Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Monday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years.

U.S. naval forces, who were trailing the Americans’ captured yacht with four warships, quickly boarded the vessel after hearing the gunfire and tried to provide lifesaving care to the Americans, but they died of their wounds, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement from Tampa, Fla. Two pirates died during the confrontation and 13 were captured and detained, the U.S. Central Command said. The remains of two other pirates who were already dead for some time were also found. The U.S. military didn’t state how those two might have died.

On Monday, two pirates had peacefully come aboard the USS Sterett to negotiate with naval forces for the release of the hostages, and remained aboard overnight.

But on Tuesday, pirates aboard the Quest unexpectedly fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Sterett. Shortly afterward, gunfire erupted inside the Quest cabin, and U.S. special forces responded, approaching the Quest in small boats and boarding the vessel, Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a Tuesday press conference.

Some pirates moved to bow and put up their hands in surrender. The U.S. forces killed two pirates in the course of clearing the vessel – one with a handgun and one in a close-combat knife fight. There were no injuries to U.S. forces or damage to U.S. ships, Fox said.

The Quest was the home of Jean and Scott Adam, a couple from California who had been sailing around the world since December 2004 with a yacht full of Bibles. The two other Americans on board were Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle, Wash. Scott and Jane Adam documented their maritime missionary work on their website, S/V Quest Adventure Log.

This story seems to be missing something…..perhaps a rescue attempt gone awry?




  1. MikeN says:

    It was Obama’s decision to shoot the pirates. They said they would respond in kind to American ships, and now that’s what’s happened. The chickens are coming home to roost. Obama had advance warning from the pirates and did nothing.

  2. Metis says:

    #29 Dallas

    Need more meds. Inexplicably ran out. Got any to spare?

    😀

  3. chuck says:

    #1 – since when is carrying around a boat-load of bibles a capital crime?

    The story should have ended with “and then the U.S. Special Forces took the remaining pirates ashore, shot them and covered their bodies with pigs blood — as a warning to other pirates as to what happens when you kill Americans.”

  4. bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist says:

    I rtfa and all the above comments.

    Years ago I spent two months sailing around the Bahama Islands. Wonderful experience. Biggest threat: sunburn while passed out drunk.

    A few years later, had an opportunity to go sailing in the South China Sea. Reports of pirates. I declined. Two friends took the trip without incident. Biggest threat: sunbrun while passed out drunk. I still miss not taking that trip. Still today would not do it.

    “From now on, anyone who tries to rescue the hostages in our hands will only collect dead bodies,” he said. “It will never ever happen that hostages are rescued and we are hauled to prison.” /// so this guy is 100% correct about death to hostages and 15/19th wrong about being hauled to prison.

    I’m assuming it was a Somali who had a knife rather than he was killed by a marine who used a knife to kill him? Details like that interest me.

    Really, what to do about a failed society filled with guns? Invade and occupy?===No. Too expensive and we aren’t mercenary enough.

    The USNavy is “there” anyway. I don’t see much burden or cost, rather preparation and training, for them to track down pirates==as long as they are there. Seems to me we should kill them on sight. Lots of other more innocent people are killed all the time with the purpose of maintaining order==and there is no “country” to complain about it.

    The disinterest in protecting civilians is well founded–but taking into account commercial vessels, I take it as but a part of the whole. Good to attack pirates when a sailboat, 4 people, and bibles are involved rather than the very same priate crew a month later on an oil tanker, 30 crew, and Millions in oil?

    Hey—a real WAR on piracy. I don’t think we are up to it. Happy to be wrong.

  5. Howard Beale says:

    #31
    So you would have had him appease the pirates?

    MikeN where are your solutions? All I here are more abstract criticisms.

    What would you have done back in April of 09? Sounds like you would just have had them paid the ransom. I can tell you that will only make the problem worse whats your next solution suggestion

    Please don’t wast our time with more pointless criticisms if you can’t do any better even with hindsight helping you.

  6. bobbo, the evangelical anti-theist says:

    Regarding “Invade and Occupy.” Another good example of what we should have been doing for years, and should do in the future. F&*K our enemies==go in and out. Repeat as necessary. Very cheap, very effective.

    While “better” than many of our other institutions, our military is poorly positioned “philosophically” for the very job it is designed to do.

    You’d think trial and error would happen just a little bit faster.

  7. So what says:

    Here is an option. Look at all of the countries that have nuclear weapons. Women,children, and non combatants have one week to leave. All the countries with nukes draw straws. The winner gets to see if theirs work by turning Somalia into a global nightlight. Yeah I know its a bit extreme but I am really getting tired of this.

  8. tcc3 says:

    When did MikeN become Alfred?

  9. God, Allah and other monikers says:

    Ah, those poor retards. They had been praying daily for me to keep them safe, but they should have known by now that I don’t give a shit. Stupid people sailing off the coast of Somalia of all places! Jesus Christ, how dumb can you get? The “perfect” brains I created aren’t worth a crap in Hell.

    Do you get it yet Benjamin? See you on the tennis table.

  10. God, Allah and other monikers says:

    Oh Alfred, would you like me to spare you the terrible things that are coming upon this planet? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you got shot too?

  11. Axl says:

    “U.S. naval forces, who were trailing the Americans’ captured yacht with four warships….” – certainly something fishy here

  12. Rick says:

    Never underestimate the Naivete’ of Americans, casually yachting in pirate-infested waters.

  13. E@$+ C0@$+ Cr@ckP0+ says:

    Don’t go pawn hunting, you might lose a queen.

