Posted on 04/13/2009 10:01:04 AM PDT by mojito
After four days of floating at sea on a raft shared with four Somali gunmen, Richard Phillips took matters into his own hands for a second time. With the small inflatable lifeboat in which he was being held captive being towed by the American missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, and Navy Special Warfare (NSWC) snipers on the fantail in position to take their shots at his captors as soon as the command was given, the captive captain of the M.V. Maersk-Alabama took his second leap in three days into the shark-infested waters of the Indian Ocean.
This diversion gave the Navy Special Warfare operators all the opening they needed. Snipers immediately took down the three Somali pirates still on board the life raft, SEAL operators hustled down the tow line connecting the two craft to confirm the kills, and a Navy RIB plucked Phillips from the water and sped him to safety aboard the Bainbridge, thus ending the four-day-and-counting hostage situation.
Phillips’ first leap into the warm, dark water of the Indian Ocean hadn’t worked out as well. With the Bainbridge in range and a rescue by his country’s Navy possible, Phillips threw himself off of his lifeboat prison, enabling Navy shooters onboard the destroyer a clear shot at his captors — and none was taken. The guidance from National Command Authority — the president of the United States, Barack Obama — had been clear: a peaceful solution was the only acceptable outcome to this standoff unless the hostage’s life was in clear, extreme danger.
The next day, a small Navy boat approaching the floating raft was fired on by the Somali pirates — and again no fire was returned and no pirates killed. This was again due to the cautious stance assumed by Navy personnel thanks to the combination of a lack of clear guidance from Washington and a mandate from the commander in chief’s staff not to act until Obama, a man with no background of dealing with such issues and no track record of decisiveness, decided that any outcome other than a “peaceful solution” would be acceptable.
After taking fire from the Somali kidnappers again Saturday night, the on-scene commander decided he’d had enough. Keeping his authority to act in the case of a clear and present danger to the hostage’s life and having heard nothing from Washington since yet another request to mount a rescue operation had been denied the day before, the Navy officer — unnamed in all media reports to date — decided the AK-47 one captor had leveled at Phillips’ back was a threat to the hostage’s life and ordered the NSWC team to take their shots.
Three rounds downrange later, all three brigands became enemy KIA and Phillips was safe.
There is upside, downside, and spin-side to the series of events over the last week that culminated in yesterday’s dramatic rescue of an American hostage.
Almost immediately following word of the rescue, the Obama administration and its supporters claimed victory against pirates in the Indian Ocean and [1] declared that the dramatic end to the standoff put paid to questions of the inexperienced president’s toughness and decisiveness.
Despite the Obama administration’s (and its sycophants’) attempt to spin yesterday’s success as a result of bold, decisive leadership by the inexperienced president, the reality is nothing of the sort.
What should have been a standoff lasting only hours — as long as it took the USS Bainbridge and its team of NSWC operators to steam to the location — became an embarrassing four-day-and-counting standoff between a rag-tag handful of criminals with rifles and a U.S. Navy warship.
On Friday, April 9, as the standoff reached the end of its third day, I called on President Obama to take action to free the American hostage from his Somali captors. I [2] outlined three possible operational tactics that could be used to do so; number 1 was the following:
(1) 2 helos, 2 snipers each: pop the [pirates] in their heads, then drop a rescue swimmer to escort the hostage up to one of the choppers. This works best if the hostage is aware of what is happening and can help without getting in the way — say, by hopping overboard as the gunships near, to divert attention and get out of the line of fire.
(This was written before the USS Bainbridge tethered the life raft to its stern, an action which eliminated the need for helicopters.)
However, instead of taking direct, decisive action against the rag-tag group of gunmen, the Obama administration dilly-dallied, dawdled, and eschewed any decisiveness whatsoever, even in the face of enemy fire, in hopes that the situation would somehow resolve itself without violence. Thus, the administration sent a clear message to all who would threaten U.S. interests abroad that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has no idea how to respond to such situations — and no real willingness to use military force to resolve them.
Any who think they weren’t watching every minute of this are guilty — at best — of greatly underestimating our enemies.
Like the crew of the Alabama, which took swift and decisive action to take back their own ship rather than wait for help from Washington that they knew could not be counted on, Captain Phillips took matters into his own hands for the second time in three days, leaping into the water to create a diversion and allowing the NSWC team to eliminate his captors. The result, of course, was the best that could possibly be expected: three pirates dead, the captain unharmed, and a fourth Somali man who had surrendered late Saturday night in custody.
One thing that will bear watching will be what the Obama DOJ attempts to do with the captive pirate. My money is on a life of welfare checks, a plot of land (in a red state, naturally), and voting rights in Chicago, New York, and Seattle.
In all seriousness, though, who knows? Obama could decide to get tough on the last surviving participant in the first pirating of an American ship since Thomas Jefferson sent the U.S. Marine Corps to root out and destroy the Barbary pirates.
