Friday, February 25, 2011
The warning that the U.S. intended to prevent the pirates from taking the hostages onto Somali soil was communicated early in the four-day standoff as Navy ships shadowed the 58-foot yacht carrying 19 Somalis and their prisoners, the officials said.
"The thought was, if these guys succeed in getting the hostages to shore, we have almost no leverage anymore," a U.S. Defense official said.
Several officials agreed to discuss the incident on condition of anonymity because the matter is being investigated by theFBI.
Another official called the decision to prevent the hostages from being taken to Somalia "nonnegotiable." More than 700 hostages of various nationalities are being held there by pirates demanding ransoms.
It remains unclear what caused the outbreak of gunfire aboard the yacht that resulted in the deaths of the two American couples, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey and Phyllis Macay and Robert Riggle of Seattle. U.S. officials have played down the possibility that their negotiating tactics may have contributed to the deadly outcome.
Experts in hostage negotiations endorsed the decision to block the Americans from being taken off the yacht, saying it is always important in such situations not to let hostages be moved to a new location from where retrieving them may be more difficult.
"One of the goals is always to contain a situation as best you can," said Stephen Romano, a retired FBI hostage negotiator.
But several experts wondered whether the U.S. negotiators went too far in pressuring the pirates, which raised tension in an already-fraught situation. An alternative might have been for the Navy to have not told the pirates that it intended to prevent the hostages from being moved.
Source: LA Times