The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called for hearings on the mounting piracy threat as the fate of an American cargo-ship captain remained in limbo Thursday."These acts of piracy off of Somalia's coastline may seem surreal, but they're all too real and a thorough policy debate is long overdue," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a statement. "When Americans, including at least one from Massachusetts, are endangered, you've got a complicated and dangerous international situation brewing, and that includes questions about a hot-pursuit policy on Somalia's coastline."
Hey, Dickweed. We don't need hearings, we need ACTION. It's not complicated at all. Jeebus what a pompous ass.
The 20-member crew of the Maersk Alabama, which was carrying food from the World Food Program and the United States Agency for International Development to Kenya, managed to wrest control of the ship from the pirates after the Wednesday hijacking, but the ship's captain, Richard Phillips, was taken by pirates into a lifeboat that was drifting near the Alabama and the USS Bainbridge guided missile destoyer, which had arrived on scene to aid the ship.
"There have been more than 50 attacks in the area this year alone and the problem isn't going away," Kerry said. "I plan to hold hearings to further examine the growing threat of piracy and all the policy options that need to be on the table before the next fire drill becomes an international incident with big implications."
I am soooo glad this windbag wasn't elected President.
Vice President Biden was less forthcoming about the unfolding drama when asked at an economic recovery meeting Thursday what the U.S. was going to do about the pirates. "This is being worked on around the clock since this happened, and — but I'm not in a position, right now, to comment on it," Biden said as pool reporters were shown the door.
Nobody tol'me nutin'!
The Defense Department was similarly hushed Thursday. "There's intense interest in this, and I appreciate that, but I must ask that you appreciate the fact that this is an ongoing and unfolding situation," Defense spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters at the Pentagon. "For those reasons, I will not talk in any detail of what the military aspect of this may or may not be."