Comments on: Odyssey Wants Government Out of Black Swan Case After WikiLeaks Revelations

By: IamJoyceM

IamJoyceM — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:07:23 +0000

WOW! I would never have expected this to be the outcome. What would the US have traded if the one private citizen didn’t need a painting back? Will we ever know the identity of this person or the painting be named? How could this happen?

So disappointed in our country for this one. Clearly the Odyssey team did exactly what they should’ve done and just got royally screwed out of their life’s work .

Now that the coins have been moved to Spain, it will never be righted. They should’ve allowed them to return them to where they found them (without telling where it was) and let the Spanish go find the treasure for themselves.

If I feel this frustrated for them, I cannot ever fathom how the Odyssey team must feel.

By: M.G.

M.G. — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:51:04 +0000

The US government’s actions in this case are utterly deplorable. As a shareholder in Odyssey Marine, I can only hope the Appeals Court will see the facts in an untainted light. Questions obviously remain about why the federal district court wrote such a fundamentally flawed initial decision. It’s as if they were prompted what to decide and then, in protest, wrote the decision so poorly it would have to be struck down on appeal.

The law is very clear on finds such as this one — the gold is not subject to to the Soverign Immunity rule because the voyage was commercial and not military in purpose. After fifteen years (since the passage of the Sunken Military Craft Act) of interpreting “on military noncommercial service” as just that — on military service, NOT commercial service — the US government now, all of a sudden, just for this ONE case, has decided “noncommercial service” doesn’t really mean noncommercial service. And they did this, amazingly enough, through the Attorney General’s Office instead of the legislative branch. Amazing. No wonder they want to take down Wikileaks.

By: leadbellt

leadbellt — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:14:09 +0000

the gold and silver should be given back to the new world countries it was originally stolen from,,period.oddessy sould get a finders fee and labor/ recovery compensation,, screw spain, genocidal maniac money

By: Rose Springer

Rose Springer — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 07:31:15 +0000

I just watched the documentary about this salvage expedition. Clearly, the Spanish Government broke international law and overstepped their bounds. Clearly the expeditions director’s did everything within their power to conform to international law. The fact that the US government sided with the Spanish Government is very suspicious, even without a clear explanation. To my mind, in affect, what the US Government was saying was, Governments can do what ever they want, when they want, despite the laws they having agreed to enforce. As if they are somehow exempt of those very laws, when it’s not in their best interest. It seems they sacrifice the citizen rights they’ve sworn to protect, simply to benefit themselves. No big surprise! If intentions and blood, sweat and tears counted for anything, the Spanish would get NOTHING and Odessey would get everything. If nothing else, the governments involved should know that the public is ON to you and you have completely lost ALL face and respect. Odessey should know, we APPLAUD your honesty throughout this farce, and your actions make you deserving of the respect your opponents mistakenly think they command for themselves.