Somali Pirates Hijack Ship with 20 Americans!

[Zungu Pule]

Bora wawe hawajamuingilia kinyume.......nasikia hawa maharamia mateka wao wanaingilia kinyume.....

Na wanaposema "The navy felt the Captain life was in imminent danger", wanamaanisha mambo kama haya, ambayo huwezi kuyasikia kwenye media. I mean you will never learn about what exactly happened through the media.

 

[kizimkazi]

wanakula mirungi sana wale inakuwa jongoo hapandi mtungi,na utakuwa dume kiasi gani umezungukwa na mizana ya kivita duniani halafu uanze ku-mbashia mwenzio?
labda ufirauni huo wanaufanya hukojuu siopale wanaelea, swali.... kuna mtu anaweza kufanya matusi na mwenziwe wakati kazungukwana simba mbugani???

 

[Eeka Mangi]

wanakula mirungi sana wale inakuwa jongoo hapandi mtungi,na utakuwa dume kiasi gani umezungukwa na mizana ya kivita duniani halafu uanze ku-mbashia mwenzio?
labda ufirauni huo wanaufanya hukojuu siopale wanaelea, swali.... kuna mtu anaweza kufanya matusi na mwenziwe wakati kazungukwana simba mbugani???

Waulize ma Tour Guide wa northern circuit enzi zile za wasomali kule Serengeti na Natron walikuwa wanafanywaje. Hawa ni balaa.

 

[Eeka Mangi]

Msifikiri huu ndo mwisho wa hili picha. Wamelianzisha wenyewe na lazima walinywe. Wamarekani hawatakaa kimya, lazima wawashikishe adabu tu. Yetu macho!

 

[Belo]

Hao wasomali sasa wasubiri makombora ya Wamarekani

 

[ROBIN L]

I dont know what you all are saying, but i know that had it been white pirates, they wouldnt have used a sniper. They would have had the hostage negotiator there on the scene. Since they are just some "african criminals", they decide to kill them in time for the man to get home for easter. I am african american and been here all my life. I know bout these racial profiling situations. Its sad and i dont blame somalia for threatening americans. Robin l

 

[Capitol Hill]

b. Hussein is mishandling this situation big time. He is projecting weakness and embolding the pirates. The longer this saga continues, the bad it is going to look for america. I sense b. Hussein is afraid to punish the somali pirates because of his ties and his loyalty.

Remember this photo?

and this one...

wow....shame on you The truth.....what happened to the captain? What happened to the pirates? Next time be a little smarter and don't put your foot in your mouth.

 

[Capitol Hill]

Obama signed off on taking out pirates
By: David S. Cloud and Nia-Malika Henderson
April 12, 2009 06:07 PM EST

President Barack Obama issued a standing order to use force against pirates holding an American captain hostage - including giving a Navy commander the authority to act if he believed the captain's life was in danger, two senior defense officials said Sunday night.

Navy snipers aboard the USS Bainbridge on Sunday shot and killed three of the pirates after the Bainbridge's commander gave the order, when a pirate was spotted aboard the lifeboat pointing an AK-47 rifle at Capt. Richard Phillips, one defense official said.

"The clear belief by the captain of the ship was that he was in imminent danger," this official said.

The exact details of the shooting remain murky. The snipers fired after all three pirates became visible on the enclosed lifeboat where they were holding Phillips, a Navy official in Bahrain told reporters - giving the snipers the chance to kill all three at once, so that none would be left behind to harm Phillips.

Obama's involvement in the decision to authorize lethal force was legally required, officials said, because it was a hostage situation, not combat, and unrelated to the already authorized U.S. effort against Al Qaeda and other terror groups, officials said.

"It's not a combat operation, so the lawyers wanted to ensure this was done right," said a second defense official.

Phillips' rescue brought to an end a tense five-day standoff that proved an early test for Obama, who said little about the case in public but behind the scenes received more than a dozen briefings on it, White House aides said.

A timeline provided by the White House showed he issued the orders to use force at 8 p.m. Friday, and again at 9:20 a.m. Saturday, after new Navy forces moved on to the scene. In both cases, he was first briefed by the National Security Council for an update on the situation.

The timeline suggests that planning for the rescue mission intensified Saturday evening, as the National Security Council updated Obama on "planning for hostage contingencies" at 6:30 p.m. At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Obama received an update on "action leading to the rescue of Captain Phillips." He called Phillips about 4 p.m. Sunday.



In a statement, Obama said, "We remain resolved to halt the rise of piracy in this region. To achieve that goal, we must continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, be prepared to interdict acts of piracy and ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes," Obama said in a statement.

