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U.S. Navy Apprehends Somali Pirates for the First Time
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ShareFebruary 11, 2009 3:07 PM
ABC News' Kirit Radia reports: A U.S. Navy ship working as part of a multinational team called Combined Task Force 151, apprehended a group of seven Somali pirates today, the first time the task force has picked up Somali pirates.
The apprehension appears to be in response to what U.S. officials tell ABC News was an order from the Pentagon issued last Thursday to pursue pirates off the Somali coast.
"At approximately 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, the Marshall Islands-flagged Motor Vessel Polaris sent a distress call to all ships in the area reporting that a small skiff containing seven suspected pirates had attempted a forcible boarding of their vessel using a ladder. Polaris crewmembers removed the ladder before pirates could come aboard," the Navy's 5th fleet said in a statement.
The U.S. Navy ship USS Vella Gulf responded to the distress call and intercepted the pirate skiff. After positively identifying the suspected pirates, they were brought on board the Vella Gulf for processing and will be transferred to the USNS Lewis and Clark where they will be temporarily detained.
U.S. officials have previously told ABC News that Kenya has agreed to take in captured Somali pirates until they can be tried. There is no official word yet if the alleged pirates captured today will be sent there, but the agreement with Kenya is designed for just such cases.
According to U.S. officials who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity, last Thursday the Joint Chiefs of Staff last week issued a Counter Piracy Execute Order that charged the military with pursuing and apprehending pirates who threaten commercial ships in the Horn of Africa region off the coast of Somalia.
Officials say the order creates an operating zone to go after pirates about 500 nautical miles out to sea and spans from the Gulf of Aden near Yemen down to the borders with Kenya and Tanzania.
In other words, it is now open season for the U.S. Navy to go after Somali pirates that have haunted one of the world's vital shipping lanes.
February 11, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (14)
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Bush Lite!
Obama will continue Bush’s evil process of extraordinary rendition!
The United States will continue to hand foreign detainees over to other countries for questioning, but only with assurances they will not be tortured, Leon Panetta told a Senate committee considering his confirmation as CIA director.
THAT HAS LONG BEEN U.S. POLICY, but some former prisoners subjected to the process--known as extraordinary rendition--during the Bush administration's anti-terror war say they were tortured.
"I will seek the SAME KIND OF ASSURANCES that they will not be treated inhumanely," Panetta said Friday in his second day before the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I intend to use the State Department to be sure those assurances are implemented and stood by, by those countries."
Panetta said the Obama administration will no longer move detainees to secret CIA prisons for interrogation, because the so-called "black sites" have been ordered closed. BUT IT WILL MOVE PRISONERS TO OTHER COUNTRIES FOR PROSECUTION, he said.
Posted by: Code Pink | Feb 11, 2009 3:17:55 PM
Whether taken to another country or not, it's about time they quit playing with these idiots. For these thugs, it's lights out. Go Navy!
Posted by: Emmanuel A. Smart | Feb 11, 2009 3:55:43 PM
Obama just made a press conference concerning this.
Obama said we deserve it and will set these people free with an apology.
Posted by: roofeer | Feb 11, 2009 4:05:04 PM
This order has nothing to do with Bush but is the right thing to do in that region.
If you were capture the pirates wouldn't rendition you to some other country ,maybe if ransom money wasn't paid you would be killed.
Posted by: Lookup | Feb 11, 2009 4:13:50 PM
I wouldn't detain them, or send them to another country.
I would do what they used to do with pirates in the 18th century...
Posted by: Pegleg | Feb 12, 2009 6:50:19 AM
Seriously, I don't understand why countries and companies continue to let this happen. Arm your shipping vessels! How much would it cost to put 50mm guns onboard? a lot less than 20 million! Somalia is a renagade country, so if you blow a 7 man skip out of the water, who are they going to complain to?? Hell, a couple of shots across thier bow would be enough to make them turn around. Why are these 200 ton vessels getting boarded?? It's stupid.
Posted by: Darryl | Feb 12, 2009 9:23:58 AM
They will not continue the policy of Extraordinary Rendition. That was either a deliberate lie or a lack of understanding of what the Obama Admin has said they will do. They will conduct Rendition, but not the type that Bush engaged in. Extraordinary Rendition is to send a suspected terrorist to another government that we know will torture them. Rendidtion is simply moving a suspect from one jurisdiction to another for prosecution or detention. Extradition is a type of Rendition. They have specifically said that we will return to observing the Uniform Code of Military Justice, The Geneva Convention and all other legal forms regarding the treatment of prisoners, and we will no longer engage in any creative interpretation of laws to permit torture. Everyone knows that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld encouraged the use of torture,and in the process destroyed our reputation around the world as the good guys, but change has come. Obama is acting vigorously to right the wrongs that republicans perpetrated on all of us.
Posted by: Patrick McIntire | Feb 12, 2009 9:54:37 AM
Ladies and gentlemen: I think we have just found a new use for Guantanamo!
Posted by: Thomas Mc | Feb 12, 2009 12:05:36 PM
To Code Pink:
"I was tortured for being a pirate! Just because we kidnap, abuse, rape, torture and kill innocent ship workers, I CLAIM i was tortured after I was let go! WAAH! I WANT A LAWYER!"
First off, your facts are LIES. Show me anywhere since the 1800s that the US Navy has done anything to pirates? We're passive do-nothing wimps! We NEED to START using our military to stop this insanity and rape of the seas. Stop siding with scumbag criminals in third-world countries. All you nutjobs in Code Pink do is yell and scream from the safety in America which was protected from attack by BUSH POLICIES since 9/11. There hasnt been any more successful attacks on US soil since then!
Posted by: Vissy Adamczyk | Feb 12, 2009 4:50:19 PM
That's the Navy's Job. Good day at work guys.
Posted by: T | Feb 12, 2009 5:14:24 PM
the pirates sure looked happy. i'm sure they are doing the dirty work for their bosses who pay them nothing and risk their lives on the high seas to perpetuate piracy on others' behalf. it's nice the Navy was there. i bet none of these guys wants to go back to Somalia.
Posted by: Paul Wall | Feb 12, 2009 9:34:22 PM
Darryl---i agree with you, man. these merchant vessels need to arm themselves. those pirates looked pathetic in their little boat. seriously, arm yourselves!
Posted by: Paul Wall | Feb 12, 2009 9:39:15 PM
WHO THE HELL IS PAYING FOR ALL THIS? THE AMERICAN TAX PAYER.
LET OTHER COUNTRIES DEAL WITH THIS, WHY IS EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE THE AMERICAN TAX PAYER PROBLEM.
NO WONDER WE ARE IN A DEPRESSION!!!!
Posted by: jake | Feb 15, 2009 10:44:33 PM
I realise that the age of sail is long since past but a spare yard arm or two on your naval vessels just for pirates might be appropriate.
Posted by: bill | Feb 18, 2009 2:23:56 PM
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