Excellent outcome. No money exchanged, no ground lost. It looks like Captain Phillips of the Maersk Alabama jumped overboard the lifeboat once again, but this time the US Navy SEALS were waiting. Three of the four pirates are dead and one is in custody. 

U.S. intelligence official tells the Associated Press Sunday that an American sea captain held hostage by Somali pirates has been freed and was safe aboard a Navy ship. Three of the pirates were killed and one was in custody, according to the official.

U.S. warships and helicopters had been stalking the lifeboat holding Capt. Richard Phillips and his four Somali captors as a Somali official and others reported earlier that negotiations for his release had broken down. …

“The negotiations between the elders and American officials have broken down. The reason is American officials wanted to arrest the pirates in Puntland and elders refused the arrest of the pirates,” said the commissioner, Abdi Aziz Aw Yusuf. He said he organized initial contacts between the elders and the Americans.

Two other Somalis, one involved in the negotiations and another in contact with the pirates, also said the talks collapsed because of the U.S. insistence that the pirates be arrested and brought to justice.