Posted on 02/22/2011 7:33:13 AM PST by Allthegoodusernamesaregone
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 – Somali pirates killed all four Americans they had held hostage aboard a sailing vessel in the Indian Ocean this morning, U.S. Central Command officials announced.
U.S. officials were negotiating with the pirates for the safe return of the captured Americans when the murders took place, officials said.
Centcom officials said that in the midst of negotiations, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the S/V Quest. When the forces reached the boat, officials said, they discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds.
During the boarding, the Somali pirates fired on the U.S. forces, who killed two pirates and captured 13 others. U.S. forces already had captured two other pirates, and the servicemembers boarding the Quest found the remains of two other pirates.
“In total, it is believed 19 pirates were involved in the hijacking of the S/V Quest,” Centcom officials said.
“We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest,” said Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, Centcom’s commander.
The pirates seized the boat Feb. 18 off the coast of Oman. Somali pirates -– often operating from mother ships far out to sea -- have captured scores of ships and generally have held the ships and crews for ransom. News reports indicate Somali pirates currently hold 29 ships with more than 660 hostages.
Piracy in the region occurred originally off of Somalia’s east coast for several years. In August 2009, the pirates extended their attacks to the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia’s north coast. The pirates since have ranged farther out to sea -– up to 600 miles –- and now affect more than a million square miles in the Gulf of Aden, the west Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
The United States has worked closely with regional and international partners to attack the problem. In this case, American forces closely monitored and tailed the Quest. Four U.S. Navy warships made up a response force dedicated to recovering the S/V Quest: the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, the guided-missile destroyers USS Sterett and USS Bulkeley.
They are martyrs.
I wonder what happened to the Bibles they were carrying.
Leave Bambi alone - can’t you see he’s trying to eat his waffles!
In all seriousness - an RPG was fired at a US Navy warship and four American citizens were murdered. That is a direct declaration of war and the response should be swift and clear! Unfortunately, the enuch-in-chief will probably bring the pirates to the US and give them court appointed public defenders at taxpayer expense!
I have to wonder - what do you think Sarah Palin would do?
And Obama is going to do-NOTHING!
Seriously, as soon as it had been determined the hostages had been shot, every last one of the pirates should have suffered the same fate. The ghosts of Teddy Roosevelt and General "Black Jack" Pershing are rolling in their graves.
Seriously, no he wouldn't. Carter? Who actually asked the Delta Force Commander (Colonel "Chargin' Charlie" Beckwith) before the ill fated hostage rescue attempt in 1979 if there was any way for the Delta Operators to shoot the guns from the hands of the terrorists so as to avoid a loss of life among the terrorists! I read that in the late Charlie Beckwith's book on the formation of Delta Force.
The TOTUS sends his condolences to the families.
I hear them rolling in their graves too! The TOTUS sent condolences just before he bowed to the pirates.
“The TOTUS sends his condolences to the families.”
Yeah, to the families of the dead Somalians.
If they carried .50 machine guns, they could easily be detached from their mounts and stowed in an armory on board when entering port, if that was an issue. I really don't think merchant ships need big deck guns, the .50 has much longer range than a rocket propelled grenade or an AK47, which are the weapons of choice for these so called 'pirates'. As long as the merchantmen are alert at all times to incoming unidentified vessels, they could easily defend themselves with .50 M2HB's, one of the best mechanical devices ever made by John Moses Browning, who designed it back in 1918. The fact it's still in service today tells you what a remarkable machine it is, and with a maximum effective range of 1.2 miles, it would be more than a match for these dumb teenage Somali's waving their RPG's and AK's.
And notice I myself (though no Navy man) suggested 50 cal machine guns earlier in this thread.
I wasn't taking the text as fact just posting it with the link for you all to examine as I always try to do.
The specific answer I posted sounded familiar as I heard it before. There still is this problem:
“7) pirates use surprise attacks with speed boats. Often the small crews of freightors don't even know the pirates are attacking until they're already climbing on board, even before that the boats can go 35 mph, which actually makes a fairly hard target to hit.”
Granting them refuge status and a weekly check from you and me.
This has been going on since before 2005. They say there are 1000 pirates. Just how long will the world sit on their axx without doing something to put an end to this? I don't understand why every shipping nation in the world doesn't coordinate and use decoys and then squash them like roaches. Don't free them to strike again, just kill them.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia
BTW Some of you may accept everything that government tells you, but I'm not in that camp. So I'm not convinced that we know the real story yet if ever.
You are right, #7 is not addressed in the comment regarding 50 cal machine guns.
I don’t sail so I don’t know much about radar, and we are talking now of 2 different kinds of craft, commercial and yachting.
Thinking of commercial craft, is it unreasonable to expect the radar screen to be manned at all times? Are there automatic alarms that could be in place?
I don’t know the answer to these questions.
Here is an interesting article about this couple if it hasn’t been posted.
I was a little critical of these people for taking this risk and but I’ve since become critical of a USA and world that would allow this lawless scum to persist just like Mexican drug lords.
They need to run armed decoys (with the latest mil communications equipment and armed discreetly with mini guns and HMGs.) When they attempt to attack, then take them out without prisoners.
Just another day, during the Obama Administration.
I would guess that surface ships commercial radars would have trouble picking up small boat craft against the water which can act as interference. But I dont have one myself, or a boat. If I had one I wouldnt be near that coast without a US military escort, at least the US Coast guard.
Obama = Epic Fail.
Our comments are more effort than this administration will put into justice.
My first instinct is why do we have any living pirates? Yes, decency and all that but how decent were they? They are not innocents.
The welfare of these thugs and murdering miscreants will cost us millions upon millions. Why? Why aren’t they just dead?
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