Somali Pirates Hijack Ship, Seize 20 Americans

[JP]

Somali Pirates Hijack Ship, Seize 20 Americans *No Longer*

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members aboard, FOX News has learned.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya at the time it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

A Kenya-based diplomat identified the vessel and told the Associated Press all crew members are American. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The U.S. Navy confirmed the hijacking early Wednesday off the eastern coast of Somalia and said it is monitoring the situation with its own ships.

Spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said the attack happened in the early hours of the morning, about 280 miles northeast of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia.

"The area, the ship was taken in, is not where the focus of our ships has been," Christensen told The Associated Press on the phone from the 5th Fleet's Mideast headquarters in Bahrain.

"The area we're patrolling is more than a million miles in size. Our ships cannot be everywhere at every time," Christensen said.

He declined to release the name of the ship until the family members of the crew are notified.

He said the ship was operated by the Danish company Maersk, which deals with the U.S. Department of Defense. Christensen said the vessel was not working under a Pentagon contract when hijacked.

"Our initial concern is to ensure proper support of the crew and assistance to their families," Maersk said in a statement.

An U.S. embassy spokeswoman was not immediately able to confirm the incident.

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program said the ship was taken about 400 miles from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The vessel is the sixth to be seized within a week and the first with an all-American crew.

[JP]

[CrazyFinn]

This will be on the news for a couple of days... I'm glad I'm going out to the desert for Easter where we have no TV or radio.

[DiscGo]

If a group of Iranians hijacked did this, it would be war but since it is Somalia nothing is going to happen.

[JP]

nothing is going to happen.

Come on now, the Messiah is back and we'll see what he does. Let's see what he does, the ball is in his court.

[CarpeyBiggs]

If a group of Iranians hijacked did this, it would be war but since it is Somalia nothing is going to happen.

it has little to do with the country of somalia. it is a group of PIRATES. they operate independently of anything or anyone, just using somalia as a base for a multitude of reasons.

there is a distinct difference between national policies and individual actions...

[CarpeyBiggs]

nothing is going to happen.

Come on now, the Messiah is back and we'll see what he does. Let's see what he does, the ball is in his court.

why do you feel obama is responsible resolving this? why not the danish? or the actual company?

[DiscGo]

I do not believe this has anything to do directly with Obama but rather with the U.S. foreign policy. If the pirates (who are undoubtedly not sanctioned by their government) were from another country we wanted our people to hate (North Korea, Iran, etc.) then this would become a bigger deal and more propaganda would be spread in our country about those countries because of this. But since these guys are from Somalia we can see that they are a single group of pirates and not militant combatants.

[CarpeyBiggs]

I do not believe this has anything to do directly with Obama but rather with the U.S. foreign policy. If the pirates (who are undoubtedly not sanctioned by their government) were from another country we wanted our people to hate (North Korea, Iran, etc.) then this would become a bigger deal and more propaganda would be spread in our country about those countries because of this. But since these guys are from Somalia we can see that they are a single group of pirates and not militant combatants.

i see. it sounded like you were implying that america should just go kick some ass and take the vessel back, because that's what we'd do if it were iran...

i do agree with the second part of your statement though.

[DiscGo]

i see. it sounded like you were implying that america should just go kick some ass and take the vessel back, because that's what we'd do if it were iran...

Mostly I just feel like the pirates and not the country should be liable and it bothers me how our country and distinguish the difference for some countries (where war would not benefit us) and not see the difference for other countries (where war would serve our purposes).

[KapitanSparrow]

I smell another bailout

Edit that. Now I am reading the crew retook the vessel

[JP]

American Crew Regains Control of Hijacked Ship, One Pirate in Custody

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

American crew members aboard a U.S.-flagged ship have regained control of the vessel hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia Wednesday, FOX News confirms.

Defense Department officials confirmed that one pirate is in custody. A U.S. official said the status of the other pirates is unknown but they were reported to "be in the water."

"All the crew members are trained in security detail in how to deal with piracy," Maersk CEO John Reinhart told reporters. "As merchant vessels we do not carry arms. We have ways to push back, but we do not carry arms."

John Harris, CEO of HollowPoint Security Services, which specializes in maritime security, said that the crew's overtaking the pirates could help prevent future hijackings, especially since the military can't be protect the entire high seas.

"Any time you can get intel from them, they can give you any kind of significant information, they more than likely will not, but anything we can get will always help us in the future," Harris told FOX News.

"Naval vessels ... can't be everywhere at one time, just like law enforcement," he said, noting that the U.S. Navy has been protecting the most vulnerable shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean.

"If you saturate an area long enough in the shipping lanes, if you saturate it with war ships long enough, they venture out. In this case that's what they did. They want 350 miles out of the coast where no Naval vessels were present," he said.

As for the boldness of the pirates taking a ship operating under a U.S. flag, Harris said pirates don't care which ship they grab.

