rssYour Mid-Day Pirate Links
Friday, April 10, 2009 at 12:02 pm
- 3 Comments
First, Capt. Richard Phillips, the captured commander of the Maersk Alabama, is the bravest man in the world right now, having tried — sadly unsuccessfully — to swim from his Somali pirate captors while the USS Bainbridge floats nearby. Why doesn’t the Bainbridge just pursue the pirate sanctuaries? Noah Shachtman explains, pointing out that the Littoral Combat Ships that Defense Secretary Bob Gates is accelerating in the new Pentagon budget really come in handy here, despite the troubles with the ship to date.
Then check out Galrahn at the U.S. Naval Institute blog, who fleshes out what a Naval capability for low-intensity threats like piracy would look like.
Follow Spencer Ackerman on Twitter
3 Comments
Comment posted April 10, 2009 @ 11:34 am
I am glued to the news feeds following this pirate story. Gingrich is calling for the Seals to go in and wipe-out the pirates holding the American captain, but it seems like everyone is in wait-and-see mode. The news coverage in the states has been very nationalistic, but this situation is affecting nations around the globe – check out the comments by FOX news anchors in this newsydotcom clip: http://www.newsy.com/videos/captive_captain_jum…
Comment posted April 14, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
We've only about 200 first class merchant ships of all types — far fewer than we have of Naval ships. Maersk itself is actually a Danish company with a nominal US subsidiary which does nothing but haul government cargo — almost always for the Defense Department. Commercial cargo always goes in foreign ships, crewed by dollar-an-hour men.
We should bring out of mothballs the USNS shipping now lying in Baltimore or Norfolk, have them crewed with American sailors and have a squad of Marines on board. These are government ships, and arming them does not present the legal difficulties attendant upon doing so withmerchant ships.
Another good idea, issue Letters of Marque to Blackwater Corporation and tell them anything they capture or re-capture from the pirates belongs to them! If piracy is returning why not privateering?
Comment posted April 14, 2009 @ 11:40 pm
We've only about 200 first class merchant ships of all types — far fewer than we have of Naval ships. Maersk itself is actually a Danish company with a nominal US subsidiary which does nothing but haul government cargo — almost always for the Defense Department. Commercial cargo always goes in foreign ships, crewed by dollar-an-hour men.
We should bring out of mothballs the USNS shipping now lying in Baltimore or Norfolk, have them crewed with American sailors and have a squad of Marines on board. These are government ships, and arming them does not present the legal difficulties attendant upon doing so withmerchant ships.
Another good idea, issue Letters of Marque to Blackwater Corporation and tell them anything they capture or re-capture from the pirates belongs to them! If piracy is returning why not privateering?
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
