Navy SEALs 3; pirates 0

[unixronin]

Captain Phillips is coming home.  The pirates who attacked his ship ... not so much.

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) -- An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a swift firefight that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, the ship’s owner said.

[...]

“The negotiations between the elders and American officials have broken down.  The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates in Puntland and elders refused the arrest of the pirates,” said the commissioner, Abdi Aziz Aw Yusuf.  He said he organized initial contacts between the elders and the Americans.

Two other Somalis, one involved in the negotiations and another in contact with the pirates, also said the talks collapsed because of the U.S. insistence that the pirates be arrested and brought to justice.

We get that you didn’t want your pirates arrested.  OK, we didn’t arrest them.  Let us know how “dead” is working out for you instead.

Comments

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

So, they did have SEALs on station, and they did have clearance from the whitehouse. I sort of wondered if the FBI negotiation ploy was to give the SEALs time to get all of their ducks in a row.

It also seems like this _might_ be a good sign from the administration: give the carrot a chance to work, but be immediately ready with the sharp-pointy stick in case the carrot fails. Assuming this is what the administration intended, that's a good thing, IMO (ie. "give peace and diplomacy a chance, but don't be spineless about it").

On the other hand, the article I posted above could also be read as "the administration tied our hands a little bit, and we followed the letter of the orders, but managed to find a way to do what needed to be done despite the spirit of those orders".

Right now, I'm of the opinion to give the administration the benefit of the doubt ... but we'll see how the rest of the piracy situation plays out, what fallout comes from the Navy's actions, and how Obama handles his next pointy-stick diplomacy situation.