Posted on 04/12/2009 3:52:08 PM PDT by Perdogg
U.S. Navy snipers opened fire and killed three pirates holding an American captain at gunpoint, delivering the skipper unharmed and ending a five-day high-seas hostage drama on Easter Sunday.
The pirates were pointing AK-47s at Capt. Richard Phillips and he was in "imminent danger" of being killed when the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge made the split-second decision to order his men to shoot, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Thank God...
Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old self-proclaimed pirate, told The Associated Press from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl, that, "our friends should have done more to kill the captain before they were killed. This will be a good lesson for us."
"From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)," he said. France and India have both taken deadly military action against pirates in recent months and seen no significant retaliation, however.
Where's your evidence that that happened?
.... and you want to know something? Wlord has it that he had to read the order from the Telepromptor. once again, he is the TOTUS.
What a freakin’ joke this A$$hole is.
The Defense Department twice asked President Barack Obama for permission to use military force to rescue Phillips, most recently late Friday evening, U.S. officials said. On Saturday morning, Obama signed off on the Pentagon's request, as he had a day earlier, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Is that not true? I don't understand your headline.
By tomorrow, it will be Obama BEGGED the Navy commanders to take out the bad guys but they just were not as courageous as the Big Zero.
o’s position is strategic, not tactical.
The caveat of course is he has no knowledge of either one.
Ask yourself why the second time would be required.
read your response again
In this case it certainly relied on the opportunity of targets, ROE in place.
Two of the three targets had their heads close together, out of the upper hatch getting fresh air. The third was keeping watch, when he distanced from the Captain, badda boom, badda bing. A relatively straight forward op.
Certainly, from now on the safest flagged vessels in the world will carry the stars and bars. As it should be.
Imagine. You’re a U.S. Captain, you are held hostage by pirates.
You notice after 3 days nothing is being done by your president.
So you jump overboard to save yourself.
Nice.
The Defense Department twice asked President Barack Obama for permission to use military force to rescue Phillips, most recently late Friday evening, U.S. officials said. On Saturday morning, Obama signed off on the Pentagon's request, as he had a day earlier, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
At least he wasn't being serviced by Monica like the last demoncrud president to face a crisis...{:-)
I did ask myself. Myself does not know, but, I'll soon get the answer, I'm sure.
Which one?
Then the proper question is, “Why did DoD ask him twice?”
Wow 0bambi is the CIC and the commander of the USS Bainbridge. Well he said he could multi task, except when it comes to talking about pirates and anything else.
VIA Blackfive-
“This was not a rescue attempt ordered by National Command Authority i.e. the President”
Someone post the Jim Varney SURPRISE SURPRISE.gif.
Notice that it is the commanding officer that gets the picture with the captain, not obambi.
At least he did respond after being asked twice. I remember reading about an incident where the US military had a clear shot at a terrorist target but needed the OK from the President, who was Bill Clinton. Clinton was watching something on TV (like a golf tournament) and refused to break away from that and give his OK—in fact, chewed out the aide who tried to get him to take action—and the chance to hit the target was lost.
A decision NOT above his pay grade!
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