Captain Phillips Freed, 3 Pirates Killed

by Todd Beeton, Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 11:10:17 AM EDT

The American captain of a cargo ship held hostage by pirates jumped overboard from the lifeboat where he was being held, and U.S. Navy SEALs shot and killed three of his four captors, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the situation.
Capt. Richard Phillips was helped out of the water off the Somali coast and is uninjured and in good condition, the official said. He was taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, a nearby naval warship.
At the time of the shootings, the fourth pirate was aboard the Bainbridge negotiating with officials, the source said. That pirate was taken into custody.

This guy is a bad ass.

Newt Gingrich has been railing against the Obama administration for being soft on pirates both on Twitter and today on This Week With George Stephanopoulos. As the rest of the This Week panel made clear, Newt's arguments lack any and all intellectual honesty but that doesn't stop him from making them. After all, as Lucas wrote yesterday, pirates are the new unicorns. I won't hold my breath for any retraction from Gingrich.

Tags: captain phillips, piracy (all tags)

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What, ONLY 3 KILLED!!!

Obama has turned this nation into a group of weaklings, selling our our military, appeasing forces aligned against us!

Call Jim Inhoffe, and get him RIGHT ON THIS!

I can't believe they didn't execute that 4th pirate on the spot!

Those weakling liberals probably think he should be tried in court or something other appeasment to the dark side...

by WashStateBlue 2009-04-12 11:33AM | 0 recs

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Arrgh! Good riddence, pirates!

The world is better off without these three thugs!

by BigBoyBlue 2009-04-12 12:53PM | 0 recs

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Re: Arrgh! Good riddence, pirates!

Thugs? Look deeper before you jump to conclusions. Ask yourself why are there pirates to begin with?

There is a reason that there are pirates off the coast of Somalia. Just as there is a reason that there are rebels in the Niger Delta and a war in the central Congo that has dragged on for 15 years. There is a reason that the Sudan is a failed state.

The Europeans have been dumping toxic waste off the coast of Somalia for a decade. Ten to one, you have never heard of Ilaria Alpi. Read her work and ask yourself why was she killed in Mogadishu back in 1994. She uncovered that Italy was dumping nuclear waste off the coast of Somalia.

The Japanese, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Taiwanese, the Malaysians, the Greeks, the Moroccans all send their fishing fleets and they have decimated rich fisheries that were the livelihood of these fishermen now turned pirates.

Africa is being raped but you prefer to blame those being raped rather than those doing the raping.

America has another jingoistic orgasm. But US militarism is the problem. I first went to Somalia in 1989 with UNHCR. It was then a functioning country if impoverished country but it was also a Cold War client state. End of the Cold War, and Somalia collapse because the neither the Soviets nor the US needed to prop Somalia up any further. The truth is that Somalia can only be held together by a strongman. Absent that it is likely to fail which is what has happened. Today there are three areas in the country. Two of which have self-governing functioning states: Northern Somaliland and Puntland. These are on the Horn of Africa. The bottom two-thirds is now ruled by warlords or by the Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group with ties to Al-Qaeda. Good luck fixing another terror problem that your own military has helped to create. The US and the Europeans continue to put their noses where they don't belong. They poke at snakes and then wonder why the snake bites back.

Wake up to the deception that your own leaders continue to ply. I am tired of seeing of Africans die for no reason.

by Charles Lemos 2009-04-12 02:30PM | 0 recs

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Yes, people who kidnap, rape, and murder are thugs

I stand by my statement.

by BigBoyBlue 2009-04-12 04:37PM | 0 recs

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Seriously

pick up a book. Better yet, get a passport. Get out and travel. And by travel I don't mean London, Paris and Berlin.

Go to Mogadishu like I have. Come to Dili where I am going next week. Then come with me to Cambodia where I'll show what a landmine can do and a sex trade does. There are pirates there too. Maybe you can ask them why they succumb to piracy.

The world isn't so black and white. There are shades of gray everywhere and all too often we have blood on our hands. US militarism is a problem not just abroad but here at home.

by Charles Lemos 2009-04-12 10:30PM | 0 recs

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Re: Arrgh! Good riddence, pirates!

