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On left, Captain Richard Philips (far right) greets members of the USS Bainbridge; on right, video still of pirates' lifeboat (photographs from the U.S. Navy)
With the U.S. Navy's rescue of an American container ship captain—and the killings of three Somali pirates who were holding him hostage—other pirates are promising to retaliate. One told the AP, "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." Another said, "Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying," while a third said, "Next time we get American citizens... they [should] expect no mercy from us."
The rescue mission's dramatic details are being recounted in papers today: Vice Admiral William Gortney said Captain Richard Phillips' life seemed to be in "imminent danger"—President Obama had authorized using force against the pirates in that case. The NY Times described:
Two of the captors had poked their heads out of a rear hatch of the lifeboat, exposing themselves to clear shots, and the third could be seen through a window in the bow, pointing an automatic rifle at the captain, who was tied up inside the 18-foot lifeboat, senior Navy officials said.Adm. Gortney acknowledged, "This could escalate violence in this part of the world, no question about it."It took only three remarkable shots — one each by snipers firing from a distance at dusk, using night-vision scopes, the officials said. Within minutes, rescuers slid down ropes from the Bainbridge, climbed aboard the lifeboat and found the three pirates dead. They then untied Captain Phillips, ending the contretemps at sea that had riveted much of the world’s attention. A fourth pirate had surrendered earlier.
The crew of the Maersk Alabama container ship thanked the Navy for rescuing Phillips, who had offered himself as a hostage after the crew regained control of the ship, but the crew's chief mate added, "We'd like to implore President Obama to use all of his resources to increase the commitment to end the Somali pirate scourge… It's a crisis." BBC News said the "remaining question surrounding the Maersk Alabama is how its crew of merchant seamen managed to fight off Somali pirates equipped with AK-47s," but the "crew refused to provide an answer because they said the techniques they used were being kept secret to help other ships resist pirate attack."
However, there's a debate on whether maritime crews should be armed. The managing director of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association told the NY Times that ships with weapons might be attractive to those who want to steal weapons; plus, "If we arm our crews with light machine guns, [pirates] can probably buy heavy machine guns. And if we buy light rocket launchers, they can buy heavy ones."
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This means it's time to start arming freighter crews and training them to defend themselves against these SOBs.
Did you read that last paragraph? Or the last linked Times article? Not so simple.
Who cares what the last paragraph says? Either arm them and hope they never need them, or leave them disarmed and let fate take its course.
Yeah, who cares what the actual experts have to say?
I think I hear Blackwater's phone ringing.
O Yeah...
Oddest Part: The USS HALYBURTON is in the area.
Three words, bi***es: Bring. It. On.
Yeah, that's not good for business.
I understand the pirates situation poor country no food education or way to advance. But the killing of three pirates is does not go far enough. If you want to send a message to the pirates you not only kill them but their family. All of the ships that are being hijacked could pool a tenth of that money and use it to help Somalia grow food,educate its people, and use the rest as bounty for information leading to the capture of pirates. Its not enough to kill people who are threatening our global economy which is struggling. We need to give the people options to help them selves.
Hopefully this activity won't cause a spike in the prices of rum and wenches.
nice!
I keep on wondering how hard those sniper shots must have been. Boats both moving in the water, wind, darkness, movement of the subjects! Crazy.
I've got no objecttions to the killing of those 3 pirates, but to follow up on what whatmoore said, take a look at this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html
and this, especially page 135:
http://www.unep.org.bh/Publications/Somalia/TSUNAMI_SOMALIA_LAYOUT.pdf
Interesting stuff, thanks for the links.
This is pure bravado bullshit from the "pirates"
The point of the US navy's actions were deterrence
Why would the pirates risk their lives by attacking/kidnapping americans when they can just attack koreans/saudis/dutch/anyone else for cash much easier without the risk
It's only about the money, and this changes the calculation
It's only about the money, and this changes the calculation
Bingo. booty vs. lives for the pirates and security vs. profit margins for the shipping companies.
Stop paying ransoms and the funds to purchase weapons dry up without alternative sources.
