For the first time, A ship registered in the United States has been hijacked by Somali pirates, the Story via AP:
NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, hundreds of miles from the nearest American military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.
The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. It was the sixth ship seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.
The company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.
Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said that it was the first pirate attack “involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory.” She did not give an exact timeframe.
When asked how the U.S. Navy plans to deal with the hijacking, Campbell said: “It’s fair to say we are closely monitoring the situation, but we will not discuss nor speculate on current and future military operations.”
…..and naturally the far right is blaming Obama and is asking “Well, that are you going to do?”
Somali pirates have decided that it is great time to capture an American flagged ship crewed by our citizens.
Naturally, I have a few questions.
Why has this not happened before? Why were these pirates not deterred by the prospects of a response from the United States Navy (the very first mission of which was to stop piracy from Africa)? What will our president do about it?
This is a far more important moment for Barack Obama than the news media, judging by the lack of coverage on cable news this morning, believes it to be.
Unless I miss my guess, this President is going to do the SAME THING as the LAST President did; absolutely nothing. Seriously Republicans er… I mean; Wilsonian Neo-Conservatives, can you get any more lame? You honestly going to blame Obama and are going to expect him to send an invading Military force? Please, Obama’s name is not George W. Bush.
I mean, I can understand critizing his Political policy, but placing blame on Obama for something that he had zero to do with. Like I said in a previous posting, the Conservative Blogsphere is starting to look like the party of circus clowns.
Update: MSNBC is reporting that there are unconfirmed reports that the crew of the ship, have regained control of the ship. The reports say that the crew opened fire on the crew and one was killed, the others either were thown overboard and jumped. YES! Thank God for GUNS! wOOt! 😆
Not send in military force? Are you being serious or was it some sort of sarcastic crack on liberals? What may you suggest that we do? – other than send a few seals in and deal with these bandits. This is all we can do, AND what SHOULD be done. Do you think these pirates are willing to talk it over?
“Invading Military Force,” as far as I’m concerned…they invaded one of OUR ships. This can be handled..BY FORCE.
Amy,
The Navy was on the way, last I heard. I was referring to invading Somalia. Which is; if the Neo-Con’s had their way, we would be doing.