The defense officials also provided new details behind the rescue, noting that Bainbridge had been in contact with the pirates at one point. One of the pirates, a 16-year-old boy, had come onto the Bainbridge for medical attention and was speaking to the crew about the conditions under which Phillips might be released.

The seas had started getting rough and the lifeboat where the pirates were holding Phillips was dead in the water. So the pirates agreed to be towed out further from shore to calmer waters. During that time, the towline was shortened so that the life raft was only 25 to 30 yards from the Bainbridge.

At some point on Sunday, all three remaining pirates were spotted on the boat, including one holding the AK-47, and the authorization was given for the snipers to shoot. All three were killed and a smaller boat was dispatched from Bainbridge to pick up Phillips.

One defense official said it was very likely the surviving pirate would be prosecuted for piracy by the United States. Other pirates have been turned over to the Kenyans but "I don't think that will be the case here," this official said, adding that the specific decision to prosecute would be up to the Justice Department.

After calling on other countries to prosecute pirates the U.S. might feel it has to make an example of the youth in custody, this official said, though his age would have to be taken into account.

At a briefing in Bahrain, Vice Adm. William E. Gortney warned that the Navy's use of force to Phillips could "escalate violence in this part of the world." Pirates ply the waters off the Somali coast, but it was a rare instance that they took an American flagged vessel with an American crew.

Jonathan Martin contributed to this report.

© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC

 

[Outlier]

Ama kweli samaki mmoja akioza wote wameoza! Kuna mseng.e mmoja leo kaniuliza kama nimewahi kuwaona ma-pirates! Nikaanza kufikiria sijui ningewaona wapi, na kama wana chapa au? Majuu kweli hamnazo!

 

[eddy]

Watz tunapata somo gapi hapa? je tunao snipers hata wa kupambana na watekaji wa mabasi walioenea nchi nzima! wasafirishaji wetu wanazo mbinu za kupambana na watekaji? Jeshi letu la nevi linazombinu za kupambana na waharamia wa majini? kama hatuwezi kupambana na mavuvi haramu mpaka tusaidiwe na wasauz hakuna haja ya kuwa na midoli pale kigamboni!

Nilitegemea magufuli alivyokamata meli ya samaki haramu kamanda wa nevi angefutwa kazi palepale!

 

[Icadon]

I dont know what you all are saying, but i know that had it been white pirates, they wouldnt have used a sniper. They would have had the hostage negotiator there on the scene. Since they are just some "african criminals", they decide to kill them in time for the man to get home for easter. I am african american and been here all my life. I know bout these racial profiling situations. Its sad and i dont blame somalia for threatening americans. Robin l

Pentagon doesn't negotiate with pirates, they communicate.

 

[jmushi1]

Wasomali wameishambulia ndege ya congressman Donald Payne ambaye alitua Mogadishu,hakuwa anairepresent Administration hata hivyo kina Obama na Bi Clinton walikuwa aware,kuna rumours kwamba ilikuwa ni retaliation kutokana na hao pirates kuuwawa,hata hivyo hakuna mwenye uhakika...Ila habari ndiyo hiyo.

 

[jmushi1]

Other pirates vow to retaliate after daring operation by Navy SEALs

NBC News and news services
updated 34 minutes ago

MOMBASA, Kenya - In a daring high-seas rescue, U.S. Navy SEAL snipers killed three Somali pirates and freed the American sea captain who had offered himself as a hostage to save his crew.
The operation was a victory for the world's most powerful military but angry pirates vowed Monday to retaliate.

Those threats raised fears for the safety of some 230 foreign sailors still held hostage in more than a dozen ships anchored off the coast of lawless Somalia.
"From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)," Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old pirate, told the Associated Press from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl. "(U.S. forces have) become our No. 1 enemy."
News of Capt. Richard Phillips' rescue caused his crew in Kenya to break into wild cheers and brought tears to the eyes of those in Phillips' hometown of Underhill, Vt., half a world away from the Indian Ocean drama.
In Washington, President Barack Obama on Monday said Phillips' "safety has been our principal concern."
In a sharp warning to pirates off Somalia, Obama added: "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."
"We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise, and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes," the president said.

