Thank god this whole thing is over! I can't believe nobody posted on this yet! US Navy snipers on the fantail of a destroyer cut down three Somali pirates in a lifeboat and rescued American sea captain Richard Phillips 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. 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 ship (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 rescue was a dramatic blow to the pirates who have preyed on international shipping and hold more than a dozen ships with about 230 foreign sailors. But it is unlikely to do much to quell the region's growing pirate threat, which has transformed one of the world's busiest shipping lanes into one of its most dangerous. It also risked provoking retaliatory attacks. Will the pirates learn from this or make retaliatory attacks? Yes, according to a self proclaimed pirate from Somalia. Jamac Habeb, the aforementioned self-proclaimed pirate, told the Associated Press from one of Somalia's piracy hubs that: "From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill the hostages."
"Now they became our number one enemy," Habeb said of U.S. forces. 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." Was the rescue of the US captain a good thing? Yes. Was the killing of the pirates a good thing? That remains to be seen.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
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2 comments:
I'm glad and relieved that the captain has been freed, he can now see his family and is no longer at gunpoint in immanent danger, but we cannot forget, 3 pirates were killed and one is facing trial. Sure, pirates are cut-throat themselves but I'm just waiting for people to come against this "violent" and "unnecessary" action that took place to save this man’s life. I'm betting a group of people will come out saying that the pirates shouldn't have been shot and the US is just a giant, murdering group of elite killers. It actually reminds me of the east bay shooting recently where 3 officers were killed and the gunman was killed shortly after. The next day, hundreds people mourned the loss of this blessed, unfortunate soul (the gunman) and used his killing/death as an excuse to rebel against the department of justice and structural government in general. I'm just waiting for these idiots to show up, and take pity on the poor, murdering, ruthless pirates that were so brutally slain.
"We will retaliate for the killings of our men."
What exactly is he going do? It like a robber threatening to kill you family and after you beat the crap out of him, he says he'll get vengeance. They can't do much worse than what they do now and killing them was in no way a mistake.
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