(((Monsieur Le President sure likes to spit on those dice and roll 'em.
He must have left a few domestic critics of his dynamic lifestyle scratching their heads on this one – Sarko did everything but fly down there and settle their pirate hash himself.)))
(((Although, had he done that, Carla would have been on his arm stylishly dressed in tailored camou.)))
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/15/europe/france.php
Link: Piracy, kidnapping and rescue - International Herald Tribune.
PARIS: It began with Kalashnikov-waving pirates climbing aboard a three-mast French luxury yacht in the Gulf of Aden and ended with a frantic helicopter-chase across the arid brush of northern Somalia.
The tale of the 30 crew members of The Ponant, who arrived back in France on Monday night alive and well after a week in captivity, had a happy denouement.
Half a dozen naval vessels, at least five helicopters and a surveillance plane took part in the operation to free them and secure the yacht, an operation coordinated by President Nicolas Sarkozy himself, ((( The government has been quick to use the hostage incident as a platform to call for an international force to police the waters around the Horn of Africa, which is already the focus of a multinational flotilla that is supposed to be combating terrorism.
A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, France plans to circulate a draft resolution among fellow members as early as this week, diplomats said.
While U.S. officials in Washington declined to comment on that initiative, Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said the Bush administration had congratulated France on its "aggressive and effective action" to secure the safe release of the hostages.
The operation was in some ways Sarkozy's toughest test yet as commander in chief, with 30 lives very publicly at stake.
His diplomatic adviser, Jean-David Levitte, said the president ordered the military to intervene only if the kidnappers separated the hostages or moved them to land.
Sarkozy, who was catapulted to national fame for his role in a 1993 school hostage incident as mayor of the Parisian suburb of Neuilly, met the families of the hostages twice last week and held daily meetings about the situation....