However, given the administration’s track record to date, I won’t be holding my breath on that one.
Uh huh.
“The Americans broke the peace process and killed our teenagers aggressively,” the director, living safely and securely on American soil due to the generosity and decency of Americans, said. “They tricked us and opted out of the peace deal.”
Another bunch of humans extremely unclear on the concept, an East African environmental group, said negotiations between Somalian elders and the U.S. Navy were stalled because the Americans insisted on detaining the pirates, while the elders wanted them handed over to themselves for "punishment."
One of the elders said he and others were waiting for a U.S. boat that was to carry them to the lifeboat to exchange Phillips for the pirates...
“As we were waiting, the Americans preceded the decision with this terrible action,” he said.
It's all the mean ol' Americans' fault. Our fellows were just innocent victims of the Americans' unreasonable dislike for piracy and holding people hostage. Amazing that we have a pirate support group right here in our country. Cultural and cognitive dissonance.
This pirate episode is a flea byte and a little hostage set piece. Negotiations, rescue attempts, killing the bad guys and sometimes good guys as well. Doesn’t matter what Obama did or said here. It demonstrates nothing about how he might use military force in a government-to-government conflict.
This didn’t “turn out ok”. Look at the reaction, from us Americans, and in the world.
A swift action to bring this to a close, without the ability to focus the world’s attention on it, would have helped to make it ok.
That Navy ship should have been ordered and fully authorized, to have a plan, and execute it immediately upon arrival.
Such as...
Put helos in the air, using a bullhorn, let the Captain and the terrorists, know what the plan is, and to be ready.
Disable the ability of the terrorists to communicate.
Offer them one opportunity to release the Captain, and give them 30 minutes to an hour to do it, of face hostile action.
You’re very naive about this subject.
snipers got the go-ahead to fire after one pirate held an AK-47 close to Phillips’ back. Two other pirates popped their heads up out of the lifeboat, giving snipers three clear targets from the Bainbridge...
Correction: Vice Admiral...not Rear Admiral Gortney
the captive captain of the M.V. Maersk-Alabama took his second leap in three days into the shark-infested waters of the Indian Ocean.
The Captain was still on board at the time of the three successful shots. One of the pirates was spotted through a window and had his AK-47 pointed at the Captain and the other two were visible (head and shoulders) through other openings as they catching some fresh air.
I don't believe the sequencing has been definitively established.
I agree totally. (Can you impeach someone who is not legitimately holding office?)
Too many radios, too much so-called command and control. The on scene commander should've had the authority from the start to resolve the situation as he saw fit. In the end, the Captain was rescued in spite of 0bama, not because of him.
A. Palkott’s info was “real time”.
B. The Adm., who took hours before making a statement, was framing his words VERY carefully.
Want to find the truth? File a FOIA request, as the press surely will. I’ll bet $1000.00 it’s held as Classified, and we’ll never see it.
OTOH, if what 0bama claims is true, transcripts will be mass produced and handed out to anyone that will take them.
Time will tell.
So by ordering the actual firing on them, doesn’t this make Barack Obama a “Chicken Hawk”?
Interviewed from Bahrain, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command chief Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said the takedown happened shortly after sailors on the Bainbridge saw the hostage-takers "with their heads and shoulders exposed."U.S. Defense officials said snipers got the go-ahead to fire after one pirate held an AK-47 close to Capt. Richard Phillips' back. Two other pirates popped their heads up out of the lifeboat, giving snipers three clear targets, one official said.
It is entirely possible that the story was changed to make the danger seem more immediate but, if indeed the Captain was in the water, the danger would be no less immediate than having a weapon pointed at him.
He never gave that order. He only repeated what his initial orders were. Only use force if the Captain’s life was in extreme, and imminent danger.
In fact, as the story points out, the Commander asked for new orders, which never came.
The Commander on the ship gave the order. That’s what we call taking the initiative and being “field expedient” about it. LOL
All of that can still be true, as well as Captain Phillips jumping out. They phrase it that way to provide cover for the CINC, and as justification for the use of force.
Phillips jumping into the water could have been the reason the pirates poped their heads up.
The critical question is....was there a second jump and when?
Like many folks, I watched as the story unfolded and several reporters were careful to advise viewers to wait until all reports could be confirm.
Good point.
Exactly, imagine if this had dragged on, or a rescue attempt had gone bad.
The castigation of Obie, the invective directed at him woulda been immense.
Everything went well, and he gets the credit. As it should be. That’s the way it works.
He passed his first mini crisis rather well.
Now, if Bush had only nailed Osama......
Sounds like nObama was setting it up both ways.
He had a good case of “plausible deniability” in case things went south. And, by letting it happen on a weekend, he kept it out of the major news cycles so his moonbat left constituency wouldn’t get too upset over his war mongering ways.
Geez, didn’t America learn about this triangulation crap from Billy Bent-whistle in the 90s?
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