Parachuting onto a ship and shooting these dudes was not all that risky and damn sure not ninja, not that the Seals couldn’t DO ninja if that was what was called for.

Well, I spose it was ninja!

Bad-ass, if not ninja

Three headshots from a moving platform to a moving platform.
I’m impressed and I am not exactly what you call a gun guy.

And by the way, some unimaginably good marksmanship, especially if the layout is as CNN is displaying from satellite views.

The fact is that negotiations are fine as long as there is an understanding that there are consequences when negotiations break down. The U.S. was willing to talk to these “pirates” but their answer seemed to be an unequivocal “fuck you”. OK, you just blew your one chance at negotiation. Simple.

And it looks like they were inside a closed cabin. Course I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it a different way and this is opsec.

Now if those clever ninjas could stop the dumping of toxic and radioactive materials off Somalia’s coast and perhaps the overfishing of its waters, I might be a little more impressed.

http://www.alternet.org/audits…..ut_pirates

Hadn’t heard that they parachuted in. Was that announced?

It is clear the right was setting Obama up to be Carterized.
Look at this:http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001151/

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001151/

CNN

A Navy SEAL team had parachuted in and taken up positions on the Bainbridge’s back deck.

Agreed. Letting the actual details go public would seem contrary to doctrine.
Sanchez just chatted with a former Seal (if there is such a thing), and he suggested that two of the pirates stuck their heads out of hatches at the same time and got theirs then. The third guy through a window.

So yeah, I suspect there’s much more to it. But still, some very fine shooting on open seas.

The Obama Administration should be working to help the Somalian people develop a form of national government that works for all of the people in that sad land. We need to keep out the European factory fishing vessels and the Asian factory fishing vessels that are stealing most of the fish from the oceans around Somalia. We need to work with the Somali Courts Union to establish a decent civilian government, even if it is based on religious law. I doubt that traditional muslim law would allow piracy to flourish.

The Bush gangster regime hired the Ethiopian government to invade Somalia and to try and destroy the Islamic Court Union back in 2006. We are always interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, and always trying to stop any progressive movement or any form of good self-government. See the Wikipedia entry on the Islamic Court Union for more details. Apparently the Bush regime preferred anarchy in Somalia to muslim-run moderate form of government. What is the Obama Administration planning on doing to return a legitimate form of government. I doubt that sharia law would look kindly upon acts of piracy by anyone in Somalia.

The Bush gangster regime hired the Ethiopian government to invade Somalia and to try and destroy the Islamic Court Union back in 1996. We are always interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, and always trying to stop any progressive movement or any form of good self government. See the Wikipedia entry on the Islamic Court Union for more details. Apparently the Bush regime preferred anarchy in Somalia to muslim-run moderate form of goverment. What is the Obama Administration planning on doing to return a legitimate form of government?

Newt “Vietnam was the wrong war at the wrong time for me” Gingrich was all over it yesterday on Steponopolus. Fat little fuck just smirkin away at what wimps we all are.

The purpose of negotiations can be to ratchet down tensions. Seems that they were successful at this as one was on the destroyer for first aid and the pirates had allowed a tow rope to be attached to tow them out to calmer waters.

Fukin A

I doubt that traditional muslim law would allow piracy to flourish.

They were making some headway before chimp decided thems wuz teerrrrists.

Not mensa pirates I think. The Seals proly went hand over hand on the tow rope and did em in person.

They who?

The Islamic Courts.

Specifically in Somalia?

what did Gingrich say? we should use lasers against them right from the get-go?

Yep, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Courts_Union

It was that whining about “law enforcement” and waiting for someone else to do the job. Here’s the whole thing.

Our Special Forces can take out targets from a mile away, even in crosswinds.

Kentucky windage.

The word “hostage” just sets off the rightwing’s Carter fever-dreams.

And the word “pirates” makes our media slobber and coo.

Why is the focus only on this brave merchant sea captain? Why nothing about the two women, practically amateur journalists, captured by the North Koreans? Why doesn’t our media tell us more about the journalist charged with espionage in Iran?

It’s as if the Axis of Evil has ceased to exist; now it’s all pirates, alla time.

Raven !

Oh Teddy, it’s because of the campy Johhny Depp!

maybe our President should have followed his predecessor’s lead in his first nat’l security test and simply told the pirates “We Are Very Sorry …”

Sup? Spent the last week all over Arizona and SoCal. How’s tricks?

I shoulda joined you … still have the Furnace working every night … going down below freezing again tonight.

Take a look at my FB page, I was in the water for 45 minutes and froze my ass off!

Capn’ Jack

Well, Captain Phillips is from Vermont, which only last week legalized marriage equality. Perhaps, this Holy Week, doG acted through his piratical minions?

