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Navy Probes SEALS over Missing Pirate Cash
Tens of thousands of dollars in Somali pirate booty has apparently vanished -- leading the Navy to probe members of its own elite assault team, The Post has learned.
Shades of 'Three Kings' ...
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is probing allegations that $30,000 taken by the pirates from the safe of the Maersk Alabama during a high-seas standoff last month was never recovered after SEAL snipers shot the hijackers dead, law-enforcement sources said.

"We don't comment on the details of an ongoing investigation," said NCIS spokesman Ed Buice.

But sources say the SEALs, along with the members of the international anti-piracy Combined Task Force 151, and the crew of Maersk Alabama are being questioned over the missing cash.

According to the federal criminal complaint against accused pirate leader Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the evidentiary items recovered from the lifeboat were two loaded AK-47s, ammo, cellphones and radios, among other items. There is no mention of cash.

"You are asking questions about an ongoing federal investigation on which I don't have any comment," said Maersk spokesman Kevin Spears.

A band of pirates stormed the Maersk Alabama on April 8 off the coast of Somalia as it steamed toward Kenya with a cargo of relief supplies. The brigands allegedly forced the crew to open the ship's safe, where they made off with $30,000 in cash and took Capt. Richard Phillips hostage, according to the criminal complaint against Muse.

"The captain opened the safe and took approximately $30,000 in cash. Muse and the two other pirates then took the cash," stated FBI Special Agent Steven Sorrells in the criminal complaint.

Muse and three accomplices then retreated to a covered lifeboat where they negotiated with the FBI, aboard the destroyer USS Bainbridge, while making escape plans with other pirates.

"Muse also handed out some of the approximately $30,000 in cash from the Maersk Alabama to the other pirates," Sorrells wrote.

For five days, Phillips was held hostage on the lifeboat before Muse alone surrendered to the USS Bainbridge. That day, the SEAL snipers, hiding on the USS Bainbridge's fantail, took out the remaining three pirates in a masterfully executed operation -- one shot for each bandit.
Posted by: Sherry 2009-06-01
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=270981