There are many on the right that will strongly disagree with me but I want to commend President Obama for the action he authorized in the Indian Ocean. While I wish he would have made this decision 4 days earlier I can stand proud today and say MY PRESIDENT did the right thing. I think this could hurt his popularity among the radical Muslim world he is being praised by the people that really matter.
The real hero's here are the SEAL's that removed these scum bags from the face of the earth. One thing is certain, when you send in a SEAL team with orders to resolve an issue it is certain they will always do so successfully.
Kadima! Hooyah!
It was a stunning conclusion to an Indian Ocean odyssey that began when 53-year-old freighter Capt. Richard Phillips was taken hostage Wednesday by pirates who tried to hijack the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama. The Vermont native was held on a tiny lifeboat that began drifting precariously toward Somalia's anarchic, gun-plagued shores.
The operation, personally approved by President Obama, quashed fears the saga could drag on for months and marked a victory for the U.S., which for days seemed powerless to resolve the crisis despite massing helicopter-equipped warships at the scene.
Negotiations with the three pirates were growing heated, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.
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One of them pointed an AK-47 at the back of Phillips, who was tied up and in "imminent danger" of being killed when the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge made the split-second decision to order his men to shoot, Gortney said. Navy snipers took aim at the pirates' heads and shoulders, he said.
The lifeboat was about 25-30 yards away and was being towed by the Bainbridge at the time, he said. The pirates had agreed to the tow to move the powerless lifeboat out of rough water.
A fourth pirate surrendered after boarding the Bainbridge earlier in the day and could face life in a U.S. prison. He had been seeking medical attention for a wound to his hand and was negotiating with U.S. officials on conditions for Phillips' release, military officials said.
Somali media were identifying the captured pirate as 16-year-old Mohamed Abdi, according to the Somali Justic Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
The rescue was a dramatic blow to the pirates who have preyed on international shipping and hold more than a dozen ships with about 230 foreign sailors. But it is unlikely to do much to quell the region's growing pirate threat, which has transformed one of the world's busiest shipping lanes into one of its most dangerous. It also risked provoking retaliatory attacks.
Story continues HERE
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