Why not take the Somali pirates hostage?

How can we take the Somali pirates hostage? Just declare them hostages.

We’re holding the pirates at least as surely as they are holding “Maersk Alabama” cargo ship Capt. Richard Phillips. Their four pirates and our American captain are all in the same lifeboat, and we can keep that boat from reaching the Somalia shore.

What do we do next? We leaflet the Haradheere neighborhoods where these thugs and their relatives are known to hang out. We give them our own demands. We want $25 million for each pirate we release. The pirate gang should place the cash on a boat and send it out to sea. Otherwise, the pirates never come home.

Risks of action. There are risks to this plan. The pirates might become angered and kill Capt. Phillips or throw him overboard. But there also are risks in our paying a ransom. Last time the Maersk Alabama crew gave the pirates what they wanted (one pirate), the crew got nothing in return. That was yesterday, when the pirates made off with Phillips.

Beyond that, by now, these pirates are getting tired and hungry, and they’re less likely to be hanging on to the resolve it takes to kill someone in the full knowledge they then would be killed. [Update: In these first few days, they're probably not hungry. It appears they have several weeks' supply of food. However, even on full stomachs, they probably are growing panicky.]

So pull back from the lifeboat that’s carrying the pirates and Capt. Phillips. Stop talking with the pirates. Give them a little more time for hunger, thirst and paranoia to set in. Meanwhile, fly to Mogadishu with our demand for $25 million per pirate.

Move in tomorrow. Then, tomorrow [Update: The food supply means this will take more time.], close in and demand the pirates toss their guns overboard if they want to eat. Let the pirates know they are hostage. Watch closely. Take it carefully from there.

Frank Warner

* * *

Updates:

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS FREED. On Easter Sunday (April 12), U.S. commandos freed Captain Phillips from the lifeboat and killed three pirates. The fourth pirate had panicked earlier in the day; he jumped overboard and surrendered before the firefight.

SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2009, UPDATE: Saving Captain Phillips: U.S. still has a chance to penalize Somali pirates.

CAPTAIN ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE. Capt. Phillips tried to escape early April 10, but was recaptured. Reports say he actually jumped into the ocean, hoping to swim to the destroyer Bainbridge. One pirate reportedly fired an AK-47 in the incident. It's unclear whether this was a warning shot.

* * *

OTHER PIRATES SAIL GERMAN SHIP. Other pirates are moving a German ship toward the lifeboat, apparently hoping to give the lifeboat pirates a way to escape. This ship should be stopped.

PIRATES WANT $2 MILLION. "Pirate sources" say the pirates want a $2 million ransom before they release Capt. Phillips.

* * *

HOSTAGE, 2 PIRATES KILLED IN YACHT RESCUE. French commandos tried April 9-10 to rescue five hostages held by Somali pirates on a hijacked yacht, one hostage was killed in the operation. Two of five pirates were killed, and the other three were captured.

* * *

LIFEBOAT COVERED, HAS FOOD. Commenter Ed Nutter points out a report that the lifeboat probably is covered, complicating suggestions that snipers pick off the four pirates. And here's a problem for the timing of my proposal: The Associated Press report indicates that each lifeboat has enough food and water to last five men several weeks (10 days' supply for 34 people).

* * *

KERRY HEARINGS. Sen. John Kerry wants hearings on pirates.

* * *

CALL BLACKWATER? Would "letters of marque" be warranted here? Letters of marque, if issued by Congress, would allow private Americans to settle the matter by force, even by seizing pirates' assets.

* * *

KEEP FUEL, MORE PIRATES AWAY. A veteran FBI expert on kidnapping says negotiators must not allow the pirates to obtain more fuel. Pirates onshore also are talking about sending more pirate boats out to the lifeboat; that must not happen.

* * *

DESTROYER BAINBRIDGE. On Friday morning, April 10, the lifeboat reportedly is within sight of the U.S. destroyer Bainbridge. Wasn't Bainbridge one of the naval officers who led Americans against the pirates of Tripoli (Libya) 200 years ago?

* * *

See also: When Somali pirates agreed to lifeboat tow line, they had lost.

See also: Killing pirates ‘escalates violence’?

See also: Captain Phillips peed, and 3 pirates died.

See also: Captain Phillips is rescued! 3 Somali pirates killed, 1 captured.

See also: Saving Captain Phillips: U.S. still has a chance to penalize Somali pirates.

Comments

[Kevin]

I'm with Frank on this one, except more hardcore. These @#%&%$uckers attacked AMERICANS. They and the world need to know that if you attack an American, you have to die.

With great remorse, I say SCREW THE CAPTAIN. Sorry, Mr. Phillips. I hope you live, but your captors have to die a horrible death. The more horrible, the better. Them dying is much more important than you living.

F*ck with America, and you die. That should be the message. Hopefully, someone can use forensics on their corpses to determine which village they came from so that we can give the whole town a lesson on what it means to be blasted with napalm. Their last lesson of course, because there will be no survivors.

[ahrcanum]

Play AC/DC Hell's Bells and unload the payload from hell with rocket fire upon them. American casualties now will save more lives later. Stop f^*%()% with America. Russian ships patrolling the area might think twice about inference too.

[HatlessHessian]

We also need to float some honeypot ships. Looks like a tanker, sounds like a tanker, on crap. It's the marines.

