Obama twice approved force to rescue hostage

**d.mcc** · April-12-09, 08:12 PM

So much for BO not having what it takes eh?

WASHINGTON â€” President Barack Obama twice authorized the military to rescue a U.S. captain held by Somali pirates and whose life appeared to be at risk, administration official said hours after todayâ€™s rescue.

The Defense Department twice asked Obama for permission to use military force to rescue Capt. Richard Phillips from a lifeboat off the Somali coast, most recently late Friday evening. On Saturday morning, Obama signed off on the Pentagonâ€™s request, as he had a day earlier, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Somali pirates last week took the Maersk Alabama off the Horn of Africa. The crew fought back the pirates and reclaimed the ship, but Phillips was taken hostage aboard a lifeboat. Navy ships soon were on their way to the area.

full article here: http://freep.com/article/20090412/NE...rescue+hostage

ccbatson · April-12-09, 08:15 PM

For once, I commend him on a job well done. Never negotiate with, or pay ransom unless the objective is to propagate the incidence of this type of crime.

**Sstashmoo** · April-12-09, 11:00 PM

Bravo President Obama.

Quote: â€œWe remain resolved to halt the rise of piracy in this region. "

Well if I may offer a suggestion to him, how about balancing the trade and stop relying in goods shipped from the other side of the world? When we have people right here out of work that are quite capable of producing them.

ccbatson · April-12-09, 11:09 PM

Running away with tail tucked is not a good suggestion Sstashmoo.

**firstandten** · April-12-09, 11:39 PM

Originally Posted by Sstashmoo

Bravo President Obama.

Quote: â€œWe remain resolved to halt the rise of piracy in this region. "

Well if I may offer a suggestion to him, how about balancing the trade and stop relying in goods shipped from the other side of the world? When we have people right here out of work that are quite capable of producing them.

How about having European counties and companies stop illegally fishing in their waters and dumping toxic waste off their shores because its cheaper to do that than to do it legally.

These Somailies are thugs but there's a reason why they are like this and those reasons will need to be addressed because this has been going on since the nineties.

ccbatson · April-12-09, 11:43 PM

The Somali pirates keep doing this because?? They succeed by virtue of idiots paying them ransom money for committing crimes.

**Gistok** · April-12-09, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by ccbatson

The Somali pirates keep doing this because?? They succeed by virtue of idiots paying them ransom money for committing crimes.

Gotta agree with you Cc... the more they ransom, the more money they get... the more money they get... the more boats and weapons they buy... the more boats and weapons they buy... the more brazen they become....

Funny how no one [[except for us and maybe the French) learned from the 200 year old lesson of Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Coast pirates...

If they continue we should bomb some coastal villages/fleets that house these thugs. Villagers that house these now rich warlords are starting to get worried that we'll do just that. Since our military has become relatively good at surgical strikes, perhaps collateral damage [[loss of innocent life) can be kept to a minimum.

Patrolling an area 1/3 the size of the continental US in the Indian Ocean is logistically prohibive...so we need to be proactive, rather than reactive.

**d.mcc** · April-13-09, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by ccbatson

The Somali pirates keep doing this because?? They succeed by virtue of idiots paying them ransom money for committing crimes.

Sounds kind of free-marketish to me...

**Sstashmoo** · April-13-09, 12:22 AM

Quote: "Running away with tail tucked is not a good suggestion Sstashmoo."

Batts, Your post makes absolutely no sense. Where did I imply we should run with tail tucked?

**firstandten** · April-13-09, 12:53 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Gotta agree with you Cc... the more they ransom, the more money they get... the more money they get... the more boats and weapons they buy... the more boats and weapons they buy... the more brazen they become....

Funny how no one [[except for us and maybe the French) learned from the 200 year old lesson of Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Coast pirates...

If they continue we should bomb some coastal villages/fleets that house these thugs. Villagers that house these now rich warlords are starting to get worried that we'll do just that. Since our military has become relatively good at surgical strikes, perhaps collateral damage [[loss of innocent life) can be kept to a minimum.

Patrolling an area 1/3 the size of the continental US in the Indian Ocean is logistically prohibive...so we need to be proactive, rather than reactive.

You start bombing them then you will have the whole world against you. These countries know that they screwed over these people. Problem is the ranson money got good to them and now it would be hard to go back to just being fishermen. The companies look at the ranson as a cost of doing business that's why they keep sailing ships in those waters.

