Pirate Hostage Killed
By John Batchelor on April 10, 2009 at 4:35 PM in Nicolas Sarkozy, Piracy, President Barack Obama, Terrorism
Sarkozy Ordered Assault to Rescue French Family.
The U.S. Navy awaits orders after the report that Maersk Alabama skipper Richard Phillips tried and failed to escape his captors in the lifeboat. Will the Seals deploy? Will POTUS discover the order that John Hay once received from TR in June 1904 and sent in a telegram to the American admiral on the scene: “We want Pedicaris alive or Raisuni dead!” Re the French victim: On April 4, pirates captured a French private yacht Tanit, carrying two couples and a small child, 400 miles off Puntland, and held the young families hostage until President N. Sarkozy, refusing to bargain, gave the go order. One hostage is dead. Not the child, so a guess at this time is that it may be the father. Other hostages unhurt. No report on pirates. The major worry now is that the pirates with Richard Phillips will learn of the French rescue op and panic that they are to be assaulted. How will they learn? They have a radio onboard, because this is a fully equipped Maersk craft. The FBI may be speaking with them now, if they have a translator, if Phillips is still alive.
TR Sent In The Marines.
John Milius’s cantankerous 1975 “Wind and the Lion” is loosely based on the June 1904 incident in Morocco when TR responded to the shenanigans of the sheik Raisuni, who had grabbed the American mining engineer Pedicaris as a ploy for ransom. Also because there was a long standing family feud over the control of Morocco, dating back to the usual foggy Ummah family relations. The scenarios came to a head the week of the 1904 Republican convention. TR and his Secretary of State John Hay (Lincoln’s private secretary and a heroic melancholic) seized the chance to make headlines and boost their election campaign. The GOP celebrated. Recall that TR was an accidental president, inheriting the office from the assassinated William McKinley in September 1901, so the nomination and campaign were his first ever run for the presidency. Now POTUS Obama has an opportunity. POTUS has the magical TR chance. Does he follow (TR) Sarkozy? Or does he negotiate with pirates? “We want Phillips alive or the pirates dead!”
From the blog and radio show site, The John Batchelor Show (with Podcasts). Larry Johnson is a regular guest Sunday nights on KFI-AM at 10:35 p.m. ET. Visit this blog on Sundays for promos that include the evening’s hot topics.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
