What doesn't make sense to me is how the sharpshooters were able to shoot the pirates if the pirates were aiming a gun at Phillips. The story that ABC reported-- that Phillips stepped away to "relieve himself" and gave the sharpshooters a split second to shoot-- made sense, but for some reason, no one is telling that story. Even Castellano said he'd rather not talk about it.
Tomorrow Phillips will reunite with his crew in Mombasa.
Frank Castellano, commanding officer of the USS Bainbridge, says that one pirate's cooperation was an important step in a U.S. crew's dramatic rescue Sunday of Capt. Richard Phillips.Meanwhile, Somalian pirates have captured more ships but it seems like business as usual for the pirates, not revenge. They've captured 78 ships this year. It's just that now we're all paying attention.
Three of the four Somali pirates holding Phillips aboard the lifeboat of his ship, the Maersk Alabama, were killed by snipers during the rescue operation. The fourth came aboard the USS Bainbridge earlier Sunday after U.S. forces made a supply run of food, water and clothes for Phillips, Castellano tells NPR's Renee Montagne.
The pirate "wanted to come back to the ship and talk about how we could get Capt. Phillips back," Castellano says. "It was all part of the hostage negotiations that occurred over the course of the event."
When asked whether the pirate had come to the USS Bainbridge to give himself up, Castellano says, "You know, I don't know really what went through his mind ... but he came, and that was a step in the direction to allow Capt. Richard Phillips to get home, and that was very important." Listen to the whole story at NPR
Pirates have attacked 78 ships this year, hijacking 19 of them, and 17 ships with over 300 crew still remain in pirates' hands, according to Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur. NYT
