CNN reported that SEAL sharpshooters were secretly parachuted onto the fantail of the USS Bainbridge, out of sight of the pirates. The commanders had standing orders from Obama to take out the pirates, and gave the order when Phillips appeared to be in imminent danger. Without harming Phillips, the SEALs took out 3 pirates with 3 shots from 30 meters away. (Win!)
TIME's Joe Klein reacted:
It's better to be lucky than good. It's even better to be lucky and good. One can easily imagine all the different ways the rescue of Captain Phillips might have been screwed up--and the political firestorm that would have resulted. But President Obama appears to have been crisp and decisive throughout...and what can one say about the SEAL sharpshooters--firing from a bobbing ship at a bobbing dinghy and recording three headshots?No less remarkable is the apparent fact that the GOP had effectively been rooting for Obama to fail, hoping to cash in on the resulting political gains from a botched mission. "Obama fails test!" "Obama soft on terrorism!" Embarrassing.
The evidence, courtesy of Jed Lewison of Daily Kos, is below:
