Odd

The New York Times reports about the piracy operation that

The negotiations were being carried out between the pirates and a translator aboard the Bainbridge, with the F.B.I. negotiators consulting from ashore, the official said.

Yet the hostage captain's relatives described him

...as an outgoing daredevil whose sense of humor might be helping him survive.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s had those guys chuckling a few times,” said Tom Coggio, Captain Phillips’s brother-in-law, who was keeping vigil with other family members at the Phillips home in Underhill, Vt., outside Burlington. “He’s got a quick wit.”

So, he knows the language of the kidnappers? Better than the FBI?

Odd that the NYTimes would let that through, as well as this:

"Piracy may be a centuries-old problem but we are working to bring an appropriate 21st-century response," Clinton said.

a statement that would indicate the US is centuries behind.