FBI Hostage Negotiators Head to Pirate Standoff

[tekisui]

Source: AP

NAIROBI, Kenya – The United States called in FBI hostage negotiators and a U.S. destroyer kept close watch on a lifeboat where Somali pirates held an American ship captain Thursday, a day after the bandits hijacked a U.S.-flagged vessel before being overpowered.

The pirates took Capt. Richard Phillips as a hostage as they escaped the Maersk Alabama into the lifeboat in the first such attack on American sailors in around 200 years. Negotiations were believed to be under way, a relative of the captain said, but it was not clear who was conducting them.

At the FBI, spokesman Richard Kolko described the bureau's hostage rescue team as "fully engaged" with the military in strategizing ways to retrieve the ship's captain and secure the Maersk Alabama and its roughly 20-person U.S. crew.

Kevin Speers, a spokesman for the ship company Maersk, said the pirates have made no demands yet to the company. He said the safe return of the abducted captain is now its top priority.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_af/piracy

[tekisui]

1. The captain offerd himself up as a hostage.

Phillips surrendered himself to the pirates to secure the safety of the crew, Coggio said.

"What I understand is that he offered himself as the hostage," she said. "That is what he would do. It's just who he is and his response as a captain."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_af/piracy