The shipowners have much deeper pockets, and I'd bet on a highly trained Blackwater merc over a 20 year old Somali any day of the week.
for pirates they sound like a bunch of crybabies and spoiled sports. be a man and take it like blackbeard.
werd
werd
is there some international law against killing these pirates on site? Why bother arresting them? The HK captain has a point, the pirates will continue arming themselves with bigger weapons. But the pirates will get what they deserve. If they dont want to die, stop hijacking and kidnapping the ships and their crew. All options go out the window the minute the pirates take over the ship.
to Nomnomnom I was thinking about that yesterday very hard shot to make.
to JT10000
Thanks for the info on the country I did not know about the illegal dumping and the ground water but we all know all developing countries have many many problems. If they were radicals and did not ask for money but for the G20 to help clean up their act and to stop dumping on their coast line and pay to clean it up that would be different. Lets not try to make this political they were criminals. And that's why I say Every country that dumps their toxic waste in their waters should try to find a solution that helps every one.
Why don't we just put ninjas on patrol?
+1
Don't worry, ninjas are already on the case: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/13/japan.pirates/
"Every country will be treated the way it treats us."
Because the pirates are the victims here, violently taking hostages for ransom. You brought this aaaaaarrrrggression on yourselves.
"Lets not try to make this political they were criminals"
Those four pirates were criminals, but the overall situation is political. So long-term solutions have to take politics, economics and the environment into consideration.
" If they were radicals and did not ask for money but for the G20 to help clean up their act and to stop dumping on their coast line and pay to clean it up that would be different."
People in Somalia *have* asked for that and been ignored. Probably not those four pirates, but the requests have been made and ignored. They have no power.
JT10000 so what do you suggest?
Speaking as a pacifist, I say:
Kill them all. These aren't freedom fighters or patriots. They're thugs and common thieves. Live by the sword, you're going down, bee-yach.
"Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying"
Are these pirates crying? Really? The gangsters in the godfather at least were man enough to admit 'this is the life we chose.' Why are all Muslims so goddamn emotional all the time? Too much estrogen in those people.
Real action by our governments to do exactly what you talked about - cleanup of the mess in the past, and maybe more development aid to help rebuild the country. And, not specifically for Somalia, but for Africa and other poor countries, trade policies that support sustainable development in those places, rather than just exploiting natural resources and leaving nothing.
As US citizens, rather than just calling for shooting criminals (that's easy - who could disagree?) let's call for improved international policies by our government and by global companies. Let's put the pressure on our government and our companies, rather than spending energy denouncing a handful of thugs. Our Navy can handle those guys.
Personally I'm trying to get an understanding of global fishing and overfishing to see if there is any influence I can have as a consumer. I think the fish I eat comes from mainly off the coasts of South America and Southeast Asia, not Somalia, but the more I know, the better choices I can make. What's it doing to fishermen in those countries? I should know. I want to know. So that's one tiny thing.
I'm with you on the stricter trade policies and preventing exploitation, but aid always seems to end up in the pockets of pricks like Mugabe.
Industrialized globalization is bad for everyone except the heads of the corporations.
"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."
Sounds like a declaration of war to me.
I say let's f*ck 'em up.
A few aircraft carriers, strategically placed, with jets and Blackhawks aboard.
Satellites trained on the area, watching for any signs of pirates.
As soon as they move, deploy aircraft, and blow 'em out of the water.
They'll soon rethink the whole piracy thing.
States declare war. Unorganized brigands do not.
A 'few' aircraft carriers is way too many resources to dedicate to what is really a minuscule problem. For context, the US only has 12 carriers in service, and of those, about half are unavailable for various reasons.
Note there is already one carrier tasked to this, the Dwight D. Eisenhower.
"A 'few' aircraft carriers is way too many resources to dedicate to what is really a minuscule problem."
Exactly. 20,000 ships a year pass through the Gulf of Aden, and a couple dozen are intercepted. It's an economic crime; the pirates aren't killing people. The US military and those of other countries have much bigger priorities.
It makes sense to have some naval presence there, but it would make no sense to divert a significant portion of US naval power in an attempt to save a few corporations a few million dollars.
Now, if they do follow through on this threat to kill or harm hostages they'll probably find that to be a big mistake, because that will begin to change the priorities.
So as long as they're only taking American citizens hostage, and not killing them, we shouldn't worry about it?
