Anyone reading up on this? It's looking really weird. The couple that owned the boat had been sailing around the world for the last 7 years, handing out free Catholic and Protestant Bibles.

Apparently they went stupid and decided to sail into the danger zone and pirates captured their boat and were holding them for ransom.

" But the Naval assets involved in the Quest “response force” were serious: two destroyers, the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Leyte Gulf and even the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise."

that's a fluff load of hardware involved in this situation, but I digress.

Apparently negotiations were ongoing when the pirates started shooting at the perusing American vessels. When the response force finally boarded to retake the ship they killed two and detained another 13. 2 of the hostages were dead and 2 others were mortally wounded. The rescuers tried to administer aid but to no avail.

The weird part is that the bodies of 2 pirates were also found. The rescue force had nothing to do with their deaths.

What the fluff happened on that boat.

get rich, sail around the world, hand out bibles, death.

that is why Jesus stuck to land, oh wait, he died too

if you sail a yacht around those waters with out any safety pre-cautions (read steven seagal on board with you..).. fluff like this, is probably going to happen....

It's hardly news worthy compared to say, giant fluffing earthquake, or massive political upheaval in mid-east!

i don't even want to think about it.

We All Live On A Yellow Submarine, A Yellow Submarine, A Yellow Submarine...

Hey You! You Speaka Da Engrish? I Got'em Cheap Free Bible For You, If You Never Heard Of Da Internet.

Handing out bibles to Muslims does tend to get people a little riled up....

while that might be a bad idea im sure the bibles had nothing to do with them being hijacked. who in thier right mind would think its a good idea to sail a boat into an area thats KNOWN for people being kidnapped/hijacked. stupid is as stupid does.

Maybe they were thinking they were more like Jack Sparrow pirates?

Yes, Pain. And we should avoid water because people are KNOWN for drowning in it.

How about a little perspective?

In 2010, there were 46 reported hijackings/attempted hijackings by Somali pirates. The vast majority of these were off the East coast of the country.

The yacht in question was not off the East coast of Somalia. In fact, it wasn't off the Somali coast at all. It was off the coast of Oman on the opposite side of the Gulf of Aden approaches from Somalia.

The Gulf of Aden is among the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Depending on what statistics you use, there are between 20,000 and 47,000 ships that transit the area each year. This is also the area where the majority of the anti-piracy patrols take place. I don't think there have been more than a couple hijacking reports as far north as this yacht was.

I should also point out that, of the 46 hijackings/attempted hijackings in 2010, there was not one non-pirate fatality.

Here's an analogy that may help make sense of this:

I used to live in Windsor and I went to Tigers' games in Detroit pretty frequently. I know that there's some neighbourhoods there where I don't want to be at midnight... but I also knew that I'd have to be incredibly unlucky to even get mugged between the stadium and my bus when the game ended at 9pm game.

If I'd been shot during that walk from the stadium to the bus, anyone who knows Detroit would say I was unlucky. Whereas ignorant people from the other side of the world, who've only ever heard Detroit's overall reputation, might say that I was stupid for being in that city after nightfall.

The people on this yacht took a risk, but I judge it to have been far less of one than you seem to suggest. I know that when I've travelled in Africa, I've taken more serious risks than the one they were taking. They got unlucky. It happens.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

Nah, you were just stupid to be in Detroit in general ;)

Or I mean, your point is valid.

We All Live In A Yellow Submarine, A Yellow Submarine, A Yellow Submarine...

it's not a valid point, it's more like a verbose trolling of Pain.

you do realize that if you're going to get shot, you already more than likely know the person who is going to do it, don't you?

http://www2.fbi.gov/...information/homicide.html

"In 2009, 24.2 percent of victims were slain by family members; 53.8 percent were killed by someone they knew (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.). The relationship of murder victims and offenders was unknown in 43.9 percent of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter incidents in 2009. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.)"

noobs. that's right, you don't have to worry about da boogie-man.

whatever happened to real pirates with tallships, eye patches and parrots?

who wants to join my crew and show these boys a thing or two about what piracy is all about?

YYAAAAAARRRRR!

In.

if anything im guilty of making that statement without knowing exactly where they were, i just read fords post and assumed it was the real bad area but even still it was obviously close enough and it does not mean its safe because it gets patroled. theres lots of police officers usually on patrol in high crime cities, doesnt mean its safe for me to walk down a street in a known dangerous area?

im just saying, they made a bad choice now they are dead.

I know, just by reading my local papers occasionally that the pirates have been straying further from Somalia lately have been very active in the area where the yacht got taken. I would expect that veteran sailors would be up on those things more than a landlubber like me. Furthermore, they were traveling a group for safety, but decided to go it alone and refuel in Somalia's next door neighbor. I'm not saying they were asking for it, but they made a choice to increase their risk, first by leaving the group, and second by doing so while entering a high risk area.

Unfortunately (due mainly to past bungling), the first thought that crossed my mind was that this was a rescue attempt gone wrong, and we are only being told that the hostages and two pirates were already dead. I thought we didn't negotiate with the pirates ...

We don't, we distract them and have a SEAL headshot them from the faintail of a Destroyer

remember that story? Gangster

That was fluffing sweet

ya I'm wondering why my taxpayer money is going to rescue missions for these yahoo's traveling in extremely dangerous waters all by themselves. I have no problem with them living that way, I just don't want my $$ suppourting their recklessness just b/c they have the same citizenship as me...

Didn't you read the US Navy's new slogan?

"A Global Force for Good"

you are fluff out of luck bud

honestly, plenty of people die each day, why, when it's Americans, it should be the national news everywhere and anywhere?

if it was 4 Canadians, you Americans would be saying who the F cares.

so would the rest of the world.

im kidding.

unless it was french canadians.

French Canadians don't even consider themselves Canadians anyways, who cares about them.

Yeah, that's why none of them have ever voted to remain Canadians.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

foog, do you wanna join my crew? you get a free parrot to sit on your shoulder and get to lease a narwhal to use for boarding other ships

Yarr!

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

Foog.. you know there are English Canadians living in Quebec too right?

Id rather be locked in a room with the entire cast of jersey shore than spend 10 min listening to a french Canadian talk

no offense, but that accent is like nails on a chalkboard!

Yep. A full 8% of the population is Anglophone, if I remember correctly.

My previous statement stands.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue

if Quebec ever votes themselves out of Canada, the first thing would happen is probably Canada FSing Quebec,

then we can kill all the Frech defectors and get back to usual businesss.

I take offense. You're nobody to talk about other people's accent.

what accent is that!

I can admit our accent is weird, but i take comfort in knowing theres always the british or the aussies to rival us.

oh and amen to this. Canada doesnt want us and we dont want them, yet we live together because it is the only way we can keep our economy going.

I wouldnt mind moving to the states if it wasnt for the minimum wage, your crippled government/economy or your black president.

Canada doesn't want you because you don't want to be part of Canada.

yea, we only want those who want to be wanted

The US doesnt want you either, cause youre french.