Earlier Monday, six mortar shells were fired toward the airport in the Somali capital of Mogadishu as a plane carrying a U.S. congressman took off, an airport employee at the control tower said.
New Jersey Democrat Donald Payne had met with Somalia’s president and prime minister for a one-day visit to discuss piracy and security issues. The airport staffer said Payne’s plane took off safely and none of the mortar shells landed in the airport.
Phillips' whereabouts?
Meantime, Pentagon sources told NBC News that the current plan is to reunite Phillips with his 19-man crew from the Maersk Alabama in the Kenyan city of Mombassa.
Phillips is still on the U.S. Navy ship Boxer, and it's not clear exactly when he will be take to the Kenyan port city. Pentagon officials say there's no concern over Phillips security despite pirates threats to seek retribution.

From Mombasa, it's believed Phillips and his crew will fly back to the United States aboard a plane chartered by Maersk Line Lmtd., which owns the Alabama.
The stunning resolution to a five-day standoff came Sunday in a daring nighttime assault in choppy seas after pirates had agreed to let the USS Bainbridge tow their powerless lifeboat out of rough water.
Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said Phillips, 53, was tied up and in "imminent danger" of being killed because a pirate on the lifeboat held an AK-47 assault rifle to the back of his head.
In an interview with NBC's TODAY show, Gortney said it took only three shots to kill the three pirates.
Interviewed Monday from Bahrain, Gortney said the take-down happened shortly after the hostage-takers were observed by sailors aboard the USS Bainbridge "with their heads and shoulders exposed."

Gortney described the snipers as "extremely, extremely well-trained." He said the firing by the snipers was ordered by the captain of the Bainbridge after the pirates "exposed themselves" to attack.

U.S. Defense officials said snipers got the go-ahead to fire after one pirate held an AK-47 close to Phillips’ back. Two other pirates popped their heads up out of the lifeboat, giving snipers three clear targets from the Bainbridge, one official said.

Military officials Monday described the snipers' operation as remarkable — firing at a small lifeboat 25 yards away at night and from the stern of a ship on rolling waters.
The SEALS arrived on the scene by parachuting from their aircraft into the sea, and were picked up by the Bainbridge, a senior U.S. official said.

A fourth pirate surrendered after boarding the Bainbridge earlier in the day and could face life in a U.S. prison. He had been seeking medical attention for a wound to his hand and was negotiating with U.S. officials on conditions for Phillips' release, military officials said.

In a move that surprised the pirates, the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama had put up a fight Wednesday when pirates boarded the ship. Until then, Somali pirates had become used to encountering no resistance once they boarded a ship in search of million-dollar ransoms.
Escalation on the high seas
Yet Sunday's blow to their lucrative activities is unlikely to stop pirates from threatening one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, simply because of the size of the vast area stretching from the Gulf of Aden and the coast of Somalia.
In fact, some say it may provoke retaliatory attacks against other hostages.
"This could escalate violence in this part of the world, no question about it," said Gortney, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
A Somali pirate agreed.
"Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying," Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, told The Associated Press on Monday. "We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men."
As dramatic as each hijacking is, Somali pirates still have only attacked a small fraction of the 20,000 ships that pass through the Gulf of Aden each year. Going around Africa to bypass the pirate-infested gulf can rack up massive costs and add up to two weeks to the voyage.
On Friday, French navy commandos stormed a pirate-held sailboat, the Tanit, in a shootout at sea that killed two pirates and one French hostage and freed four French citizens

The drama surrounding Phillips and his ship — the first American taken hostage in the Gulf of Aden — has made headlines around the world, pitting a lone captain held by pirates on a tiny, drifting boat surrounded by U.S. warships.

The pirates still hold about a dozen ships with more than 200 crew members, according to the piracy watchdog International Maritime Bureau. Hostages are from Bulgaria, China, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, Tuvalu and Ukraine, among other countries.

Vilma de Guzman, whose husband is one of 23 Filipino sailors held hostage since Nov. 10 on chemical tanker MT Stolt Strength, feared Phillips' rescue may endanger the lives of other hostages.

"The pirates might vent their anger on them," she said. "Those released are lucky, but what about those who remain captive?"
She also criticized world media for focusing so much on the U.S. captain but giving little attention to other hostages.

Phillips was not hurt in several minutes of gunfire Sunday and the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet said he was resting comfortably on a U.S. warship after receiving a medical exam.
Aboard the Bainbridge, sailors passed along a message from Andrea Phillips to her husband: "Richard, your family loves you, your family is praying for you, and your family is saving a chocolate Easter egg for you, unless your son eats it first."

Phillips himself deflected any praise.
"I'm just the byline. The real heroes are the Navy, the SEALs, those who have brought me home," Phillips said by phone to Maersk Line Limited President and CEO John Reinhart.

