Captain freed

[vellnueve]

Here's my completely conjectural thought on how this went down.

Lifeboat is floating too close to shore, only about 20 miles, so the Navy decides they need to move it further away from shore so that they'll be further from help. (actually, now it says they were in rough water) A SEAL diver or two goes out with a line and attaches it to the boat, and then they start towing it away. (it said the lifeboat had been under tow when the shooting went down).

The Somalis realize this, and the leader of them, presumably the most thoughtful and reasonable of the bunch, realizes that they're never going to get rescued, so he signals that he wants to talk about the situation in person. He's brought on board the Bainbridge and apparently was trying to negotiate.

The other somalis, freed of the leveling influence, get unglued when he doesn't immediately return, and visibly threaten the hostage. The captain, who has been preauthorized to use force to eliminate any risk to the hostage's life, quickly orders the shooting and the SEALs do their thing.

A lot of assumptions, but it explains how it was under tow at the time and why one of them was apparently on the Bainbridge negotiating.

 

[2000GM]

I think the pirates had to have agreed to let the Bainbridge take them in tow. At the distances they were keeping, there's no way (that I can see anyhow) a Destroyer is going to sneak up close enough and take them in tow without them noticing. I think they would have just killed him. Of course, that is also all conjecture. I just can't wait to have all these details come out...although I'm sure some of them will never come out.

 

[Mass-diver]

Here's another pirate quote:

Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding the Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, said: "Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying," he told The Associated Press. "We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men."

Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old self-proclaimed pirate, told the AP from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl, that: "From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)."

"Now they became our number one enemy," Habeb said of U.S. forces.

Sounds like these a**h***s have declared war on us, do we just wait for them to attack (again)?

 

[CrossFrire]

Some reports are saying the Bainbridge had closed toless than 100 yards when it happened.
Hell, SEALS would just their sidearms at that range just to be sporting.

 

[Mass-diver]

Some reports are saying the Bainbridge had closed toless than 100 yards when it happened.
Hell, SEALS would just their sidearms at that range just to be sporting.

I want to know what they where using for rifles: M14s, 50cals?

 

[Jose]

Here's another pirate quote:

Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding the Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, said: "Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying," he told The Associated Press. "We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men."

Jamac Habeb, a 30-year-old self-proclaimed pirate, told the AP from one of Somalia's piracy hubs, Eyl, that: "From now on, if we capture foreign ships and their respective countries try to attack us, we will kill them (the hostages)."

"Now they became our number one enemy," Habeb said of U.S. forces.

Sounds like these a**h***s have declared war on us, do we just wait for them to attack (again)?

Yeah, we tremble in fear. Out at sea, this will be no Blackhawk Down. The sea will run red with Somali blood.

Mark my words.

 

[vellnueve]

I want to know what they where using for rifles: M14s, 50cals?

Probably some sort of M16 variant, maybe M14s.

Yeah, we tremble in fear. Out at sea, this will be no Blackhawk Down. The sea will run red with Somali blood.

Mark my words.

What people tend to forget about Mogadishu is that the Rangers and Delta gave the Somalis a major thrashing.

 

[namedpipes]

This response should have been here in the first place. Fixing...

. . . Why are these impoverished Somalis, with no national state to defend their rights, driven to so-called "piracy?" . . .

Nothing else you mention is really pertinent, so...

They captured and held hostage Americans.

As far as I'm concerned they signed their own death sentences.

The mistake was waiting so long to act.

eta (other issues, other venues. This was simple robbery / piracy / etc)

 

[JMody]

My guess would be an M14. No way they would use a .50, would be overkill.


During Mogadishu they killed over a thousand Somali's didn't they?
A few more don't really make a difference to me. They wanna kid nap Americans then to hell with them.

 

[namedpipes]

No, it's guns that are the problem. If we'd only make it illegal for pirates to have guns, things like this would never happen, just like if we made it illegal for felons to have guns, gangbangers wouldn't kill people. Oh, wait.

I could give a f*ck what the laws were. If i was in that line of business, no way I'm sailing around those waters without arms. Ya, they really need to start arming and training the crews or hire competent security teams to accompany the shipments.

Maybe we could create a WWLTC (World Wide License To Carry) so that sailors, after passing a UN background check, could legally carry weapons in international waters. Of course when they enter national waters, they'd have to comply with WOPA and keep them in locked cases... Y'all know I'm not serious, right?

. . .

Jose, you always take the path of violence.

I am so disappointed.

I truely feel we should let the remaining pirate go free.

About halfway across the Atlantic.

He'll find his own way home.

Either that or he will help the local ecology food chain.

 

[Jose]

"We fear that any revenge taken by the pirates against foreign nationals could bring more attacks from the foreign navies, perhaps on our villages," Abdullahi Haji Jama, a clothing store owner, told the AP by telephone.

Smart man.

 

[ccm75]

Captain Freed - Pirates dead

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/12/somalia.pirates/index.html

Saw the movie today with my wife and son....Not bad but Tom Hanks ended it as a blubbering victim.
It was worth the $4.00 at the West Boylston Cinema....
I cant believe that prior to this pirate incident the shipping co.'s were putting there people out there with no weapons on the open sea..unreal..
Anyone else see the flick? Controversial as some of the crew says Phillips not too concerned about his ship or crew and lacked leadership...but always going to get a bunch of different versions I guess... I am interested in the security changes made after that hijacking and will google same.........

 

[PatMcD]

My buddy who works for Maersk says Phillips is widely considered as an asshat.

 

[weehooker]

when can we finally allow shipmates to be trained to use weapons such as firearms? SOunds like it is about time to get it to happen.

As with most gun control, only the bad guys are allowed to have unlimited guns.

 

[Sig Sauer Shooter]

I saw the movie when it first came out, I also saw a documentary on it before I saw the movie (I forget what channel it was on, Discovery maybe?). The movie was different than the documentary, as described by the captain and the crew....