Romney blasts Obama's 'tour of apology'

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) accused President Obama of embarking on a "tour of apology" around the globe at the expense of America's national security.

"It's not because America hasn't made mistakes — we have," the former Republican presidential contender said, explaining his criticism, "but because America's mistakes are overwhelmed by what America has meant to the hopes and aspirations of people throughout the world."

Romney noted an interview Obama gave on Arabic television, in which the president said the U.S. had dictated to the world. A British newspaper, he said, had declared Obama the president who had been the most critical of his own country while on foreign soil.

"That would be a most unfortunate distinction at any time," Romney said. "But it is particularly so today. With all that is transpiring in the world, in Iran, North Korea, Georgia, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan [and] Afghanistan, this is the time for strength and confidence, not for apologizing to America's critics."

Kicking off the conservative Heritage Foundation's "Protect America" month, Romney addressed a largely friendly crowd as he continues to explore a repeat bid for the White House. Romney allies insist the governor is undecided about a second run and is not even thinking about it, but behind the scenes the former Massachusetts governor is building a foundation that could launch an encore bid.

Like most governors, Romney found himself lacking in foreign affairs credentials during his White House bid. In establishing himself as a deep thinker on national security and foreign policy, Romney sought to fill a key gap.

He highlighted missile defense, a program that has dragged on for more than two decades without reaching completion. President Obama has said he does not support continuing the program.

"Rarely in history has any program had the promise to do more good or spare more suffering than a system of missile defense," Romney said. "Backing away from missile defense and depleting the defense budget to fund new social programs, particularly in the face of global turmoil, would put America and Americans at risk."

Romney also called for an increase of at least $50 billion in the Defense Department's modernization budget, to be used to improve the nation's nuclear arsenal and to upgrade the military's tracked vehicles and tanks.

Romney advocated for a more aggressive stance toward international threats, especially North Korea. He called diplomatic negotiations a ploy that has allowed the rogue nation to build up its nuclear capabilities.

"Action — strong, bold action coming from a position of strength and determination — is the only effective deterrent," Romney said, calling for "regime-crippling" sanctions for North Korea.
During his presidential race, Romney drew heavily on his experience as a businessman, and on the day General Motors filed for bankruptcy, he said he had called for those steps to be taken.
"It is, by the way, a course I recommended a number of months ago," Romney said of GM's filings. "As a boy from Detroit, I'm still saddened by that."

Following the end of his presidential race, in February of last year, Romney has spent the past year campaigning for Republican candidates around the country. Over the last week he has campaigned with Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell and with Chris Christie, who faces a primary on Tuesday in the New Jersey governor's race.

The former Massachusetts governor has also kept a loyal following of staffers close at hand. Several former top staffers and supporters, including ex-Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), attended the speech.

Romney, who remains active in the so-called invisible primary in advance of a potential 2012 bid, appearing with fellow Republicans around the country and taking a turn on "Fox News Sunday" this weekend, will again raise his profile early next year with the scheduled release of a new book.

The governor has signed on with St. Martin's Press for the volume, scheduled to be released in early 2010.

By Reid Wilson – The Hill

Source:  Fox Nation

Posted:  Daily Thought Pad

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• THE REAL GENUFLECTION TO THE SAUDIS

US Ship Captured By Somali Pirates-- 20 Crew Members Held ...US Crew Retakes Ship... Pirates Capture Captain of U.S. Ship

Joe Biden was wrong (again): He should have said our President will be tested MANY times in the first 100 days...

That US ship picked the wrong time to be hijacked.
20 US crew members were taken hostage by Somali pirates today.

The hijacked vessel carrying 20 Americans is believed to be a Maersk cargo ship, similar to one seen in this photo. (FOX)

The US Navy has ordered its ships to the scene.
Team Obama said they were monitoring the situation.
No doubt, they are looking for a place to hold talks.
FOX News reported:

The U.S. Navy ordered its ships to the scene of a hijacking off the coast of Somalia Wednesday after pirates commandeered a U.S.-flagged cargo ship crewed by 20 U.S. citizens.

Officials would not say how many Navy ships are on the scene nor would it confirm the nationality of the crew members, but sources told FOX News the Danish-owned ship is operated by U.S. shipping company, Maersk Line Limited.

Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman said he has "no information to suggest the 20 crew members of the Maersk Alabama have been harmed by the pirates."

The Department of Defense has taken the lead on information-gathering. Whitman declined to comment when asked if military action would be taken.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the White House is "closely monitoring the apparent hijacking of the U.S.-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and assessing a course of action to resolve this situation."

TigerHawk says this is "testing time" for Team Obama.

UPDATE: The Americans are holding at least part of the ship.
CBS News is reporting, via LGF:

The crew of a hijacked U.S. cargo ship is in a standoff with Somali pirates after attempting to retake the vessel, military sources told CBS News correspondent David Martin.

The sources told CBS News that crew members overpowered the pirates, taking one into custody, but the hijackers still held the ship’s master hostage.The American crew is in control of at least part of the ship and crew members have been in contact with their families.

There has been no official confirmation regarding the ship’s status.

FOX News has more.

COMMENT:  Talk about not getting things squared away... My stepson served in Somalia in the 80's where the American Marines were spat upon and not allowed to react. My daughter had her Semester at Sea sailing re-routed by these same Pirates in 2005 and it is all only getting worse...

