Hostage Saved!

by Beth Lessard

On Wednesday, April 8th, pirates attacked a U.S. cargo ship 350 miles off Somalia. The captain of the ship was taken hostage and was rescued Sunday, April 12th. The captain, who was held hostage in a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean since Wednesday, was in great danger on the lifeboat on April 12th. U.S. forces moved to rescue him after seeing him in this danger on the lifeboat. The commander gave the shooters approval to open fire after seeing that "one of the pirates had an AK-47 leveled at the captain's back." The three pirates holding him hostage were killed by shooters. There was a fourth pirate who was negotiating the fate of the hostage. The fourth pirate was aboard the U.S. ship and he told military negotiators that he wasn't going back to the other pirates. It is still not determined if the fourth pirate will be prosecuted in the United States. This is the first time in modern history that the United States has in custody a pirate who carried out an attack on a U.S. citizen. Obama had given orders for the military to take action if the captain was in imminent danger, and that is exactly what the military did. They saw "imminent danger" and they took control.