Somali Pirates, aaaarrrrr!!!

[Mink]

Joe, if my kid was in international waters in that area, I would have to realize he/she has entered a danger zone. Please read the link I posted above. here it is again:

www.asil.org/insights090206.cfm

Besides, how do we know ? The pres. may have authorized early on and the admiral in charge waited until the right moment?

[The New Guy]

please tell me what the hell "international waters" has to do with anything?

why do you keep repeating that as a qualifier in your responses?

[jgaffney]

I think that people who support the idea that Obama was hands-on in the decision to rescue the American captain have been watching too much "24." What would Jack Bauer do?

[JustMyOpinion]

I don't watch "24" but it sounds like maybe I should start! Instead I watch the news and I did search the net and read link, after link claiming Obama supported the Navy's intended operation, too many to post, and in fact if I did choose one of them to make a subtle point I am sure I would choose the wrong one. I would be accused of taking a liberal stance, and be ripped to shreds for being ignorant...

To address the point about my child being in danger, well I would hope that the party in charge of rescuing him would use strategy, intelligence, and precision.

Just ignore my previous attempt at making a positive point since I am not a government insider with privileged information, but instead a bystander that hopes we can find a shred of good with our current administration instead of ALL doom and gloom. Life is too short to perpetuate a self fulfilling prophecy of seeing our country collapse just so we can be proven "right."

[joe]

Apr 15, 2009 9:25:31 GMT -5 JustMyOpinion said:

I don't watch "24" but it sounds like maybe I should start! Instead I watch the news and I did search the net and read link, after link claiming Obama supported the Navy's intended operation, too many to post, and in fact if I did choose one of them to make a subtle point I am sure I would choose the wrong one. I would be accused of taking a liberal stance, and be ripped to shreds for being ignorant...

To address the point about my child being in danger, well I would hope that the party in charge of rescuing him would use strategy, intelligence, and precision.

Just ignore my previous attempt at making a positive point since I am not a government insider with privileged information, but instead a bystander that hopes we can find a shred of good with our current administration instead of ALL doom and gloom. Life is too short to perpetuate a self fulfilling prophecy of seeing our country collapse just so we can be proven "right."

Sorry I guess I am being mis-interpreted here which is easy enough in a virtual world.

I don’t want to see anyone or anything fail, for anyone on any side of the aisle in America to be “right”. What I would like to see is actual unbiased equal reporting on matters that pertain to the Presidency of the USA.

The media and Obamaites have made it out to be a “Jack Bauer 24” situation where BHO “Made the tough call”, but in reality he was nearly too little too late.

And furthermore to that I am sure that had GWB done the EXACT same thing, I mean to the second. The media and talking heads from the left would have painted him as a “rogue cowboy” who should have waited for “Negotiations”..

This upsets me from any angle , I wish reporting could go back to REPORTING and not opinionating…which is what we get. A gutted pick and choose telling of any and every event, sad really.

[subdjoe]

Apr 15, 2009 12:09:47 GMT -5 @joe said:

“This upsets me from any angle , I wish reporting could go back to REPORTING and not opinionating…which is what we get. A gutted pick and choose telling of any and every event, sad really.

The actual pure reporting that so many of us long for was really a pretty short lived thing that really didn't start until WWII. Before that most papers were pretty opinionated. See this: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E5D7143EEE34BC4051DFB166838F679FDE
That is pretty typical of reporting until at least the 1920s, and it carried on in many papers until the 1940s. Then we had a few decades of pretty much straight reporting. Now it seems we are going back to the more traditional form.

[jgaffney]

Back on track here.....

Over the weekend, we saw why the Somali pirates will continue to raid ships until the US does something about it. This is from Google News:

NATO naval ships foiled a pirate attack on a Norwegian tanker, catching up with the would-be hijackers on Sunday after a seven-hour pursuit, but a captured Belgian vessel was headed for Somalia.

The dramatic overnight chase in the Gulf of Aden came after seven pirates on a skiff tried to board the 80,000-tonne MV Front Ardennes but fled when foreign ships approached.

First on the scene was a British Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel, the Wave Knight, but it was a Canadian frigate, the Winnipeg, which then gave chase.

"The pirates who initially had weapons and what appeared to be climbing gear threw all of that overboard," said NATO maritime spokesman Commander Chris Davies.

"When the Winnipeg finally caught up and stopped them... I am told there was sufficient evidence that these were pirates."

The suspects were held and questioned but could not be charged with any offence because doing so was not within Canada's jurisdiction.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper praised the crew of the Winnipeg for their "tremendous work."

"We obviously act within our legal authority and also within our capacities," Harper told reporters at the end of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

Unbelievable! They had them and they let them go! Maybe the Canucks made the pirates promise to "go forth and sin no more." I can hear it now: "I will" (snicker, snicker).

What will it take for the nations of the free world to acknowledge that Somali piratism is just another form of terrorism? Is America the only one that can get serious about this?

[subdjoe]

Should have given them a few seconds worth of 20 mike mike.

[jgaffney]

Anti-pirate defense system:


And, you wonder why brass is getting expensive?

[The New Guy]

one on the bow, one on the stern.

pirate problem solved.