Department of Defense Considering Strikes against Pirates

Defense officials said the U.S. military is considering attacks on Somali pirate bases on land and aid for the people there to help stop the hijacking of ships off Africa's coast, Bloomberg.com reported.

The plan would include helping Somalia create their own coast guard and train security forces, the officials, who requested anonymity, told Bloomberg.com.

Officials said the plan would be submitted to the Obama administration as they decide how best to tackle the increase in pirate attacks off the Somali coast.

The only way to make shipping routes safe from pirates would be to disrupt their support network on land, security analysts have said.

Any actions against the pirates, defense officials said, would require the support of the Somali people, who are usually not in favor of foreign intervention. - FOX News Story

We don't need to go to war with them, how about putting a seal team or just a small armed Military team on each US Flagged Ship as it passes through. This will stop the attacks on US Ships.

Pirates Vow Revenge

The Navy Seals late Sunday rescued freighter Capt. Richard Phillips, who had been held by pirates on a lifeboat that drifted in the Indian Ocean for five days.

"Every country will be treated the way it treats us," said Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the pirate den of Gaan, a central Somali town.

"In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "We will retaliate for the killings of our men."

He gave no details and it was not clear in what way the pirates could retaliate, though some fear they could take their revenge on the hundreds of other foreign nationals they hold on seized ships.

The rescue dealt a blow to pirates who regularly seize passing ships and hold them captive until multimillion dollar ransoms are paid. But it is unlikely to help quell the region's growing pirate threat, which has turned the Gulf of Aden and the waterways along Somalia's coast into some of the most dangerous shipping lanes on the planet. - FOX News Story

Courts and Afghanistan Plan Clash

President Obama’s effort to pursue a new strategy against Al Qaeda and the Taliban could be jeopardized if some prisoners held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan are allowed access to American courts, the Justice Department argued in a court filing Friday.

Government lawyers made the claim in a motion asking for permission to pursue an expedited appeal of a judge’s ruling last week that prisoners who claim they were captured outside Afghanistan should be permitted to pursue habeas corpus challenges to their detention.

Judge John Bates ruled April 2 that he would hear cases from non-Afghan prisoners who claimed they were captured outside Afghanistan and taken to the Bagram Airfield near Kabul.

“Drawing a jurisdictional line at the border of Afghanistan creates a disincentive to move to Bagram individuals captured in Pakistan, where there is neither a temporary screening and processing facility nor a long-term theater internment facility,” Justice Department lawyer Jean Lin wrote. “This jurisdictional line also provides the enemies of the United States an incentive to conduct operations from Pakistan, using it as a safe haven and using the U.S. court system as a tactical weapon.”

The Justice Department noted Obama’s statement last month describing Afghanistan and Pakistan as “two countries but one challenge.” - Politico Story

Differing Reported Polling in Employee Free Choice Act Fight

Legislators counting on poll numbers to help them make up their minds on the Employee Free Choice Act might find themselves banging their heads against the wall instead.

The hot contest over the legislation also known as “card check” may have cooled for the moment, but labor has rolled out a national TV ad and grass-roots campaign to coincide with the congressional recess, and there is still a chance that a stripped-down version of the bill will pass this year.

But those still attempting to sort out their feelings on the matter will find little assistance in the data bytes being served up by the parties on either side.

• “Nearly three-quarters of the public — 73 percent — support the Employee Free Choice Act,” crows the AFL-CIO on its website.

• “Seventy-four percent of voters oppose the Employee Free Choice Act,” concludes research cited by the pro-business Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.

• Fifty-three percent of workers would “definitely” or “probably” vote to have a union in their workplace, opines one survey.

• Nine percent of nonunion workers “would like to belong to a union where they work,” insists another.

At a quick look, it is easy to conclude that a.) the public has lost its collective mind, or b.) someone is cooking the numbers.

But experts say that is not necessarily the case. - Politico Story

Conficker Worm Attacks University of Utah Network

SALT LAKE CITY — University of Utah officials say a computer virus has infected more than 700 campus computers, including those at the school's three hospitals.