Now that they've said they're going to kill any US citizens they come across, should we wait 'till they do before reacting?
"So as long as they're only taking American citizens hostage, and not killing them, we shouldn't worry about it?"
Absolutely didn't say that. But our military resources are what they are, and we're involved in two wars already and trying to monitor other hotspots throughout the world where a naval presence is required.
Should we cut back on watching Russian naval activity, or Chinese? Should we de-emphasize monitoring North Korea? Should we leave one of our own coasts with less defensive presence? Do we go on with less presence in the Persian Gulf? All because one US-flagged commercial ship was targeted by a rag-tag band from a third world country that is no threat to our national security?
The fact is that piracy off the coast of Africa is a much smaller problem than those we face elsewhere, and logically should be dealt with in scale. In short, these guys are the least of our problems militarily.
OK, what you said was
"20,000 ships a year pass through the Gulf of Aden, and a couple dozen are intercepted. It's an economic crime; the pirates aren't killing people. The US military and those of other countries have much bigger priorities."
The pirates are currently holding more than a dozen ships and 230 people hostage. It's NOT an economic crime, embezzlement is an economic crime, they are taking hostages by use of force. They made themselves a priority by putting themselves on the front pages of our newspapers, as acknowledged by our President in this statement
"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,".
To quote myself from an earlier reply
"The resources don't all have to come from the US, there are other countries involved in this too. Japan's already sending forces to patroll.", and France has had some military activity there also.
They may not be a threat to our national security, but they are a threat to our (and other) citizens security.
Use whatever term you like, but they threatened to kill US citizens. That's like picking a fight with Mike Tyson.
The resources don't all have to come from the US, there are other countries involved in this too. Japan's already sending forces to patroll.
Exactly. I think we just found our new live ordinance air-to-sea training ground.
FYI...the cargo contained aid for Somalia and some other neighboring countries.
AMERICA!... FUCK YEAH!
Is it revenge if the pirates started it? "We only threatened to kill the captain with an AK!" ??????????
You can run, but you can't glide! Pew! Pew! Pew!
U.S.A! U.S.A!
well America has only itself to blame. Where do you think these pirates came from? You remember all those kids with flies on their faces from the "SAVE THE CHILDREN" foundation? All the kids that could be saved with a dollar a day, less than a cup of coffee? Well, they grew up and decided to kill your asses. The US government has sent so much in humanitarian aid in supplies and food, medicine for malaria and medicine for AIDS and the American Public has too, but there is no economy out there. All these children who would have died from famine or disease have no jobs so they have to do this. It's the world's version of the projects.
cheeky.
Has any of the pirate's mothers come out and say that their pirate sons were good students?
zing!
This bittorrent shit is getting way out of control
We need to view them as retarded children.
I'm sure if we lobbed a Tomahawk cruise missile on a village every time they tried attacking an American flagged ship, this shit would stop real quick!
Our President is going to do the absolute minimum in regards to attacking enemies, and the world knows it... I'd probably do the same thing if I was one of those Somali Community Organizers!
BTW... What happened to the good will we surely earned when Clinton pulled our asses out of Somalia in the 1990s?
"I'm sure if we lobbed a Tomahawk cruise missile on a village every time they tried attacking an American flagged ship,"
Yep. Every time someone tries to steal from an American corporation, we should kill as many innocent civilians from their country as possible.
Watch out NYC! You must all pay with your lives for the crimes of Madoff!
I think glenn's avatar tells you everything you need to know about his way of thinking. Might makes right. A man's worth is found in how much force he can bring on others. And who cares if the US is found guilty of war crimes? The Geneva Conventions are for pussies.
I don't see why they couldn't change the international law to allow purely defensive weapons on the ships. Things that are short range, can't be taken off the ship even if you wanted to, can't be stolen, and are plainly to deter unauthorized boarding. Like electrified razor wire around the deck railing. Or a nice, big flamethrower attached to the ship's fuel tanks, behind armored plates on the deck to protect them from RPGs. Too big to be stolen by the pirates. Useless off the ship without the pumps and the fuel. Not much range. Can't be used against the crew. I love the smell of roasted pirate in the morning.
Peaceful Muslims at it again.