Pirates killed, Captain free. Good job.

[Munin]

Mr. Phillips was being held in a covered part at the back of the lifeboat, the official said, and one pirate typically stayed with him under cover. The lifeboat had gotten as close as 20 miles to shore, drifting after running out of fuel, off Gara’ad, Somalia.

On Saturday night, the Navy fired warning shots at the lifeboat, followed by a brief exchange of fire, the official said. Hours afterward, one pirate who was either injured or scared jumped off the boat and surrendered to Navy personnel, the Kenyan official said.

Around 7 p.m. Somali time, just after dark, U.S. Navy personnel opened fire, killing all three pirates, the official said.

US Captain Held by Pirates Is Rescued - Politics and Government * US * News * Story - CNBC.com

This reminds me of another incident earlier that week (the decision to attack seems to be based upon similar reasons): Hostage, 2 pirates killed in French rescue operation - CNN.com , that yacht was also getting very close to Somalia (which ment that the pirates would have much more bargaining power, since they are then in full controll of the hostages and the French would no longer have a good chance at rescueing the hostages.)

MANAMA, Bahrain (CNN) -- U.S. Navy snipers fatally shot three pirates holding an American cargo-ship captain hostage after seeing that one of the pirates "had an AK-47 leveled at the captain's back," a military official said Sunday.

...

U.S. forces moved to rescue Phillips after seeing him in imminent danger on the lifeboat, Gortney said. A fourth pirate was negotiating Phillips' fate aboard the nearby USS Bainbridge.

"While working through the negotiations process tonight, the on-scene commander from the Bainbridge made the decision that the captain's life was in immediate danger, and the three pirates were killed," Gortney said. "The pirate who surrendered earlier today is being treated humanely; his counterparts who continued to fight paid with their lives."

The three pirates, who were armed with AK-47 rifles, were killed by shooters who were aboard the Bainbridge, Gortney said.

The on-scene commander gave the shooters approval to open fire after seeing that "one of the pirates had an AK-47 leveled at the captain's back," Gortney said.

Seas in the area were getting rough at the time of the rescue, Gortney said, and the Bainbridge was towing the lifeboat presumably to calmer waters with a towline about 82 feet long.

A senior defense official told CNN that each pirate was shot in the head.

After the shooting, special operations personnel shimmied along the tow rope to ensure the pirates were dead and freed Phillips, the official said.

The official added that the pirates had become increasingly agitated over the past day, and negotiations were not going well.

The fourth pirate was aboard the Bainbridge most of the day and told military negotiators that he wasn't going back to the other pirates, according to a defense official with knowledge of the situation.

Hostage captain rescued; Navy snipers kill 3 pirates - CNN.com


As for Obama getting credit for this:

If the situation would have gone wrong and the captain would have been killed, who do you think would have taken the most of the blame? For me, it is clear that Obama gets credit for taking responsibility for this very difficult decission (he might have ordered the killing of an american citizen if it would have gone wrong).

So Obama gets credit for taking responsibility as a commander in chief (for a very difficult decision: "one of the pirates had an AK-47 leveled at the captain's back," + "Seas in the area were getting rough at the time of the rescue" ), the military gets credit for doing its job: a job they did incredibly good.

Today is a day to be proud of the US, proud of the military and proud of the president.

 

[Old Rocks]

Sinatra, they are already wise, they thought the ship was carrying ice cubes.

Thank god we have a president that sees this as it is, a simple crime, much beneath the level of a president. After all, imagine how bad Obama would look if he did anything to stop a poor soul from stealing iced tea, especially a poor soul from Africa, they have no iced tea in Africa.

are you this stupid in real life?

I am not sure, what do you mean by stupid (who is really stupid, stupid, or one who chooses to engage with stupid, one has no choice the other chooses, take a big guess, I can speel et sloer if in ya lik).

Making freinds and influencing people again, Old Dawg?

 

[Old Rocks]

I think you all are giving Obama too much credit, he simply did what he was supposed to do. I can understand it though, after all the nasty comments about him before the situation was resolved.

It kind of sounds like, "oh, look, the retard done good."

Kind of funny you should mention that since I don't recall all those "nasty" comments. Just leftwingers continually trying to politicize the event.

In this situation I think Obama acted appropriately and did his part. The Captain did his. The SEALS did theirs. This is the way it's supposed to happen.

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

 

[Annie]

I think you all are giving Obama too much credit, he simply did what he was supposed to do. I can understand it though, after all the nasty comments about him before the situation was resolved.

It kind of sounds like, "oh, look, the retard done good."

Kind of funny you should mention that since I don't recall all those "nasty" comments. Just leftwingers continually trying to politicize the event.