University health sciences spokesman Chris Nelson said the outbreak of the Conficker worm, which can slow computers and steal personal information, was first detected Thursday. By Friday, the virus had infiltrated computers at the hospitals, medical school, and colleges of nursing, pharmacy and health.

Nelson says patient data and medical records have not been compromised. - FOX News Story

Navy Seals Take out Pirates - Save Captain

Arlington, Va. -- Captain Richard Phillips is now safe and healthy aboard the USS Boxer after Navy Seals launched a rescue attempt that ended when snipers killed three pirates in three shots, all direct hits to the head.

Vice Admiral William Gortney, Commander of Navy's 5th Fleet, told journalists at the Pentagon Sunday evening a decision was made to take the shots after the pirates were spotted pointing an AK-47 into the back of Captain Phillips.

As soon as the shots were fired, Navy Seals "scurried down" a tow line attached to the lifeboat, and were the first to get to Phillips. They surveyed the scene and found three dead pirates. Phillips was alive, although tied up.

The fourth pirate, who is now in U.S. custody, left the lifeboat hours earlier with the understanding he would negotiate from on board the USS Bainbridge, the massive Navy destroyer that shadowed the lifeboat for several days. - FOX News Story

Another Broken Promise by Obama

"Obama and Biden are calling for legislation that would allow withdrawals of 15% up to $10,000 from retirement accounts without penalty (although subject to the normal taxes). This would apply to withdrawals in 2008 (including retroactively) and 2009." - Politifact Story

Obama Biden SNL Skit

Germany's Democratic Leader Wants Nukes out

It's not Kim Jong-Il, but at least one foreign leader is heeding Barack Obama's call for "a world without nuclear weapons."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Der Spiegel that "These weapons are militarily obsolete today," and called for the remaining handful of U.S. warheads stored at the Bundeswehr air base to be "removed from Germany."

While Germany once held many such nuclear weapons, most were removed when the Cold War ended, and America now has less than 100 nuclear missiles stored throughout Europe.

The call sets Steinmeier, the center-left Social Democratic Party's candidate for chancellor, against current Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, who backs continuing to store the U.S. warheads.

While the remaining missiles have limited military importance, it would be politically embarrassing for Obama to be forced to withdraw them at the request of the German government if Steinmeier unseats Merkel in Germany's September elections. Opponents of storing the missiles already hold a majority in the Bundestag. - Politico Story

Obama pushed for the cut of Nukes around the world and now a leader has said OK. Now what? Removing them will weaken our Military Readiness and make us less safe. Think before you speak.

Iraqi Leadership Concerned about US Troop Withdrawl

RAMADI, Iraq — As the U.S. Marine Corps shrinks its footprint in Iraq's western desert, Arab community leaders are publicly voicing worries about what will happen once the Americans are gone.

They fear a wave of corruption and the return of the insurgency that once held sway over the area.

Marines have been begun divorcing themselves from the task of advising local leaders, the clearest signal that their role in Anbar province is quickly nearing its end.

An Associated Press reporter embedded with the troops witnessed two cases in a single day of Iraqis — a headmistress and a party of businessmen — asking for help and being told the Marines could do very little for them.

"We've always said it's not going to be easy," said Marine Lt. Col. Thad R. Trapp. "They are sure looking over with some anxiety at the separation. There is some anxiety about what the road ahead will look like."

Raheem Kalaaf Mohammed, vice president of the North Ramadi City Council, was more blunt, saying: "We feel there will be a disaster here."

President Barack Obama says he will withdraw combat troops from Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010. American commanders are already working on plans to pull out of Iraqi cities by June 30 under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact that also calls for all American forces to be gone by 2012. - FOX News Story

You have to understand their concern. It is our Troops that have kept them safe and kept the Insurgency at bay. I find it amazing that they are voicing their concern, since we have heard for so long from so many different people that they want us out of there. That we are occupiers.

Now the truth is out. We are really there for a purpose. They like having us there. They need and want our help. Not what you generally hear in the US.