re: #403 Russkilitlover

Pirate comrades steaming toward the standoff with ships of hostages.

Methinks our inaction is about to get people killed.

Re Phillips’ escape attempt:

Around midnight local time, Phillips jumped off the lifeboat and began swimming, according to Defense Department officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk about the sensitive, unfolding operations.

One of the pirates then fired an automatic weapon, the officials said, although it was not clear if the shots were fired at Phillips or into the air, and he returned to the lifeboat.

The USS Bainbridge, which is several hundred yards away, has rescue helicopters and lifeboats but is keeping its distance, in part to stay out of the pirates’ range of fire.

This is more detail than I’ve seen before. It confirms my initial suspicion, that the Bainbridge is either (1) utterly ill-equipped to deal effectively with the situation, or (2) that the Bainbridge was asleep at the switch … (… or… #3 … both.)

/bitting my tongue until more info’s available