Mr Obama Is Silent On Pirate Attack; Thomas Jefferson Fought Them

Do you find this pirate business as astounding as I do? There has been 6 attacks this week alone and 66 attacks this year by Somali pirates. Thomas Jefferson had tremendous problems with pirates attacking American commercial vessels. But he stood up and fought them any way he could. Why aren't we attacking their base of operations in Somalia? Where's our President and his leadership on this issue? Silence.

Is this an sign as to how Mr Obama will address future attacks on us? Can we count on this President to defend our interests? Isn't this THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB an American president has - TO DEFEND AMERICANS AND OUR HOMELAND? Well, maybe he's too busy plunging us into this mountain of debt we will be trying to shovel our way out of for the next few decades than to concentrate on the evils that confront us everyday. The following are comments from a former CIA agent.

"The American response to date has been incredibly naïve and woefully ineffective. Now, predictably, you have an American taken hostage. All of which should have been prevented. You’ve got a failed state in Somalia and pirates operating in an area of ocean that is larger than the state of Texas but we’ve been trying to deal with this from the ocean side, by sending the navy and with a limited application of technology, such as satellites and drones. We can’t afford to patrol that big a piece of the ocean; it’s too expensive to leave a naval task force out there."

"...The pirates have a base of operations and infrastructure. They’re not going out 400-plus nautical miles from shore in shitty boats; they have fuel supplies, docks, mechanics, and support infrastructure, on the beach. It’s all findable and disrupt-able. We need a contingent of agency personnel in Ethiopia and Somalia to go after this infrastructure, leadership and control elements in Somalia, and an aggressive humint [human intelligence] effort in Lebanon to follow, and choke off the money.

This is a challenge to confront, but it has to be dealt with. A band of thugs are tying up international shipping along a gigantic stretch of Africa that’s an approach area for the Suez Canal. Last year, the hijackers made $80 million, which is a staggering sum of money in that country. Up until now, little has been done to deal with it because of the expense, complexity and necessary commitment of manpower and resources required. Also, given the long history of Al Qaida in Somalia, no one wants to discuss the possibility that it may have a role in this pirate activity as a revenue stream. That’s a question that could be answered if we had better humint (human intelligence) in Somalia.

...In 1803-05, Jefferson sent Captain Eaton to conduct a covert action attack against the pirates and their infrastructure and leadership on the beach. Captain Eaton assembled a handful of of U.S. Marines and a group of Arab, Greek and North African mercenaries and attacked the Basha from the desert, overland side, while the Naval task force bombarded the sea side. (READ)

Pirates: We Need Millions for Defense not as Tribute to Obama

The nation's first Secretary State, Thomas Jefferson, told Congress it must choose "...between war, tribute and ransom." He believed war was the only reasonable choice, and advocated the creation of a navy. Tribute paid to the pirates was "money thrown away," and the only thing they truly understood was gunpowder and shot. Just as Luther 250 years earlier, Jefferson called for a united military alliance among the European powers, along with America, to blockade North Africa and provide for a military solution against the pirates. Europe chose to continue paying tribute.

"Would to Heaven we had a navy to reform those enemies to mankind, or crush them into non-existence," said George Washington in 1786. Said one American envoy, "There is but one language which can be held to these people, and this is terror."

... It was 19th century colonialism that finally put an end to centuries of North African piracy, just as it was the Western nations that finally ended the Slave Trade.

Unfortunately the slave trade, taking of captives for ransom, and terrorism lives on Islamic societies (Read the rest of this most interesting history of the epidemic of pirates in the 1800's).

The pirates in the water's off Africa are not new what's new is the the fact that Western nations have done nothing to rid us of this evil. For America, it appears this is the first time an American ship, carrying aid to Africa by the way, has been hijacked. Now ask yourself, why now? Under Obama's tenure?

• 'It was believed to be the first US merchant ship hijacked since the North African Barbary Wars in the early 19th century, underlining the anarchy raging off Somalia despite an international naval effort against piracy.' (Read)

Apparently, the reason this "profession" is so attractive to these rogues is that most ships are insured against pirate attacks and when one occurs the captain and his crew surrender rather than fight. So you may ask why don't they fight? They carry no weapons to fight with thanks to laws prohibiting it. We need more money spent on defense not bailing out businesses that don't even want the money like GM!