Pirates take American yacht...what to do?

[ONESPEED]

More information is coming out on the incident.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Monday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years.

U.S. naval forces, who were trailing the Americans' captured yacht with four warships, quickly boarded the vessel after hearing the gunfire and tried to provide lifesaving care to the Americans, but they died of their wounds, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

Two pirates died during the confrontation and 13 were captured and detained, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement from Tampa, Fla. The remains of two other pirates who were already dead for some time were also found. The U.S. military didn't state how those two might have died.

Negotiations had been under way to try to win the release of the two couples on the pirated vessel Quest when the gunfire was heard, the U.S. military said.

The Quest was the home of Jean and Scott Adam, a couple from California who had been sailing around the world since December 2004 with a yacht full of Bibles. The two other Americans on board were Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle, Washington.

"We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest," said Gen. James N. Mattis, U.S. Central Command Commander.

In total the U.S. said that 19 pirates were involved in the hijacking of the Quest.

Only minutes before the military said the four Americans had died, a Somali pirate told The Associated Press by phone that if the yacht was attacked, "the hostages will be the first to go."

"Some pirates have even suggested rigging the yacht with land mines and explosives so as the whole yacht explodes with the first gunshot," said the pirate, who gave his name as Abdullahi Mohamed, who claimed to be a friend of the pirates holding the four Americans.

Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, said he was confounded by the turn of events.

"We have heard threats against the lives of Americans before but it strikes me as being very, very unusual why they would kill hostages outright," he said, adding that the pirates must realize that killing Americans would invite a military response.

The military said U.S. forces have been monitoring the Quest for about three days, since shortly after the pirate attack on Friday. Four Navy warships were involved, including an aircraft carrier.

Last week a Somali pirate was sentenced to 33 years in prison by a New York court for the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a U.S. cargo vessel. That hijacking ended when Navy sharpshooters killed two pirates holding the ship's captain.

 

[BDSC]

this problem isn't going to get fixed until we start blowing their asses out of the water.

Right on! No doubt the location of the "mother ship" is known. So why not go out there and let some of the fighter pilots that train year in and year out go have some live fire target practice and then post it on youtube. I'd sure love to see it.

 

[vladimir]

Yes, let's police a million square miles of sea so missionaries can try to convert muslims to Christianity from their yachts. That's a good use of our military. And let's keep the Taliban from passing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It's only 1500 miles long, we should be able to police that. All of Afghanistan, actually, we're policing that too--providing stability, no problem. How else will the corrupt government stay in power and how else will China be able to set up mining operations safely? And Iraq--we got that. More stability while Iran sets up a puppet government. Why not, we have unlimited money, don't we? And our servicemen are expendable, aren't they?

 

[ScubaSteve]

Only takes one missile sent from one ship which is there anyways to deal with the problem . I understand and agree with what you are saying, but your government cannot just sit back and do nothing. The problem is the time and money wasted on the nicey nice approach. Blow the mother ****ers up and make the problem disappear. AND, post it on iTunes and charge $2.99 to download it and put the proceeds to your military ....heck I would contribute

Yes, let's police a million square miles of sea so missionaries can try to convert muslims to Christianity from their yachts. That's a good use of our military. And let's keep the Taliban from passing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It's only 1500 miles long, we should be able to police that. All of Afghanistan, actually, we're policing that too--providing stability, no problem. How else will the corrupt government stay in power and how else will China be able to set up mining operations safely? And Iraq--we got that. More stability while Iran sets up a puppet government. Why not, we have unlimited money, don't we? And our servicemen are expendable, aren't they?

 

[mike_s]

wait till companies quit shipping through the Suez canal. this will cause oil prices to skyrocket even more, and other costs of goods to go up.


10% of the worlds ships pass through the Suez, including 2.5 million barrels of oil go through DAILY. (5 million barrels a day if you include the tankers that doc and pipeline it to the northern end because they are too big to fit in the canal).

and container ships outnumber oil tankers by 10x in passage.


The canal handles 8% of the WORLD Gross Domestic Product, and about 3% of the US GDP.


so anything affecting shipping in the canal zone will have serious financial impacts on the world economy.....

 

[DennisS]

"Two pirates died during the confrontation and 13 were captured and detained, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement from Tampa, Fla. The remains of two other pirates who were already dead for some time were also found. The U.S. military didn't state how those two might have died.................................................................................................................

Only minutes before the military said the four Americans had died, a Somali pirate told The Associated Press by phone that if the yacht was attacked, "the hostages will be the first to go."

Why are there 13 captured pirates? They should have met the same fate as the hostages. This sends the pirates the wrong message.

