Nice work once again boys! These guys are crazy good.


Navy SEALs Rescue Two Aid Workers in Somalia in Daring Raid

A U.S. special operations team of Navy SEALs rescued two aid workers in Somalia Tuesday night, including a U.S. woman who had been held hostage for three months by Somali kidnappers and suffered from a life-threatening medical condition.
Jessica Buchanan, 32, of Bedford, Va., and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, of Denmark, were abducted Oct. 25 by a band of Somalis while on their way to the airport in Galcayo, located in central Somalia. Both were working for the Danish Refugee Council's Danish Demining Group, and had just finished a training course for local Somali citizens when they were abducted.

In a statement released by the White House, President Obama said he had authorized a rescue mission Monday.

"Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our Special Operations Forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home. As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts," Obama said in the statement.

The president said he spoke with Buchanan's father Monday night, "and told him that all Americans have Jessica in our thoughts and prayers, and give thanks that she will soon be reunited with her family.

"The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice. This is yet another message to the world that the United States of America will stand strongly against any threats to our people," he added.



Obama made no mention of the successful raid during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, although keen observers noted an interesting exchange with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as he entered the House Chamber.

Obama pointed to Panetta and said, "Leon. Good job tonight. Good job tonight."

In a statement released today, Panetta said he was pleased that neither Buchanan nor Thisted was harmed during the operation. "This mission demonstrates our military's commitment to the safety of our fellow citizens wherever they may be around the world," he said.

Panetta described the rescue as "a team effort and required close coordination, especially between the Department of Defense and our colleagues in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "

The Danish Refugee Council also confirmed the rescue in a statement, saying, "The two aid workers from the Danish Refugee Council's demining unit, DDG, are both unharmed and at a safe location."

The rescue mission began around 2 a.m. local time as team of Navy SEALs parachuted into the area near the desert encampment where the two aid workers were being held, a U.S. official said. U.S. Africa Command said in a statement that the raid took place in the vicinity of Gadaado, Somalia.

As they approached the camp, the official said, there was a firefight and that there were no U.S. casualties. U.S. Africa Command said that the nine Somali captors were all killed in the firefight.

After freeing Buchanan and Thisted, the military team and the aid workers left the area via helicopter and were taken to Camp Lemonier, the U.S. military base in neighboring Djibouti.

Another U.S. official says that the rescue mission was prompted by a long-standing medical condition that had worsened during Buchanan's captivity and "it was at a point where it became life-threatening." The official did not identify the illness.

Few aid groups continue to operate inside Somalia because of the risks involved in conducting relief operations in one of the world most dangerous countries. The country has been ravaged by conflict for the past decade and an Islamic militant extremist group known as al-Shabab has been a focus of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the country.

But, the U.S. official says, the Somalis who kidnapped Buchanan and Thisted were organized criminals and not members of al-Shabab. It's possible they might have had ties to the pirates who operate in the waters off of East Africa prowling for commercial ships to hold for ransom, making the waters off Somalia some of the most dangerous in the world.

Buchanan joined DDG as a trainee in May 2010 and by January 2011 had become an education adviser for the group.

Andreas Camm, a spokesman for the Danish Refugee Council, told ABC News that Buchanan "has been very strong during this crisis when we have received proof of life. Our impression has been she has done very, very well and been a very, very strong person. And we were happy every time we heard of that."

As for what kind of ransom the Somalis wanted from his group, Camm said, "We have told them, of course, that a humanitarian organization cannot pay."

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Obama does it again! I <3 our great leader!

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Very true. Our special ops community has no global equal. When I worked with some of these guys I had the same glazed over eyes a kid would have when shaking hands with Tom Brady.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

In honor of them, I will have 6 beers at the pub tonight.

Great work and service guys.

I thought the same thing!

Would Ron Paul have bothered with a rescue, or would he consider it not cost effective?

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They do amazing work.

I'm kind of interested in seeing the movie coming out about the SEALs, starring members.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

He would believe that the Americans started it and they're getting what they deserved. President Obama saving the planet one heroic move at a time.

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People often forget when they rescued that ship captain who was being held by pirates a few years
back. They had a sniper make some next to impossible shot to kill the guy holding him captive.
Here is a brief snippet about that event.... amazing.




