Somali pirates taken out by U.S. Navy, pirates still continue ransoms

“U.S. Navy snipers fatally shot three pirates holding an American cargo-ship captain hostage after seeing that one of the pirates had an AK-47 leveled at the captain’s back.”

 

CNN Report. Hostage Captain rescued; Navy Snipers killed 3 Pirates. Retrieved April 15, 2009 from [Source]

 

 

US snipers ended a five-day hostage drama on the high seas off Somalia last night as they shot dead three pirates and rescued the American sea captain who had been held captive. The decision appeared to have been taken after the lifeboat where pirates were holding Capt Richard Phillips drifted closer to the Somali shore. President Barack Obama signed to take out the pirates if the Captain’s life was in danger, and the U.S. Navy executed the order. A fourth pirate was reportedly being held aboard a US warship.

 

Capt Phillips, a 53-year-old Captain of the Maersk Alabama, from Vermont, who had assault rifles held to his head before the snipers fired, said: “I’m just the byline. The real heroes are the Navy, the Seals, those who have brought me home.”

 

The successful rescue will come as a huge relief to American forces in the area, and their international counterparts. The multinational force sent during the past year to patrol the Gulf of Aden, a million square miles of ocean between Somalia and Yemen, has accomplished little so far aside from pushing the pirates further south into the Indian Ocean. Capt Phillips’s death would have been a disastrous conclusion to a situation that had seemed unstable from the beginning.

 

While the Captain was spared and was saved by the Navy, the U.S. faces more problems in the future. An attack on cargo ships may be prevalent and lives could be lost if the pirates’ demands are not met. Most of these pirates are in demand of ransoms of millions of dollars that crewmen do not have, thus could spark tension for the pirates to kill American crewmen.

 

Today, pirates again attacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia with rockets and automatic weapons, but failed to board the ship. It was the second attack in a week near the Somalian region.

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CS

Renegade soldiers assassinate Guinea-Bissau president

Renegade soldiers assassinated the president of Guinea-Bissau in his palace Monday, hours after a bomb blast killed his rival, but the military said that no coup was in progress in the fragile West African nation.

 

Balde, Assimo. Renegade soldiers kill Guinea-Bissau President. Retrieved on March 2, 2009 from [Source]

 

President Joao Bernardo Vieira of Guinea-Bissau and General Na Waie had been assassinated today by renegade soldiers in the African country. The Guinea-Bissau military troops stated that it was no coup attempt, but that they would hunt down the unidentified soldiers responsible for the assassination.

 

Guinea-Bissau gained its independence from Portugal in 1974, and since then, they have faced a considerable amount of political and military upheaval. In 1980, a military coup established authoritarian dictator Vieira as president. Despite setting a path to a market economy and multiparty system, Vieira’s regime was characterized by the suppression of political opposition and the purging of political rivals. Several coup attempts through the 1980s and early 1990s failed to unseat him. In 1994 Vieira was elected president in the country’s first free elections. A military mutiny and resulting civil war in 1998 eventually led to Vieira’s ouster in May 1999. In February 2000, a transitional government turned over power to opposition leader Kumba Yala, after he was elected president in transparent polling. In September 2003, after only three years in office, Yala was ousted by the military in a bloodless coup, and businessman Henrique Rosa was sworn in as interim president. In 2005, former President Vieira was re-elected president pledging to pursue economic development and national reconciliation.

 

Since Vieira was sworn into office in 2005, tensions grew overtime between the military and Vieira. In July last year the head of the navy fled the country after a failed coup attempt. Days after parliamentary elections in November gunmen attacked the presidential palace leading Mr. Vieira to establish an elite unit of personal bodyguards. This militia was; however, partly disarmed by the army after its gunmen were accused of shooting at General Na Waie’s convoy in January in an incident that underlined the extent of the hostility between the President and his top military man. Diplomats have accused General Na Waie of involvement in the growing cocaine trade through West Africa.

Drugs enforcement officials have complained that Mr. Vieira failed to crackdown on the lucrative trade in which an estimated 50 tons of cocaine transits the region destined for Europe every year. Much of this cocaine passes through Guinea-Bissau, one of the impoverished region’s poorest and weakest states. Its ragged coastline of insecure inlets and islands has in recent years been targeted by South American cartels seeking new routes to traffic cocaine to Europe.

This assassination, as a result, can cause a spread of instability and rage across the African states and the armies could fracture further.

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CS

Welcome Bloggers!

Greetings Bloggers!

My name is Craig Stafford, the founder of the U.S. International Intelligence Blog here on WordPress.com. It’s a pleasure being able to develop a blog of such interest and importance to the world we live in today.  Here we will keep you abreast to current events on the international stage of major countries and give readers the opportunity to express their beliefs, concerns and feelings towards daily world issues that affect the world stage.

Our newly elected president, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States on January 20th, 2009, and his new administration officially rose to power. Millions of Americans have powered President Obama’s journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country’s future. USIntel.Wordpress.com will follow along with the beginning of the new administration’s efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement to inform American citizens of what we face as a nation.

Since September 11th, 2001, the United States and the world have drastically changed in the way each nation operates and responds to threats. The attacks lead to significant and widespread changes in U.S. politics and foreign policy, and domestically, both political parties rallied around President George W. Bush after the attacks, passing the Patriot Act and supporting the war in Afghanistan. It also lead to the development of the Department of Homeland Security charged with protecting the territory of the United States from terrorist attacks and responding to natural disasters. Thankfully, after the September 11th attacks, our nation has been safer and we have not had a single terrorist attack since that day. Today, to ensure that we prevent future attacks, The Department of Homeland Security advise citizens to be vigilant, take notice of your surroundings, and report suspicious items or activities to local authorities immediately.

I’d like to hear from you all – -your thoughs, opinions and contributions to the U.S. International Intelligence Blog here on WordPress.com. Thanks in advance for your time viewing the blog and your feedback!

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CS