They ain't Jack Sparrow's boys.....

[427 S/O]

Let's see what happens now that Americans are prisoners.....I know there is some maritime law against arming cargo ships, but exceptions need to be made. I would like to see them use RPG's, land one close and they'll run like he$$.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513183,00.html

[VRM]

We should pay the ransom to get them back. Then once the saliors are safe they get taken out. Cruise missiles (or an Iowa) followed by troops - whoever does not get killed gets arrested and tried - and that includes their family members. I think most of them will get killed.
Piracy is an act of war IIRC - hopefully Obama will act accordingly.

Steve

[Ron61]

I doubt if anything will be done. After all, The Great One wouldn't want to tick off any of them. He will most likely be pulling any of our ships out of that region to make sure none of them intercept any of those cut throats.

Ron

[Roscoe]

So...what else is new?

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then the ambassador to France, and John Adams, ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, a visiting ambassador from Tripoli. The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. They reported to the Continental Congress that the ambassador had told them “it was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave,” but he also told them that for what they considered outrageous sums of money they could make peace.[22]

American ships sailing in the Mediterranean chose to travel close to larger convoys of other European powers who had bribed the pirates. Payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual expenditures in 1800.[23] In the early nineteenth century, President Thomas Jefferson proposed a league of smaller nations to patrol the area, but the United States could not contribute. For the prisoners, Algeria wanted $60,000, while America offered only $4,000. Jefferson said a million dollars would buy them off, but Congress would only appropriate $80,000. For eleven years, Americans who lived in Algeria lived as slaves to Algerian Moors. For a while, Portugal was patrolling the Straits of Gibraltar and preventing Barbary Pirates from entering the Atlantic. But they made a cash deal with the pirates, and they were again sailing into the Atlantic and engaging in piracy. By late 1793, a dozen American ships had been captured, goods stripped and everyone enslaved. Portugal had offered some armed patrols, but American merchants needed an armed American presence to sail near Europe. After some serious debate, the United States Navy was born in March 1794. Six frigates were authorized, and so began the construction of the United States, the Constellation, the Constitution and three other frigates.

This new military presence helped to stiffen American resolve to resist the continuation of tribute payments, leading to the two Barbary Wars along the North African coast: the First Barbary War from 1801 to 1805[24] and the Second Barbary War in 1815. It was not until 1815 that naval victories ended tribute payments by the U.S., although some European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s.

The United States Marine Corps actions in these wars led to the line "to the shores of Tripoli" in the opening of the Marine Hymn. Because of the hazards of boarding hostile ships, Marines' uniforms had a leather high collar to protect against cutlass slashes. This led to the nickname Leatherneck for U.S. Marines.[25]

[VRM]

Originally Posted by Ron61

I doubt if anything will be done. After all, The Great One wouldn't want to tick off any of them. He will most likely be pulling any of our ships out of that region to make sure none of them intercept any of those cut throats.

Ron

Time will tell...
If I were him I would use his supposed lack of spine right up until he brings the hammer down. It is never a bad thing to allow your enemy to underestimate you.

[427 S/O]

UPDATE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

American crew members aboard a U.S.-flagged ship have regained control of the vessel hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia Wednesday, FOX News confirms.

One pirate is reportedly in custody. A U.S. official said the status of the other pirates is unknown but they were reported to "be in the water."

"All the crew members are trained in security detail in how to deal with piracy," Maersk CEO John Reinhart told reporters. "As merchant vessels we do not carry arms. We have ways to push back, but we do not carry arms."

[Doug I]

supposed ?

[Doug I]

"All the crew members are trained in security detail"

I wonder what else they are trained in A sailor is a sailor - but a crew member can be anyone.

"As merchant vessels we do not carry arms" but what stops a crew member from carrying?

[VRM]

I'm glad the crew is safe, but I was really hoping for some action from our guys in the big floating grey things to take those pirates out once and for all.

I said 'supposed' because he has not really done anything other than react to preexisting conditions. This would be a new set of circumstances that directly affected Americans. And the pirates should have been dealt with a long time ago.

Steve

[Doug I]

Maybe some of the men on the grey things were the crew members spoken of.

[Joe Wicked]

Pirates will always be around. Just like there will always be home invasions, and the like. We do things that reduce the piracy and they find new ways to get back around it. I was on a Submarine in the Navy and I know of another Submarine that was attacked in the Western Pacific by pirates in the mid 90s. They fired on the sub on the surface damaging the sail (upright part that holds the antennas and periscope). The sub submerged and fired back at the ship sinking it with 2 torpedoes. They circled back around and found a few survivors who were taken into custody. The problem that came from it though was that we were often approached by Pirate ships. My sub was approached multiple times during that time frame in that area. There were 2 mentalities going on, 1 other pirates who were affiliated with them were wanting retaliation, and 2 other pirates wanting to show they are better pirates than the ones who got sunk. More than once I was manning an M60 launching grenades on board a ship to give them the hint to turn around.

[computerworks]

An American crew has seized back control of a container ship that was commandeered by pirates in the Indian Ocean today, according to the Pentagon.

The military official said the crew was holding one pirate in custody while the others were reported to “be in the water”. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm how the Somalis found their way into the ocean.

