Can pirates swim?

yep.. We really need another Reagan!

What we really need is a REAL man to stand up and be prez...

Hillary would have even been closer to a REAL Man than Obama...
I mean, she can get nasty when she wants too...

 

Somali Piracy - Causes and Consequences By Joe DeCapua
Washington D.C
10 April 2009

The ongoing Somali piracy problem in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean raises a number of legal and military issues about how to deal with the problem. Dr. J. Peter Pham, director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University, spoke to VOA about the causes and consequences of Somali piracy.

"Fundamentally, the piracy problem off the Somali coast arises out of the fundamental problem of statelessness on shore. There's not been an effective Somali government since 1991. So, without effective governing on shore you're going to have opportunities for criminals to engage in their enterprises with impunity," he says.

...

He says four UN Security Council resolutions and agreements with the interim Somali government allow the use of force. "If we don't root out these nests of piracy or at least send a very strong signal, we will end up telegraphing is a very strong signal of weakness," he says.

Pham says that any military strikes against Somali pirates can be very selective, such as destroying the pirate mother ships that launch speedboats or destroying the mansions built by the pirate leaders. He says before the mansions are destroyed, a warning should be issued telling occupants to leave, as Israel does in the Gaza Strip.

- more at www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-04-10-voa36.cfm

 

Obama Closely Monitoring Pirate Hostage

Obama Closely Monitoring Pirate Hostage

U.S. Navy Is Tracking Pirates Holding American Hostage in a Lifeboat

By JOHN HENDREN

April 11, 2009 —

While the Pentagon is directing the military response, President Obama is getting personally involved in one of his first major national crises.

As U.S. Navy vessel continued to track a handful of Somali pirates in a lifeboat on Saturday, the president received several updates, both written and over the phone. A White House interagency group on piracy met throughout the day as the president's aides monitored the military response.

...

"This probably more parallels a hostage in a bank robbery gone wrong than a military operation, so I'm sure they're going to try to negotiate and work this out," Dick Couch, a former Navy SEAL and CIA maritime specialist, told ABC News.

An American military rescue effort would likely mean Navy SEALs approaching the boat at night, underwater. But an assault on desperate pirates is a last resort.

"The last thing they want to do is put those terrorists in a position where they have no options left other than to take this man's life," Couch said.

With the pirates' lifeboat now just 20 miles from the Somali shore, the Navy could soon find it has no other option.

- more at http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7315815

 

Hmmmm...I seem to recall that President Reagan decided to cut and run out of of Lebanon.

Hmmmm...I seem to recall that the Reagan administration was involved in the supply of arms to Iran to attmept to get hostages released in Lebanon.

 

You'll never get any of the Expeditionary Medal veterans, like me, to say we cut and ran out of Lebanon. We pummeled the place for months. You should speak of what you know, and leave the military history to the honest folks.

And I'd like to see some proof of your second memory, before I address it.

 

Ever hear of Oliver North?

We will have to figuratively shake hands and agree to disagree on this point in a brotherly way.

 

So you mean the Iran/Contra affair, not Lebanon.

Is that your way of saying you don't have to back up false claims you make ?

 

Kudos to Obama!

 

I think someone owes our president an apology... I wonder who that could be???

 

If loose lips sink ships, you think Obama's administration exercised and demonstrated information discipline to not tip off the world to their behind the scenes effort?

 

Bush? :laugh:

 

Now that was hilarious... :laugh::applause:

I guess Bush has gotten the blame for every other thing so why not now... :thumbs:

 

The hostages were in Lebanon.

More information is available here in The Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters:

www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/part_i.htm

 

But you did mean the Iran/Contra affair. And you give a dot org site, which may as well be a church or other non-profit site, and can hardly be a reliable news site.

When you say we cut and ran from Lebanon, you can hardly be trusted in any other information you may have. We did not cut and run. We bombed them severely, You should retract your statement.

On my part, I will admit to a lot of ignorance about Iran/Contra, but it does appear some malfeasance took place under Reagan's watch.

 

Here's some more info, with a right-wing spin. I suspect the truth lies in between somewhere....

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0825447.html

 

I don't know enough to figure out if the official report of the Independent Counsel is in the online National Archives. The report is dated August 4, 1993. I kept it with the situation quite a lot and watched a lot of the hearings on television, especially the testimony of Oliver North. There is no reason to be concerned about it being a .org. The report is what the report is. I know that what I have said about Iran/Contra is true regardless of what you say about me, brother.

 

I'm not debating that. I am saying you are quite wrong in saying Reagan cut & ran from Lebanon. That's what you should retract, because it is not true. And brother, I know it isn't true, and not from newspapers I read, or T.V. shows. You hearing me ?

 

As I already posted, I've already made my final comment on that subject and I stand my comment. BTW, I support having pulled out of Lebanon.

Have a good evening.

 

You are going to stand by a false statement, eh ?

OK Ken. I'll remember you put pride over truth from now on.

And all my evenings are good.

 

Closing this as it is on page 4 and off topic.

LE