Piracy: It's not just about MP3's.

The battle continues for the crew of the Maersk Alabama.  The most recent reports have the crew taking back the ship but the pirates managed to kidnap the American captain, Richard Phillips, as the the pirates’ attack boat is docked along side the larger vessel.  Meanwhile the pirates and the US Navy have called in for reinforcements with this possibly turning into the Third Great Pirate War.

There are also reports that the Captain Phillips jumped from the pirate ship and attempted to swim back to safety.

The struggle goes on.

Update:

Thomas Jefferson knew a thing or two about defeating pirates.  More on the Barbary Wars and the irony of our response to modern pirates:

The navy sent the USS Bainbridge to the pirate incident. Commodore Bainbridge was the commander of the task force that President Jefferson sent to fight the Barbary pirate incidents in Tripoli. Commodore Bainbridge is probably spinning in his grave at how feckless our response is today. In 1803-05, Jefferson sent Captain Eaton to conduct a covert action attack against the pirates and their infrastructure and leadership on the beach. Captain Eaton assembled a handful of of U.S. Marines and a group of Arab, Greek and North African mercenaries and attacked the Basha from the desert, overland side, while the Naval task force bombarded the sea side. And the State Department authorized a “payment” to the Basha, paid by that rat Tobias Lear.

It was the first combined covert action, U.S. Navy operational action against a foreign enemy. Unconventional warfare, against an unconventional enemy. What a novel idea. We handled things better 200 years ago!

Thomas Jefferson, Pirate Fighter.

5 thoughts on “Piracy: It's not just about MP3's.”

  2. Jack Flannigan

    Enough! With all due respect to the Captain and the crew of the Maersk Alabama it is time to tell those jack assed pirates they have four hours to return all parties unharmed to an American ship or they will be blown to hell. No negotiating, just cold hard eye to eye facts. I take no joy in the possible sacrifice of the crew and the Captain, that sacrifice would indeed be a horrible, but if the pirates do not return all unharmed the only action left is to demonstrate to them we mean business and will not tolerate this piracy any longer. We only prolong the current situation by negotiating with these fools and demean our own standing along with compromising the future protection of shipping in this area. Point blank, return all parties unharmed within four hour or suffer from the comencement of fire from our guns.

  3. Bronder

    I’ve been following this ‘story‘ for quite some time but this recent situation is pretty amazing.

    I agree with Jack that we’ve reached our limit. I don’t understand how the moment the Captain Phillips jumped off the ship the Navy did not open fire. I know the reports are that it was just a mere seconds but shouldn’t the Navy be ready for just this opportunity?

    At this point the longer we wait the more perilous this situation becomes.

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