Here is what I would do, Blow up the boat w/the hostage. Sure I know this will upset a lot of people, but the Capt. already sacrificed himself for his crew. He had to know going in it will likely not end well for him. Furthermore this would send a message that screwing w/a U.S. flagged ship means you die whether you have hostages or not. At some point we have to say enough is enough, at some point hostages become less important. A lot of prisons have a "No Negotiations for Civilian Hostages" programs, I think our military should have the same thing. If we did this, the UN wouldn't be able to do anything to us, hell they can't keep NK from trying to get nukes, or develop long range missiles, they certainly wouldn't be able to sanction us. Of course this would never happen, our duty now is to appease our enemies, we have to use kid gloves, I find it rather humorous that the Pirates took a U.S ship only a few months after Obama took Office.

Either way this plays out, I think commercial ships that have to travel in those waters need to be armed w/a few 50mm guns in place and be authorized to shoot/destroy any vessels that come w/in 30yrds of them in open waters. The Samali gov. wont/can't do anything about it, the UN wont do anything about it, and the coalition of ships patrolling the area aren't enough, so the only real option is allowing the commercial ships to defend themselves