In this situation I think Obama acted appropriately and did his part. The Captain did his. The SEALS did theirs. This is the way it's supposed to happen.

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

I think you just made Gunny's point. Should 'Chris' be the standard bearer for the 'left' of the board?

 

[Old Rocks]

Kind of funny you should mention that since I don't recall all those "nasty" comments. Just leftwingers continually trying to politicize the event.

In this situation I think Obama acted appropriately and did his part. The Captain did his. The SEALS did theirs. This is the way it's supposed to happen.

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

I think you just made Gunny's point. Should 'Chris' be the standard bearer for the 'left' of the board?

And Pubes is your standard bearer? The majority of people here have stated that all concerned played their respective roles as needed. From the President to the Seals.

 

[Annie]

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

I think you just made Gunny's point. Should 'Chris' be the standard bearer for the 'left' of the board?

And Pubes is your standard bearer? The majority of people here have stated that all concerned played their respective roles as needed. From the President to the Seals.

Are you this dense in real life? You were the one using Pubes and Krotch as the 'right'; thus Chris would represent the 'left.' For that matter, maybe you should join Chris, only fair to have two.

 

[strollingbones]

Kind of funny you should mention that since I don't recall all those "nasty" comments. Just leftwingers continually trying to politicize the event.

In this situation I think Obama acted appropriately and did his part. The Captain did his. The SEALS did theirs. This is the way it's supposed to happen.

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

Ithe boa think you just made Gunny's point. Should 'Chris' be the standard bearer for the 'left' of rd?

only if we let allie represent the right...

 

[Annie]

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

Ithe boa think you just made Gunny's point. Should 'Chris' be the standard bearer for the 'left' of rd?

only if we let allie represent the right...

LOL! Well said, though I'd think his suggestions of Pubes and that new weird dog thing are pretty good. Thanks for recognizing my point.

 

[krotchdog]

I think you all are giving Obama too much credit, he simply did what he was supposed to do. I can understand it though, after all the nasty comments about him before the situation was resolved.

It kind of sounds like, "oh, look, the retard done good."

Kind of funny you should mention that since I don't recall all those "nasty" comments. Just leftwingers continually trying to politicize the event.

In this situation I think Obama acted appropriately and did his part. The Captain did his. The SEALS did theirs. This is the way it's supposed to happen.

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

look its the old cock greenee meanee, he is mad, he has to run from the facts and he is so tired

a cock is a rooster boys and girls, a rooster is a chicken, this one is crying to the gunny, poor old rooster, he is so tired he can do nothing but cry


Yep, Just as I said, newspaper stories to prove I am right, Obama ordered the Navy ship to stand down, Obama micro managed a hostage situation for five days endangering the life of the captain held hostage, the captain jumps in the water a second time when the captain believes Obama will allow him to die, the captain saves his own life, rescues himself, Obama micro manages the situation, the navy seals must call all the way up the chain of command and get personal permission themselves to do the job we have spent trillions equiping and training them for. As all the stories say, krotchdog is right, Obama told the Navy to stand down risking the life of the captain for five days, only after the captain freed himself were the Seals allowed to do thier job, and that after Obama made it clear Obama had to be asked first.

everything is about obama's ego, wait for the speech where he tells us he gave the order, further proof of the facts krotchdog posts

 

[jillian]

Feel like stalking much?

 

[krotchdog]

feels like monkey says what?

my dog looks better than your dog

 

[editec]

I think you all are giving Obama too much credit, he simply did what he was supposed to do. I can understand it though, after all the nasty comments about him before the situation was resolved.

It kind of sounds like, "oh, look, the retard done good."

Kind of funny you should mention that since I don't recall all those "nasty" comments. Just leftwingers continually trying to politicize the event.

In this situation I think Obama acted appropriately and did his part. The Captain did his. The SEALS did theirs. This is the way it's supposed to happen.

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

Excellent questions, RO.

Gunny does sometimes have problems seeing the outrageous partisanship on the conservative side, doesn't he?

Ravi is partisan, but compared to some of the toxic waste posting here, he's bearly worthy of note.

I think it must be a personality conflict.

 

[Ravi]

Kind of funny you should mention that since I don't recall all those "nasty" comments. Just leftwingers continually trying to politicize the event.

In this situation I think Obama acted appropriately and did his part. The Captain did his. The SEALS did theirs. This is the way it's supposed to happen.

Gunny, only leftwingers trying to politisize the event? Are you serious? Have you even looked at Pubes and Krotch's posts?

Excellent questions, RO.

Gunny does sometimes have problems seeing the outrageous partisanship on the conservative side, doesn't he?