With news of the rescue, Phillips' 17,000-ton ship, which docked with his 19 crew members Saturday in Mombasa, Kenya, erupted into wild cheers. Some waved an American flag and one fired a bright red flare in celebration.
"We made it!" said crewman ATM Reza, pumping his fist in the air.

Chief mate Shane Murphy said he spoke to Phillips by telephone Monday. "He’s absolutely elated and he could not be prouder of us for doing everything we were trained to do," Murphy said.
Family choked up
In Vermont, Maersk spokeswoman Alison McColl choked up as she stood outside the family's house and read their statement.
"Andrea and Richard have spoken. I think you can all imagine their joy, and what a happy moment that was for them. They're all just so happy and relieved.
"Andrea wanted me to tell the nation that all of your prayers and good wishes have paid off because Captain Phillips is safe," she said.
The ship had been carrying food aid bound for Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda when the ordeal began Wednesday hundreds of miles off Somalia's eastern coast. As the pirates clambered aboard and shot in the air, Phillips told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself to safeguard his men.
Phillips was then taken hostage in an enclosed lifeboat that was soon shadowed by three U.S. warships and a helicopter. Phillips jumped out of the lifeboat Friday and tried to swim for his freedom but was recaptured when a pirate fired into the water, according to U.S. Defense Department officials.
The surviving fourth pirate was in military custody, but FBI spokesman John Miller said that would change as the situation became "more of a criminal issue than a military issue."
Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said his country had not received any request from the United States to try the captured pirate, but would "consider it on its own merit."

When the United States captured pirates in 2006, Kenya agreed to try them. Ten pirates were convicted and are serving prison sentences of seven years each.
Worried residents of Harardhere, another Somali pirate stronghold, gathered in the street Monday to discuss possible repercussions.

"We fear that any revenge taken by the pirates against foreign nationals could bring more attacks from the foreign navies, perhaps on our villages," Abdullahi Haji Jama, a clothing store owner, told the AP by telephone.

 

[The Truth]

wow....shame on you The truth.....what happened to the captain? What happened to the pirates? Next time be a little smarter and don't put your foot in your mouth.

American citizens dealt with the pirates. Why are you so quick to give B. Hussein the glory here? The only credit he deserves is giving the "OK" but the Navy took care of everything else and let's not forget the brave crew on the ship who fought off the pirates. See the article below...

Pirates Test the ‘Rule of Law’
To be civilized, we must be strong.

By Andrew C. McCarthy


When Somali Muslim pirates raided the Alabama on Wednesday, the U.S.-flagged cargo ship was cruising the Indian Ocean en route to Mombassa. The 21 Americans in the crew were trying to deliver tons of food and other agricultural materials for the World Food Program, to be distributed among destitute Muslims in that Kenyan port city, and beyond.

“Hearts and minds” — that has been the theme music of the anti-anti-terrorism chorus for eight years. George W. Bush freed 50 million Muslims from tyranny and gave them a chance to make better lives even as the rigors of doing so devoured his presidency — all the while launching, for Africa, the most generously funded program for AIDS prevention and treatment in history. For his trouble, he was branded an unfeeling, unilateralist cowboy by Democrats and the international Left, the erstwhile champions of nation-building and universal health care.

His successor has been only too quick to cement the slander. When not bowing to the Saudi monarch (admittedly, only slightly more nauseating than Bush’s “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” jaunt with His Oil Highness), Pres. Barack Obama bleated across Europe that America has been “arrogant.” By his lights, our actions since 9/11 (which include writing constitutions for Iraq and Afghanistan that enshrined sharia, the Muslim legal code, as governing law) have suggested we are “at war with Islam.”

For Barack Obama, hearts and minds are about Barack Obama — things to be fondly turned to him at the expense of a country that does more for human rights, and more for Muslims, than any nation has ever done. Indeed, Obama’s signature (and thankfully failed) legislative proposal during his short warm-up act in the Senate was the “Global Poverty” bill, a trillion-dollar redistribution from the American taxpayer to the “international community.” Back then, Senator Obama chided his countrymen for not doing their part while the lavish American foreign-aid spigot — far and away the world’s most munificent — poured out the perennial $21 billion, not counting additional billions in emergency military expeditions to aid victims of earthquake, tsunami, and war.

But as the hearts-and-minds game goes on, the “international community” on the receiving end stands unimpressed as ever. Turns out it’s a jungle out there. What impresses, as all America’s enemies from the Barbary pirates through Osama bin Laden have always known, is the strong horse against the weak horse. What makes possible global trade, which turns into American wealth, which turns into unparalleled American largesse, is American might — American might and an American commitment to use that might as necessary to ensure a civilized global order.