 

[Tao of the Dive]

Yes, let's police a million square miles of sea so missionaries can try to convert muslims to Christianity from their yachts. That's a good use of our military. And let's keep the Taliban from passing between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It's only 1500 miles long, we should be able to police that. All of Afghanistan, actually, we're policing that too--providing stability, no problem. How else will the corrupt government stay in power and how else will China be able to set up mining operations safely? And Iraq--we got that. More stability while Iran sets up a puppet government. Why not, we have unlimited money, don't we? And our servicemen are expendable, aren't they?

Like it or not there is already a multitude of British, French, and American ships out their policing the gulf because of the pirates. Its not about missionaries, its not about Muslims. It's about criminals usurping the world's ability ot ship oil and goods safely and efficiently. What you are being sarcastic about is a long term solution of playing the world police. What a majority of this thread has suggested, was to obliterate the morons who are perpetrating these crimes, leaving their rotting corpses strewn about so that others can see what happens to pirates, and sinking any ship they use as a base of operations. We just want the leash taken of the sailors and Marines we already have out there, and them be allowed to do what they are trained to do. But amongst your sarcasm, I really didn't discern YOUR solution...and that would be...???

 

[vladimir]

Only takes one missile sent from one ship which is there anyways to deal with the problem.

If only that were true I'd be the first to endorse it. The fact is that there's a continent-and-a-half of people with nothing to lose, and governments that barely qualify as such. Take out one pirate mother ship and there are a dozen more to take its place, fully crewed. If we bombed Somalia for the next six weeks we'd kill millions of innocents and not change a thing. There are Yemenis, Ethiopians, Djiboutians, etc. all equally desperate and all happy to pick up an AK-47 in exchange for a square meal or two.

Do you think these four Americans attracted any attention refueling in Djibouti?

 

[Tao of the Dive]

If only that were true I'd be the first to endorse it. The fact is that there's a continent-and-a-half of people with nothing to lose, and governments that barely qualify as such. Take out one pirate mother ship and there are a dozen more to take its place, fully crewed. If we bombed Somalia for the next six weeks we'd kill millions of innocents and not change a thing. There are Yemenis, Ethiopians, Djiboutians, etc. all equally desperate and all happy to pick up an AK-47 in exchange for a square meal or two.

Do you think these four Americans attracted any attention refueling in Djibouti?

You keep tossing up straw man arguments, but you do not suggest a fix to the problem. Yes, they probably attracted all sorts of bad attention when refueling, but how were they to know that the pirates were no longer attacking primarily commercial vessels? The problem is, that the pirates think they have the run of those waters, and no body is taking a strong stance against them. They almost seem to be as content as you to stick their heads in the sand, and just address the problem in a reactive fashion. Our forces are out there searching fishing vessels and patrolling, but they know the location of the fleets as well as knowing which targets are the juiciest. But for the time being, our forces have to follow specific rules of engagement against suspected pirate vessels. Those very same rules of engagement, hamper those sailors from effectively hindering the pirates. In case you missed it, they have vowed to escalate because we imprisoned one of theirs. Their response was killing four of ours. I really do not care how many of them get turned to ash at this point.

...and we tried giving them food, and their warlords simply scooped it up and maintained power, killing our rangers, and dragging their nude corpses through their streets. So you cannot bring their level of living up to stop their desperate acts, and according to you, we cannot effectively blast them out of existence.

 

[vladimir]

What a majority of this thread has suggested, was to obliterate the morons who are perpetrating these crimes, leaving their rotting corpses strewn about so that others can see what happens to pirates, and sinking any ship they use as a base of operations. We just want the leash taken of the sailors and Marines we already have out there, and them be allowed to do what they are trained to do.

What leash are you talking about? We have over a hundred thousand military men out engaging various enemies right now. The problem in Afghanistan, iraq, Pakistan, and off the coast of Somalia is identifying them. Yes, it's frustrating to see pirates get arrested, but the idea that killing them would be a huge deterrent is a bit naive--life is cheap in Somalia. This is the same naive frustration that cost us a trillion dollars and thousands of lives in the wake of 9/11. Let's attack somebody and solve the problem. As we should have learned by now, no matter how many we kill, there are always more volunteers. Americans are going to have to learn to deal with this reality: we don't have an unlimited capacity to police the world and rid it of "morons."

But amongst your sarcasm, I really didn't discern YOUR solution...and that would be...???

Guard American ships, either with marines or mercenaries on board. Back them up with navy vessels and helicopters. Charge them for it. If a private yacht wants to sail those waters, let it pay the same amount that a tanker carrying a million barrels of oil does.