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.

[ShandaLear]

This is the military built by President Bush. I shudder to think of the damage Obama may do to our brave men over the next 4 years.

[Califreak]

I think you might have nailed it.

I’m not yet jaded enough to formulate that kind of theory.

[ClarenceThomasfan]

I smell a DU troll

[kabar]

First of all, the lifeboat was enclosed, which made it a much more difficult tactical situation than you claim - you just can't have a spotter relying intel about the pirates to the men approaching the raft in the water. You act like it is a simple thing to swim up to an enclosed raft in the open ocean during the night. Second, you just don't have SEALs on every ship. They probably had to be helicoptered in from the nearest base, which could have been thousands of miles away.

I spent 8 years as a naval officer. I am familiar with what the SEALs can and cannot do. The enclosed lifeboat limits visual identitification, but it does help the impact of stun and flash grenades to immobilize the hostage takers. And the fact that four are Africans and the hostage is white helps the rescuers. I have used night vision equipment and they provide a real advantage.

For cryin' out loud, this is why Internet politics can be so damn toxic and counterproductive. This was a great outcome for this country.

You set a very low bar for what constitutes a "great outcome." I didn't expect anything less. When you make the safety of the Captain the most important objective above national interests, this is the kind of ridiculous situation you find yourself in, i.e., four ragtag pirates in a lifeboat without gas in the middle of the ocean making demands and holding the world's lone superpower hostage for five days. The sad part is that the Captain's release unharmed will convince most of the American people that this a "great" success. I am more concerned about how are enemies view it.

We come across as petty and bilous as the DUmmiess were against Bush when we cannot simply say "God bless America and our military" and leave it at that, without knowing a lick about what Obama did or did not do.

I do know that this took almost five days to accomplish. I do know that the WH took the unprecedented step of having the FBI in charge of negotiations. I do know that the Captain tried to escape twice. Before I will make a judgment on the performance of Obama, I want more facts. The military always had the ability to conduct this rescue operation, i.e., once the SEALs got on the scene.

Let's see what Obama does about Somali pirates now. They hold approx a dozen ships and about 200 foreign hostages.

[jveritas]

Obama should have orders the dispatch of Navy Seal team to save the ship in the first few hours. Remember that it took few hours for the pirates to attack the ship and then few hours for the crew to free the ship form the pirates and before the pirates escaped with the brave Captain taken as a hostage. We were following all these events right here on FR and hence it was not going on without anyone knowing about it. That was plenty of time for the Navy Seal team to accomplish their mission if they were order to be disptached to the scene.

Also if it is true that the captain was rescued today when he tried to escaped for the second time then he should have been freed two days ago when he did the same thing but back them either there was no Navy Seal yet dispatched and waiting next to the pirate boats tw and that is because Obama did not order them to do so or there may be some Navy seals next to the boat 2 days ago but they did not get the orders to shoot.

[Miss Didi]

What a joyous Easter Day!

[blaquebyrd]

"LISTEN to the news!"

Yeah, they always get it right. No thank you, I'll wait for the pentagon briefing.

[dirtboy]

You are correct....we should give no quarter to Hussein or the MSM, on FR, or anywhere.

It is rather puzzling that we get after Obama for failing to admit he was wrong back in 2007 about the surge - while at the same time you say we should not give credit if it is due. We don't know what role Obama played here, but it did go down successfully under his watch. We would have been all over him if this had failed. Let's wait and see how events actually transpired, and if Obama did make the right calls, we should not act like petty and petulant DUmmies.

[Jim Noble]

Think anybody in Eyl is getting a little nervous? :-)

Not as nervous as they would be if BB-62 were out there.

[jveritas]

Excellent post.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Obama stuned you eh.

I’d like to propose that when the surviving pirate recovers, Obama and the pirate fight a duel to the death with cutlasses.

[rodguy911]

The only down side about the entire even is that Ozero will now take credit for the rescue.

[longtermmemmory]

it appears, assuming capt. philips jumped the boat a second time, that the navy was poised to take action.

Obama is NOT taking piracy seriously becuase he set it as a mere FBI investigation.

Obama was conting on a NON-military solution to vidicate his fluffy weakling ivory tower left wing world view. This is a terrible outcome for Obama and now he has to figure out how to jump in front of the parade to simulate leadership.

[Eaker]

I smell a DU troll

I smell gullibility!

[AH_LiveRight]

“At this point, we should be proud of our military and the good captain and leave it at that until we know more about what role Obama played”

Could not agree more. We can see through the adoring media reports regarding Zero's role. Even if he simply ordered the Navy to use best judgment, conservative opinion should support that.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

I don’t know that Obama did hesitate. It sounds like we were waiting for Captain Phillips to make a second escape attempt. When he did, we were ready.

I’m not praising Obama. I’m thrilled with the result and I’m being charitable. Don’t worry, it’ll pass.

[rodguy911]

Exactly, we all share the same fear.

[Kansas58]

Maritime Academy spokesperson on FOX right now, talking about what we need to do NOW!

It is great.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Christ arose, the devil was defeated.

[trumandogz]

Obama should have orders the dispatch of Navy Seal team to save the ship in the first few hours.

And you have information that the Navy had an actionable plan in the first few hours and presented that information to Obama in that same time period, only to have Obama refuse the Navy's plan?