The ARRRRT of Piracy

Somali pirates last September captured a Ukrainian cargo ship, the MV Faina, loaded to the gunnels with heavy weaponry, including 33 Russian-designed T-72 battle tanks. Since then, American and Russian naval vessels have been shadowing the ship at its anchorage off the fishing village of Hindawao, 300 miles north of Mogadishu. This month there were reports that the ship's owners had agreed on ransom terms, but the Faina and its crew are still being held. NEWSWEEK's Rod Nordland interviewed Shamun Indhabur, who is thought to be the leader of the pirates who took the Faina, and the Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker with $100 million worth of oil aboard. The interview was conducted by satellite telephone to the bridge of the Faina, through Somali translator Abukar al-Badri. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What is your background, and how did you capture the MV Faina? 
Shamun Indhabur: I was a fisherman before I turned to piracy, a crewmember of a small fishing boat. We used to capture lobsters and sharks.

When we hijacked MV Faina it was early morning 24 September 2008, in Somali waters. We took it after 60 minutes of fighting between the crewmembers and our gunmen and eventually the captain decided to surrender after we fired some rockets to warn them that we were close to destroying the ship if they didn't surrender. The captain tried to escape, but he didn't succeed. He had a pistol and he refused to surrender until we were close to killing him. When we intercepted the ship and saw the shipment [of arms], then we thought it was going to Somalia and belonged to the Ethiopians [whose army is supporting the transitional government in Somalia], but the captain told us that it was going to South Africa. Then later we saw that it was going to southern Sudan, after we forced the captain to show us the manifests.

What's the situation on board the Faina now? 
The middlemen tried to steal some of the money we agreed on [estimated at more than $3 million]. And now we can't trust them. They're trying to take the money, and we are the criminals. We can't accept that.

How are your ransoms paid? 
We get the money two ways. A boat takes the money from Djibouti, then a helicopter takes the money from the boat, then it drops the money in waterproof cartons on assigned [small] boats. Then we collect it, check if it is false or not, then we release the ship. The other way we get the money is a boat from Mombasa.

Isn't it dangerous for middlemen to be carrying so much money into a lawless place like Somalia? I've heard some of them have been killed doing it, is that true?
The pirates are different groups. Those in Puntland may have problems with the middlemen and sometimes kill them.

Why has there been such an increase Somali piracy? In Somalia all the young men are desperate. There is wide unemployment in the country, there are no sources of income. One of the only sources we have had is fishing, and the superpowers and Asian countries sidelined us in our own sea. So at first we started out just to counter illegal fishing, but international forces started to protect them.

Now the European Union is sending an additional naval force. Are you worried about the increased naval presence?
We know the EU and NATO forces are coming, but that is not the solution. The solution is to restore peace in Somalia so that we can have a better life and more job opportunities. I can tell you that sending forces will not stop us going into piracy. They can arrest us if they find us out at sea, they've arrested our friends several times, but that will never deter us from this business. The only thing that can stop piracy is a strong government in Somalia.

The most friendly forces in Somali waters are the U.S. forces. They arrest us and release us, because they know we are not going to hurt them. But the French and the Indians treat us badly and sometimes they don't know what they're doing. The Indians sunk that Thai boat [a fishing vessel reportedly taken over by pirates this month] and said it was pirates, but I tell you there was not a single pirate on that boat.

Are you worried about another attack ashore, such as the one the French conducted, now that the U.N. has approved such attacks? 
The French forces made two attacks. They arrested our friends, but French nationals will pay for that. If we get a ship with French nationals, we will punish the crew and they will pay double ransom. We're not worried about another attack [against pirates on land], because now we are on very high alert and they will never succeed with another raid.

You justify piracy against all shipping even though your only complaint was against foreign fishing boats operating in your waters. Does that really make sense?
I justify it as a dirty business encouraged by the foreign forces that were escorting illegal fishing boats and toxic waste dumpers. And if they are escorting fishing boats, they can't escort all commercial shipping, and if we are forced to avoid fishing our waters, then those [commercial] ships are all our fish.

How do you justify attacking pleasure yachts hundreds of miles offshore, or cruise liners, or even any vessel so far from Somalia?
Luxury yachts are what we are looking for, because what we need is money, and if we get a luxury yacht, we make a fortune.

Some ships have started putting armed guards on their vessels. Others have used weapons such as sonic guns, which use beams of loud noise to deter pirates. Does any of that worry you?
It will not protect them. We also have rocket-propelled grenades and we can destroy them. For those with the sonic guns, we hijacked some of them even after they fired the sonic guns. Truly speaking, when we go to sea we are drunk, and we are like hungry wolves running after meat. We don't even know what we are doing until we have boarded.

Some of the leaders of the Islamists now fighting the Somali government have criticized pirates for giving the country a bad name, and for attacking Muslim-owned ships like the Sirius Star.
The Islamists have a memorandum of understanding with us. What they are saying to the media is not their real position. They just want to send a message to their Arab friends who sometimes fund them.

What if the Islamists come back to power?
The Islamists are not homogenous groups, they are heterogeneous. I can guess they'll never come back to power as in 2006, but they can fight one another and create a huge mess. If they did take power, they must restore law and order and create job opportunities for us. If they don't, then piracy will never stop.

How are the Somali pirates organized? Do you all coordinate your actions?
The pirates belong to different groups, but we have umbrella groups. There are two main groups, one in Puntland and the other in south and central Somalia, which is my group. I am a member of the seven top committee members in south and central. We are a group of men with norms and terms, and we respect them.

The pirates holding the Sirius Star have threatened to dump its oil if their demands are not met. Is that a serious threat, and do they realize how much damage that could do not only to Somalia but other countries as well?
Those holding the Sirius Star and the MV Faina I'm aboard now, we are the same group. And we know the risk of spilling the oil shipment. But when evil is the only solution, you do evil. That is why we are doing piracy. I know it is evil, but it is a solution.

Source: Newsweek 2008