“Civilized” is a much-misunderstood word, thanks to the “rule of law” crowd that is making our planet an increasingly dangerous place. Civilization is not an evolution of mankind but the imposition of human good on human evil. It is not a historical inevitability. It is a battle that has to be fought every day, because evil doesn’t recede willingly before the wheels of progress.

There is nothing less civilized than rewarding evil and thus guaranteeing more of it. High-minded as it is commonly made to sound, it is not civilized to appease evil, to treat it with “dignity and respect,” to rationalize its root causes, to equivocate about whether evil really is evil, and, when all else fails, to ignore it — to purge the very mention of its name — in the vain hope that it will just go away. Evil doesn’t do nuance. It finds you, it tests you, and you either fight it or you’re part of the problem.

The men who founded our country and crafted our Constitution understood this. They understood that the “rule of law” was not a faux-civilized counterweight to the exhibition of might. Might, instead, is the firm underpinning of law and of our civilization. The Constitution explicitly recognized that the United States would have enemies; it provided Congress with the power to raise military forces that would fight them; it made the chief executive the commander-in-chief, concentrating in the presidency all the power the nation could muster to preserve itself by repelling evil. It did not regard evil as having a point of view, much less a right to counsel.

That’s not our position anymore. The scourge of piracy was virtually wiped out in 19th century because its practitioners were regarded as barbarians — enemies of the human race (hostis humani generis, as Bret Stephens recently reminded us in a brilliant Wall Street Journal essay). They derived no comfort from the rule of law, for it was not a mark of civilization to give them comfort. The same is true of unlawful enemy combatants, terrorists who scoffed at the customs of civilized warfare. To regard them as mere criminals, to assume the duty of trying to understand why they would brutalize innocents, to arm them with rights against civilized society, was not civilized.

We don’t see it that way anymore. Evil is now just another negotiation. Pirates and terrorists are better known for their human rights than for their inhuman wrongs. On Thursday, America’s commander-in-chief didn’t want to talk about the pirates — “Guys, we’re talking about housing right now,” he chided a reporter who dared to raise the topic as the Somalis held the American ship’s captain hostage. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, was dispatched to assure the public that the world would come together to deal with this “criminal activity” — a relief if you were wondering whether the naval destroyer on the scene was equipped with Miranda-warning cards.

This is the self-destructive straitjacket for which transnational progressives are fitting us. Indeed, the Law of the Sea Treaty — a compact Obama would commit us to — has hopelessly complicated the rules of engagement under which the pirates have thrived, just as Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions (a treaty Ronald Reagan was prudent enough to reject) has become an offensive weapon for jihadists everywhere. Having harnessed ourselves, we are once again the weak horse.

Except for one thing: The Americans on the Alabama, like the Americans on Flight 93, didn’t wait for the international community to send the pirates a strong letter. They saw evil, they took it on, and as a result they took their ship and their lives back. The president may not think the United States is a particularly exceptional country, but you can bet Islamic radicals on land and sea noticed that dealing with a U.S. crew is an exceptional experience. There remains something in the American character that won’t slide so easily into the straitjacket.

Source:

Pirates Test the ‘Rule of Law’ by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online

 

[Icadon]

American citizens dealt with the pirates. Why are you so quick to give B. Hussein the glory here? The only credit he deserves is giving the "OK" but the Navy took care of everything else and let's not forget the brave crew on the ship who fought off the pirates. See the article below...

If the Op went south who do you think would have taken the blame?

What about the Indian Navy I thought they arrested few pirates couple months ago?

 

[ROBIN L]

Pentagon doesn't negotiate with pirates, they communicate.

THANKS FOR THE CORRECTION.

 

[The Truth]

If the Op went south who do you think would have taken the blame?

The pirates!

What about the Indian Navy I thought they arrested few pirates couple months ago?

At least India has a Navy that can project power thousands of miles from home. Can you say the same about your country's Navy?

 

[Icadon]

At least India has a Navy that can project power thousands of miles from home. Can you say the same about your country's Navy?

Tunazungumzia same crappy Indian Navy iliyoshindwa kuzuia magaidi kutoka Pakistan kuingia Mumbai?

Umeshasikia kuwa pwani za Tanzania zimeshambuliwa na pirates?

 

[Mkenya]

Tunazungumzia same crappy Indian Navy iliyoshindwa kuzuia magaidi kutoka Pakistan kuingia Mumbai?

Umeshasikia kuwa pwani za Tanzania zimeshambuliwa na pirates?

Mkuu, Does Tanzania have a Navy?