Jamaican Hostage Standoff Ends

Police have stated that a gunman who hijacked a plane in Jamaica has been captured after an eight-hour standoff with police.

From the Associated Press:

Police spokeswoman Camille Tracey says authorities disarmed the young man whom authorities described as “mentally challenged.”

Authorities say the 20-year-old Jamaican forced his way past security check points and seized the CanJet Airlines plane late Sunday night. He quickly released all the passengers and two crew members, but six crew members were held at gunpoint hours longer.

Pirates Hijack Four More Ships Near Somalia

Somali pirates hijacked four more ships today, even as America’s top military commander said the United States is reviewing its options, including whether to go into pirate villages.

From ABC News:

The pirates have now seized four ships since the dramatic rescue of American Capt. Richard Phillips Sunday, who was taken hostage during a failed hijacking attempt.

Just as the cheers were dying down for the daring rescue of Phillips that left three pirates dead, Somali pirates swooped down on more victims. This time they struck in the Gulf of Aden along the north coast of Somalia.

Two Egyptian fishing boats were hijacked, according to Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, which said the boats carried a total of 18 to 24 Egyptians.

Somali Pirates Hijack Ship With Americans Onboard

Somali pirates today hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard.

From the Associated Press:

United Kingdom maritime officials have been able to contact the vessel and were told “everyone is OK,” according to a U.S. defense official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

British maritime and defense officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. It was the sixth ship seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

The company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.

Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said that it was the first pirate attack “involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory.” She did not give an exact timeframe.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs said the White House was monitoring the incident closely and “assessing a course of action.”

“Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board,” Gibbs said.

From CNN:

Pirates attacked a U.S. cargo ship off the coast of Somalia carrying food aid to East Africa and may have hijacked the vessel, which was carrying 20 American crew members, according to the company that owns the vessel.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration is aware of the situation.

“The White House is closely monitoring the apparent hijacking of the U.S.-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and assessing a course of action to resolve this situation,” Gibbs said. “Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board.”

The U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 500 kilometers (310 miles) off Somalia’s coast, according to a statement from Maersk Line Ltd.

The company said it believes the vessel may have been hijacked. If so, it would be the sixth hijacking over the past week.

The ship was attacked about 7:30 a.m. when the nearest U.S. Navy warship was about 300 nautical miles away, goverment sources said. On Tuesday, the U.S. Navy warned mariners that pirates were attacking ships extending hundreds of miles offshore.

Pirates Attempt to Hijack US Cruise Ship

Pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by international warships.

From the Associated Press:

The liner, carrying 656 international passengers and 399 crew members, was sailing through the Gulf of Aden on Sunday when it encountered six bandits in two speedboats, said Noel Choong who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

The pirates fired at the passenger liner but the larger boat was faster than the pirates’ vessels, Choong said.

“It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape,” he said, urging all ships to remain vigilant in the area.

The International Maritime Bureau, which fights maritime crime, did not know how many cruise liners use these waters.

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said it was aware of the failed hijacking but had no further details.

Ship owner Oceania Cruises Inc. identified the vessel as the M/S Nautica.

In a statement on its Web site, the company said pirates fired eight rifle shots at the liner, but that the ship’s captain increased speed and managed to outrun the skiffs.

All passengers and crew are safe and there was no damage to the vessel, it said.

The Nautica was on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore, with stops at ports in Italy, Egypt, Oman, Dubai, India, Malaysia and Thailand, the Web site said. Based on that schedule, the liner was headed from Egypt to Oman when it was attacked.

Barack Obama, John McCain Unite to Commemorate 9/11 Anniversary

In a way of bringing back the nation’s unity in a time of peril seven years ago, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama placed their partisan contest on hold today and spoke as one in honoring of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. I only wish that they could keep this truce through the November election as political mudslinging has become nearly intolerable in today’s society.

From the Associated Press:

Obama and McCain were making ground zero in New York their common ground, joining in homage to the dead from the fallen Twin Towers and the hijacked planes flown into them.

Beforehand, McCain spoke briefly at a simple ceremony in remote, rural western Pennsylvania, held on a large hilly field close to where United Airlines Flight 93, the third of four airliners commandeered by terrorists, crashed. Investigators believe some of the 40 passengers and crew rushed the cockpit and thwarted terrorists’ plans to use that plane as a weapon like the ones that hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon. All aboard all planes died.

The Arizona senator said those on the flight might have saved his own life, as some believe the terrorists wanted to slam that plane into the U.S. Capitol. He said the only way to thank those who died on the flight is to “be as good an American as they were.”

“We might fall well short of their standard, but there’s honor in the effort,” McCain said.

Obama, in a statement, said that on Sept. 11, 2001, “Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims, to donate blood, to give to charity, and to say a prayer for our country. Let us renew that.”

The Illinois senator added: “Let us remember that the terrorists responsible for 9/11 are still at large, and must be brought to justice.”

Left unstated by both was their sharp disagreement over the Iraq war, which McCain supported and Obama opposed as a distraction from the Afghanistan war and broader fight against terrorism.

From Reuters:

Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama called a temporary halt to their fierce political skirmishing on Thursday in honor of the 7th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Taking a breather from their campaign-trail feud, Republican McCain and Democrat Obama refrained from airing political ads for one day and planned to appear together at the site of the World Trade Center attacks in New York.

The two will walk into the Ground Zero area and lay wreaths at the site but will not give speeches as Americans honored the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks in ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

Later, the two candidates for the White House plan separate appearances at a forum on service in New York City.

McCain attended a morning memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked airliners crashed in a field during a struggle as passengers on United Flight 93 battled the hijackers to take control of a plane believed headed for the U.S. Capitol.

“No American living then should ever forget the heroism that occurred in the skies above this field on September 11, 2001,” McCain, an Arizona senator, said before laying a wreath of flowers at the site and joining an annual reading of passenger names as bells tolled.