"We have not seen it matters at all. This is a business to them. They are not intended on carrying what cargo we're carrying. All they want to do is see a dollar figure. They know if they catch a big ship, they get big money. All they want is ransom out of this. They are not worried about crew or cargo," Harris said.

Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman said earlier Wednesday he has "no information to suggest the 20 crew members of the Maersk Alabama have been harmed by the pirates."

During its one communication with the ship, Maersk was told the crew was safe, Reinhart said. He would not release the names of the crew members.

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.

The top two commanders of the ship graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the Cape Cod Times reported Wednesday.

Andrea Phillips, the wife of Capt. Richard Phillips of Underhill, Vermont., said her husband has sailed in those waters "for quite some time" and a hijacking was perhaps "inevitable."

The Cape Cod Times reported his second in command, Capt. Shane Murphy, was also among the 20 Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama.

Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, says his son is a 2001 graduate who recently talked to a class about the dangers of pirates.

The newspaper reported the 33-year-old Murphy had phoned his mother to say he was safe.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said earlier Wednesday the White House is "closely monitoring the apparent hijacking of the U.S.-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and assessing a course of action to resolve this situation."

"Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board," Gibbs said in a written statement.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, at the time it was hijacked, for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

Just last week, A. P. Moller-M

[DiscGo]

That is pretty darn awesome that the crew took care of this and so quickly.

[JP]

why do you feel obama is responsible resolving this? why not the danish? or the actual company?

Ya, what am I thinking...Americans are on board. Why should Obama do anything for them. What an un-American thing to do these days. Yea, let the US Navy just float on by.

It doesn't matter there Dan, Obama is all set. The Americans on board took care of it themselves. At least they weren't pu$$ies. The Carter Admins.... whoopsie, I mean Obama Administration should take notes

That is pretty darn awesome that the crew took care of this and so quickly.

Absolutely! Great job Let's just hope they don't get penalized for the actions they took.

[JP]

U.S. Crew Regain Control of Hijacked Ship, Negotiate Captain's Release

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

American crew members aboard a U.S.-flagged ship hijacked by Somali pirates Wednesday were able to regain control of the vessel, but a crew member says the ship's captain is still being held hostage.

Speaking on the ship's satellite phone, one of the 20 crew members on the cargo ship, Maersk Alabama, said negotiations are under way for the captain's release.

He said the crew had been taken hostage but managed to seize one pirate and then successfully negotiate their own release.

The crew regained control of the ship and the pirates are now in a lifeboat. But the unidentified man also said that they are holding the ship's captain hostage in the vessel.

Defense Department officials confirmed that one pirate is in custody. A U.S. official said the status of the other pirates is unknown but they were reported to "be in the water."

"All the crew members are trained in security detail in how to deal with piracy," Maersk CEO John Reinhart told reporters. "As merchant vessels we do not carry arms. We have ways to push back, but we do not carry arms."

John Harris, CEO of HollowPoint Security Services, which specializes in maritime security, said that the crew's overtaking the pirates could help prevent future hijackings, especially since the military can't protect the entire high seas.

"Any time you can get intel from them, they can give you any kind of significant information, they more than likely will not, but anything we can get will always help us in the future," Harris told FOX News.

"Naval vessels ... can't be everywhere at one time, just like law enforcement," he said, noting that the U.S. Navy has been protecting the most vulnerable shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean.

"If you saturate an area long enough in the shipping lanes, if you saturate it with war ships long enough, they venture out. In this case that's what they did. They want 350 miles out of the coast where no Naval vessels were present," he said.

As for the boldness of the pirates taking a ship operating under a U.S. flag, Harris said pirates don't care which ship they grab.

"We have not seen it matters at all. This is a business to them. They are not intended on carrying what cargo we're carrying. All they want to do is see a dollar figure. They know if they catch a big ship, they get big money. All they want is ransom out of this. They are not worried about crew or cargo," Harris said.

Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman said earlier Wednesday he has "no information to suggest the 20 crew members of the Maersk Alabama have been harmed by the pirates."

During its one communication with the ship, Maersk was told the crew was safe, Reinhart said. He would not release the names of the crew members.

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."

Wednesday's incident was the first such hostage-taking involving U.S. citizens in 200 years. In December 2008, Somali pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel.

The top two commanders of the ship graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the Cape Cod Times reported Wednesday.

Andrea Phillips, the wife of Capt. Richard Phillips of Underhill, Vt., said her husband has sailed in those waters "for quite some time" and a hijacking was perhaps "inevitable."

The Cape Cod Times reported his second in command, Capt. Shane Murphy, was also among the 20 Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama.

Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, says his son is a 2001 graduate who recently talked to a class about the dangers of pirates.

The newspaper reported the 33-year-old Murphy had phoned his mother to say he was safe.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, at the time it was hijacked, for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk.

Robert A. Wood, Deputy State Department Spokesman, told reporters the ship was carrying "vegetable oil, corn soy blend and other basic food commodities bound for Africa."

[JP]

Well, it looks like the "O" still may still be in the game