Lets chalk up another boneheaded move for the Somali pirates who roam the Gulf of Aden. This is the second time that I remember that they have erroneously attacked a US Navy ship thinking it to be a defenseless merchant ship. The pirates who did were severely dealt with and I bet the ones who lived won’t make that mistake again.
They trailed they USS Ashland and attacked it in the predawn hours which is their usual method of operation. Since the Ashland is not an attack ship they had to mistake it for a merchant vessel in the dark. When they opened fire they were fired upon which set their kiff on fire. The Ashland had to quickly rescue them after the incident. They were transported back to the United States where they will stand trial.
Their story is that they were ferrying refugees to Yemen and got lost in the Sea. Get this one here. They claim that they opened fire on our navy ring customers in order to get their attention.
I guess I’ll tell them the same thing that any defense lawyer would which is to stick to that story. Do you know what scares me? It’s possible that they will be acquitted of piracy charges and allowed to return to Somalia. With some of the decisions that I have heard of in our courts by judges and jury alike it is possible that they will get off. The last pirate’s lawyer argued that he couldn’t be accused of piracy since he didn’t complete the act.
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