates” ALL killed?

They needed one to put on display to discourage further such acts...

[navysealdad]

Yes.
Thank You