Korean Job Discussion Forums

[madoka]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110222/ap_on_re_us/us_us_piracy

The United States strongly condemned the killing of four U.S. citizens by Somali pirates off East Africa on Tuesday and urged the world to work to bring maritime criminals to justice.

Meanwhile, the remains of the four were taken aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, as were 15 suspected pirates now facing charges in the deaths.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement that the killings were "deplorable" and that they underscored the need for international cooperation on fighting the scourge of piracy in waters off the Horn of Africa.

It was the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in recent years.

Clinton expressed her sympathies for the families of the victims killed aboard the pirated yacht Quest � Jean and Scott Adam, of Marina del Rey near Los Angeles, and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle, Washington.

The Adamses lived aboard the Quest and had been sailing around the world since December 2004 distributing Bibles. The yacht was hijacked Friday several hundred miles south of Oman.

President Barack Obama was awakened to news of the deaths at 4:42 a.m. Washington time Tuesday. He had authorized the military on Saturday to use force in case of an imminent threat to the hostages, said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Marine Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement from Tampa, Fla.: "We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest."

Clinton urged international partners to provide material, financial and logistical support to an African peacekeeping mission in Somalia, the country the pirates use as the launching point of their attacks. Reports indicated that the pirates had launched from the coastal town of Harardhere, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

U.S. naval forces were trailing the Americans' captured yacht with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and four warships and negotiations were under way when pirates fired toward the ship with a rocket-propelled grenade, the military said. Then gunfire was heard aboard the yacht; and when special operations forces arrived on the vessel they found the Americans had been shot, the Central Command statement said.

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Now that pirates have escalated, on the spot executions seem to be the appropriate reaction. Instead these pirates will get a lengthy court appearance, followed by decades of free medical care, food, and lodging. Hell, that's probably better than what they could ever hope for in Somalia.

[Kuros]

[madoka]

[Kuros]

[bucheon bum]

[Fox]

[stilicho25]

Put me in the summary execution camp. That is the way they curtailed piracy in the 18th century, and I am sure it would work now. I quickly coming to the conclusion that human rights should be extended only to your own people, and those you have reciprical agreements with.

[northway]

[stilicho25]

Yes, I guess so.

[Skyblue]

I read the clowns on that yacht were Christians giving out bibles in remote villages. Maybe that's why they got whacked sharp-like. You've got to know the risks you're taking when you sail to Somalia with a boatload of bibles. Take your medicine. Amen.

[Illysook]

If they are treating the pirates as the criminals that they are, they are likely to shoot a few in the process of getting the stolen ships back. Then, they'll be taken to places like Guantanamo and it's not likely that they will ever see Somalia again. Perhaps they would wish for summary execution.

[NohopeSeriously]

Can't the American government accept the bunch of Islamic government?

If America can have a good relationship with an ultra-Islamic absolute monarchist country like Saudi Arabia, I don't think there would be a problem with the Somali warlords.

[rollo]

4 people butchered and folks are worried about the rights of the murderers. Just surreal. Establishing relationships with the warlords. Yeah that will stop it.

[Ya-ta Boy]

This was blow-back from a couple of weeks ago when the South Koreans and the Malaysians slammed the pirates that had snatched their ships (and also the sentencing of a pirate to thirty years in the big house in the US). Devastating for the 4 victims and their families, but unavoidable in the circumstances.

There was a disgusting article somewhere saying the Somalis were just engaging in a 'successful business model'. It's time to string a few business majors up to lamp posts in Mogadishu, London, New York and elsewhere to demonstrate that the invisible hand of the market does not have the right to kill people, either on the high seas or in sweatshops.

[stilicho25]

Biz majors? Change it to bankers going to jail and I will agree. As far is it being unavoidable, I don't know what you are talking about. South Koreans defending themselves does not give the Somali's the right to kill people on the high seas. String them up.