Tired of Pirate Attacks? Time to Call Blackwater

Offers its services in battling piracy epidemic

(NEWSER) - As Somalia seeks private help in battling its piracy problem, security contractor Blackwater has offered its services, Wired reports. “As a company founded and run by former Navy SEALs, with a 50,000-person database of former military and law enforcement professionals, Blackwater is uniquely positioned to assist the shipping industry,” the company said in a statement. More»

Gary Jackson, 4 others allegedly stockpiled arms

(AP) - The former president of Blackwater Worldwide and four other former officials at the embattled security firm were indicted today on federal weapons charges, partially the result of a raid 2 years ago by agents that rounded up 22 weapons, including AK-47s. The indictment charges Gary Jackson, who left the company last year in a management shakeup, with conspiracy to violate firearms laws, false statements, and possession of an unregistered firearm. More»

(NEWSER) - The Navy is questioning the crew of the Maersk Alabama and members of its own SEAL unit about $30,000 that went missing from the hijacked cargo ship, the New York Post reports. The money was taken by the pirates during the hijacking attempt but was not recovered after they were killed or captured. “We don't comment on the details of an ongoing investigation,” said a spokesman from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. More»

Capt. Richard Phillips credits Navy

(NEWSER) - Capt. Richard Phillips thought he'd never escape the Somali pirates holding him hostage, MSNBC reports. “I didn't think I'd ever get out of that boat," Phillips tells Matt Lauer in a Today Show interview airing Tuesday. He had resigned himself for the worst. “It was just settling everything, getting ready to die," he says. "You know, saying my last thoughts: Andrea, the kids." More»

Details emerging on Jessica Buchanan, saved in Navy SEAL raid

(NEWSER) - Jessica Buchanan, the American aid worker rescued in a Navy SEAL overnight raid , first came to Africa as a student teacher in Nairobi. "That experience just planted in her a love and passion for Africa," says the president of the Pennsylvania Christian college from which Buchanan graduated in 2007 with a degree in early childhood education. "She could hardly talk about Africa without tears in her eyes." She was hired at the same Kenyan academy where she worked as a student, and taught there for two years. More»