Will the Maersk Alabama seizure become a media spectacle?
WITH UPDATE BELOW Today, Somali-based pirates seized the Maersk Alabama, a U.S.-flagged container ship. 20 U.S. crew members were also taken hostage. The pirates boarded the ship in the Indian Ocean about 280 miles off the coast of Somalia. The ship was bound for Mombasa, Kenya. This capture puts the U.S. government in a bind. Several months ago, the U.S. Navy, along with the navies of many other nations, significantly boosted its anti-piracy mission in the area. The U.S. led the creation of an international naval task force, Combined Task Force 151, with the specific mission of thwarting piracy off Somalia. Rear Admiral Michelle Howard, USN commands CTF 151. Officials at the White House would prefer to simply ignore the incident and behave as if it never happened. With a memory of what happened to the Carter and Reagan administrations when they demonstrated too much concern during their respective hostage crises, ignoring to the extent possible the problem is a sensible tactic – it re
