Posted on 04/13/2009 6:19:02 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Donald Payne, from New Jersey and a member of the foreign affairs committee, arrived in Mogadishu for talks with President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and his prime minister on rampant piracy off the country's coast.
He escaped unharmed and there were no injuries.
His visit came the day after US forces shot dead three of four Somali pirates who had been holding an American captain hostage for five days in the Indian Ocean.
A Somali pirate chief had earlier threatened to target Americans in revenge for the rescue of a US captain in a dramatic operation that saw naval snipers kill his captors.
The dramatic rescue of Richard Phillips may have put the lives of hundreds of other hostages in danger and raised the stakes for future hijacks, experts have warned.
More than 230 sailors mostly from Far Eastern countries including the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan, are being held aboard 13 other hijacked ships in Somalia's coastal waters.
Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate from the Somali pirate town of Eyl, told the Associated Press: "From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages).
"(U.S. forces have) become our No 1 enemy."
Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship, said that pirates would not be cowed by the US action.
"Every country will be treated the way it treats us," he said. "In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying. We will retaliate for the killings of our men."
US navy snipers shot dead the pirates using just three bullets in a dramatic rescue authorised by President Barack Obama.
They got the go-ahead to fire after one of the pirates was seen holding an AK-47 so close to Mr Phillips that the weapon
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Like Hillary came under fire in Bosnia?
Uh huh. Don't make us come after them, Abu. It isn't only the hostages whose lives are at stake.
Now, now.
Is this another Gulf of Tomkin moment for the dems?
What is a congressman doing there? Really?
To misquote that rock song, “ ...if you can’t run your own damned life, why do you want to run mine...?
The dramatic rescue of Richard Phillips may have put the lives of hundreds of other hostages in danger and raised the stakes for future hijacks, experts have warned.
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The “experts” have , as usual , got it half ass backwards. If last week’s pirate adventure hadn’t come to a satisfactory end, it would have put hundreds of maritime Americans in danger.
All we should certainly have empathy for foreign hostages, ultimately its not the responsiblity of the United States.
The pirates have insider intel from ports, you can bet on it. The abstards will be more careful not to pick on French or American flagged ships hereafter. When the rest of the countries start killing this sea scum, the plague will diminish drastically.
I know it’s wrong to laugh at a mortar attack on a US Congressional Representative but . . .
When the h*!! are we going to stop pretending that these barbarian-filled regions are “nations” inhabited by people that can be dealt with as people rather than as packs of feral dogs?
Of course. Contrary to the “common wisdom”, it wasn’t just a coincidence that America hadn’t been attacked until last week.
The pirates knew that President Bush wouldn’t tolerate it, and they learned this week that no American president would be permitted by the American public to allow piracy to go unchallenged.
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