Pirates!
Posted in International Affairs on April 12th, 2009 by Peter – Comments OffThe New York Times reports:
United States Navy personnel rescued the captain of an American cargo ship on Sunday by killing three Somali pirates who had been holding him hostage for four days, government officials said.
…
Just after dark on Sunday, snipers on the U.S.S. Bainbridge saw that one of the pirates was pointing an automatic rifle at Captain Phillips, and that the captors’ heads and shoulders were exposed from the capsule-like lifeboat. President Obama had previously authorized the use of force if the commander on the scene believed the captain’s life was in danger, so they fired, Admiral Gortney said.
It’s all pretty murky what happened, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the on-scene commander chose to interpret if “the captain’s life was in danger” as “if you have a really good shot.”
It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the captured pirate — the whole legal side of this piracy thing has been making everyone’s head hurt. Hopefully this case sets some meaningful precedent on how we deal with pirates in the future.