It's such a disappointment to have Forest Gump's junior in the White House.

[Buebeard]

1. Four snipers with simultaneous .50 caliber rifle shots on the pirates.

or...

2. Navy Seals w/ fast-acting knock-out gas.

or...

Four simultaneous hits from accurate laser weapons that may or may not exist.

[What I Think]

I'm with HatlessHessian on solution one and three:

Four snipers with simultaneous .50 caliber rifle shots, or four simultaneous hits from accurate laser weapons that may or may not exist.

You're messing with the wrong people!

[What I Think]

Sorry, that was Buebeard that posted the best solution, though I like HatlessHessian's suggestion too.

Wait! I've got a better idea. Let's have Obama to go to Somalia and make a spectacle of himself, bowing to all the warlords, making hope and change. Don't they see he's black?

[McLee]

I say send them to Gitmo and treat them like liberals imagine we treat prisoners there.

[W. Keller]

How about this, why not simply kill them. Give them a 5 minute deadline to turn over the captain. Then kill one. Another 5 minutes, kill another. These folks are "business" men, not looking for paradise. Then, after we get the captain back, kill the rest. Then find the mother ship and sink it. Find their villages and destroy them. Find their ports and bomb them. Thomas Jefferson had it right a couple of hundred years ago, we should allow the Marines the pleasure of following in his path.

[Dogman]

You know, just after 9/11, I saw a car with "KILL THEM ALL!" written on the back window, in that white car-sales stuff. I said then, and I still say today, that is how a NORMAL American should feel.

It should be open season on any pirates -- whether they attack us or not. Kill them all.

If any pacifist libs read this and are sickened, I agree: you're sick. Now go see a psychologist.

[Ben]

While I can somewhat sympathize with the "Sorry Captain" gang, the first priority of the US Navy is to make sure that captain stays alive.

No, the original idea is brilliant. Turn about is fair play. Show them how reciprocity can be a bitch.

Besides, simultanious sniper fire takes way too little time.

[ic]

Frank Warner for National Security advisor, and Homeland Security chief. However if he ain't no tax cheat, his chances for confirmation are slim.

[Anga2010]

Heard Sec. of State Clinton say today that we need a 21st century answr to a hundreds year old problem. I think that's nonsense. The 18th century solution to piracy seems adequate and effective: 1. Walk the plank, 2. Keel haul, 3. Hang from the yard-arm.

[Ed Nutter]

Read a report that the lifeboat is covered. Hence our snipers can't see who is who.

Frank has as good an idea as any I've seen.

[Iggie]

Here's another solution. Require all Somali "fishing boats" to register. They will be given tamper -free GPS device allowing the US Navy to know their position at all time. Any boat without a GPS device will be considered a pirate ship and sunk. This will preempt Somali fishermen from piracy without risking revealing themselves. The technology is there. What is missing is the political will.

[Brian Kennedy]

All vessels plying these waters should AT THE VERY LEAST be carrying several sniper teams proficient with the 50-cal rifles. The enthusiasm of any pirates on a given vessel to continuing engaging another vessel will wane considerably when they start seeing the heads of the guys standing next to them at the gunwhale turning into "pink mist."

[Bradley Smith]

Well said Dogman!

[The Enforcer]

What is the point of having the largest muscles if you're afraid to flex them, due to political repercussions? This delay of action once again displays how non threatening the world believes we are! I'm sick of it! Put up or shut up, rules the high seas and will send a message to a watching world. Attempt the rescue and may God be with the rest. Punishment and warnings should follow. Every American says do it!, but our leaders will not.

[Islamiz Primiteeeve]

Awwww... C'mon!

Let's be kind and try to understand the nice pirates.
My solution: 1) incapacitate them and pick them up
2) Fly them home to Mogodeshu in a helicopter and drop them off.
3)...one by one.
4)... from 5,000 feet
5)... with a pork chop tied around each neck (ensures a trip straight to Hell)

If this was the normal policy for pirates, enthusiasm would quickly diminish.

[Balthar]

Whether or not Letters of Marque is a good solution here: please link to the original article, not the microcephalic at the American Prospect who snarks about the idea.

[MSD]

Couldn't you just have a diver hole the boat? Something big enough to resist patching but small enough to sink it in a couple days. That should concentrate the mind of the pirates and give at least a reasonable chance to recover the captain alive.

[Mark Buehner]

All of these ideas are both reactive and not addressing the widespread problem. Making an example of these pirates won't affect the rest of them, they are making WAY to much money to be deterred.

What I would do is scour the Somalian coast end to end and scuttle everything that floats- and then bombard their docks. Somalia has lost the right to go to sea in so much as rubber raft. It would take a few weeks and would have to be rinsed and repeated occasionally, but it would do the job and send a real message about messing with the US Navy.

[Kevin]

Good Lord. Did you get Instapunted or something?

[George]

Point speakers at the lifeboat and blast them with Barry Manilow music. It's worse than waterboarding but it works!

[Kevin]

George is just plain cruel.

[smokim]

The Navy needs to outfit a couple of non-discript merchant ships with concealed weaponry ( Q-ships )and patrol that coast. what would seem to be an easy target would unleash more whoopass than a truck load of Georgia highway patrolmen.