I tend to agree with you here, but this wasn't the time or place to take that kind of view. This is a long-term project that I've been hoping some President would assume the responsibility for. The hostage crisis was an acute, reactive situation.

by the mollusk 2009-04-13 08:23AM | 0 recs

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Re: Captain Phillips Freed, 3 Pirates Killed

What would you have the US do? Certainly not land troops In Somalia? Destroy the warlord bases with air strikes? Is there a group acceptable to our ideals that is capable of removing the warlords and Al-Shabaab and other Islamist groups? You bemoan the problem, but what solutions can you suggest!

by captain dan 2009-04-12 03:39PM | 0 recs

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Re: Captain Phillips Freed, 3 Pirates Killed

1) Not arm the world to the teeth. Somalia was the largest recipient of US arms in Africa during the Reagan years.

2) Not treat the developing world as something to rape and pillage.

Al Shabaab is the result of alienation which the US is partly responsible for. Once again, supporting a brutal dictator has come home to roost. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright got a few things right.

by Charles Lemos 2009-04-12 10:34PM | 0 recs

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Re: Captain Phillips Freed, 3 Pirates Killed

First off, if you decide to become a pirate, you take your chances. Sometimes you land a oil tanker and get 3 million. Sometimes you take an American ship captain hostage and end up getting a bullet in the bean. And they had a LOT of other options. As soon as they found out they had an American captain/crew, leave the ship and go find other prey. Not fair to all the Philipeno crews out there, but that is one of the benefits of us plowing so much money into our Navy.

As for the problems of Africa...I agree, ignoring the continent is not only amoral, it will only lead to more tears around the world, given enough time.

It isn't Somalia that needs a strongman leader, it is the WORLD that needs a leader that can be STRONG. I am not talking about a one world govt, I am talking about a leader of a strong country actually LEADING the world towards a wholistic view of the world...finding not only a USE for Africa, but also a effective and RESPECTFULL way to implement that use.

But to deal with that, Int'l Corporations and multi-national business' need to be dealt with, as they truly are the cause of many symptoms due to thier focus on too much profit and not enough on the "providing a helpfull service"...ie, how much is enough? Too many business' want to be 100% efficient, which leaves nothing for those who are not lucky enough to be employed or invested in said business.

It will take a STRONG leader to the world to promote the idea of strong ethical profits vs. the current predatory business model. And, to be a bit nationalistic, I not only think the US NEEDS to be the role model in this (and yes, I know this is not our historical method) but I also beleive we have the leader to do it.

Time to twist arms and implement new leadership in business in the western world to help save the world...from us.

by Hammer1001 2009-04-12 04:21PM | 0 recs

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Bad Ass? Not So Fast

As best I can determine, the President did not issue an affirmative order that Phillips was to be rescued. He gave the military authority to act if the hostage's life was in danger. Some are alleging that absent an affirmative authorization to go get the hostage, the on scene commander essentially deemed the hostage to be in imminent danger and acted under the authorities given. The question I have for Obama is why a rescue operation was not authorized explicitly irrespective of the outcome of any negotiations. It seems patently ridiculous to have a destroyer on station and have one of the pirates on board negotiating for a ransom (as was the case when the pirates were taken down). What are military assets for if not to do this job? So, I'm not sure this situation makes the case that Obama is decisive under pressure. There was no order given to rescue the hostage from the get go. Why not?

by Political Season 2009-04-12 07:36PM | 0 recs

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Re: Bad Ass? Not So Fast

Because when you issue an order like that, you run a pretty high risk of killing a hostage.

I mean I'm just assuming.

by Jess81 2009-04-12 09:47PM | 0 recs

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First Comment here? Not an audacious start...

So, are you part of the chain of command?

How the F do YOU know what orders Obama or the general staff gave?

Nah, you're a no-nothing, just making shit up, so you can bash obama.

Go back to Red State, the "obama is weak" is already in progress over there, fail-boy.

by WashStateBlue 2009-04-13 08:23AM | 0 recs

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Re: Captain Phillips Freed, 3 Pirates Killed

I'm not specifically shedding tears over these three pirates. And I'm glad that Obama got his military victory for the Versailles crowd chatter.

But let's not make the mistake of assuming that dead foreigners = victory. All actions have equal and opposite reactions.

by the mollusk 2009-04-13 08:19AM | 0 recs