  14. crackpot and/or buzzkill says:

    Ministry of Truth alert: the story has changed. Try searching for the first 2 paragraphs in McCullough’s quote above, they’re not there.

  15. atgnag says:

    Hang ’em high. Enough of this bullcrap.

  16. Howard Beale says:

    self-obsessed Alfred you are so confident in your ignorance sometimes I think you are just satirizing the real right wing god(imaginary friend) fearing posters here. If I wren’t mostly a Secular Humanist I’d pray for you instead I’ll just wish you knowledge.

    ended by the military?

    how ?

  17. SBI says:

    Aw well, two fewer bible thumpers spreading ancient superstitions around. Where was their god when they were being tortured and hacked to death?

  18. John E. Quantum says:

    Make all future ransom payments to pirates via Zimbabwe currency.

    Or, the US Treasury could print some extra money- a few hundred million would do- and we load their boats with US dollars until they sink. This method seems to be working for the US economy.

  19. Dallas says:

    These Christian Crusaders are responsible for putting American forces in harms way. Our military were ordered to the region to protect commercial shipping and to move oil from the tit to the American sheeple.

    There was no intent to protect morons in some personal crusade to convert towel heads to a new religion, much less pirate towel heads.

    The Vatican needs to be charged for all costs and directly responsible for their deaths and those of the young pirate entrepreneurs.

  20. Animby - just phoning it in says:

    # 36 bobbo, “go in and out. Repeat as necessary. Very cheap, very effective.”

    Seems to me, the situation of Somalia, no longer a state, just a lawless territory, would be a prime candidate for the use of Predator drones. Any vessel found to be leaving territorial waters? Boom! If Somalia wants to get it’s society together and form a functional government, then we can negotiate allowing them access to the high seas, again. Of course, not all the piracy comes from Somalia but it’s a great place to start.

  21. deowll says:

    I considered their presence in the region to be evidence of dementia. I’m still very sorry that things turned out this way.

    Earlier generations could have and most likely would have imposed summary evacuation for piracy/murder. What ever it may lack in modern eyes it worked well at convincing people not to engage in certain behaviors.

  22. MikeN says:

    Howard, he should have realized that violence only begets more violence, which is exactly what happened here. Then even with advance warning of this attack, he did nothing.

  23. Mr, Ed - the Original (with comma) says:

    # 56 deowll – summary evacuation

    Can we assume you meant execution? Or where you considering a Club Med getaway for the pirates?

  24. cloewe says:

    The problem is that this part of the world is truly a sh*thole, the population by and large are savages. Fix the problem by taking the media out of play, America has lost its manhood because of our news coverage. We don’t want to look like the bully from our school day nightmares.
    Without the media, pirates start disappearing, and stop returning from their voyages. No articles, television , or radio reports. No prisoners taken, pure unadulterated violence, it is the only thing the people in that region understand.
    Six months piracy is no longer a threat.

  25. Howard Beale says:

    Mike 57
    I strongly suspect this is just conjecture on your part and you have no idea if these pirates were in any way connected with the April of 09 pirate incident.

    I’lll add my conjecture. These pirates were in it for the money something went wrong and they killed the hostages why not an argument over who worships their god in the right way?

    Pirates have a reputation for drinking how about intoxicated use of a firearm.

    You think it was a payback for April of 09 with no evidence other than two year old threat. Show me some before the shooting evidence, after the fact anyone can claim credit and motive so it doesn’t count without proof

    Did nothing?
    State department had told them it was a very bad Idea to go there.

    He had 4 warships on the job with crews ready to risk their own lives for these foolish Americans.

    Only the surviving pirates know for sure what went down.

  26. JohnnyBGoode says:

    “U.S. naval forces, who were trailing the Americans’ captured yacht with four warships, quickly boarded the vessel after hearing the gunfire and tried to provide lifesaving care to the Americans, but they died of their wounds, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement from Tampa, Fla.”

    Now why the f@&$!ck didn’t the Navy kill the pirates BEFORE they heard the shots?

    All that weaponry and we still can’t catch a few throwback idiots? WTF are we paying so many goddam taxes for?

  27. Hmeyers says:

    You’ve got a failed nation, Somalia, with no government. Of course there are going to be pirates.

    And short of nuking it or installing a government in that place, there will continue to be pirates.

    Since Somalia isn’t going to be nuked and since Somalia won’t be getting a government, the status quo will remain for a very long time.

    Unless someone discovers there is oil there.

  28. Jason says:

    Bah… Blue water navies are there to protect shipping lanes. But the moral failing of not also protecting private ships would bring bad light to the navy of those nationalities that were boarded.

    As for the unending demonstration from the lefties here of pubescent rage at anyone that believes something different, well, it continues… :S

    And as for mistakes of the past regarding Somalia, that was a DEMOCRAT prez and cabinet that would not allow the military to do their job and then when the nose was bloodied, they told the military to run away.

    And to what to do?

    If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
    Niccolo Machiavelli

  29. fritz43 says:

    Gee, Persson, if you think things are so bad in this country, you are cordially invited to leave. And take a bunch of other Obama-haters with you. That’s a good boy. Byeeee.

  30. fritz43 says:

    Such bitterness, such hatred. Don’t you realize that, aside from being a massive emotional energy sink, hatred ultimately turns on and devours the hater?

    Listen to someone much wiser than yourself: “When you harbor anger or hatred against someone, it’s as if you are drinking poison and expecting the other person to become ill.” Nelson Mandela


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