Pirates in the News: Maersk Alabama, done.

So, for a Happy Easter present to the Captain of the Maersk Alabama, the a Navy Seal Sniper team killed all three of his captors.

Generally, the message here is "Don't expect to get away if you pirate American Vessels or capture Americans, just don't do it, it's no good for you." Which is a solid message to send, and is frankly, not unexpected.

Two of the captors had poked their heads out of a rear hatch of the lifeboat, exposing themselves to clear shots, and the third could be seen through a window in the bow, pointing an automatic rifle at the captain, who was tied up inside the 18-foot lifeboat, senior Navy officials said.

It took only three remarkable shots — one each by snipers firing from a distance at dusk, using night-vision scopes, the officials said. Within minutes, rescuers slid down ropes from the Bainbridge, climbed aboard the lifeboat and found the three pirates dead. They then untied Captain Phillips, ending the contretemps at sea that had riveted much of the world’s attention. A fourth pirate had surrendered earlier.

Of course, many pirates in Somalia are posturing as though this doesn't affect them:

In Somalia itself, other pirates reacted angrily to the news that Captain Phillips had been rescued, and some said they would avenge the deaths of their colleagues by killing Americans in sea hijackings to come.

“Every country will be treated the way it treats us,” Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the pirate den of Gaan, a central Somali town, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying in a telephone interview. “In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying.”

To be honest, America's now proven ability and willingness to hunt down and kill pirates who endanger its citizens will regardless affect the business model of pirates in the future, and if it does not, American has proven able to take on pirates in its history, like the shores of Tripoli?