Pirates seeking hijacked lifeboat turn back

[cali]

Source: CNN


NEW: Pirates fail to reach four pirates holding their American hostage

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pirates holding a German cargo ship returned to port Saturday after failing to reach a lifeboat containing four pirates and their American hostage, a local journalist told CNN.


The guided missile frigate USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, is now at the scene.

1 of 3 The German ship Hansa Stavanger was among several hijacked vessels that pirates were using to reach the lifeboat some 300 miles off the Somali coast, a Somali journalist told CNN.

The ship had set sail to help the pirates holding Capt. Richard Phillips, but turned back because of the U.S. naval presence, the journalist said. The Hansa Stavanger is now at the Somali port of Eyl, the journalist said.

The Hansa Stavanger, with a crew of 24, was hijacked April 4 off the Somali coast.

Pirates have been searching the waters off Africa's coast to try to find the lifeboat, a U.S. military official with knowledge of the situation said Friday. They are using hijacked vessels and skiffs launched from larger ships, the official said. Watch more about the pirates »

The USS Halyburton, with helicopter capabilities, has now joined the USS Bainbridge in the area, and a third ship, the USS Boxer -- with a medical facility aboard -- should be there by the end of the day.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/11/somalia.u.s.ship/

[TorchTheWitch]

1. Good

I hope they crapped their pants while doing so followed by whimpering and curling into the fetal position. Assholes.

[razorman]

6. Yeah. Convenient that they "couldn't find" their way to a confrontation

with the U.S. Navy.

[Dead_Parrot]

2. USS Halyburton?

Scarily close. :scared:

[cali]

3. except for the fact that it's spelled differently and has nothing to do with the

corporate world, let alone Halliburton, it is scarily close.

[Dead_Parrot]

4. I know...

Just one of those "wait, what?" moments. ;)

[Thothmes]

5. Halyiburton earned the Medal of Honor.

[ohio2007]

8. people will make that association as they won't distinguish the forest from the trees.

http://www.cvn72.navy.mil/

[Thothmes]

11. Not even. That Halyburton is won the Medal of Honor

for his service.

[ohio2007]

7. Shots should have been fired across the "pirate ship" bow then into the screws..dead in the water

if they refused to stop.


another lost opportunity ?

probably a lot more complicated then simply disabling the "rescue craft" and have the MSM spin it as "the worst possible thing that could have been done"

I wonder if somebody's "boy" is one of the four derelict pirates so a half hearted rescue effort was made to appease them ?

I saw an article that said when the captain jumped off, it took the 'pirates' almost 1/2 an hour to get him back.

wtf ?

imo, if the FBI wasn't part of the stand off negotiations.....
I wonder if the navy would have taken action ?
maybe not.
Everyboody has to follow rules written up by those who know whats best

[cal04]

9. Pirates seize U.S.-owned, Italy-flagged tugboat

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LB80287.htm

Pirates seized a U.S.-owned and Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew on Saturday in the latest hijacking in the busy Gulf of Aden waterway, a regional maritime group said.

Andrew Mwangura, of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said the crew were believed to be unharmed on the tugboat, which he added was operated from the United Arab Emirates.

He said the tugboat was towing two barges at the time of capture but there were no details on their cargo.

"This incident shows the pirates are becoming more daring and violent," Mwangura told Reuters by phone.

[TorchTheWitch]

13. It's Italian owned

I don't know why the media thought it was US owned.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PIRACY?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Other bandits, among the hundreds who have made the Gulf of Aden the world's most dangerous waterway, seized an Italian tugboat off Somalia's north coast Saturday as it was pulling barges, said Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman at NATO's Northwood maritime command center outside London.

The Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed 10 of the 16 crew members are Italian. The others are five Romanians and a Croatian, according to Micoperi, the Italian company that owns the ship.

[petronius]

10. At this point, I think they ought to just offer those four pirates a ride back to shore

and call it a day. With more vessels being seized, I'd rather have those three USN ships doing something more useful than riding herd on one hostage and four criminals in a worthless lifeboat...

[ohio2007]

12. if the lifeboat makes it to shore with the "american" captain, he is dead meat as Somali warlords

will "pay to play" for his head on a platter. Anybody think it won't play out that way if negotiations with warlord "elders" call for it ?

snip
NBC television and CBS radio said the lifeboat had drifted to within 20 miles (32 km) of the Somali coast, and that U.S. military officials feared that if the craft reached the shore, the pirates might escape with their hostage on land.

snip

The standoff has forced U.S. President Barack Obama to focus on a place most Americans would rather forget. A U.S. intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s was a disaster, including the "Black Hawk Down" battle in 1993 that killed 18 U.S. troops and inspired a book and a movie.

A White House spokesman said Obama received multiple updates on the piracy situation on Saturday.


snip
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1033510220090411?sp=true

If they are so worried about the international over fishing of their waters...why are they not capturing the fishing vessels and feeding their own with the plunder?

What?
not a serious question?

[TorchTheWitch]

14. they want money

If they kill hostages, they won't get paid. The whole reason they do this is for the money just like any other kidnapper for ransom. Clearly, they're willing to kill if they DON'T get paid as they did with that French hostage. Some hostages they've held for months, so that should tell you how imporant that money means to them.

[ohio2007]

16. the warlords won't pay $2 million but they will pay if they get him ashore alive.

but the warlords will pay...and in turn...will have their fun.
I doubt the video will make it as breaking news in the west but it can be bought in the middle eastern markets on demand ( for a small fee ).

I'm sure Obama has ordered that the lifeboat not be allowed to make landfall.

I hope.....

bc he's not very good at keeping a "secret operation" very secret;
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1134689120090412

[truthisfreedom]

15. My solution? Taunt them, and run them out of ammo.

Then take them from below.

[ohio2007]

17. current situation; air drop food and water to them (Why don't they deliver them pizza and beer)

and poison them into a drunken stuper sleep mode