Posted on 04/12/2009 11:00:01 AM PDT by bimboeruption
MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) - An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a U.S. Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior U.S. intelligence official said. One of the pirates was wounded and in custody after a swift firefight, the official said.
Capt. Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was safely transported to a Navy warship nearby.
The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A government official and others in Somali with knowledge of the situation had reported hours earlier that negotiations for Phillips' release had broken down.
The district commissioner of the central Mudug region said talks went on all day Saturday, with clan elders from his area talking by satellite telephone and through a translator with Americans, but collapsed late Saturday night.
"The negotiations between the elders and American officials have broken down. The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates in Puntland and elders refused the arrest of the pirates," said the commissioner, Abdi Aziz Aw Yusuf. He said he organized initial contacts between the elders and the Americans.
Two other Somalis, one involved in the negotiations and another in contact with the pirates, also said the talks collapsed because of the U.S. insistence that the pirates be arrested and brought to justice.
Phillips' crew of 19 American sailors reached safe harbor in Kenya's northeast port of Mombasa on Saturday night under guard of U.S. Navy Seals, exhilarated by their freedom but mourning the absence of Phillips.
Crew members said their ordeal had begun with the Somali pirates hauling themselves up from a small boat bobbing on the surface of the Indian Ocean far below.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Bravo Zulu, men!
It's a shame we have people in our military and government who think so little of their security clearance and the trust it represents in their honor and discretion, that they would sell it out for a cheap mass-media private thrill.
Thanks
I don’t think anything “released” was secret ... I think the official who spoke did anything wrong.. and insisting that his/her name be left out shows that he/she did not want any “glory”.. just wanted to get the general message the public.... kudos to the official who released this report IMHO
He or she was not authorized to discuss the matter, but he or she did it in spite of that fact. That’s dishonorable.
Oboooombi already injected politics into this by now taking credit for the rescue, even though he had been waffling & stalling on this for 4 days. Why are you defending this usurper commie pig POS???
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I am glad for America and the brave men who succeeded in the rescue operation. I aleady made that plain. No thanks to zero 0boooombi.
Oboooombi already injected politics into this by now taking credit for the rescue, even though he had been waffling & stalling on this for 4 days. Why are you defending this usurper commie pig POS???
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Hmmmmm....purplerain, member since Feb 27, 2009 and closet defender of BO. Troll alert.
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“broken down. The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates”
Gorelick/Clinton STILL in effect....pretending this is a criminal rather than terrorist matter.
There - fixed it for ya.
Thats precisely whats happening, this will again become a crimnal matter for the justice dept to deal with. The military will have to stand down until we are hit hard again.
The BATFE makes the FBI look like a bunch of geniuses.
Don’t be taken in by the obama left-wing media shills. This was a fairly minor incident — a group of community pirates, who could have hailed from Chicago, held one man hostage. Don’t get me wrong, I am very glad he survived and the criminals were dealt with, but this is little more than a daily gang incident in many of our biggest cities. Our great leader was once an organizer of these specimens. The media, of which he controls much of the nightly news shills, have blown this way beyond the recognition it deserves in an effort to make BO look presidential— as if it were equivalent to 911. This is all about taking political advantage in order to secure power over the serfs.
WOW I waited 24 hours for the outcry and none came...
1. Obama acted unilaterally in making the decision to go to war with Somalia.
2. He directed the military to Murder Somali citizens who were negotiating in good faith for the release of their captive U.S. Merchant Captain.
3. He has made America less safe because now all of the Somali Pirates are saying they will kill Americans on sight.
4. He did not follow the path of the Europeans who have successfully negotiated (Talked to the enemy)the release of other hijacked ships and crews.
5. He has a captured Somali citizen who is being detained against our Constitution and is most likely being severely interrogated because of course Obama doesn’t torture to get information.
I guess the only real question I have is what other then skin color is the difference between Barrack Hussein Obama and George W. Bush on this issue?
After a firefight??!!! WTF
This "official" has to either be one of Zero's admin who wouldn't know the difference between a bullet and a casing, or an "official" of Kenya to whom probably firecrackers would be considered a "firefight".
These were 3 clean headshots. 3 dead pirates. There was NO firefight, except possibly in the cocaine fueled dreams of HNIC, who now probably considers himself RamboII.
Again, firefight?! WFT!
1. Obama acted unilaterally in making the decision to go to war with Somalia...
Are you a pussy or what?
You hit it Ben. The FBI had nobusiness even being there. Puracy is not a domestic crime in this case. Piracy is a separate category which is covered by the law of the apprehending nation, This would be military law in this case.
Obama sent the FBI in to establish the situation as a crime, so that military justice would not prevail. In that Obama was foiled by men who had the trigger pull, the traditional remedy for pirates.
Contrary to popular socialist belief, The UN Law of the Sea
DOES NOT replace the traditional International Law on Piracy.Piracy does not have to occur on the High Seas for the act to be treated as an act of war from a private individual or group, even though the UN Law of the Sea says so. The Old law is still in place, and that is that the victim nation can use both private and military acts of war to apprehend and punish pirates, without reference to any other national or international jurisdiction.The jurisdiction is universal.
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Universal Jurisdiction
Antonio Cassese, a leading jurist, asserted that the concept of universal jurisdiction is legally admissible. He further went on to explain that the crimes over which such jurisdiction may be exercised are of such gravity and magnitude that they warrant universal prosecution and repression. Although international law concerns itself with criminal jurisdiction, outside the sphere of international tribunals, it does not prescribe rules requiring the exercise of jurisdiction; rather it concerns itself mainly with the propriety of the exercises of state jurisdiction.
On this point, the 1934 analysis of “In Piracy Jure Gentium” states that: “With regard to crimes as defined by international law, that law has no means of trying or punishing them. The recognition of them as constituting crimes, and the trial and punishment of the criminals, are left to the municipal law of each country”. Piracy is then thought to be the basis of universal jurisdiction for what are termed “Jus Cogens” crimes. “Jus Cogens” is a Latin term that means a “compelling law”; and this fundamental law must be followed by all countries. The 1986 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties affirmed “Jus Cogens” as an accepted doctrine in international law.
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http://war-crimes.suite101.com/article.cfm/piracy_forced_creation_of_universal_jurisdiction
Obama wanted due process to apply to these pirates, and that is why the FBI was sent out. Look at what Holder is doing with the remaining juvenile pirate.Before its over Holder will have the pirate put up at the Waldorf on New York, dining on lobster tails. Its a darn good thing the Navy killed the other three, or they would have ended up on our welfare rolls , and later running guns from Chicago.
The FBI had no business being there, and did not have to be. They were there to help the pirates, not the hostage.
Obvisoulsy you missed the cynasism.
Bush got hammered by the left anytime he took any action against terrorists the Democrats used the issue as political fodder to hype their anti-establishment base and to drive a credibility wedge in the Bush Administration.
So ask yourself how hypocritical is it that the outspoken critics on the left and the media are now silent because its Obama that is making the decisions?
Excellent synopsis...(OBAMA ADMITS BUSH WAS RIGHT)
too bad the Republicans seem neutered on the subject because they should be out screaming it from the rooftops...
Never let good Hypocrisy go unchallenged call them on their silliness and make them explain the difference between what the GREAT OBAMA did compared to how BUSH did it...
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