'Meet the Press' transcript for April 12, 2009

MR. DAVID GREGORY:  Our issues this Sunday:  The holiday week provides little relief from a crowded inbox of problems for the new president.  While Mr. Obama enjoys his popularity at home and star status abroad, his political critics question whether he has the toughness to conquer the mounting threats across the globe:  North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Insights and analysis this morning from Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic; Michele Norris, host of NPR's "All Things Considered"; Robin Wright, author of "Dreams and Shadows:  The Future of the Middle East"; and Byron York, chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.

Then, has the economy hit bottom?

(Videotape)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA:  What you're starting to see is glimmers of hope across the economy.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  An uptick in the market, some positive earnings news, but what does it mean for Americans out of work or fearful about their jobs?  Joining us, two men who get back to the basics of this financial crisis:  National Public Radio's "Planet Money" team, Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson.

But first, the standoff between heavily armed Somali pirates holding American sea Captain Richard Phillips and the U.S. Navy has escalated.  As the showdown reaches its fifth day, the pirates opened fire on a small Navy vessel that attempted to approach the lifeboat yesterday.  With us for the very latest, NBC News Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski and the chief executive officer of the U.S. Naval Institute, Major General Tom Wilkerson.

Welcome to both of you.  Mik, what is the very latest?

MR. JIM MIKLASZEWSKI:  Well, the very latest, David, is that the pirates, the four pirates that are holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage aboard that lifeboat, the standoff continues between them and several U.S. Navy warships. The disturbing thing about that shooting incident last night, while none of the sailors were hit, after all this time locked up aboard that lifeboat it proves that those pirates still have some fight left in them.  Also, what was remarkable to me yesterday was the revelation that the lifeboat is now only 20 miles off the shores of Somalia.  That puts them dangerously close to getting on shore with their hostage, Captain Phillips, and that's the last thing the U.S. Navy wants to allow them to do.  So what's probably going to happen is the U.S. warships are going to try to jockey themselves, position themselves between the lifeboat, the four pirates and the hostage, and the shore to make sure that doesn't happen.

MR. GREGORY:  Now, the Maersk, which was the actual vessel--the cargo ship which Captain Phillips was at the helm of, did reach port in Mombasa.  That crew's safe, now being interviewed by the FBI.  That's the next step here.

MR. MIKLASZEWSKI:  That's right.  And when the Maersk Alabama pulled in, the FBI declared it a crime scene.  So that ship, that crew are on lockdown for the next several days so the FBI can get on with their investigation.  After all, this is--technically it's not a military issue, it's a law enforcement issue.  But what it does do is delay the return of those 19 remaining American sailors home.

MR. GREGORY:  General Wilkerson, let's have a look at the actual lifeboat that we're talking about, because it's not what you would imagine or what you see in the movies.  This is actually a picture of what it looks like.  It's a self-contained steel hull, I believe, and it has some Plexiglas   on it so you avoid exposure.  Describe what it must be like out there.  You've got both the pirates and Captain Phillips on board.  This is why it seems like the Navy wants to really wait them out.

MAJ. GEN. TOM WILKERSON (Retired):  Well, there's five people inside.  It's completely sealed.  If it were to turn over, it automatically can right itself.  It has all of the necessary survival mechanism--food, water, shelter--and so it's almost an insulated entity and it's very difficult to get at it.  So you need to wait it out a little bit.

MR. GREGORY:  And they're not being allowed to get any fuel, so they're not going anywhere.

MAJ. GEN. WILKERSON:  No, no.  They will run out of fuel...

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

MAJ. GEN. WILKERSON:  ...perhaps more quickly than they'll run out of anything else.  But the drifting tide moving them closer to shore, that's got to be a question.

MR. GREGORY:  I think a lot of people who've been following this this week say how is it that this can happen, that you can have this ragtag group of pirates with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades or other weapons that they've got...

MAJ. GEN. WILKERSON:  That's right.

MR. GREGORY:  ...how can they take a cargo ship like this and now be locked in a standoff with the most powerful navy in the world and still be sort of dictating the tempo here?

MAJ. GEN. WILKERSON:  They dictated the tempo from the outset, and that's one of the problems with the current mission.  The mission that the combined task force has been assigned is virtually mission impossible.  The range of the size of the scope of the, of the area in which they have to operate, the number of vessels, allow the pirates to say when they're going to attack, where they're going to attack and who they're going to attack.  And the end result is they're dictating the action, and the United States Navy and all of the combined forces are just reacting.  And they'll continue to react as long as it focuses on doing things on the water.

MR. GREGORY:  Mik, you've been reporting the story for several months now. Earlier this year you were actually in the Gulf of Aden with the U.S. Navy.  We have some pictures of you reporting from that period of time.  You've seen the real scope of how difficult the problem is, because the area is just huge.  As you look at the Navy assets that are deployed from your reporting, and then we can actually show a map of what we're talking about there so people can get a sense of the overall area here off of Somalia where the ship was actually hijacked.  That's the Maersk Alabama and now that lifeboat drifting toward the shore.  This is the equivalent of the Eastern seaboard, is it not?

MR. MIKLASZEWSKI:  Oh, and--absolutely, David.  And when you're on a ship or in a helicopter, all you see 360 degrees is water that goes on forever.

MAJ. GEN. WILKERSON:  Yes.

MR. MIKLASZEWSKI:  The Navy will tell you that the area they're trying to patrol with at any given time may be a dozen, maybe 14, 16 coalition warships is 1.1 square--million square miles.  And one of the most effective strategies that the Navy and the coalition employed was to channel most of the ship traffic into a very narrow passageway.  And when you sat there and looked at--it looked like I-95 during rush hour, so many ships passing each other going in opposition directions.  But they were together, safety in numbers, and often escorted by a warship.  So what did these pirates do?  When they attacked the Maersk Alabama, the nearest American warship was 350 miles away. It took them more than a day to get to that scene.  And what's really disturbing about the attack on the Maersk Alabama, I think, is that the crew aboard did everything right.  They were, they were proceeding at a brisk pace.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

MR. MIKLASZEWSKI:  When the pirates first attacked, the crew went at them with fire hoses.  The pirates retreated but then came back the next day, and the first thing they did was start firing at the bridge with AK-47s.

MR. GREGORY:  It--right.

MR. MIKLASZEWSKI:  So there appears to be an escalation of force on the part of the pirates, and that just increases the danger, obviously.

MR. GREGORY:  Should these crews be armed?

MR. MIKLASZEWSKI:  Well, you know, the shipping companies will tell you that they don't want to arm their crews because it raises the risk of escalation of force.  It also raises their liability through the roof--liability insurance through the roof.  And, and quite frankly, I was told that shortly after the Maersk Alabama was taken the shipping company officials let the military know that, "Look, we know this is a dangerous situation, but we are willing to negotiate, pay the ransom and move on."

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