Pirate booty, that is.
The U.S. Navy has captured nine more suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia, after they allegedly tried to board an Indian commercial ship. The same American ship took seven other men into custody Wednesday.
USS Vella Gulf received a distress call from the Indian merchant ship, Premdivya. The ship said it had been fired on by men in a small boat, who were trying to board it. The crew of the Indian ship detached the ladders the attackers were using, stopping them temporarily. Meanwhile, the American warship dispatched a helicopter.
Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman says the attackers fled, and ignored warnings to stop broadcast from the helicopter, so the crew fired two warning shots near the small boat. When it finally stopped, the Vella Gulf and another U.S. ship moved in and sent a boarding party to the pirates’ boat, where they found weapons including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Your host has no comment on any other kind of booty Somali prisoners may or may not avail themselves of.
My nephew is proudly serving aboard Vella Gulf as a GSM. He said thy’ve been rather busy lst couple with this….
Great news. Now I hope to hear about a fair and efficient trial to be closely followed by a first class hanging in Kenya. Anything less sets a bad precedent. Not to mention ‘sending the wrong message’ to the bad guys.
When’s the Charter full of ACLU types leaving for the Gulf? Or has it already left?
If impractical to turn over to the Kenyans for swift justice (not the painfully slow, inefficient GTMO tippy-toe tap dance stuff), then they should be set loose in their boat. Of course after seizing any fuel for it (must be a safety violation of some sort to justify that), and perhaps plus a few minor leaks which may occur if the pyrates’ ammo is all discharged in a safe direction (into the bilges).
No quarter.
Arrggghhhh!
In the way back when, didn’t they just hang pirates from a yardarm or mizzenmast or some other funny sounding part of a boat?
fropa: OR they were made to listen to “Sheik Yerbouti” by Frank Zappa. Besides walking the plank to music is cool. No?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheik_Yerbouti
So what’s the big disk the Sailor is aiming at the ‘pirate vessel’ in that video?
I’m guessing it’s one of those HOWL kits (high output warning loudspeakers) designed for AT/FP purposes.
Our Navy used to know how to deal with pirates, and it wasn’t capturing them for trials. Sink on sight!