Monday, April 13, 2009

Extra, Extra, Read All About It

Did the U.S. Navy SEALS just shoot three Somali pirates or environmentalists?
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4 comments:

Stoner said...

I've been following news stories about the Somali "pirates" for months, and something stinks about this ship: flying a US flag(no flag of convenience? that's a heavy tax hit)and staffed by an all-American crew (no cheap foreign labor?) that rose up (unarmed?) against automatic-weapons?
Blackwater(now XE)announced months ago that they were going into the anti-piracy business. I think this episode was their proof-of-concept.

3:26 PM
rocky dennis said...

This is what I find suspicious about the incident: The Navy commander claims that a pirate had an AK-47 aimed at the Captain's back, which was construed as an imminent threat on his life. This makes no sense at all. The pirates must of known that the only thing keeping them from being blown to kingdom come was their live hostage. Why would they shoot him dead?

Of course, no one is questioning the motive for the killings. And I'm not mourning the deaths of 3 high sea thugs.

12:38 AM
Bob Kemp said...

I have it on good authority (Al Jazeera) that the Trilateral Commision has hired the Mafia to dispose of the Roswell alien bodies (who actually survived their crash landing, BTW, but later died from ingesting Pop-Rocks with cola) by rolling them down off a Somalian grassy knoll into the Gulf of Aden, after being given the OK signal via chem-trails from silent black helicopters.

But, seriously, it's hard to know where to start with you two knuckleheads. Obviously, Rocky, the pirates had a gun to the hostage - otherwise he wouldn't have been a "hostage". Were the Seals trigger-happy, and elated to have an excuse to ice a few guys? Of course they would be. What's suspicious?

Stoner seems to suggest, with his observation of the ship's flag and crew, this is a Gulf of Tonkin-like episode. While 95 percent of US foreign trade is carried in ships flying the flags of other nations, American ships that ply coastal routes, and those handling government cargo (like the Alabama, which was delivering humanitarian aid to Somalia) are required to fly US flags and to use union crews. Also, the sailors who "rose up against automatic-weapons" were many, but they rose up against a lone pirate isolated from his own crew. Finally, Blackwater was (as far as I can tell) not involved in this, therefore no "proof-of-concept" for them.

7:08 PM
Stoner said...

Sorry, I dashed off that earlier comment.

I was conjecturing that the crew of this ship (and probably of other lines that do business with the Pentagon, as the Maersk does) included Xe contractors, and that the positive outcome here provided Xe with a proof-of-concept to use, sub-rosa, in pursuit of further contracts with other lines.

After being booted out of Iraq, Eric Prince announced he was turning his attention to providing security to container ships; then, shortly after, that he was changing the company name to Xe. Then...nothing. Which is why I think it's possible, even likely, that they're operating sub-rosa now. And the halfassed way this played out, with the captain of the ship winding up a hostage and the US Navy having to come to the rescue, just smells like Blackwater in Iraq all over again.

But I'm probably paranoid and given to embroidering fact with fantasy.

I concede the flag matter.

1:13 PM

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