Navy Seal snipers rescued an American cargo ship captain unharmed and killed three Somali pirates in a daring operation in the Indian Ocean on Sunday, ending a five-day standoff between United States naval forces and a small band of brigands in a covered orange lifeboat off the Horn of Africa.


Acting with President Obama’s authorization and in the belief that the hostage, Capt. Richard Phillips, was in imminent danger of being killed by captors armed with pistols and AK-47s, snipers on the fantail of the destroyer Bainbridge, which was towing the lifeboat on a 100-foot line, opened fire and picked off the three captors.

Two of the captors had poked their heads out of a rear hatch of the lifeboat, exposing themselves to clear shots, and the third could be seen through a window in the bow, pointing an automatic rifle at the captain, who was tied up inside the 18-foot lifeboat, senior Navy officials said.

It took only three remarkable shots — one each by snipers firing from a distance at dusk, using night-vision scopes, the officials said. Within minutes, rescuers slid down ropes from the Bainbridge, climbed aboard the lifeboat and found the three pirates dead. They then untied Captain Phillips, ending the contretemps at sea that had riveted much of the world’s attention. A fourth pirate had surrendered earlier.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I didn't. President Obama made the at call. I believe it was the first of many great foreign policy decisions.

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I do give Obama credit in green lighting these various rescue missions in addition to the raid on Bin Laden's compound. He seems to have a set on him at least when it comes to military action

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Team Cutler.

Fwiw, I believe I gave him credit on that decision. The President has done very well on foreign policy from what my uneducated eyes have seen.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

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This is my signature...

Wrong TP. Folks like Ron Paul would use force when attacked. I have no doubt he would advocate the same approach as taken by Obama in these circumstances. Where he differs from mainstream Republican hawkishness is that he feels we are provoking countries by spying on them (satellites and on the ground), flying drones in their airspace, having military bases in 140 foreign countries, having our warships patrol their coasts, and intervening in their domestic issues. We act like we are the world's moral authority, but then behave like hypocrites. Some examples: Guantanamo (endless detentions and water boarding), CIA flying suspects to other countries to torture them, preaching on budgetary issues while we are broke, telling other countries to open up their trade, while we provide endless domestic subsidies, etc, etc.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Shhh..... Get out before you're labeled denis....

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

That's right. We wouldn't be able to strike because we wouldn't have any military bases nearby if Ron Paul was president. He would blame the hostages and offer them our nuclear program. Clearly Ron Paul hates America. That's why he loves Iran and Bin Laden so much.

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Hova, not sure how much you study history, but most of the great empires fell because of over expansion of their territories and spending on their military. While we don't necessarily expand our territory these days, we do spend more on our military then the rest of the top 10 combined. But heck we have the funds, don't we.....

Rank Country Military expenditure, 2010[2] % of GDP, 2009
1 United States 687,105,000,000 4.7%
2 China 114,300,000,000 2.2%
3 France 61,285,000,000 2.5%
4 United Kingdom 57,424,000,000 2.7%
5 Russia 52,586,000,000 4.3%
6 Japan 51,420,000,000 1.0%
7 Germany 46,848,000,000 1.4%
8 Saudi Arabia 42,917,000,000 11.2%
9 Italy 38,198,000,000 1.8%
10 India 34,816,000,000 2.8%

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Oh Danny, this isn't Russia...Is this Russia? This isn't Russia. Is it?

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Why does France spend any money on military?

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To attack Libya?

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Hawaii (fuck) You

You think quick retreats are easy?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I posted these numbers years ago.

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Attaboy Leon, the way you phoned that SEAL commander and said " Its a go" was truly awe inspiring. How you personally trained that SEAL team and risked your own life to pull off that rescue mission was beyond anything we have ever seen. This whole nation owes you a sincere debt of gratitude.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I knew as soon as I saw France at #3 on that list that even WR couldn't stop the inevitable zings.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

They should wait like a week, then go back in and steal Somalia's mascot.

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

You aren't the fish I was hoping to catch...

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Throw it back then.

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You're gonna need a bigger boat

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.