By It is about time because this pirate circus was going on for too long:
FBI and USA government officials on the Maersk Alabama are seen at the Mombasa port in Kenya, Sunday, April 12, 2009. Nineteen American sailors who escaped a pirate hijacking off the Horn of Africa reached safe harbor, exhilarated by freedom but mourning the absence of the captain they hailed for sacrificing his freedom to save them. - Sayyid Azim /AP Photo
Navy snipers on the fantail of a destroyer cut down three Somali pirates in a lifeboat and rescued an American sea captain in a surprise nighttime assault in choppy seas Easter Sunday, ending a five-day standoff between a team of rogue gunmen and the world’s most powerful military.
It was a stunning ending to an Indian Ocean odyssey that began when 53-year-old freighter Capt. Richard Phillips was taken hostage Wednesday by pirates who tried to hijack the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama. The Vermont native was held on a tiny lifeboat that began drifting precariously toward Somalia’s anarchic, gun-plagued shores.
The operation, personally approved by President Barack Obama, quashed fears the saga could drag on for months and marked a victory for the U.S., which for days seemed powerless to resolve the crisis despite massing helicopter-equipped warships at the scene.
One of the pirates pointed an AK-47 at the back of Phillips, who was tied up and 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. The lifeboat was being towed by the Bainbridge at the time, he said.
A fourth pirate was in discussions with naval authorities about Phillips’ fate when the rescue took place. He is in U.S. custody and could face could face life in a U.S. prison. [The State]
This operation was not planned and a split second decision that was made by the Naval commander on the scene because the hostages life was at risk. The Obama administration had given the Navy to okay to assault the pirates only if the hostage’s life was at risk. Of course the rescue has already taken a political angle between right and left. Why can’t people just be happy the guy has been rescued?
Captain Phillips safely on board USS Bainbridge with the ship's CO CDR Frank Castellano
Anyway the pirates are vowing to strike back now:
Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding the Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, said: “Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying,” he told The Associated Press. “We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men.”
Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old self-proclaimed pirate, told the AP from one of Somalia’s piracy hubs, Eyl, that: “From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages).”
“Now they became our number one enemy,” Habeb said of U.S. forces.
These pirates may be talking tough now, but they will definitely be thinking twice about taking a US ship hostage again knowing that the very real chance of them getting killed is likely. By the way here is a good read by Robert Kaplan on Somali piracy that is worth checking out.
It seems to me this pirate issue is one thing you could actually getting an international coalition of the willing to go and take these guys out or at least sink all their boats in their port cities to send them a message. This has been going on for years and hopefully this incident will stir a sense of urgency to do something about it.
1:36 pm on April 12th, 2009 1
This is very good news. I also think President Obama made a very wise decision.
1:56 pm on April 12th, 2009 2
It is great news and a good call by the commander.
2:29 pm on April 12th, 2009 3
I think it is an escalation,(if only seen through the eyes of the Somalies), and it may well have deadly ramifications.
However, once a path to piracy is closed with deadly results the problem will be solved once and for all.
Piracy and ransoms cannot be paid forever by people who just want to ship their goods around the world. It is what it is.
2:39 pm on April 12th, 2009 4
Indeed. I foresee lots of pirates being taken out by Navy Seals. The only good news for them is that they will probably never know what hit them and they'll be dead before they will feel any pain.
3:13 pm on April 12th, 2009 5
Too many "ifs". "If" it is a US flagged ship or "if" it is a ship with an American crew, and "if " the US Navy is available with Navy snipers, and "if" other countries follow suit.
The Somalies will shoot the first captive, then hold the remainder for even more money.
4:20 pm on April 12th, 2009 6
Or they may be more prone to avoid US flagged ships as they seem to have been in the past.
4:25 pm on April 12th, 2009 7
Over and over again it is proven: negotiate with hostage takers or terrorist, and then there will be more hostage taking and terrorism.
I think, and hope, that Hamilton is correct, and the pirates will just avoid U.S. ships. It will be easier to take ships that a country will definitely pay ransom for instead of dying for.
5:26 pm on April 12th, 2009 8
technical note: Most ships, regardless of who actually owns them, are flagged in Panama, Liberia or the Bahamas. There are not many US-flagged ships traveling around the world because of the 50% duty the US gov't charges on repairs performed on American-flagged ships in foreign ports.
9:03 pm on April 12th, 2009 9
I think it's about time the US Marines add another hymen to their song.. Just don't know how you'd add "on the shores of Puntland".
Granted is has been great business sense it the past for insures and owners of the vessels and cargo just to pay up the ransom, but how long can this go on? When will it end..
11:03 pm on April 12th, 2009 10
I'm all for the Barbary Wars III. Pirates are such a nuisance to everyone that this conflict would attract a real coalition of the willing.
11:36 pm on April 12th, 2009 11
Good news. Thanks God the captain Philips is alive. Regarding the pirates they got what they deserved and I hope this will serve as a good lesson to them.
5:47 am on April 13th, 2009 12
i wonder why korean special force can't ever do something like this. they need to get some training by the us marines
11:37 am on April 13th, 2009 13
Thats why I mentioned American crews.
11:45 am on April 13th, 2009 14
Its not because they haven't been given the opportunity. They have had numerous chances in Iraq as well as Afganistan, however the government is more interested in playing games and have not been serious about anything except saving face. Politics as usual, trying to appease everyone. (in the long run, it has cost them much prestige.)
12:20 pm on April 13th, 2009 15
What is really annoying to me about this is how the conservative commentators are rushing out to criticize President Obama for taking credit for the guys rescue.
Yes, Obama did something anyone else would have done which is tell his military to protect the life of the hostage if he is under threat of being killed by the pirates. However, if the guy would have been killed everyone would be criticizing Obama for not doing something sooner. So when things go right of course the President is going to take credit even if he had little to do with what happened. Why not when if things went bad everyone would be criticizing him even though he had little to do with that outcome as well?
Why can't people just be happy the captain was rescued and leave the politics out of it?
12:35 pm on April 13th, 2009 16
"why can't people be happy the captain was rescued and leave the politics out of it".
Because thats not the way the world works, or ever will.
If the situation had gone sour and the captain killed , then the politics would have been that "Obama " had done everything he could have. Not really a problem, and things do go wrong.
I didn't vote for the guy, but I know how the world works.
2:43 pm on April 13th, 2009 17
You may have point, GI; but the ideological left, who make up the bulk of the media, have done and would do the same thing to a conservative president. Like Gerry says, “…that’s not the way the world works…” I would say it differently: That’s the way the world ‘presently’ works.
7:30 pm on April 13th, 2009 18
It was the right call by the President. If it had gone sour, I for one would not be critical of the call. I also have seen quite a few conservative bloggers supporting the President on this issue even if some do not. I think the difference is that you would be hard pressed to find someone on the left who would give former president Bush a break on anything.
11:03 pm on April 13th, 2009 19
I have no doubt the left would be doing the same thing, but it doesn't make it right. The conservative media/bloggers lose even more creditability when they cannot credit President Obama for doing anything right. He obviously handled this situation correctly and I hope he follows up on it by doing something to really crush these pirates.
8:45 pm on December 26th, 2010 20
[...] that came on board the US ship is thinking that he made the right choice. I agree with GI Korea at ROK Drop that pirates will probably be thinking twice about hijacking American flagged vessels. You can read [...]