Amazing coincidence of timing, no? And such disparate endings. Real vs faux leadership.

Hmmm … seems Clarence Thomas needs to be retired … from NYT

“I have to admit,” he said, “that I’m one of those people that still thinks the dishwasher is a miracle. What a device! And I have to admit that because I think that way, I like to load it. I like to look in and see how that dishes were magically cleaned.”

There are a couple of mind boggling quotes in that article … who put this dood in the SCOTUS ?

Oh, you nevvuh want to piss off your Bank Manager …

Yeah – by getting a bunch of guys together in a small enclosed life boat

Did you read MoDo on Iowa being the new cali?

Every time Justice Thomas makes public statements, I realize why he rarely makes public statements. I think he is a person severely aware of his own limitations.

I believe Anita Hill.

She is a weird lady. Met her several times and my ex had two classes from her.

Watching Obama’s swearing in, I felt that Roberts has some mental limitations from his recent incidences, although IANAD/P(Doctor/Psychiatrist).

We all know that Scalia is a few Bocce Balls short of a set and now this. If Obama gets reelected, he could have to replace 5 Supremes.

Pirates of the quarry, been.

ROFL … Bows to the Master !

dumb question. how is shooting three armed hostage takers holding one hostage at gunpoint a military activity? Its police work. Presumably, SWAT guys around the country do this type of thing a couple of times a year domestically (sometimes to heroic outcomes and sometimes to tragic results, a la Ruby Ridge). Cop shows feature such a scene about 12 times a week during primetime season. The French did it once already in the Gulf of Aden, to tragic result (they lost one of their countrymen). The Germans and Chinese have each had their helicopters aggressively chase off pirates harassing ships in the convoys they were escorting, although these incidents did not seem to involve any bloodshed.

In fact, so far the only military action in this theater that we’re aware of has been the Indian Navy – they torpedoed what they said was a pirate mother ship, but the Thai government said they accidentally sank one of their freighters instead. So comedy of errors there.

This is not a war. It won’t be until somebody decides to bomb pirate havens in Somalia. Look to the Kenyans to pressure their Chinese and Indian allies to do this soon.

The news seems to not go into the back story of how pirates came to be in Somolia, where there is no government, no economy, lots of poverty and starvation. Industrial fishing from european and asia fleets has robbed the locals of the fish in their waters and taken another means of survival from them.

The pirates began by targeting fishing trawlers which were destroying their small fishing industry. But then they went on to ransoming anyone that they could grab for the money. And most of these shippers took the chance and paid the ransom because the security measures were too expensive.

Let’s stop the mischief all around and help these people have a government, an economy and stop the fishing by “invaders”.

Hmm, the military did it but you don’t think it was a military action?

the military did it because its in international waters, and they’re the people we’ve tasked to it there, but it really is classic police work, isn’t it? They could’ve just as easily plopped UN Int’l Maritime Agency flags onto those warships, and then nobody would be calling this anything other than a police action.

Are you suggesting that we send in troops or State Dept. types. There is civil war going on there.

I don’t think we’re going to be the ones to do this. We already failed in our combat mission in Somalia once didn’t we? Let’s watch the AU arm-twist somebody else into doing it. I’m sure Sarkozy’s game – they seem rather trigger happy here for some reason, and Hu might just be willing to help if the Kenyans threaten his investments there, a bit. And if Hu jumps in, I’m sure Singh and Aso won’t be far behind in volunteering for some blue-helmet duty in Somalia alongside ‘em.. it’ll be a national pride issue for ‘em. I don’t see why we’d go in, with either troops or armed State Dept types. The reality is, aside from aid shipments, our strategic and commercial interests pale next to that of other big powers (notably the French, the Indians, the Iranians, the Japanese, and the Chinese). This is their oil we’re talking about, and, in the case of the Indians and the Chinese, their wouldbe colonial empires (just kidding).

I am suggesting that the UN set up some sort of government and begin delivering services and stand up an economy.

“I doubt that sharia law would look kindly upon acts of piracy by anyone in Somalia.”

The only problem with that claim would be that piracy was the main maritime business of most of North Africa for about ten centuries–right up until the French and Italians colonized them all. Remember that line in the Marine Corps anthem about the “shores of Tripoli”?

It seems to me that the life of a warlord or pirate is alright with some people…enough. That isn’t normal for humankind which generally prefers a more orderly society with rule of law. Even the Jews in Israel, who have had some problems establishing a clear national identity with stable borders, prefer that. Probably the Taliban and their friends in north and western Pakistan would prefer that to their nebulous cross-border lives. It wasn’t always so clear, but recently the Palestinians on the West Bank and S. Lebanon like the idea. Gaza is a mess.

Hey, new countries all around, if they can stay within their borders and govern themselves peacefully.