Posted: 4/14/2009 3:00:42 PM EDT
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WTF is going on? Are they going to flatten somalia or not? Obama doesnt have the sack, he might have gotten a claim on retrieving one hostage but this shit is out of hand.
Now they took 4 today? and we get two different news stories: Somali pirates on hijack spree since weekend Buzz Up Send Email IM Share Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print Play Video ABC News – Preventing Pirate Attacks Slideshow:Somali Pirates Play Video Video:Emboldened Bandits? FOX News Play Video Video:Maersk crew departs ship; replacements arrive AP AP – RETRANSMITTING TO CORRECT REFERENCE TO NAME TO RICHARD NOT ROBERT - This photo provided by the U.S. Navy … By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press Writer – 30 mins ago MOMBASA, Kenya – Somali pirates were back to business as usual Tuesday, defiantly seizing four more ships with 60 hostages after U.S. sharpshooters rescued an American freighter captain. "No one can deter us," one bandit boasted. The freed skipper, Richard Phillips, will return home to the United States on Wednesday, after reuniting with his 19-man crew in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, according to the shipping company Maersk Line Ltd. The brigands grabbed more ships and hostages to show they would not be intimidated by President Barack Obama's pledge to confront the high-seas bandits, according to a pirate based in the Somali coastal town of Harardhere. "Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land," Omar Dahir Idle told The Associated Press by telephone. "Our guns do not fire water. I am sure we will avenge." On Monday, Obama vowed to "halt the rise of piracy" without saying exactly how the U.S. and allies would do it. The pirates have vowed vengeance for five colleagues slain by U.S. and French forces in two hostage rescues since Friday. "The recent American operation, French navy attack on our colleagues or any other operation mean nothing to us," said Idle, 26, whose gang holds a German freighter with 24 hostages. The pirates say they are fighting illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters but have come to operate hundreds of miles from there in a sprawling 1.1 million square-mile danger zone. The top U.S. military officer, Adm. Michael Mullen, said he takes the pirates' threats seriously, but "we're very well prepared to deal with anything like that." Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke on ABC's "Good Morning America." After a lull at the beginning of the year because of rough seas, the pirates since the end of February have attacked 78 ships, hijacked 19 of them and hold 16 vessels with more than 300 hostages from a dozen or so countries. Pirates can extort $1 million and more for each ship and crew. Kenya estimates they raked in $150 million last year. A flotilla of warships from nearly a dozen countries has patrolled the Gulf of Aden and nearby Indian Ocean waters for months. They have halted many attacks but say the area is so vast they can't stop all hijackings. The Gulf of Aden, which links the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, is the shortest route from Asia to Europe and one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, crossed by more than 20,000 ships each year. The alternative route around the continent's southern Cape of Good Hope takes up to two weeks longer at huge expense. In an unusual nighttime raid, pirates seized the Greek-managed bulk carrier MV Irene E.M. before dawn Tuesday. Hours later, they commandeered the Lebanese-owned cargo ship MV Sea Horse. On Sunday or Monday, they took two Egyptian fishing trawlers. Maritime officials said the Irene carried 21 to 23 Filipino crew and the fishing boats 36 fishermen, all believed to be Egyptian. A carrier the size of the Sea Horse would need at least a dozen crew, although the exact number was not immediately available. NATO spokeswoman Shona Lowe said pirates in three or four speedboats captured the Sea Horse off Somalia's eastern coast. The Irene, flagged in the Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was sailing from the Middle East to South Asia, said Noel Choong of the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau, a piracy watchdog. U.S. Navy Lt. Nathan Christensen, spokesman for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said the Irene carried 23 Filipino crew. A maritime security contractor said the Irene sent a distress signal about a suspicious vessel approaching. That rapidly turned into an attack and then a hijacking. "They tried to call in support on the emergency channels, but they never got any response," the contractor said on condition of anonymity because it is a sensitive security issue. The Yemeni Embassy in Washington said its coast guard exchanged gunfire Monday with 14 Somali pirates who had hijacked a 23-foot Yemeni fishing vessel. Its forces freed 13 Yemeni hostages and detained two pirates, while the rest fled on a boat, the embassy said. The Egyptian boats were taken in the gulf off Somalia's northern coast. Said Mursi, Egypt's ambassador to Somalia who is based in Kenya, said the trawlers probably did not have licenses to fish Somali waters. "From my experience, I think that they were illegally fishing," he told The Associated Press. Commercial fishing boats have been illegally harvesting Somalia's rich and varied sea life, including sought-after yellowfin tuna, since the country collapsed into lawlessness in the 1990s. The United Nations estimates the illegal fishing costs the Horn of Africa nation $300 million annually. The U.N. envoy to Somalia called piracy a "pandemic" and urged the bandits' financial backers to be identified quickly and held accountable. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah praised the action by Washington and Paris, calling it "a strong message" to the pirates and their backers. Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vt. was steaming Tuesday toward Kenya aboard the USS Bainbridge, where he is being debriefed by FBI officials and maritime experts, said a senior U.S. defense official in Washington. He said the investigators are gathering evidence of what each captor did for possible criminal investigations and to better prepare for future hostage situations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. Phillips will take a chartered flight to meet his family at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., for a private reception, according to Maersk. He was rescued Sunday when U.S. Navy SEALs snipers killed three pirates holding him hostage on a lifeboat, and a fourth surrendered. Phillips had been held captive for five days after exchanging himself to safeguard his crew during a thwarted hijacking of the Alabama by the pirates last week. The pirates who attacked the Alabama were between 17 and 19, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. "Untrained teenagers with heavy weapons," Gates said in a speech at the Marine Corps War College. "Everybody in the room knows the consequences of that." Most ships are hijacked without a shot fired. Freed hostages report being treated well. The U.S. is considering new options to fight piracy, including adding Navy gunships along the Somali coast and launching a campaign to disable pirate "mother ships," according to military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made yet. U.S. officials are considering whether to bring the fourth pirate involved in the Alabama attack to the United States or turn him over to Kenya for prosecution. Both piracy and hostage-taking carry life prison sentences under U.S. law. ___ Associated Press writers contributing this report include Pauline Jelinek in Washington, Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, Somalia; Michelle Faul, Malkhadir M. Muhumed, Tom Maliti and Todd Pitman in Kenya; Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Adam Schreck in Manama, Bahrain, Lara Jakes, Anne Gearan and Devlin Barrett in Washington; Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, John Curran in Burlington, Vermont and Maggie Michael in Cairo. THEN THE SECDEF Sayeth: Gates: No Immediate Need to Beef Up Military Attacks on Pirates Gates says the precision work displayed by Navy SEAL snipers during the Somali pirate hostage rescue on Sunday shows the importance of proper and targeted training for the military AP Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Secretary Robert Gates says he doesn't see any immediate need to bulk up the military response to piracy on the high seas. Gates adds, however, that those decisions are being made moment by moment. Gates is in Alabama on Tuesday to hear from future military leaders as he tries to sell his new $534 billion budget plan. He says his budget focuses on what those future warriors will need for the kinds of wars the United States is fighting now. Gates says the precision work displayed by Navy SEAL snipers during the Somali pirate hostage rescue on Sunday shows the importance of proper and targeted training for the military. The comments came as Somali pirates, undeterred by U.S. and French hostage rescues that killed five bandits, brazenly hijacked four more ships in the Gulf of Aden, the waterway at the center of the world's fight against piracy. Pirates have vowed to retaliate for deaths of their colleagues — and the top U.S. military officer said Tuesday he takes those comments seriously. But Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that "we're very well prepared to deal with anything like that." Still, despite Mullen's confident statement and President Barack Obama's warning Monday, pirates captured two more nautical trophies Tuesday to match the two ships they seized a day or two earlier. NATO spokeswoman Shona Lowe said the MV Sea Horse, a Lebanese-owned cargo ship, was attacked and captured Tuesday by pirates in three or four speedboats. She had no further information. That hijacking came only hours after the Greek-managed MV Irene E.M. was seized in a rare overnight attack by pirates. Click to view photos In addition, Somali pirates also hijacked two Egyptian fishing boats in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's northern coast, which maritime officials said had a total of 36 crew. It was not exactly clear if those ships were hijacked Monday or Sunday. The Gulf of Aden, which links the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, is one of the world's busiest and most vital shipping lanes, crossed by over 20,000 ships each year. A flotilla of warships from nearly a dozen countries has patrolled the Gulf of Aden and nearby Indian Ocean waters for months. They have halted many attacks on ships this year, but say the area is so vast they can't stop all hijackings. Choong said pirate attacks this year had risen to 78, with 19 of those ships hijacked and 17 vessels with over 300 crew still in pirates' hands. Each boat carries the potential of a million-dollar ransom. The latest seizures come after Navy SEAL snipers rescued American ship captain Richard Phillips on Sunday by killing three young pirates who held him captive in a drifting lifeboat for five days. A fourth pirate surrendered after seeking medical attention for a wound he received in trying to take over Phillips' vessel, the Maersk Alabama. Phillips on Tuesday was aboard a Navy vessel at an undisclosed location, Christensen said. He was initially taken aboard the Norfolk, Va.-based USS Bainbridge and then flown to the San Diego-based USS Boxer for a medical exam. In Washington, Obama appeared to move the piracy issue higher on his agenda, vowing the United States would work with nations around the world to fight the problem. "I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of piracy in that region and to achieve that goal, we're going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks," Obama said at a news conference Monday. So I wanna do something but we'll just keep doing what doesn't work, Okay sounds great? |
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The african americans where I work are against the shooting of the pirates.
