The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged somalia

Michele Bachmann’s At It Again

By | 04.16.09 | 10:46 am

A new transcript of Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-Minn.) April 9 interview on San Francisco AM station KSFO yields yet another error:

On the station’s morning show, she recounted the 2006 controversy of the so-called “flying imams,” six Muslim clerics who were removed from a US Airways flight after More…

Navy’s Confrontation With Pirates Spurs Complaints From Reformers

By | 04.15.09 | 12:01 am

Ironic as it may appear, Naval reformers think the successful rescue of Maersk Alabama captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates may have highlighted structural imbalances in the U.S. Navy’s ability to handle irregular warfare — just as difficulties experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan awakened the U.S. Army to counterinsurgency requirements.
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Feingold on Piracy and Terrorism: Two Problems, One Cause

By | 04.14.09 | 3:46 pm

Here’s Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, making a clear distinction between Somali pirates and Somali terrorists, while indicating that both scourges are rooted in the dysfunctional state of Somalia itself — a condition he says the United States should work to correct. From More…

Little Green Footballs to Rightbloggers: Chill!

By | 04.14.09 | 1:17 pm

Charles Johnson of the war-on-terror-watching blog Little Green Footballs tells critics of President Obama to cool it over the resolution of the pirate hostage crisis.

President Barack Obama is the Commander in Chief of the US armed forces. I certainly don’t agree with a lot of his policies, but

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More Hijackings Already

By | 04.14.09 | 9:39 am

or actually, the pirates’ reprisals might be direct, too:

Pirates attacked another cargo ship early Tuesday morning in the Gulf of Aden, continuing a spate of attacks despite recent U.S. and French military action against hijackers in the waters.

Pirates attacked the M/V Irene between 1 and

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Pirate Reprisals Might Be Indirect

By | 04.14.09 | 9:32 am

After the rescue of Maersk Alabama captain Richard Phillips, some Somali pirates issued a predictable amount of bluster about reprisals. (“Every country will be treated the way it treats us,” said Abdullahi Lami, a pirate in the safe-haven Somali den of Gaan, according to The Associated Press.) Defense Secretary More…

Gingrich Damns Obama With Faint Praise

By | 04.13.09 | 12:34 pm

I had wondered how former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had been blasting President Obama up to Sunday morning over his response to the Somali pirate crisis, would respond to the successful rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips. Gingrich tweets his answer:

The navy seals did exactly thr

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Newt Gingrich Solves the Pirate Crisis

By | 04.10.09 | 12:55 pm

The former Speaker of the House tweets his American Solutions to the Somalia pirate standoff:

The correct answer to piracy is to destroy it not negotiate with it Seals can retake the lifeboat Track every boat leaving somalia

Later…

Under no circumstance should any boat carrying hostages be allowed

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Congressman: We Don’t Negotiate With Terrorists on Land, but We Will at Sea

By | 04.08.09 | 4:56 pm

With all eyes on the Somali pirates reported to have taken an American hostage in the waters off of Africa’s Horn, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), a 31-year Navy veteran, weighed in this afternoon with this message: We don’t negotiate with hostage-takers on land, but we can do so at More…

CLINTON CONFIRMATION: Somalia

By | 01.13.09 | 3:49 pm

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) returns, and asks about intelligence warnings of Al Qaeda movement into the chaos of Somalia. “What’s your view on what’s gone wrong on that?”

Clinton: “Somalia is strategically located … the idea that Somalia is just a failed state, somewhere over there, where people are just More…