American-Flag Ship Hijacked off Somalia

Just reading the recent news on the Maersk ship Alabama, an American-flagged vessel hijacked off of Africa in an area known for pirates. GlobalSecurity.org has the ships being commissioned by the Maritime Administration.

“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.”

We hope readers will look at our BrandlandUSA post from Nov. 20, on bringing back the American-flagged ship.  A recap:

We are stunned that there is a problem with this. How lame of the U.S. Navy. But if the United States feels it cannot protect all shipping, how about that it gives escorted protection to American flagged ships? After all, American flagged ships pay extra taxes and incur extra bureaucratic costs to be American flagged. While there is no harm in protecting other ships too, and that is the collective job of all the navies of the civilized world, the added assurance of Navy protection would not only be a shot in the arm to the American-flagged fleet, but would severely reduce insurance costs, and even up the field a bit.

Again, read Bring Back the American Flagged Ship. As if it would do any good.