Somali pirates could face trial in U.S., experts say
U.S. officials are mulling whether to bring 15 captured Somali pirates to America to face justice in the deaths of four Americans whose yacht was hijacked in the Arabian Sea.
Fifteen Somalis -- as well as the bodies of the four Americans and four Somalis -- remained aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise off the coast of Oman. Navy SEALs boarded the yacht Tuesday after pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an American warship following it. They found four hostages -- Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey and Phyllis Macay and Robert Riggle of Seattle -- already shot dead.
Under federal law, the maximum penalty for piracy is life imprisonment, but because the hijacking ended in hostage fatalities -- a rarity in Somali pirate attacks -- U.S. prosecutors might opt for murder charges instead, said Michael Passman, a Chicago attorney who has written about piracy law.
U.S. military officials said no decisions have been announced about where the suspects will be prosecuted but added that one option could be extraditing the men to the U.S.
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-- Edmund Sanders
EDITOR'S PICKS:
Are you kidding me?! They had FOUR DAYS to rescue these people! FOUR DAYS! According to some articles I read Obama said that deadly force was authorized 'if the hostages lives were in imminent danger'. THEIR LIVES WERE IN 'IMMINENT DANGER' FROM THE MOMENT THEY WERE TAKEN HOSTAGE!
WE DO NOT DEAL WITH TERRORISTS! That includes PIRATES! No quarter should be given and any hostage situations should be dealt with by Special Forces immediately and aggressively.
While this statement may be cliche', it is accurate: If you give a mouse a cookie, he's gonna want a glass of milk.
These people died as a result of 'negotiating' with terrorists. This spineless policy must stop immediately.
Posted by: Rachel | February 24, 2011 at 08:56 AM
I agree with Rachel. This has been going on long enough. Time to put an end to paying the ransom payouts. This only makes the pirates even more aggressive. Now the pirates want to pay 20% to terrorists for use of their ports. Paying terrorists is illegal. That was agreed upon by the pirates today. So only expect this to get worse from now on.
Start blowing the motherships out of the water as soon as they have proof they are a pirate mothership, which shouldn't be to hard to prove. Send special ops in to take out the ships in port now that pirates have hostages on. Lives might be lost, but the pirates are starting torture procedures now. Such as hanging people over the edge of ships by their feet dragging them in the water. Also locking them up in freezers. Time to get tough on pirates now. Stop playing their ransom games. Hit them on shore. Make them think twice about being a pirate. This has been going on way to long now. Let's stop it!
Posted by: Ken | February 24, 2011 at 12:28 PM
In my previous comment about sending special ops in to take out the ships in port now that pirates have hostages on, was worded wrong.
I should have wrote: Send special ops in to take out the pirates on the ships that are now in ports and rescue the hostages. Once they are out of hostages, then we can really start giving them hell....
Posted by: Ken | February 24, 2011 at 03:30 PM
how much did it cost the american taxpayers to rescue those bible-thumping tea-party fanatics??
Posted by: momule | February 25, 2011 at 03:41 PM