**oldredfordette** · April-13-09, 06:54 AM

There's no excuse for kidnapping and terrorism. But there's more to the Somalia story than you might know:

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madr...a-isnt-telling

**rajdet** · April-13-09, 07:31 AM

Nice article oldredfordette, thanks for posting it. You are right Firstandten, there is always at least two sides to every story.

Originally Posted by firstandten

How about having European counties and companies stop illegally fishing in their waters and dumping toxic waste off their shores because its cheaper to do that than to do it legally.

These Somailies are thugs but there's a reason why they are like this and those reasons will need to be addressed because this has been going on since the nineties.

4real · April-13-09, 11:42 AM

obama did everything, he is solving all the worlds problems so quickly i can't believe it.

now he can take on the afghan's since we won in iraq.

i just hope the somali terrorists don't get to angry and want to blow us up whenever they can

**d.mcc** · April-13-09, 12:03 PM

I have to say that after the jump it seems as though the quality of the posters has actually decreased...

Stosh · April-13-09, 12:26 PM

I was just wondering why, in this day and age, that merchant ships aren't allowed some sort of defensive capabilities for these occasions. I'm not sure that just anyone can be allowed to carry the weaponry needed to destroy small ships, but maybe some regulatory body can grant defensive weaponry based on need.

**Jimaz** · April-13-09, 01:02 PM

I heard one of the techniques used against pirates is to surround the deck with barbed wire. It would be difficult to cut the wire while being blasted with high-pressure fire hoses.

I'm sure they have other tricks up their sleeve that they don't want to reveal.

**Johnlodge** · April-13-09, 01:09 PM

I thought we were sending Batson over there to toast these pirates?

Stosh · April-13-09, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by Speramus Meliora

These guys are merchant marine, not soldiers. A better idea would be to put soldiers on board a few ships or to have decoy ships that are actually armed to the teeth. An even better idea would be to develop a comprehensive plan to deal with Somalia.

I think that the decoy idea is a great one. Particularily if it is from another nation other than ours or France. Soldiers are also one option. I still think that, merchant marine or not, that they would be able to be taught the use of a machine gun or a RPG.

4real · April-13-09, 01:39 PM

why did they have to ask twice and why did he have to authorize twice?
wasn't once good enough?

So Obama is a hard nosed hawk all of a sudden I guess, good news.

**Gistok** · April-13-09, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by firstandten

You start bombing them then you will have the whole world against you. These countries know that they screwed over these people. Problem is the ranson money got good to them and now it would be hard to go back to just being fishermen. The companies look at the ranson as a cost of doing business that's why they keep sailing ships in those waters.

Umm.... we're already doing that in Pakistan.... besides Pakistan, is the whole world against us there? No!!

All the shipping companies are doing is funding more trouble and more sophisticated weaponry. What do you want, another powerful Cartel like the drug cartels in Central and South America?

Bending over and taking it up the ass is not the way to go about this in dealing with these thugs... especially when doing so makes creating a "real" Somali government nearly impossible with well funded warlords. I hardly think that making the situation worse by paying of these thugs will make the world against us...

These thugs still have over 200 foreign captives held hostage... what should we do... wait until they have over 1000??

**firstandten** · April-13-09, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Umm.... we're already doing that in Pakistan.... besides Pakistan, is the whole world against us there? No!!

All the shipping companies are doing is funding more trouble and more sophisticated weaponry. What do you want, another powerful Cartel like the drug cartels in Central and South America?

Bending over and taking it up the ass is not the way to go about this in dealing with these thugs... especially when doing so makes creating a "real" Somali government nearly impossible with well funded warlords. I hardly think that making the situation worse by paying of these thugs will make the world against us...

These thugs still have over 200 foreign captives held hostage... what should we do... wait until they have over 1000??

There should be some negotiations with the Somali government on getting there gov't stabilized and getting there economy going again which would include some aid military and financial. You then have quite a different conversation with the warlords and thugs. Something to the effect that if they don't get there act together they will probably be killed or arrested.

In the meantime any company shipping in those waters should have a security force on the ship for protection.

**rb336** · April-13-09, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by firstandten

There should be some negotiations with the Somali government on getting there gov't stabilized and getting there economy going again which would include some aid military and financial.

what Somali Government?

**Detroitej72** · April-13-09, 05:34 PM

Newsflash: the most the Somali Gov. controls is about 1/4 of Mogadishu, hardly worthy of controlling the nation.

Bravo on Pres. Obama for correctly taking prompt action when required.