[Doug I]

I've found gravity works really well. The caliber depends how well they can swim.

[Buzz]

Yesss!! I was really hoping there would be a platoon of SEALS or a Special Forces task force hidden in a couple of the containers just waiting for a pirate attack. Lets pray the crew kicked some serious ass with no losses among the good guys.

EDIT - latest news: Captain is being held on a lifeboat. Crew had a pirate hostage but returned him in exchange for the captain. Pirates renegged and still hold the captain and now the crew are negotiating and trying to hold out long enough for a Navy vessel to arrive on the scene. Let's hope they wipe the bastards out and shell the crap out of the pirates home port.

[SP01715]

They just said on the news that U.S. Navy destoyers would be on scene in about 1/2 hour. Lets hope some justice is served on these pirates.

[Roscoe]

The only justice would be to cut them and throw all overboard, save one. Let him go back and tell the others.

Roscoe

[Fred Douglass]

..that: 1) Obama would be "tested" quite early into his administration and 2) the American public might "not like" the Administration's "response". Foist, it was N.Korea's missile launch....now this. No reaction to the latter. What's next?

It's also interesting to put Thomas Jefferson's reaction into perspective-----he was EXCEEDINGLY anti-navy. Mothballed all the ships he could, substituting little 100-foot schooners with one swivel-cannon amidships. They were knick-named "Jeffs" and one was flang many miles inland during a hurricane in the southeast. TJ's idea, re forts along the seacoast, embraced the "wisdom" of brick----yup, brick!----construction.

When the Barbary Pirate situation got intolerable, he called the vestiges of the "Federalist" navy into play and it did okay, with what it had. The "recapture" (burning) of the Philadelphia (our largest ship----really a third-rater rather than a mere frigate) was reflective of his anti-military policy. So was the burning of the national capital during the War of 1812.

I have e-mailed an old JAG friend to see what the international legal policy is, re captured pirates. In my humble view the following should transpire: 1) the USS Bainbridge should sink the foo keen pirates' boats (too bad they don't have 40 mm Bofors quad mounts, any more, eh?), 2) they should make an attempt at finding the appropriate jurisdiction for a trial, and, 3) not finding one convenient, turn these foo keen buzzards into pinatas----right off the (stern) taff-rail!

[427 S/O]

As I understand, the captain is being held in a skiff(?) and it's out of gas, and the supposedly 'mother' ship is not in the area?. IMO and I hope,,,,The navy is not letting that skiff(?) go anywhere. This is a great stand off, wish I was there to see it and pray the captain has a safe return.

[Buzz]

A stand off between a destroyer and a handful of pirates in an out-of-fuel lifeboat... Preposterous!

Don't they have snipers on board who can off the pirates without harming the Skipper? Have they shown them what a 20 foot high wall of 50 cal spray looks like to put them in a more neighborly frame of mind?

I heard an FBI hostage negotiator is on the way. WTH for?? By now they should have freed the Captain and started an air/sea search and destroy sweep of the area looking for the mother ship or any other scumbag pirate boats dumb enough to be at sea.

[Fred Douglass]

...apparently, the "capital" of the Somali pirates is a city called Eyl on the Gulf of Aden(?). It would make a nifty "practice" area for surface-ship bombardment (if we still had a "manly"
navy in which the ships still had world-rocking guns----UNLIKE THE ALL-MISSILE USS Bainbridge, if I'm correct). Or carrier-based aircraft. Just scatter leaflets to depopulate the area than turn those millionaire-pirate homes and cars into talcum-powder! I'm slightly prejudiced----but surface ship gunfire is SO dramatic. Especially on video!!!! What a scene. See my recent above on the desperate need for the Iowas. What a show THAT would be!

The WSJ article today cited the Ciceronian appellation for pirates---they were "hostis humani generis" or enemies of the human race. As you probably already know, Julius (later Caesar), when he was a young yachtie, got taken by pirates in southern Italy. He stayed with them, even befriended them, until rescued (ransomed?). When, and only when, he was safely aboard his rescue craft, he turned to them and said (words to the effect) that "you should have killed me, because I intend to come back and kill you". He did. Came south, captured the very same guys (duh!?), and crucified them outside of Rome.

Due to near-total lack of blood-eaters in today's US Navy, the bean-counters have afflicted our surface fleet with missile-destroyers, cruisers and weird "littoral warfare" ferries. No gun-boats worthy of the name. High tech is also high vulnerability in my humble opinion!

NOW, under Wonder-Boy, the promised two-term (ask him!) Messiah, Gates is going to strip the military of 30% of its assets. Good move. Coupled with the resonating lack of any response to the latest acts of anti-US aggression, we are back to Thomas Jefferson again. I don't think for a minute that these fleas would bite the US' ankles were Ronnie R. in charge or ditto Maggie Thatcher in England!

Did I mention that I was a red-meat chompin', gun-totin', retarred Youse S'navy gunnery officer? And that I wanted the USS Missouri as me private yacht (all youse righties are invited aboard for the world cruise!)? Let's go! Someone else make the sandwiches and coffee! You don't want me cooking (see my roast beast recipe in my Gallery above). Chow!