As Ship Resumes Sailing, FBI Joins Pirate Negotiations

As FBI hostage negotiators joined the effort to end the standoff with Somali pirates over a captive American captain, the Maersk Alabama got under way today, bound for its original destination, the AP reports. An FBI spokesman said the bureau was “fully engaged” with the Navy in strategizing how to extract Capt. Richard Phillips without resorting to combat.

The cargo ship made for Mombasa, Kenya, with 18 new passengers—a military team of armed guards. Meanwhile, the Pentagon substantially stepped up its monitoring of the situation, sending a P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft to collect videos of the scene. And a spokesman said the pirates have issued no demands to the Maersk shipping company.
(More pirates stories.)