Sunday, April 19, 2009

Obama stalled Captain Phillips rescue


President Obama delayed dispatching the seal team to rescue Captain Phillips for thirty six hours because they didn't want to use lethal force. Then, the White House rejected two rescue plans offered up by the Seal commander. They imposed very severe rules of engagement on the seal team. If a pirates had not pointed his AK-47 at Captain Phillips, he might still be held hostage. Of course the White House, liberals and most of the Main Steam Media gave Obama credit for the rescue. The truth is he was a hindrance to the rescue effort.
WorldNetDaily is reporting,

WASHINGTON – While Barack Obama is basking in praise for his "decisive" handling of the Somali pirate attack on a merchant
ship in the India Ocean, reliable military sources close to the scene are painting a much different picture of the incident – accusing the president of employing restrictive rules of engagement that actually hampered the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips and extended the drama at sea for days.

Multiple opportunities to free the captain of the Maersk Alabama from three young pirates were missed, these sources say – all because a Navy SEAL team was not immediately ordered to the scene and then forced to operate under strict, non-lethal rules of engagement.

They say the response duty office at the Pentagon was initially unwilling to grant an order to use lethal force to rescue Phillips. They also report the White House refused to authorize deployment of a Navy SEAL team to the location for 36 hours, despite the recommendation of the on-scene commander.

The White House also turned down two rescue plans offered up by the Seal commander on the scene and the captain of the USS Bainbridge.

The SEAL team operated under rules of engagement that required them to do nothing unless the hostage's life was in "imminent' danger.

3 comments:

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Three daed pirates and Captain Phillips home safe. Yet you and your right wing brethren still complain. But not one peep out of you guys about Iran and Syria training and supporting insurgents that kill Americans in Iraq and Bush not bombing them back to the stone age.

Bluegrass Pundit said...

TRUTH 101 said...
"Three daed pirates and Captain Phillips home safe. Yet you and your right wing brethren still complain. But not one peep out of you guys about Iran and Syria training and supporting insurgents that kill Americans in Iraq and Bush not bombing them back to the stone age."

Are you disagreeing with the facts of the post or trying to change the subject. :)

Pilgrim said...

This isn't the first I've heard of this particular take. I'm not sure I consider World Net Daily as a fair news source so I'm going to have to wait until I hear this take from another source.

No offense intended at all but I have plenty to pound on this President about and just don't want to muddy the waters.

My primary source for military scuttlebut is Blackfive.net. Retired Master Sergeant Jim Hansen, an author on the site, had this to say about the incident:

"This was not a rescue attempt ordered by National Command Authority i.e. the President. It was a reaction by the on scene commander under standard authority to safeguard the life of a hostage."

Read Uncle Jimbo's full piece for all the details.

as for Truth 101...hehe...don't feed the trolls man...just don't feed the trolls.