They are already enboldened by the attention they have gotten, I wonder if the MSM will make the connection between appeasing them and enabling them. Oh wait, it's "domestic terrorists" that are our real threat. 
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Failed To mention we are giving aid to Haiti again, need to google that, but they are the shithole of the western seas.
But we got clinton wanting to pass them the cash... We even have a US hospital ship down there treating them. Don't they have a Huge AIDS rate? And we had to Bomb the shit out of their dictatorial asses in the recent past too. Oh yeah, found it.. its only $60 million CNN) –– Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on the international community Tuesday to commit dollars and manpower to help Haiti recover from a year of hurricanes and food riots. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is greeted at the Inter-American Development Bank April 14. "It is our task to open the door of opportunity for Haitians and send a message of what could occur," she told a group of more than 40 nations and international organizations gathered for a donor's conference for the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Clinton spoke a day before leaving for Haiti, after which she will travel to the Dominican Republic and then join President Obama at the Summit of the Americans in Trinidad and Tobago. She pledged $57 million in U.S. aid to boost Haitian security, build roads, create jobs, fight drug trafficking and help Haiti with food shortages and debt caused by the global economic crisis and several devastating hurricanes. The United States, she said, is already providing nearly $290 million in non-emergency aid to Haiti this year. Warning that the tiny nation of 9 million people "is on the brink of either moving forward with the help of the collective community or falling back," Clinton called international aid a global "test of resolve and commitment to Haiti." Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, with one of the biggest gaps between rich and poor, Clinton said. It has the highest unemployment rate in the Western Hemisphere, with 70 percent of the population without jobs. A million more youth will be coming into the work force over the next five years which will trigger what economists call a "youth Tsunami." The country also has the highest rate of infant mortality and HIV/AIDS in the region. But Clinton and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who traveled last month to Haiti with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, voiced optimism at Haiti's potential due to political stability and economic growth after decades of chaos. "This is a breakout moment to help one of the poorest nations lift itself to a future of hope," he said. Calling the prospects for the tiny nation "better than almost any other emerging economy," Ban predicted Haiti, which will qualify this year for debt relief from international financial institutions, "is poised to make more progress over the next two years than it has made in the past two decades." Haitian Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis, credited with much of the country's political reforms, warned the country is at a "critical juncture." "Time is of extreme importance," she told the audience. "If we cannot deliver today and we can't find the means to transform the vision of the future, we will be held collectively responsible for not hearing the millions of voices." Pierre-Louis detailed a program which the government hopes will to bring Haiti out of poverty and chaos and draw foreign investment, after years of political mismanagement, violence and chaos. "The repercussions of these bad practices and policies will take years to be reversed but it is important that we start now and today," she said. "We are treading on very fragile ground. If we take no action now the results will be catastrophic." Clinton gave a personal account of her "deep commitment" to Haiti, which she said she visited with her husband, former President Clinton, as a newlywed and again as first lady. She said she has a lot of Haitian art in her home and has several Haitian friends. She also praised the hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants living in the United States, including in her home state of New York, where she served as a senator for eight years. She called on donors to partner with the United States on various programs in an effort to "re-ignite (Haiti's) path to progress," which is in danger of being stalled due to a combination of several hurricanes in recent years and the global economic recession. She said the United States was creating a charitable organization so Haitian Americans and others could contribute toward Haiti's development. "Now is the time to up our investment in Haiti, because Haiti has a real opportunity to make substantial progress," she said. She also called for investment in Haitian agriculture, clean energy and reforestation. |