Ravi is partisan, but compared to some of the toxic waste posting here, he's bearly worthy of note.

I think it must be a personality conflict.

sigh...Ravi is a she and ain't no way in hell I'm as partisan as Gunny.

 

[Working Man]

I am glad to see him safe. Those who got the job done deserve our respect, and yes, Phillips is a remarkable man for doing all he did to protect his crew.

Do you think that any other captain who has his ship boarded by pirates is going to be able to use the same routine?? "Oh Mr. Pirate, please take me in the lifeboat and leave my crew unharmed."

Do you think that the self proclaimed "experts" who spewed their rhetoric on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, for the last four days know what they are talking about?? I have my doubts.

DOES ANYONE, IN THE GENERAL PUBLIC, WHO SOUGHT THE RETURN OF THE CAPTAIN REALLY NEED TO KNOW HOW HE WAS RESCUED??? I don't need to know how the sharp shooters and seals did their jobs.. I am proud of every sailor, merchant marine, and intel expert, who helped make the rescue a success. Taking chances of letting the Somalians get to shore was not an option, but I don't need to know the details. Why?? Cause now the bad guys know what the game plan is too..

I think this victory is sweet, but the ability to duplicate the results is going to be very much more difficult in the future , and I think that the pirates are not going to repeat their mistakes. I would be very surprised if the pirates don't start killing hostages. These pirates are not rational. Now, they have less reason to be.

Walk softly, carry a big stick and use it when need be. Just keep your mouth shut and deny everything when the problem is resolved.

 

[krotchdog]

Details, guy jumped out of the boat, Seals call Obama for permission to save a life, Obama looks at magic 8 ball teleprompter, teleprompter tells obama if the captain gets re-taken by the moslems obama is going to look really bad so obama grudgingly gives lifts his order for the Navy to stand down.

Partisan. Thats a good thing, your side has nothing for conservatives, Mccain was non-partisan, made him weak. I have principles and honor, I know history, I have common sense, I should meet the liberals half way, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. If someone is right, why should they meet half way and be half wrong.

I am sorry but the only reason the left screams and demonizes conservatives are partisan is so we lose. Every step we take away from our principles moves us a step closer to tyranny.

Partisan is the only way to be when faced with the tyranny of the left, another word for tyranny is appeasement.

 

[Tech_Esq]

On the credit score for/against Obama, in my book, he gets credit for authorizing a way bring the situation to the correct end.

On the other hand, he only authorized the use of deadly force IF the captain was in imminent danger of being killed. This is the wrong answer. It was these kind of pussy orders from Clinton that allowed the opportunity to killed OBL in 1996 to be lost.

Luckily, the "pirates" were stupid and pointed the AK at the back of the Captain allowing the SEALs an opportunity to do the right thing. I'm sure they were only looking for a viable excuse anyway, but Obama doesn't need to make their jobs more difficult.

One last observation, he took too damn long to make decisive statements and get assets in place. He should have taken no more than a few hours to get in front of this. Instead, he took days. If he's so much smarter than GWB, then he should perform like it. Bush took a few hours to get in front of the Chinese aircraft incident and that was on a Sunday. This wasn't that hard.

I give him a C. Average at best. Extra credit, he could improve his grade if he follows up by taking decisive action against the pirate home bases and makes them wish they'd never seen an American flagged ship.

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

According to sky news out of England the US Navy did not move in, the US Navy did not move in.

The Captain jumped into the ocean again forcing the US Navy to act.

I am in Spain and Sky news keeps repeating that the pirates at best commited a crime and the boat is a crime scene and law enforcement officials will investigate.

They handling of this as a crime is what we should be screaming about. We treated Osama Bin Laden as a criminal during Bill Clinton's time as president, treating Osama like a criminal led and caused 9/11.

Hillary Clinton called this a crime.

Obama did not interfere in something that was merely a crime.

Sky news is calling this a crime.

The US Navy has no jurisdiction. Its a crime.

Obama is enlarging AmeriCorp to 300,000 troops. Obama says the will be just as powerful as our military and have more funding.

World police, new world order, your fancy car is gone, no more big screen TV's, no fancy computers.
The way the media covers this story world wide, the way Obama was silent shows our president is BOWING to a power who will rule over the president of the USA and all its people. The world will rule us which will make our liberals happy. Look at how they treat us in these threads, they hate us, look at the vile they speak, look how rotten they are if they disagree.

The New World order disagrees and hates the conservative christian americans.

How Obama handled this does not show inexperience. It shows that our presidents can be bought the same as the 100,000,000 payoff to Bill Clinton. Clinton treated Obama as a criminal, Obama is treating terrorists as criminals, it is now up to the New World order to protect our citizens.

