American Morning
What’s on Tap – Thursday, April 9, 2009
Breaking now… a standoff with pirates developing minute-by-minute. An American captain is being held hostage on a lifeboat by four armed attackers. He’s their last bargaining chip. A Navy destroyer has it in its sights. AM has an angle on the story you will not see anywhere else.
We were actually working on a story with a crew member's father when this all went down. Joe Murphy was teaching a first-of-its-kind course in fending off pirates at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy when he got the call that his son’s ship was hit. He spoke to his son, Shane Murphy – who’s now in charge of the crew's safety – with the captain in danger.
Will the Navy act? Will the pirates flinch first? Answers could come over the next three hours… Don’t miss
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geoff cook /CT
"Interestingly, Israeli and Russian flagged ships don’t get hijacked. Reason: Their governments have armed military detachments assigned to their ships traveling in high-risk areas. Armed guards protect armoured trucks transporting cash on land, why not ships, cargo and personel worth hundreds of millions of dollars each?? Isn’t that just common sense?? This current situation could have been easily avoided."
This is something the USA needs to consider doing as well. I agree with you Geoff.
Anyone interested in learning more about modern day piracy should read the shocking and excellent (and "edge of your seat") book by John S. Burnett – Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas. It's a detailed acounting of the this little-discussed epidemic. Interestingly, Israeli and Russian flagged ships don't get hijacked. Reason: Their governments have armed military detachments assigned to their ships traveling in high-risk areas. Armed guards protect armoured trucks transporting cash on land, why not ships, cargo and personel worth hundreds of millions of dollars each?? Isn't that just common sense?? This current situation could have been easily avoided.
I agree blow them out of the waters and if you have to follow them into Somalia and kill them their also! We should not let them get away into Somalia and/or care about their problems of survival when they do something illegal! Sure Somalia's problem is the anarchy and lawlessness because they have no other way to live in a world that does not care about Somalia's economic survival but this illegal activity and their lawlessness needs to be stopped before the world should help Somalia with their economic problems!
If the Navies of the world would start shooting at the pirates, it would put a stop to this.
Since the pirates are using a "Mother Ship" to launch boats from to attack these ships, just blow up the "Mother Ship" and stop them in their tracks. The world is so soft it thinks standing up for what is right is wrong, and now we are all paying the price for our "bleeding hearts".
I do not condone these acts of piracy against innocent citizens but this conceptually is a far more complex issue. Quite a few of these pirates were fisherman who tried to make a living fishing only to find it difficult to so because larger fishing boats, taking advantage of the anarchy in Somalia, illegally starting large scale fishing in Somali waters. I heard this starting with trying to chase or hijack fishing boat. Unfortunately this has escalated into the madness that we see today. Any solution to this has to include dealing with the Somali problem. if anyone believes that this can be solved by just bringing more ships is very short sighted.
here's a good example of the right to bear arms amendment, don't let the innocent people have guns because its illegal, but you can't control the criminals to bear arms they don't care if its illegal, what they do these weapons is illegal anyways, so why not let us protect our selves.
thats the problem with todays soceity, give into the thugs, don't fight back, give them what they want and get them off the ship, or give them your load (trucking industry). why is it illegal for comercial carriers to arm themselves? i would think this would be a deterent, maybe not stopping the problem completely, but would slow it down. think about it, if your going to hijack a super tanker or a semi truck and you knew that you could possibly get shot, you might think twice before doing so.
I think it's about time USA stands up and says 'Enough is enough'... find these 'Mother Ships' where the pirates are coming from and blow them out of the water, or follow these pirates back to their homes and then send our marines in there and get rid of these pirates once and for all. IF USA does nothing again and lets these pirates go free, this will be a damn shame and I won't feel sorry for the taken ship. Enough is enough.. We need to use force already to end this pirate problem. Wait until the pirates start taking over Cruise ships.. they are loaded with millions of dollars, casino's on board, gift shops, not to mention, all the 1,000 + passengers that have money.. Are we going to let the pirates take over every ship or are we going to start doing something about this..
What has been learned about these Pirates ?Are they under one leader/coordinator?Or are there different/seperate groups?
If I remember correctly there was a task force created some months back, specific for this piracy that has been on going, what have they learned?
In regards to the current standoff with the thug pirates; does our mighty Navy not have any sharp-shooters or seals that can handle four muggers on the high seas? We CANNOT let these pirates get away with this for fear of increased attacks...NO MATTER THE POLITICS!
Additionally, can we take a moment to laugh. We are talking about pirates in the 21st century. Who would've guessed? I blame Johnny Depp.
Anderson Cooper reported that US ships are a minority in these areas. What countries are most affected by these pirate attacks? What have these affected governments done to prevent these attacks? If nothing, why is it always the United States' responsibility to right every wrong in this world? Can we get a little help from any of the other matured nations? I certainly hope this gentleman survives.