Maersk Alabama

The US now has 20 of its citizens being held captive by Somali pirates.

Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, hundreds of miles from the nearest American military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

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.

This is the first time a US flagged ship has been captured by the pirates terrorizing the Gulf of Aden but it is the sixth ship this week to be hijacked.

The question now becomes, what is the President going to do about it?

When asked how the U.S. Navy plans to deal with the hijacking, Campbell said: "It's fair to say we are closely monitoring the situation, but we will not discuss nor speculate on current and future military operations."...

"It's a very significant foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration," said Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of the British company Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd. "Their citizens are in the hands of criminals and people are waiting to see what happens."

Yes they are, in no small way because the US is the largest blue ocean navy in the world and one of the things the Navy does is protect the shipping lanes.

Especially the shipping lanes that are important to US interests: like the Gulf of Aden.

And there are indications that this ship may have been targeted because it is not the usual victim for a number reasons, as Eagle1 points out

A quick analysis of this capture points out how unusual this seizure is. The ship has a relatively high freeboard (which has proved a deterrent in the past due to the "boarding ladders" used by most Somali pirates), is a container ship and is capable of speeds normally thought to be beyond those at which the Somali pirates have successfully attacked ships. Further, this ship flies an American flag - thought by many to be a deterrent in and of itself to the Somali pirates - why stir up the U.S if you can avoid it?

Perhaps they think that such a move won't stir up the US or are testing our response?

In either case, what does doing nothing say to them?

And there is also the matter of the al-Qaeda-affliated Islamists who have a safe-haven in Somalia. They may be watching as they were watching when we withdrew from Somalia after the Blackhawk Down incident.

At the moment, the Navy is advising for ships to take their own precautions, and short of forming convoys, there's not much that can be done defensively.

But offensively, that's a different story.

Will the Administration make these pirates pay a price for hijacking a US flagged ship so that they think twice before doing it again?

We'll see.

UPDATE: Reports are coming in that the crew may have regained control of the Maersk Alabama and captured a pirate to boot.

The Pentagon says it appears the American crew of a hijacked ship has regained control of the vessel. A U.S. official says the hijacked ship's crew is free and one pirate is in custody.

Pentagon sources spoke on condition of anonymity because information was still preliminary. But sources say the hijacked crew apparently contacted the private shipping company they work for.

The shipping company, Maersk, has scheduled a noon press conference in Norfolk, Va.

Can't wait to hear that story.