Rocks would have LOVED to have offered a well reasoned, intellectually sound, logically valid response to this... but she simply lacks the intellectual means to do so...

Thus she did the best she could and projected the simple noting that IT'S COOKY TO RECOGNIZE THAT: Piracy is a crime against humanity; that such is the case because the act overtly USURPS the rights of INNUMERABLE INDIVIDUALS from those hijacked, to those who own the cargo, to those who need the cargo and those who depend upon the free sea lanes to trade...

The simple fact is, that Piracy is FAR MORE than a criminal act... it is a crime against the FULL SCOPE OF HUMANITY... and those who engage in Piracy forfeit their rights in the process...

Thus there is no need for a trial, as the act is deliberate, the parties are present at the time of the prosecution and where one is found present in the commission of Piracy, one is guilty and the penalty is death, after a fair period of coersive interrogation to aid in the PERSECUTION of one's PIRATE COMRADES.

And yes... Piracy is a function of Leftism... where one determines that the product of the labor of OTHERS is essential to fufilling one's NEEDS and decidely so, absent the fair exchange of fair value for fair value; meaning that the Priates feel that they have a need and that the shipping owners, their crews and family; the people who have purchased the cargo and who NEED AND DESERVE THAT CARGO OWE THE PIRATES SOMETHING IN EXCAHNGE FOR THE PIRATES WILLINGNESS TO NOT STRIP THEM OF THEIR RIGHTS...

The killing of those Pirates yesterday sent an incontestable message that those Pirates ARE OWED NOTHING BUT THEIR CERTAIN DEATH, when they overtly seek to usurp the rights of free people: "Screw with us and we'll kill ya for it." "Kill us and we'll kill ya back..." "tread on me, and we'll kick your ass..." "We owe you NOTHING... but we PROMISE TO GIVE YOU WHAT YOU DESERVE..."

Thank you King Hussein for doing the right thing... and thank you to all those who said the right thing when you were polled.

 

[Peejay]

.............
One last observation, he took too damn long to make decisive statements and get assets in place. He should have taken no more than a few hours to get in front of this. Instead, he took days. If he's so much smarter than GWB, then he should perform like it. Bush took a few hours to get in front of the Chinese aircraft incident and that was on a Sunday. This wasn't that hard.

I give him a C. Average at best. Extra credit, he could improve his grade if he follows up by taking decisive action against the pirate home bases and makes them wish they'd never seen an American flagged ship.

And Jesus said unto the crippled man, "rise and walk my son". And so it was that the man did rise and walk. And unto Jesus, the man spoke: "What took you so damned long? I'll give you a C. You can improve that grade if you make my penis a little larger."

 

[Tech_Esq]

.............
One last observation, he took too damn long to make decisive statements and get assets in place. He should have taken no more than a few hours to get in front of this. Instead, he took days. If he's so much smarter than GWB, then he should perform like it. Bush took a few hours to get in front of the Chinese aircraft incident and that was on a Sunday. This wasn't that hard.

I give him a C. Average at best. Extra credit, he could improve his grade if he follows up by taking decisive action against the pirate home bases and makes them wish they'd never seen an American flagged ship.

And Jesus said unto the crippled man, "rise and walk my son". And so it was that the man did rise and walk. And unto Jesus, the man spoke: "What took you so damned long? I'll give you a C. You can improve that grade if you make my penis a little larger."

That's it? That's your critical analysis? I justified the grade I gave him a perfectly reasonable way. Sorry you don't like it, but that facts are what the facts are and taking days to make a relatively minor decision and speak on it is not good enough in the big leagues.

 

[Peejay]

.............
One last observation, he took too damn long to make decisive statements and get assets in place. He should have taken no more than a few hours to get in front of this. Instead, he took days. If he's so much smarter than GWB, then he should perform like it. Bush took a few hours to get in front of the Chinese aircraft incident and that was on a Sunday. This wasn't that hard.

I give him a C. Average at best. Extra credit, he could improve his grade if he follows up by taking decisive action against the pirate home bases and makes them wish they'd never seen an American flagged ship.

And Jesus said unto the crippled man, "rise and walk my son". And so it was that the man did rise and walk. And unto Jesus, the man spoke: "What took you so damned long? I'll give you a C. You can improve that grade if you make my penis a little larger."

That's it? That's your critical analysis? I justified the grade I gave him a perfectly reasonable way. Sorry you don't like it, but that facts are what the facts are and taking days to make a relatively minor decision and speak on it is not good enough in the big leagues.

And so it was that the once crippled man did take his new legs and kick Jesus in the pants......back to the minor leagues.